Written | Wen Yehao
Edit the | Wu Xianzhi
Since the millennium, china has had three people sitting on the throne of the richest man by relying on games, one is Chen Tianqiao, who cut down the Jiangshan mountains by "Legend", one is Ding Lei, who travels west to get "gold", and the other is Ma Huateng, who owns Tencent's game empire. Chen Martin and the three undoubtedly bear the name of the godfather of Chinese games.
In The Godfather, Don Corleone's philosophy runs through the entire work— "One man, only one destiny." Looking back at the path of the godfathers of the game, it seems that there is also a hidden connection of fate.
In 1971, Ding Lei was born in Ningbo to a family of high-ranking intellectuals, and in the same year, Ma Huateng was born in a family of cadres in Guangdong. Two years later, in a Shanghai family, Chen Tianqiao fell to the ground.
The white colt crossed the gap, Ma Huateng and Ding Lei entered the half hundred years, and Chen Tianqiao was also fifty years old. The so-called fifty know the Mandate of Heaven, but what the Mandate of Heaven is, it seems that no one can give a definite answer.
original sin
The Godfather begins: "Behind the great wealth lies sin." From the moment the godfathers of Chinese games stepped into the online game track, they were tainted with the fateful shadow created by the latter, which indirectly changed the "doctrine" of the Chinese game industry.
During the millennium, guangming daily published "computer games - aimed at children's "electronic heroin"", sharp words indirectly contributed to the introduction of the state "game machine ban" - the domestic console game industry was accurately left out, a number of traditional game companies in the pirate industry chain under the invasion of the desperate situation, online games instead became the main theme of the market.
Early online games shouldered the heavy responsibility of traffic monetization, and lengthening the game life cycle naturally became the lifeblood of making money. However, affected by the technical level, there is an upper limit to the size of the game, it is difficult to mix the gameplay, the deliberate or unintentional addictive design is regarded by the manufacturer as the "methodology" to prolong the vitality of the game, and the logic of "quality driving sales" has long faded out of the market under the wrapping of the times.
There is no absolute right or wrong in any game category or design, but the deformed market does not give players the right to choose, nor does it give game companies the right to choose, which is the "original sin" of China's game industry for a long time.
And this barbaric substitution eventually ended up with two major consequences:
First, the local single-player game industry has almost disappeared, leaving only a few classic IP to survive, overseas excellent console games have also stopped at home, and the player's "aesthetic power" has been pulled down, unable to distinguish between good and bad games, with a biased atmosphere.
Second, relying on traffic to do agency business can make money, pondering the logic of "content monetization" is laborious and undesirable, and the game design and production capabilities of domestic manufacturers are gradually lagging behind under the trend of online games.
In 2009, Chen Tianqiao, who lost the grand box, changed his trajectory due to a serious illness; Ding Lei was deeply anxious about the failure of many self-developed works; and Ma Huateng surpassed Shanda with the "four masterpieces" and won the top spot in China's game industry.
In addition to the "QQ Flying Car" accused of plagiarism, the "four masterpieces" are all agents, and it is difficult for NetEase to produce the next "Fantasy Journey to the West", and the potential crisis has gradually surfaced - the level of domestic game production has not kept up with the needs of the market.
To this end, NetEase, which has always emphasized self-research, grabbed the agency right of "World of Warcraft", and Tencent sent the MOBA online game "League of Legends" developed by Riot Games, which was previously invested, into the internal test to prepare for the next battle in the terminal game market.
Although the two companies that took precautions have consolidated their positions as a result, the end game market, which is only supported by agencies and acquisitions, more intuitively exposes the weakness of the domestic game industry's technical strength.
When the "game console ban" was banned in 2014, the gap between domestic and foreign game formats has exceeded a generation, and the structural defects of console and PC stand-alone games have been unable to make up, but the domestic and foreign game markets and cultural differences caused by the ban have catalyzed the counterattack of domestic games relying on mobile games "Tianji Horse Racing".
transmigration
For a long time, the host game in the overseas game market has a high position of power, and the main battlefield of many manufacturers is here. In contrast, early mobile games were often seen as the backbone of fragmented, casual games.
In China, on the contrary, there is no game culture atmosphere, nor is there a host installed capacity, and mobile games are naturally given many missions by game manufacturers such as new and second growth curves. Based on this, after 2014, domestic game manufacturers staged a high-quality mobile game to encircle and suppress foreign leisure mobile games.
On the surface, the rise of domestic mobile games is a great blessing, but from "end to hand" to "Glory of the King" to "Eat Chicken War", almost rewriting the past of end games, the aforementioned addiction logic has also been learned.
This is understandable, but the threshold of mobile game equipment is significantly lower than that of PC game, and manufacturers tend to simplify the system and operation in game design for adapting devices and players, and the fragmented and portable characteristics of mobile phone scenes have also absorbed more players.
The mobile game continues to expand its circle, making the sword of Damocles, which has been hanging on the head of the game industry, crumbling.
In June 2016, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued the Notice on the Administration of Mobile Game Publishing Services, and Chinese games officially entered the "era of version numbers". In 2017, people's daily newspapers published articles criticizing "Glory of the King", which once again made the game the target of public criticism.
The tightening of supervision and the deterioration of public opinion have opened the prelude to the redemption, survival, and even the cold winter of the game industry in recent years.
In this battle, the godfather of the Self-Aware Chinese Game has become a "good baby", with no arguments, only improvements. At the same time, the much-maligned Tencent has also tried to reconcile with the players who have taunted it in the past.
Unfortunately, everything seems to be too late, and in the context of stricter policies, it is difficult to reshape the market that has been killed. Monster Hunter: World was ordered to be taken down, and the word-of-mouth work Zelda Legend: Breath of the Wilderness has not yet landed on the Switch.
Moreover, the so-called "reconciliation" can only move the "self-proclaimed high" opinion leaders in the Internet context, and the group of players who talk about the game on social platforms is a small circle after all. And the real main force of the market, the "silent majority" who play games as a pastime, is indifferent to the so-called "reconciliation". In the barren land, it is difficult to blossom.
Last year, shortly after the release of the double reduction policy, the Economic Reference Daily published an article titled "'Spiritual Opium' Grew into a Hundred Billion Industry", which once again charged the game with poisoning teenagers, and incidentally dragged the industry into the cold winter of the edition number.
Ironically, for more than 20 years, game giants have relied on the "game console ban" dividend to make a fortune in online games, bringing the market into a deformity, which in turn has led to a harsh regulatory hammer. All this seems to be a reproduction of the millennium, the cycle of destiny.
The 2018 version of the cold winter lasted 265 days, the version of the cold winter lasted 263 days, during which tencent, NetEase and other giants can still survive by volume and stock, but a considerable number of game teams can only watch the projects that cannot be launched and go to discrete.
At the end of last year, the game business of byte, Perfect World and other manufacturers has been abolished, and iQiyi and Baidu have almost all been wiped out, not to mention the unknown teams located in the studio.
Today, the relapse of the version number has relieved the long-tense game industry, but few gamers will celebrate it, and the industry's expectations for the domestic game market have not changed. Even the godfathers, who have always been forced to add luck, may have a hard time predicting the current pattern.
Mandate of Heaven
No one can escape fate, and so can the Godfathers.
When Chen Tianqiao decided to introduce "Legend", he also stayed up all night and could not extricate himself. But after one night, he found himself playing all night, only to rise two levels, and when he swung the knife, there was an extra white light on the screen.
This white light often plagued Chen Tianqiao later, making him doubt the value of the game and even life.
Perhaps it is with this philosophy in mind that Chen Tianqiao, who has just recovered from a serious illness, chose to retreat from the rapids and embark on the road to find the "white moonlight", as "Ready Player One" said, the virtual world can not find the real rose bud, the godfather of the former game finally failed to stop at the game, but rushed to the field of brain science to seek destiny.
But for the Martins in the endgame, and even for the Chinese game industry, the fate of heaven may depend on the attitude of regulation.
Based on industry speculation, the recurring version number may be due to the establishment of relevant review standards, or will lead the trend of "boutique" of the game, of course, some people interpret it as a "deterrent" to the game industry.
However, when the review rules and the trend of issuing version numbers have not yet been clarified, all speculation can be regarded as false statements. The game industry can only follow the vague attitude of supervision, and the establishment of projects is more and more cautious, strictly controlling underage players, and tightening the pace of skinning and krypton.
Of course, all of the above still convey a relatively clear main line - the domestic market is no longer a gold digging field for people to step into.
In 2021, Tencent's game revenue in the local market increased by only 1% year-on-year, while the game revenue in the international market increased by 34% year-on-year, reflecting the completely different situations at home and abroad. At NetEase's financial report meeting, Ding Lei also admitted that he would gather global game talents to accelerate the development of overseas markets.
Going to sea seems to have become the only surviving path for China's game industry in the shadows. However, there are many "gray areas" in the domestic game market, which has also become a reef for many players on their way out to sea.
In other words, few game manufacturers dare to risk unknown policies to list games that have not received version numbers on overseas platforms in their own name. Judging from Tencent's pace, it is obviously more pragmatic to go abroad indirectly in the form of investment/acquisition of overseas game companies.
In this regard, Tencent, which can be called an "angel investor", occupies a first-mover advantage, and games such as Valorant and PUBG Mobile have also brought it a lot of income. In contrast, NetEase is slightly inferior in terms of overseas IP accumulation and investment layout.
Recently, the news that NetEase intends to wholly acquire Quantic Dream, the developer of "Detroit: Incarnate as a Human", has flown out of the news that netease is likely to follow Tencent's pace and embark on the road of acquisition. If the rumors are true, then NetEase, which made its fortune in self-developed online games, will head overseas on the grounds of acquiring console game manufacturers, and the contradiction is also another cycle.
Finally, returning to Chen Tianqiao's soul, he asked, "Is it such a white light that we are playing games to pursue?" ”
There's no real rosebud to be found in the virtual world, but that's not a denial of the video game's core. In fact, the children in the 20th century family home rolled iron rings and flipped ropes, and the 10s in the steel forest held iPads to cut fruits, and the human demand for games was innate and unshakable.
However, under the constraints of history, the Chinese game market is full of so-called evil flowers. This is not to blame the godfathers, after all, devoting themselves to the so-called "boutique" and "buyout system", it is likely that they will not survive the dark age of piracy.
From the game industry and even the Internet context's strong attention to the version number, it can be seen that the so-called godfather of Chinese games is at best a survivor of the times, not to mention the insight into the mandate of heaven. What really determines the direction of the times is still the gatekeeper who can't guess the mind.