Chapter 1 He An's Confusion

He An, having spent over five hours straight playing through *Struggle*, fell into a daze.

Was there something wrong with this game?

Wasn't it a bit too depressing and hopeless?

Or was he just incredibly unlucky, consistently choosing every option that led to the worst possible ending?

He An subconsciously reflected on himself.

Hmm, maybe he wasn't approaching it the right way.

After all, interactive movie games like this usually have many branching options, and *Struggle* was no exception.

He An looked at the game's storyline, which resembled a dense web with numerous branches.

Logically, each version should have at least three or four endings to justify the game's size.

Moreover, buying both the poor and rich versions should unlock hidden endings and easter eggs, right?

So, He An decided to replay all the remaining branches after dinner, hoping to achieve a better ending.

It was like having a table full of dishes, some delicious and some terrible. If you ended up with a bad taste in your mouth from the last bite, you needed to quickly eat something delicious to counteract it, otherwise, the bad taste would linger.

"I have to say, President Pei's skill is still quite profound. Regardless of the direction, the foundation is there."

"I initially thought a realistic theme would be dull and boring, but that wasn't the case. Although I got two bad endings, the content was still quite impactful."

"Once I've unlocked all the endings, I can analyze what hidden messages President Pei is trying to convey through this game."

He An realized that he rarely felt this excited, expectant, and thrilled about a domestic single-player game. He couldn't wait to finish dinner and continue exploring the other endings.

...

...

September 4th, Sunday, noon.

He An sat in front of his computer, lit a cigarette, and silently contemplated life.

He had spent the entire night and morning grinding through the various branches of *Struggle*.

Choosing different hobbies for the rich protagonist in childhood, different girls to marry, and different careers as an adult.

Choosing different courses for the poor protagonist in childhood, trying to budget carefully, save money, and find better jobs as an adult.

However, no matter how hard he tried or how many branches he explored, the two final endings remained unchanged!

No matter what the rich person did, they would ultimately be killed at the autograph session.

No matter what the poor person did, they would ultimately be trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Of course, there were still some subtle differences between the two versions:

Whether or not the rich person made the right choices didn't really affect the game's progress, because each failure would be quickly compensated with funds, and choosing different careers only meant switching from one type of success to another.

As for the poor person, the correctness of their choices did have an impact. If they kept choosing wrong, they would reach the ending in just over an hour, but if they kept choosing right, they could last for three hours, enjoying a taste of the middle class before reaching the ending.

And as for the so-called hidden ending? It was nowhere to be found!

It wasn't just that there was no hidden ending, there wasn't even any connection between the poor and rich versions.

He An initially assumed that the one who killed the rich protagonist was likely the poor protagonist whose dreams had been shattered, or the poor protagonist's son, but he tried for a long time without finding any connection between them.

The poor protagonist, the poor protagonist's son, and the rich protagonist were completely unrelated.

In other words, whether or not you bought the poor version had virtually no impact on the rich version's gameplay.

This was outrageous!

It seemed to be saying: it's best if you don't buy either, but if you have to buy one, buy the rich version.

This was very unreasonable!

He An couldn't help but apply his game design theories to this game. He had previously told President Ma about four key points:

Choose marketing methods based on game content;

Choose game types with high market share;

Appropriately include personal messages in the game;

Analyze and meet market demand.

From the current perspective, *Struggle* didn't touch any of these points! It was all wrong!

He An had previously believed that if one of these four points was wrong, the game wouldn't be perfect; if two were wrong, sales would be worrisome; if three were wrong, it would definitely flop and die.

A game that got all four points wrong? Unheard of!

At the very least, choosing the game type and appropriate marketing methods should be easy points, right? Is it a bit too outrageous to get these wrong?

As for the last two points, *Struggle*'s approach seemed to have big problems.

He An had said that when including personal messages, one must consider the audience's receptiveness and tolerance.

And what was *Struggle*'s personal message?

Inciting hatred? Or the futility of struggle?

Indeed, this game was realistic enough as a realistic-themed game, including the details of the lives of the poor and the rich, which were basically completely in line with some data from the US.

But, wasn't the ending a bit too disgusting?

More importantly, advocating for the futility of struggle is wrong in any context.

This kind of personal message, dissecting the bloody reality, didn't seem to offer much guidance, but only caused discomfort.

The saying "kneeling to reality" is what this means.

Life is already miserable enough, and I know life is miserable, and then you insist on telling me about it with a loudspeaker in front of me?

Isn't that disgusting?

So, He An's first feeling was that this wasn't an appropriate personal message, because this kind of personal message didn't provide guidance and couldn't be well-received, instead, it easily caused resentment.

As for analyzing and meeting market demand, it was even more irrelevant.

Obviously, the current mainstream market still views games as entertainment and leisure activities. Making it so heavy clearly doesn't meet the needs of most players!

As for the highest level of creating demand...

He An had previously thought that President Pei was a master of creating demand.

But for *Struggle*, creating this level of demand was extremely difficult!

Moreover, if this test paper has a total of four questions, and you got the first three questions wrong, how can you still get the last question right?

If you can get it right, I'll immediately take this test paper...

Frame it!

He An originally wanted to make a flag, but then he thought, he couldn't do that, he couldn't underestimate President Pei.

The problems that I can think of, wouldn't President Pei be able to think of them?

Definitely thought of them.

Moreover, He An felt subconsciously that this game didn't actually make him feel that disgusted. If he delved deeper into his deeper feelings about this game, there were actually some special emotions in it.

He An thought for a while and decided to temporarily forget the theories he had accumulated over the decades, re-examine this game from the perspective of an ordinary person, and analyze its deeper meaning.

Maybe his theories were already outdated?

...

At the same time, Pei Qian was also at home, using his laptop to check the first batch of players' reviews of *Struggle*.

The game flow of *Struggle* wasn't long. Those who bought the game yesterday could definitely clear it today, and even if they grinded a bit, they could clear all the branches.

Pei Qian was very clear that the feedback and reputation of this batch of players would directly determine whether *Struggle* could successfully lose money!

The best result, of course, would be for players to curse this game, with a batch of players requesting refunds, and more players refusing to buy it, or even pay attention to it.

Of course, Pei Qian himself felt that this idea seemed too optimistic.

A slightly worse result would be for a minority of players to praise *Struggle*, while the majority of players wouldn't buy it.

Pei Qian would also be very accepting of this result, and it was the result he thought was most likely.

Pei Qian began to check the players' comments.

"This game is falsely advertised! I thought it was a large-scale action game, but I realized I was tricked after entering!"

"However, the promotional tagline isn't actually wrong at all, I can only say marketing genius... This is at most deliberately misleading, although it's indeed very annoying. When did Tengda start playing these little tricks? Are they afraid that the honest advertising wouldn't make people buy it?"

"But I think it would be fine to promote it as an interactive movie game, we would still buy it to play!"

"No one stop me this time, I must give a one-star negative review! I bought the game as soon as it was released, and I've been grinding until this morning, just thinking about getting a perfect ending, but what happened? I was disgusted repeatedly several times! I watched both endings three or four times!"

"I feel like my soul has suffered serious trauma! The poor version made me depressed, so I thought about playing the rich version, and everything was pretty good at first, but I never expected to be fed gold-leaf-covered sh*t at the end!"

"Upstairs, you're not bad, I played the rich version first, and was fed a mouthful of sh*t at the end, and then I wondered if the poor version would be different, but this time it was miserable from beginning to end, and I feel terrible!"

"So, it's the same no matter which one you play first, you'll disgust yourself?"

"Is this called a game? If you want to do this kind of theme, why not make a documentary or an art film?"

"The game form is obviously more free than documentaries or art films, think about the characters inside, think about the separate pricing of the two versions, and there are many interactive experiences, these are all things that movies can't provide."

"Anyway, no matter what, I'm praising this game! Especially the two endings, the 'liar' in the rich version, and the monologue that echoes the beginning and end of the poor version, it's amazing!"

"Okay, those two parts do feel okay, but looking at the whole game, don't you think it's flawed? This seems to be a game made entirely to reproduce reality, where is the fun of the game? And there is too much personal message, is this promoting fatalism, or class theory, or the futility of struggle?"

"Indeed, I think this game might sell better in the West, after all, they like this kind of whining. Most domestic players still recognize struggle, recognize 'Heaven rewards diligence, and self-improvement never ceases', the theme of this game is actually in conflict with the thinking of most people in the country, and will cause instinctive discomfort."

"At this time, I think we should call for Teacher Qiao!"

"Indeed, there may be some points that we didn't notice? If Teacher Qiao can interpret it in detail, it might be more comprehensive."

Pei Qian browsed a large number of players' comments and felt that the current situation was still optimistic, but it was a bit worse than he had estimated.

A large number of players were stimulated by the cruel reality reflected in the game, which was in line with Pei Qian's expectations, but the problem was that Tengda's long-accumulated reputation had withstood this trend of public opinion collapse!

If it were another manufacturer, the people scolding it would probably have an absolute advantage.

But there were too many hardcore fans of Tengda Games, and everyone was a brain-supplementing monster. These people would naturally put a halo on Tengda games when playing them, and many ordinary advantages became special advantages in the eyes of these players.

And these hardcore fans were the first to buy the game, and they were more enthusiastic about participating in discussions, and their voices were louder, so the two voices online were still in a state of equilibrium.

Besides, another important reason was that the quality of the game itself was indeed good.

After all, the Tengda game team had rich development experience, and even if they were doing this kind of realistic theme, they could still do it very well, especially the endings of the two versions, which were still quite impressive.

Pei Qian thought about it, this might also be the reason for the theme.