Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  April 15th, noon…


  Pei Qian was in his office as he was deep in thought.

  At eight, last night, Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s third season was exclusively broadcasted on Aili Island. From yesterday to now, Aili Island’s main page’s most prominent spot had hung a huge publicity banner used to promote Boss Pei’s Daily Life.

  Many viewers had been attracted by fame as they vied to send their messages on the bullet screen. The only one-odd minute long short video was evidently very boisterous as the huge amounts of bullet messages on the screen attracted many viewers from traditional websites such as Potato Web. These viewers all witnessed the uniqueness of this new interactive method called ‘bullet screen’!

  Pei Qian did not look at the premiere but waited till the second day, today, to look at the viewership of the video. It had already reached six hundred thousand! From the looks of it, this video’s final viewership could possibly hit one million.

  While not all of these would be unique clicks—no matter how he counted, he would at the very least be getting two hundred thousand from Aili Island incentives for this video. Furthermore, as the popularity of this video series compounded, future videos could even get more views than previous ones.

  A full season of ten episodes would result in an inflow of more than two million three hundred thousand in total. That meant that Aili Island had used more than two million to buy the exclusive rights to Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s third season.

  This price wasn’t actually considered that high. In comparison to some popular drama series and variety shows that could easily command tens of millions in rights fee, that was not a huge amount of money.

  However, to Pei Qian, this was even worse than the worst-case scenario he had estimated; it was sufficient to make him break down!

  This was probably what they meant by trouble never came alone.

  A knock rang out on the door. It was Assistant Xin. “Boss Pei, this is the new company benefits scheme that had been previously decided. I need to verify it with you one more time. If there are no issues, I’ll send this out accordingly.”


  Pei Qian took it over and looked at it. This document was the new company benefits and treatment scheme that had been decided around a month ago.

  After Ocean Stronghold’s development had been completed, Pei Qian had made a series of recommendations to changes in company benefits. For example, this included an across-board pay raise, project bonuses, shopping gift cards, as well as forced expenses limit, etc.

  Also, Pei Qian had decided on a new benefit: employee physical examination!

  He had chosen a more high specification physical examination. It was to be done in the best hospital in Jingzhou City, Triple A Hospital. This higher-end physical examination would cost three thousand two hundred per person.

  As Tengda, Fei Huang Workspace, and Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had more than fifty employees in total; this would cost a hundred and sixty thousand in total!

  Besides this, the normal benefits scheme had been kept as per normal. The shopping gift cards’ limit had been raised to three thousand while other innovation benefits had been created as an excuse to spend money as well. All these would cost five hundred thousand in total.

  Initially, this had been Pei Qian’s last resort at incurring an overall loss for the month. If he could reduce the System Funds to below seven hundred thousand and he spent this additional five hundred thousand, wouldn’t that be perfect?

  However, things were a little awkward now.

  According to Pei Qian’s new calculation—even after spending this five hundred thousand, the System Funds would still remain in the black!

  Based on the conversion rate for profits, this amount of money could have been changed into five thousand in Personal Wealth for Pei Qian. Now that he had spent this, Pei Qian would have five thousand less in his own pocket.

  Pei Qian did not consider further as he said, “Let’s work according to this; leave the document for me to take a closer look.”


  “Alright, Boss Pei.” Assistant Xin flipped her small notebook as she recorded the contents of this meeting. “One more thing: a journalist from Amusement Times called Hu wants to arrange an interview. This is the third journalist calling this week. Should I reject this request like the previous ones?”


  Pei Qian nodded, “En, please reject it. The principles are the same: no one is to reveal my surname and real identity while no one can divulge in detail our salary packages and company benefits scheme. Please emphasize this to everyone once again.”


  “Alright, Boss Pei.” Assistant Xin turned and left.

  To date, Tengda as a company was still a mystery to the games media and players. Many people knew that this company existed. However, as for who the boss was, how the company benefits were like, what actually went on in the company; they knew nothing.

  As for why Pei Qian wanted to keep things this way, there were two reasons:

  One, if Tengda’s benefit scheme numbers were leaked and everyone saw how well Tengda’s employees were being remunerated, all the talented people in Jingzhou City would definitely flock to try and enter; many might even come from other cities after catching wind of this!

  If many of these talented people were willing to even lower their own salaries, Pei Qian still had to think of logical reasons to reject them. If the reasons were not logical, the system would not agree; and he would be forced to hire some talented people.

  At present, he couldn’t even think of anyone to fire; if more people came, wouldn’t that make things worse?

  Second, Pei Qian couldn’t let his parents know his true identity yet. If he could hide it a day longer, so be it. Pei Qian also didn’t want to be famous. After all, famous people always set tongues wagging. If he became famous and caught the attention of many people, things might become inconvenient for him.

  The system had a rule: Pei Qian could not reveal or hint at the existence of it to anyone. Pei Qian did not want to bring additional trouble to himself.

  Hence, Pei Qian was not going to accept any media interviews.

  Many media outlets had called Tengda’s front desk asking for an interview; they had all been rejected, and this time was not going to be an exception.

  …


  Pei Qian looked at the five hundred thousand benefits document in front of him. “Don’t take this so hard; just take it as using five thousand of your own money to give benefits to the employees.

  “Come to think of it, this is rather a good value for money…


  “Aye, I am such a good boss.”


  To give his employees five hundred thousand less in benefits just for five thousand more in Personal Wealth, Pei Qian was not someone who could do something like that. Regardless, these employees were really earnestly working for him. Although Huang Sibo, Bao Xu, and the others consistently did things to thwart his plans, these people were indeed loyal to him.

  Furthermore, from the employees’ point of view, they were really contributing to the company wholeheartedly!

  However, it was just that from Pei Qian’s perspective, they were all being unhelpful and detrimental to his plans…


  “Forget it; I’m resigned to fate. The benefits scheme will be as per normal. I’ll continue to add on the previously agreed scheme as well.”


  “I can’t shortchange my brothers. Since I didn’t manage to make a loss this time, I’ll continue working hard the next round…”


  Pei Qian was a little melancholic. Taking one’s painful experience to heart. He was going to reflect on his experience and learn from his mistakes. He was going to find out how Game Designer had become a success! Maybe, he wanted to find out if Game Designer had any stark flaws that he could use and adopt.

  It had been two weeks since this game was released. On the net, many players and professional games critics had done an in-depth analysis of this game.

  This time, Pei Qian did not need to ask the design team to summarize their experiences anymore. He just had to skim through some discussions online, and he would be able to roughly know where he had failed!

  First, he looked at the more authoritative games media sites:

  “Game Designer is a very successful interactive, narrative experience. It has completely overtaken the traditional game narration methodology.”


  “In this game, one becomes a game designer while his objective is to surmount all obstacles and choose the most viable way to design a game. Would one become a superstar game designer, or would one quietly go bankrupt? The decision is in the player’s hands.”


  “This game’s triumph lies in allowing players to experience tough decision-making choices and the feeling of being conflicted; this is exactly how game designers feel in real life!”


  “However, if that was only the case, this game would at most be considered a rather good outstanding simulation game. Compared to traditional simulation games—besides its exquisite art style, it would not stand out.”


  “What makes this game a masterpiece is the voice-over that accompanies the players in the game. That was the master stroke to this game!”


  “A beginner player might feel that the voice-over is annoying and be angered by its mocking. However, after taking time to think, players would realize that the voice-over is what makes the game interesting!’


  “The voice-over could be seen as the greed within every game designer; or perhaps the people that give all sorts of advice (sometimes unsolicited). For a content creator, difficulties don’t lie in finding ideas but in making the right choices. Content creators have to persistently maintain his own stance and not forget his passion amidst the criticism and unhelpful comments; he would then be able to achieve success in the end!”


  “All in all, this is a game that is rich in content, leaves a deep impression, has novel gameplay; it is different from other games. Not only does it convey the difficulties that game designers face to us, but it also discloses the true reasons behind the seemingly chaotic games industry. It is also encouraging all content creators to not forget their passion and to press on!”


  Rating: 9.0

  Conclusion: Uses dark humor to dissect the entire game industry, giving players a new interactive playing experience!

  Pros:

  Dark humor;

  Multiple conclusions that leave people wanting more;

  Incredible voice-over;

  Shines a light on the gaming industry and invokes deep thinking.

  Cons:

  The game would sometimes purposely restrict players; however, this is also a part of the gameplay.