Chapter 1644 President Pei's Two Cornerstones for Game Development (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

魔都 (Mó Dū, Shanghai).

Lu Xiaoping was resting in his hotel. Though it was already evening, he wasn't sleepy at all, merely gazing at the nightscape outside the five-star hotel window, lost in thought.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. He picked it up and saw a message from a subordinate.

"President Lu, Teacher Qiao has released a video!"

Lu Xiaoping immediately replied, "Got it," and opened Teacher Qiao's new video to watch.

Currently, Teacher Qiao was the key target of the entire anti-Tengda alliance. Lu Xiaoping paid close attention to him and had even specially arranged for subordinates to monitor his movements at all times.

Lu Xiaoping had carefully analyzed the previous few public opinion battles, as well as the comebacks of Tengda's games and movies, and found that Teacher Qiao had played a very significant role in this process.

This well-known gaming up-loader started by interpreting Tengda games and was a very important card in President Pei's hand; one could even call him a surprise soldier.

To defeat Tengda Group head-on, in addition to facing them directly, it was also necessary to protect one's own rear and always be vigilant against up-loaders like Teacher Qiao launching sudden attacks.

However, Lu Xiaoping was somewhat surprised that Teacher Qiao's video was released so early.

"So impatient? Logically speaking, Teacher Qiao should know that the movie of the same name, *You Choose the Future*, is about to be released."

"I thought he would choose to release it after the movie was released, combining the movie's plot for a comprehensive analysis. This would generate more buzz, and the reasoning would be more convincing."

"But now he's releasing a game review video. What if it doesn't match the content of the movie? Wouldn't that be awkward?"

"However, Teacher Qiao's reckless move inadvertently avoided one of our traps, which is actually a blessing in disguise."

Lu Xiaoping had conducted an in-depth analysis of Tengda Group's promotional plan for the *You Choose the Future* game and movie.

He believed that the release date of the game and the release date of the movie must have been carefully planned by President Pei. The few days in between were to allow the game's popularity to ferment as much as possible, thereby positively promoting the movie.

From the current situation, the plots of the game and the movie must be very different. Otherwise, if the game comes out first and then the movie, and the plots are the same, wouldn't the movie audience be spoiled in advance?

There must be some deep connection between the plots of the two, and they can even be interpreted in depth.

And Lu Xiaoping, in turn, used the time difference between these two projects to fight back.

His approach was to first attack the *You Choose the Future* game project, and during the period of attack until the movie's release, Tengda Group or Teacher Qiao were unlikely to respond directly to this public opinion trend.

Because in the process of responding, they might reveal some ideas that would spoil the movie and affect the audience's first impression of it.

Lu Xiaoping's plan was to launch a full-scale attack on the game project and then release his own movie, *My Assets*, at the same time as *You Choose the Future*. With the absolute quality of his own movie, he would directly suppress the popularity of the Tengda movie.

So, whether Tengda Group responded or not at this stage, Lu Xiaoping had a follow-up plan.

Relatively speaking, Lu Xiaoping would rather Tengda Group and Teacher Qiao not respond, because then he would have more room to maneuver.

Teacher Qiao seemed reckless, but he accidentally avoided a pitfall.

But Lu Xiaoping didn't care. He would meet soldiers with generals and water with earth. He really wanted to see how Teacher Qiao would refute his deconstruction of the core of the game *You Choose the Future*.

Could he really turn the entire public opinion around with just one video?

Although Teacher Qiao had done this many times before, Lu Xiaoping firmly believed that this time, Teacher Qiao had no chance.

...

The title of the video was *Deification Works, Episode 10: What is True Cyberpunk?*

It is worth mentioning that the introduction to this video was very long.

"In the process of completing and uploading the video, I briefly looked at the online comments on the game *You Choose the Future*."

"Some players' criticisms of this game seem to focus on two points: one is that the gameplay is relatively monotonous, and the other is that Tengda Group has not truly self-deprecating, and has not highlighted the true spiritual core of cyberpunk."

"I finished making the video before I saw these comments, but it just so happens that the content I talked about in the video answers these two questions very well, so please be patient and watch the video to the end. I believe that in the end, you will have the answers to these two questions."

Seeing this, Lu Xiaoping was a little surprised.

Because he originally thought this was a video refuting the remarks spread by the anti-Tengda alliance, but after careful calculation, it seemed that there wasn't enough time.

Because after the game came out, the anti-Tengda alliance also took about a day and a half to recover from the initial shock and reverse the previous erroneous deduction that Tengda Group was shaping the anti-Tengda alliance company as a villain. And they put forward a new public opinion war strategy in a targeted manner.

Judging from the release time of Teacher Qiao's video, if Teacher Qiao saw these remarks from the anti-Tengda alliance form a hot topic before making this video to refute them, then it should not be possible to release it so quickly in terms of time.

In other words, Teacher Qiao happened to have predicted the doubts of the anti-Tengda alliance and some players about this game in the process of interpreting it.

That's why he didn't change the content of the video, but just added this paragraph in the introduction.

This made Lu Xiaoping feel a little uneasy. If this was really the case, it could very well mean that Teacher Qiao had found some factors that they had overlooked.

And these factors could potentially turn the tables.

Lu Xiaoping calmed down a little and continued to play the video.

He skipped the previous daily chats and foreshadowing between Teacher Qiao and the audience and went straight to the main topic of the video.

Teacher Qiao's unique voice and methodical thinking quickly brought the audience back to the game world of *You Choose the Future*.

"Before formally analyzing the game *You Choose the Future*, let's first review President Pei's game design philosophy that he has formed in the past."

"The first is to break the fourth wall. All the gameplay and content designed by President Pei are designed to stimulate players' emotions and allow players to resonate with the protagonist in the game, thereby generating a stronger sense of immersion and creating a sense of breaking the fourth wall."

"The most classic example is *Repent and be Saved*. Through the gameplay of a suffering game, players can experience the feeling of ordinary people struggling in the sea of suffering. In *Eternal Reincarnation*, high-end players are brought into the invincible Martial God, reminding us that sometimes becoming inflated due to excessive ability may lead to even greater disasters."

"The second is to express a specific idea to us through the worldview structure, metaphors, and the protagonist's final choice. This idea may not be in line with everyone's preferences and tastes, and it may not be completely correct, but it must have profound connotations in it."

"For example, the game *Struggle* allows everyone to generate their own thoughts through the in-depth depiction of the lives of the poor and the rich."

"These are the two cornerstones of President Pei's game production, both of which are indispensable. And all other aspects of the game, whether it is the graphics, plot, music, sound effects, or other content, are all serving these two cornerstones."

"Understanding this, let's think about another question, what is true cyberpunk?"

"In fact, in the movie *A Beautiful Tomorrow*, President Pei had already explored this theme. And later, similar elements appeared many times in President Pei's games and movies."

"I think the key words of cyberpunk are 'high tech, low life'. Its core idea is that the development and progress of technology will not necessarily bring happiness to people, but may bring new disasters. In the cyberpunk theme, large monopoly conglomerates, homeless vagrants, technological prosthetics, gene potions, etc. are all just a form of expression."

"Why doesn't the development and progress of technology necessarily bring happiness to people, but may bring new disasters?"

"For students who don't understand, I can give a simple example. Sociologists once proposed that with the rapid development of productivity in the entire world, mankind will soon get rid of the problem of poverty, and everyone will be able to live a life of plenty."

"Theoretically speaking, productivity has indeed developed rapidly, and the food and materials we produce have indeed been greatly enriched. But so far, not only those extremely poor countries in the world, but even many developed countries have many homeless people who can only sleep on the streets."

"So the development of technology will increase the total wealth of the entire society, but whether it will bring a happy life to everyone is a question mark."

"And in the cyberpunk world, when those monopoly conglomerates can greatly widen the gap between themselves and ordinary people through more powerful gene technology and ubiquitous technology software, the rich and the poor will become more and more like two different species, and the tearing of the top and bottom of the entire social pyramid will become more and more serious."

"So the real cyberpunk theme must explore the essence of this issue."

"If you just indulge in the appearance of the cyberpunk world, and concentrate all the space on mechanical prosthetics, skyscrapers, neon lights, and black market transactions, it is putting the cart before the horse, with only skin and no soul."

"Understanding this, it is easier to understand why the game *You Choose the Future* is a true cyberpunk game."

"The important thing is not to comprehensively show the entire cyberpunk society, but to find a core point in the cyberpunk world and keep digging down to touch the real core."

"In this regard, the game *You Choose the Future* can be said to be the most perfect result that can be achieved under the limitations of development capabilities."