Chapter 1 Opening a New Server

Wang Xiaobin was taken aback, "Open a new server?"

Opening a server wasn't a problem, the only issue was whether any players would come to play.

*Hot-Blooded Battle Song* was already in decline. Without money for advertising or promotion, and not listed on any charts, there was no influx of new players.

Those still playing were old players who had persevered from long ago, through thick and thin.

They all had accounts on the old servers and had spent a lot of money and time on them. Even if a new server was opened, who would come to play?

But Wang Xiaobin still raised his hand and gave an okay gesture. "No problem, it'll be ready soon."

Anyway, the game was already dying, opening a new server wouldn't make any difference.

Ye Zhizhou immediately created a small account on the new server and waited silently.

Within a few minutes, the world channel of the new server suddenly became lively!

"They actually opened a new server!"

"Ahhh, I didn't get the sofa, so sad!" (referring to being the first to post)

"Any guilds recruiting? ++++"

"Comrades, look here! Our guild is harmonious and passionate, with whales leading the team, invincible in battle! We specialize in helping fallen old men and women. Welcome to join us in helping old ladies cross the road!"

"Upstairs, is that a copy-pasted ad? There are no whales anymore, how are you leading the team?"

"Who says there are no whales? Our guild's whale said that if you join the guild, all stamina potions will be covered every day!"

"Holy crap! Quick, let me join!"

Message after message flooded the world channel, Ye Zhizhou couldn't even keep up.

"Our game... still has this many players?"

Ye Zhizhou was stunned. He had only seen a lot of players in the world channel calling for a new server, so he opened one as a test.

He never expected that so many people would actually come to play on the new server!

What were they after? Did they not want their old accounts anymore?

Ye Zhizhou felt that something was strange. This kind of heat hadn't been seen in a long time!

In the past, *Hot-Blooded Battle Song* often opened new servers, after all, rolling servers was a common marketing tactic for similar pay-to-win games.

But no opening had ever reached the level of enthusiasm as today's new server!

While leveling up, Ye Zhizhou considered infiltrating a big guild to collect players' opinions on the new version as soon as possible.

But while he was playing, he suddenly lagged. The screen kept displaying "Loading resources" and the screen was pixelated.

But the lag quickly cleared up and the game resumed smoothly.

Before Ye Zhizhou could ask what was going on, he heard Wang Xiaobin shout, "Holy crap, too many simultaneous players causing server overload? The new server is actually full?"

Ye Zhizhou quickly opened the background to check.

The original large number of old servers had all plummeted in popularity, basically empty, while the newly opened server had suddenly soared in popularity and was overcrowded!

New players couldn't even get in, they could only queue outside.

Ye Zhizhou was shocked, because since he came to Shang Yang Games, he had never seen a server queue!

Now he understood, the players who made the new server full were all from the old servers!

Players were originally scattered across dozens of servers, so each server seemed deserted.

But now, the active players were all flocking to the new server, grouping together, which naturally made it more lively.

Ye Zhizhou quickly said, "Wang-ge, quick, open another new server!"

Wang Xiaobin quickly operated the mouse, "Getting it done right away, after the latest server is full, it will automatically open the next new server."

He muttered in a low voice, "It's really weird, why are players so enthusiastic about the new server? Could it be that our changes really worked? It's immediately effective."

Everyone in the design team became excited. Many people hadn't played *Hot-Blooded Battle Song* for a long time, but this time they also registered a small account for the first time in a long time.

"Everyone go to different servers to observe the situation on different servers."

"It's best to join a big guild, get into their chat group, and see what the whales and ordinary players think of this version update!"

Ye Zhizhou was very excited and quickly assigned tasks to everyone in the design team to sneak into each new server and observe the players' feedback on the new version!

When Lao Liu was the chief planner, he never did these things, because he thought it was meaningless.

He believed that you could just look at the data to modify the game, what was the point of mixing with the player base and collecting opinions little by little?

But Ye Zhizhou didn't think so.

He always felt that as a planner, you had to play your own game, you had to go deep into the player base and get the most authentic feedback.

If the designers themselves don't like their own game, how can the players like it?

After playing for only a few minutes, someone invited Ye Zhizhou to join a guild, and then invited him to join the chat group.

As soon as he entered the group, it was spammed with all kinds of messages.

"Quickly go to the world channel to spam recruitment!"

"Everyone must reach level 20 today, our guild must prepare for the national war as soon as possible!"

"Does anyone still have old friends who have quit the game before? Hurry up and pull them over!"

"I'll ask in the previous group, and try to bring ten people, all old players and veteran drivers!"

Ye Zhizhou didn't pay attention for a while, and the chat group messages became 99+, he couldn't keep up at all.

What shocked Ye Zhizhou the most was that these people were voluntarily pulling in many old players who had quit the game to play on the new server!

Ye Zhizhou had never seen this kind of enthusiasm in players, not even when he first entered Shang Yang Games and *Hot-Blooded Battle Song* was still at its peak!

Ye Zhizhou looked at the forum posts again.

He remembered that when Lao Liu launched that 888 weapon, the forum almost exploded, the players chased after him and sprayed him, spraying the update announcement post for hundreds of floors, and continued to whip the corpse for the next two or three weeks, never stopping.

Later, as players left, the popularity of the forum continued to decline, but it was still mainly filled with curses.

But now, after the version was updated, the entire forum suddenly changed its style!

In the past, there were posts cursing the dog planner every day, but now you can't see one, players are discussing issues in the game such as forming guilds and preparing for national wars.

Ye Zhizhou looked at the forum posts and the players' chat groups with disbelief, wondering how all this happened.

"Could it be... this is turning misfortune into blessing?"

Ye Zhizhou understood a little.

The original *Hot-Blooded Battle Song* was a stagnant pool, and Lao Liu and Du Ruijie squeezed out the last drop of blood for revenue, and the game was terminally ill.

The contradiction between players and the design team, whale players and ordinary players had reached an extremely intensified and irreconcilable state.

Because of the heavy spending, a large number of ordinary players were lost, the in-game activities could not be organized, and even if the whales spent money, no one would play with them, and they felt that the money they spent was not worth it.

As a result, ordinary players left, whale players also left, and only a few old players were still struggling, and the game continued to decline.

But now, all paid points have been cut off, leaving only the most basic stamina potions.

This seemingly insignificant change has caused tremendous changes in the game environment!

For ordinary players, the game is no longer pay-to-win, they can afford to play it;

All the good things that could only be obtained by recharging are now given away for free;

They also have the opportunity to experience the thrill of a whale carrying the entire team in the national war on the new server;

This is simply the ultimate fire sale, of course they will go to play on the new server without hesitation!

Indeed, many whales have quit the game, but as Pei Qian said, let them go!

What's more, not all the whales have left, some have stayed behind.

In this way, although the revenue has plummeted by 70-80%, the remaining players have completely forgotten the previous unhappiness and rekindled their enthusiasm for the game!

Ye Zhizhou completely understood.

"Sure enough, President Pei had already seen the problem with *Hot-Blooded Battle Song*, knowing that simply introducing new gameplay or changing art resources would not help, so he cut off all the paid points!"

"This is... amputating the arm to survive!"

"Cutting off revenue to save reputation is the only way to save *Hot-Blooded Battle Song*!"

The problem that seemed impossible to solve was immediately turned around by President Pei's simple operation!

Ye Zhizhou couldn't help but admire President Pei even more.

Of course, he knew in his heart that this was only the first step.

Although this operation saved the game's reputation, the cost was huge: this game is no longer making money!

Without the whales' large recharges, revenue has plummeted by at least 80%.

Originally, the monthly revenue of *Hot-Blooded Battle Song* was only three or four hundred thousand, but with this change, it's hard to say whether there will be eighty thousand left.

Moreover, no new paid points can be opened in the future, otherwise the players' reputation will immediately backfire, and it will be completely over, and President Pei will not be able to save it!

Ye Zhizhou felt that it was like a clearance sale now, the popularity has indeed increased, but continuing to burn money without profit is not a solution!

"Forget it, I won't think about these things."

"Will President Pei not think of the problems that I can think of?"

"These must all be within President Pei's plan, just follow President Pei's instructions honestly."

Ye Zhizhou suddenly had unprecedented confidence in himself and in the future of Shang Yang Games!