Fixing shortcomings is not a simple task.
Making Dreamjin's users actively engage on their own is not something that can be achieved just by little tricks like poaching people.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many community apps with fewer than six surviving.
--Of course, the number of currently operating ones is more than that, but most are half-dead; only a handful of leading ones have active players and can generate their own content.
When Xu Meng asked Song Zhicheng to recruit people as soon as possible, the focus was not actually on the recruitment, but on the "as soon as possible."
His experience in developing indie games led him to a realization: In the internet era, it's easier to get things done while the hype is high.
Xu Meng's objective was to bring a batch of active early users to Dreamjin by capitalizing on the players' soaring enthusiasm for discussion.
--Right now, the trailer's hype is through the roof, and it's the kind of spicy hype that spreads most easily. The more the administrators delete, the more the players want to see; it's completely impossible to suppress.
Now is the best opportunity to acquire new users for Dreamjin.
With this new batch of active users, Dreamjin's core advantages can be spread outward.
As for Dreamjin having few users, few Cosplayers, and no guide masters stationed there—what core advantages could it possibly have? The answer, of course, is--
Freedom! Because of Frost Snow Project's top-tier boundary-pushing scale in the ACG Game circle, Dreamjin is destined to have much looser review standards than other communities.
Xu Meng had already decided to expand this kind of "lenient review standard."
It wasn't just the content review standards related to Frost Snow Project that would be lenient; the review standards for all posts would be relaxed.
It wasn't just illustrators and Cosplayers posting photos with lenient reviews; the same applied to topic breadth.
The ACG Game circle has been fractured into little cliques by manufacturers, artificially creating barriers and conflicts among players.
ACG Game players couldn't even find a public community for free discussion.
--Independent gamer communities certainly exist, but ACG Game players are guided by manufacturers to fight verbal wars every day with such high intensity that ordinary player communities simply cannot handle it. Therefore, whenever a war breaks out in the ACG Game circle, they have to enter defense mode.
To put it bluntly, they are not very well-liked either.
Xu Meng was dissatisfied with these ACG Game manufacturers' turf wars, but he also keenly realized that this was an opportunity.
ACG Game players don't have their own public discussion community? Then let Dreamjin become that discussion community! The future Dreamjin will no longer restrict players from discussing other companies' games; users can talk about whatever games they want.
Anyway, there is plenty of operational staff, so even if it gets a bit chaotic, they can still manage it.
Xu Meng tapped on his keyboard, deleting and editing as he formulated new community rules for Dreamjin.
After writing for a short while, little assistant Chen Mengling hurried over enthusiastically carrying a cup of tea.
However, upon seeing Xu Meng's expression, she lightened her steps and asked cautiously, "Boss, what's wrong?"
The entire company was immersed in the joy of the trailer's massive hype and players' praise; why did the boss look so irritated? Xu Meng frowned and took his hands off the keyboard.
He had discovered his shortcoming.
His strengths lay in game development and internet momentum-building, but meticulous community operations—he had genuinely never done that.
--The single-player games he developed in the past didn't need to deal with this kind of stuff!
After thinking about it, he deleted all the detailed rules he had just written, leaving only the top "guiding spirit," and sent it to Song Zhicheng.
Professional matters should still be left to professionals.
After sending the document, Xu Meng stretched, picked up his tea, and looked at the little assistant: "Why are you so happy? What good news did you see?"
"People everywhere online are talking about our game; isn't that enough to be happy about?! The whole internet is in an uproar!"
"Not really," Xu Meng shook his head. "It's just an uproar in the ACG Game circle. Look, it didn't even make the top five trending searches."
"Seventh place is already amazing!"
Seeing that Xu Meng still didn't have a happy expression, the little assistant immediately switched to a topic he would be interested in: "And what's more, P Station is getting severely cursed out right now!"
"Oh?" Xu Meng's eyes lit up. "Why?"
"It's also because of our trailer!" The little assistant's tone was brisk. "Weren't our trailers blocked for a while? Many streamers went to restream Weiguang's video, and as a result, a bunch of them got their Livestream Rooms banned."
"Coupled with the fact that even when our trailer was released, it still had White Mist, compared to Weiguang's unblocked version, the viewing experience was also much worse."
"P Station users are all cursing the moderation for double standards—strictly cracking down on 2D content while turning a blind eye to real-life streamers and borderline dancing. It's causing quite a huge commotion!"
This actually counted as good news.
Xu Meng opened the trailer's page and found that the comment section here had already become the main battlefield.
Not only that, the recommended videos associated with this video were also a uniform stream of videos venting dissatisfaction.
Xu Meng looked at some comments and found that this matter seemed to have started because of the Frost Snow Project trailer, but there were actually other reasons behind it--
P Station built its foundation on 2D content, but in recent years it had constantly been de-2D-ifying. Old users had already suppressed a belly full of fire, and this time Frost Snow Project just happened to coincide with it, serving as the fuse for the conflict.
He wondered if it would be of any use with users cursing so much.
Xu Meng took one last look at the trailer's view count and shook his head in disappointment.
--The Weiguang account, with only 1 million followers, had already surged to 5 million views for the trailer. But the P Station account with 2 million followers, which was supposed to be the main base, had a mere 800,000 views.
By tomorrow's update, he didn't even know if it could catch up to Weiguang's current hype.
Yet the problem was...
Weiguang's hype was illusory.
P Station's own 2D attribute determined that a high proportion of its users could convert into Frost Snow Project players.
But Weiguang's user composition was far too complicated, especially in recent years; it had almost become the stronghold for celebrities, internet influencers, and radical feminist groups.
It wasn't stingy about giving you traffic, but how much value that traffic held... was really hard to say.
Therefore--
"I still have to get Dreamjin up and running."
At the exact same time.
Konjac Games was shrouded in dark clouds.
Fei Zhiyuan personally descended upon the project team once again to summon all project leaders for a meeting.
This time, the Frost Snow Project trailer vastly exceeded his expectations on many levels.
The most direct impact stemmed from the trailer itself--
The original art previously released by Dream Builder did indeed look exquisite and of a very high standard.
However, no matter how high the standard of original art was, it was still just original art.
Yet now that the real-machine trailer was out, the situation was completely different.
High-standard controllable characters represented all-around strength spanning from original art to modeling and then to the animation team! As a game company established for only a year and a half, Dream Builder actually possessed the real strength to threaten Konjac.
Even Dream Builder had such audacity, making absolutely no censorship to the original art whatsoever!
As spicy as the original art was, the real-machine modeling was just as spicy!
Furthermore, because the models could move, it took the characters' spiciness up another level.
--No, many levels!
Fei Zhiyuan glanced at the swaying, shaking plump breasts and hips of the characters on the projector, his expression gloomy.
Dream Builder's character real-machine footage was off the charts in terms of spiciness.
In stark contrast, Konjac Games--
"What on earth have we been doing with the new game we greenlit half a year ago?!"
"Dream Builder only took a month to create characters of this caliber."
"And not just one!"
"What about you lot?!"
Fei Zhiyuan pointed at all the leadership of the project X, almost spitting saliva across the conference table right into their faces.
"Ask yourselves honestly, was the support I gave you not enough?"
"You spent half a year producing a bunch of second-rate characters that can't even be shown in public."
"Was I blaming you?"
"A month ago, you said you wanted to find more formidable artists and invite higher-standard models."
"I approved the funds for you without saying another word!"
"Was my support for you still not enough?"
"But what about you?"
"How did you repay me?"
"Huh?"
Fei Zhiyuan slammed the table so hard it banged loudly!
"Speak! Are you mutes?!"
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