Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 406: 390: Do Heroes See Things Similarly?

The beginning of the video was a slightly low perspective, moving down an old and dilapidated corridor.

The camera’s movement was somewhat peculiar—it was almost utterly stable, moving very smoothly.

The audience followed this perspective to the end of the corridor and then turned left.

Enemy figures emerged in the distance. As soon as they appeared, half a gun appeared on screen, accompanied by a gunshot. The “player” successfully took down their enemies.

But quickly, more enemies appeared. The “player” was attacked, and the screen tilted back, directly falling out of the “body”.

By this point, the audience realised: it was not the player themselves who was fighting, but a half-human-high battle robot that moved on tracks.

The camera then quickly pulled back, distancing from the battlefield, and the player finally appeared in the frame.

In the lower-left corner of the screen, the player’s real-time operation on the omnidirectional treadmill was simultaneously shown.

In the live picture, the player began to release armed drones one by one, setting them in automatic enemy-seeking mode, and then moved towards the gate of the underground armory with a rifle.

A hand grenade was fastened to his chest, a light machine gun was carried on his back, the treaded land combat robot followed close behind, with armed drones encircling them.

The drum beats of the background music gradually became clear and loud.

Gunfire began, the battle started, and the music immediately became intense!

What followed was a rapid editing of combat scenes. The drone cleared the enemy behind the shields, the protagonist quickly eliminated the missed enemies, periodically throwing hand grenades to the rhythm of the music—with even the sound of the explosions accurately timed to the drum beats.

All of this easily stirred up the audience’s emotions.

At the climax of the music, the protagonist set up a machine gun from a high position, pulling the trigger to a long aria and firing madly at the mercenaries frenziedly hauling gold down below.

Bullets pierced the bodies of the mercenaries and hit neatly stacked piles of gold, causing golden fragments to fly in the air!

The violent and frenzied scenes were slowed down, gunfire, roars, screams were all suppressed, until only a grand human voice singing, and the clear sound of the machine gun ejecting casings in the slowed-down scenes was left.

“What talent!” Lincoln couldn’t help but sigh while watching this scene.

“A camel starved to death is still larger than a horse, and a rotting ship still has a few pounds of nails, NetDragon still has talent.”

After sighing, he felt a sense of pity: “Such talent, wasted in NetDragon! We need to see if we can dig them over!”

The already short trailer was occupied by more than half of the footage of the armory.

Obviously, NetDragon is telling players: “We’ve added the canonical ending to the game, and we’re very sincere about it, there’s no slipshod work at all!”

The later half of the footage became richer:

Bigger maps, cities, sea islands, cruisers; more friendly NPCs, friendship lines, even romance lines…

Based on the content shown in the current trailer, the DLC is truly full of sincerity.

The feedback from players is also very good, with the real-time barrage largely being praises.

There were really no signs of water army this time, mostly genuine player comments.

At most, there were players worried whether the actual game will be scaled back. But even with these concerns, they still said:

‘Even if there is some shrinkage, as long as they can achieve 70% of the effect of this trailer, it will be very sincere. Don’t forget, this is a “free” DLC.’

Considering NetDragon’s current reputation among the player circle, such goodwill and tolerance is truly precious.

At NetDragon, both Gary and Jason were deeply moved, and even saw hope for the game’s sales.

The somber ambiance in the office was also greatly relieved during those days.

However, being insiders, they did not immediately realize: this goodwill and tolerance, in fact, wasn’t much for NetDragon, but rather more for the “Blaze” brand.

No matter how high the threshold of VR games is or how evident the decline is now, it cannot change the fact that it was once glorious.

And “Blaze” is one of the game series that many players remember most deeply.

Players are a peculiar group. They are desperate for new games and have an amazing interest in future games, which has even given rise to an endless “uncle party”.

But while they maintain a high enthusiasm for “the present” and “the future,” they also love classic old games, and it’s not uncommon for one game to be played for more than ten years.

In addition, many players have vaguely guessed: “Blaze 3” is likely to be the last of the “Blaze” series.

Even if a sequel can come out a long time later, it is highly likely that it will not be on the VR platform.

Under these circumstances, the release of “Blaze 3” DLC, “Red Flame,” not only received heat unexpected by NetDragon, but also surprisingly generous and favorable reviews from the player group.

But how much of this tolerance and support will continue after “Blaze” ends remains questionable.

In the live streaming room, Yi was watching the trailer with his audience.

Given his current fan count, the proportion of audiences who had watched his live VR game broadcasts had significantly declined, but those who had stayed were doubtlessly the most loyal viewers.

They had a deep impression of Yi wearing diapers in his early days, doing marathon live streaming on the VR device almost all day long, nearly dehydrating from exhaustion.

Of course, they also remembered the scene of Yi swearing furiously at the abrupt ending of “Blaze 3” after he had finished playing it.

Now, these people were speaking up, asking if he was going to play the game on livestream.

“Yes, I definitely will,” Yi answered without hesitation.

But then he said, “I’ve been bothered by how much space the omnidirectional treadmill takes up at home, but I’ve always been hooked on the ending of the ‘Blaze’ series. I’ve resisted selling it even though I’ve seen its price drop in the second-hand market.”

“Once I’ve finished this DLC and bid a formal goodbye to the ‘Blaze’ series, I can finally sell it with peace of mind.”

At this point, Yi couldn’t help but get sentimental: “My youth is finally coming to an end.”

The comments were as chaotic as ever:

“Sigh, less than half a year ago, we were hoping the ‘Blaze’ series would continue to improve and achieve more greatness. Now our greatest expectation is just for it to exit the scene gracefully.”

“It’s a bit of a pity, but in my opinion, this isn’t bad. Look at you now, comfortably lying down while livestreaming. Isn’t it better than being tied up by traction ropes all over your body?”

“When Mirage first came out, I immediately sold my Flying Dragon 3rd Generation that I hadn’t owned for more than a month, taking a loss of more than two thousand. See the market price now, it’s almost sold as a treadmill! Luckily, I got out fast!”

Yi glanced at a few comments but didn’t say much more.

Indeed, the ‘Blaze’ series represented his “youth.” But asking him to go back and use VR equipment for livestreaming?

He would only say: “Sorry, we can’t go back.”

Meanwhile, NetDragon’s trailer was not over yet.

The earlier content was all straightforward game promotion. Nothing fancy.

The real spectacle they prepared was—

At the end of the trailer, the player’s real-time footage in the bottom left corner of the screen was enlarged, occupying the entire screen.

The equipment stopped operating, and the player removed his full-cover headset, revealing a face that made countless viewers exclaim “holy shit” in the comments.

This was the real spectacle that NetDragon had prepared. They had splurged to bring in the weightlifting champion of the Olympic Games two years ago — Gavin.

The war only ended 15 years ago, and the Olympic Games here did not have as much influence as in Lincoln’s original world, being restricted to the European cultural circle.

It was only after the war ended did it finally seize the opportunity to become a global event.

As of two years ago, there had only been three global Olympic Games, and every champion was very precious and exciting.

Gavin, as an extremely talented athlete, had participated in two of them, winning a silver medal the first time and a gold medal the second time with a dominating performance.

In the two years that followed, while preparing for the next world Olympic Games, he also participated in many second-tier competitions held in Daxia, Europe, and America.

But no matter where and what level the competition was, if he participated, it was inevitable that he would win.

With every trophy and medal he won, his fan base quickly spread across the globe, and his popularity was astounding!

That NetDragon could invite him was definitely a hefty investment.

Moreover, this move was very clever — Gavin’s fans were not limited to the domestic market, his global fan base was also shockingly large.

NetDragon’s Flying Dragon 3rd Generation suffered a drop in sales domestically due to Mirage.

But overseas, in places where Mirage hadn’t spread, the decrease in sales could still be controlled. Coupled with the extremely high quality of the DLC and the added popularity of Gavin, there was a good chance of making a comeback!

Moreover, VR equipment did have fitness effects, and it somehow aligned with Gavin’s athletic background. Whether it could promote equipment sales was uncertain, but the advertising effect was definitely maximized.

This move was very well played.

The explosive wave of comments showed that the players were also very surprised by Gavin’s appearance!

Gavin didn’t say any exaggerated promotional phrases. He simply mentioned that besides training, he would also play some games. Among VR games, his favorite was the ‘Blaze’ series, so he invited interested friends to give it a try.

In the end, with text on a black background reiterating that “Blaze 3·Red Flame” would officially go on sale at 8 a.m. the next day, the trailer ended.

The comments immediately started buzzing:

“Given Gavin’s training intensity, does he really have time to play games? Furthermore, playing VR games? Does that count as rest or extra training?!”

“Speaking of which, considering Gavin’s strength, can the traction rope really handle it? I’m afraid he might snap it in a moment of excitement!”

“NetDragon did a good job this time; I love to see Gavin making money.”

The top-rated comments were all about Gavin; there were hardly any about the game.

This goes to show just how astounding Gavin’s influence was!

Compared to the less than 20 million VR game players domestically, and even less now, Gavin’s fame could not even be measured in numbers. He was completely a “national” level figure.

Gavin’s appearance allowed NetDragon to finally outshine Cloud Dream in terms of Internet attention, taking center stage.

“What’s the big deal?” Lincoln, who had watched the trailer, was somewhat speechless: “Is this supposed to show that great minds think alike?”