The pay-to-win systems of later generations would have been a royal flush at this time.
But without a royal flush, could you not play cards?
There was no need to stay too far ahead of the market. Being just a little ahead would be enough to stand out among the various private servers!
Chen Guiliang decided to study the market first and immediately asked, "Uncle, what Legend private servers are popular now? Compared with the official version, how absurd are their leveling speeds and weapons and equipment?"
Feng Tao said, "Most of them just raise the leveling speed and equipment drop rates a little. As for equipment, the hottest new feature now is porting over things from Legend 3."
There would eventually be five types of Legend private servers: Shanda-style, light modification, minor modification, medium modification, and extreme modification.
Players from different eras liked different types.
According to his uncle, Shanda-style, light modification, and minor modification were popular now.
Hearing about them was not enough. He had to experience them for himself.
"Uncle, I want to play a Legend private server. Which one is the hottest right now?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Private server versions changed rapidly, and Feng Tao did not know much about them either.
He told Chen Guiliang to move aside, then sat down in front of the computer and quickly opened a forum. "This is 7GG Forum. It originally had nothing to do with private servers, but now it's the country's largest private server hub."
"But they don't have the best technical people. The experts at Le Du Forum are especially impressive. 17577 Forum is the favorite among newbies. A newbie who knows nothing can set up one of the private server versions they provide after studying for just two or three hours."
"My favorite expert is called noyeys. He often shared the new features and techniques he developed for free..."
Feng Tao rattled on like a walking encyclopedia, commenting on the major forums and technical experts.
Seeing how enthusiastically he spoke, Chen Guiliang felt too embarrassed to interrupt. He could only play along with his uncle's bragging while memorizing the names of those forums and experts.
Feng Tao picked a relatively popular private server. As it downloaded, he continued rambling on eloquently for half an hour, until his aunt's voice came from outside the study. "Time for bed!"
"Coming, coming."
Feng Tao tossed aside the mouse and told Chen Guiliang, "Play by yourself. I'm going to bed."
That private server was nearly done downloading, but Chen Guiliang's attention had shifted to those forums.
He carefully browsed the various popular threads, studied the current private server players, and summarized his findings on A4 paper.
The main content of the popular threads could be summarized as follows:
First, complaints about Shanda's official servers. People said the new maps were boring, and after playing for a few days, they lost interest and could not be bothered wasting game cards.
Second, insults calling The World of Legend garbage.
Third, complaints that private servers had no new ideas. Thousands of private servers were all nearly identical, and private server operators only knew how to squeeze money from players.
Fourth, complaints that private servers with new features had too many bugs.
Fifth, praise for experts who freely shared their techniques, alongside fierce condemnation of experts who hoarded their techniques to sell for money.
After waiting for the first private server to finish downloading, Chen Guiliang began downloading a second popular one.
He registered an account on the first one, logged in, and quickly entered the game.
He found the leveling speed ridiculously slow, probably only two or three times faster than the official Legend.
After gaining a few levels, Chen Guiliang stopped killing monsters and instead ran around the various Safe Zones to inspect the top players' equipment.
Then, based on the public chat, he could basically conclude that this private server made money by selling the Six Great Armors, Fury Slash, Dragon Fang, and Carefree Fan.
There were even freeloading players too stingy to spend money, using female-character accounts to frantically look for husbands in the public chat, begging rich players to give "her" a Carefree Fan.
Chen Guiliang smiled and wrote on the A4 paper: Make all equipment from before the popular armored version widely available. Everyone can wear Heavenly Devil Divine Armor, and everyone can use Dragon Fang and Fury Slash. Spiritual poverty alleviation.
After uninstalling that private server, Chen Guiliang installed the second one.
The second one was rather interesting. Its selling point was porting over Legend 3 equipment. It had also ported over Legend 3 textures to partially beautify the private server. But it could not achieve overall visual consistency, so it looked awkward at first glance, a bizarre patchwork monstrosity.
Its leveling speed was also very slow, perhaps only four or five times that of the official Legend.
Chen Guiliang wrote on the A4 paper: Leveling speed can be increased to more than twenty times the official version. Modify Legend 3's top-tier equipment with absurdly overpowered stats. Make money by selling overpowered equipment.
The basic direction for making a private server had been decided: create a super-overpowered Legend game and broaden these newbie players' horizons!
Chen Guiliang shut down the computer and sat at the desk, thinking for a long time.
If he simply approached someone to cooperate on a private server, then even if his partner did not betray him, he probably would not get much of the profits.
He needed to find a way to get some money first, empty-handed.
Of course, if he could not get it, then so be it. Earning whatever he could was enough. After all, he had neither technical skills nor capital.
After carefully going over the entire plan, Chen Guiliang bent over the desk and began writing.
He wrote until well past midnight before going to sleep.
The next morning.
Feng Tao came into the study to get his shoulder bag and saw a stack of A4 paper covered in writing on the computer desk.
He curiously read two pages, then lost interest and put them back.
"Guiliang, get up and eat!"
Lin Chunhong called from the living room.
Before long, the three of them sat around the table eating breakfast.
Feng Tao casually asked, "Did you write a game proposal?"
"It's not that detailed," Chen Guiliang said. "Just some game concepts and ideas. I'm planning to sell them to Boss Tao."
Feng Tao considered this a high school student's wild fantasy and mocked him, "He runs an internet café. He doesn't make games himself, so why would he buy this stuff from you?"
Chen Guiliang did not reveal his true goal. Half seriously and half jokingly, he said, "It would be best if Boss Tao likes it. If he doesn't, I lose nothing. I'm just trying my luck."
Feng Tao said, "I saw the title was Free Games and Operation Model. If the games are all free, how can they make money?"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "A Legend private server is a type of Free Game, isn't it?"
Feng Tao retorted, "It's different. Private servers can only secretly make a little money because their costs are low. If you develop or publish a Free Game, you probably won't even recover the costs."
"Ha ha." Chen Guiliang had no way to explain.
Before Zhengtu became explosively popular, no one believed Free Games could make money.
Perhaps some did believe it, but the bigger the company, the less willing it was to take risks.
There was no point keeping it hidden.
Ideas expired once their time had passed. Turning them into a small sum of cash quickly would already count as profit—within just two or three years, Shi Yuzhu would bring most of the ideas on those A4 pages to life.
Chen Guiliang was broke right now. If he waited until he earned his first pot of gold, then used pay-to-win concepts to make his own game, it would be far too late.
Zhengtu would definitely beat him to it!
So he would throw it out there and see what happened first.
If that did not work, he could use his trip to Shanghai for the New Concept essay competition finals to peddle it to several large companies.
It would probably fail, but what if it succeeded?
It was a business with no capital required anyway, and he could cast a wide net and sell the goods to multiple buyers.
As for today's business discussion, the pay-to-win concept was merely Chen Guiliang's way of testing the waters.
Otherwise, would he really try to talk some small boss in a backwater city into developing a game?
That would probably be no easier than selling Brain Gold to Shi Yuzhu.
"What are you talking about?" Lin Chunhong asked curiously.
Feng Tao smiled. "Guiliang wrote up a set of game concepts that could be used to develop an online game. He plans to take them to Brother Gang today and sell them."
Lin Chunhong said, "Making games costs a lot of money, right? Does President Tao have that much money?"
"This isn't a question of whether Brother Gang has enough money," Feng Tao explained in detail. "All the assets you own combined are only worth a few million. A high school student comes to you with a few sheets of paper and says that following this plan to make a game will earn huge money. Would you be willing to buy those sheets of paper, then sell your house and car and gamble your entire fortune on making a game?"
"Impossible." Lin Chunhong shook her head repeatedly.
Then she added, "Even if I wanted to make a game, I wouldn't buy those sheets of paper. It's all written on paper anyway. I could just memorize it with my brain."
Chen Guiliang smiled.
In his eyes, there was only the question of whether someone would make the game. There was no such thing as making the game and refusing to pay him.
If they really dared to do that, it was still unclear who would end up screwing whom.
At worst, he could publicly post the contents of the A4 pages on game forums, then print dozens of copies and mail them to major game companies.
Some large company would surely recognize their value and make a similar game ahead of schedule.
At that point, Chen Guiliang would merely fail to get paid, while the debtor might lose several million in investment without recovering a cent!
Mutual destruction.
One would lose a few hairs, while the other would lose his head.
Chen Guiliang was no kindhearted person.
--
[Regarding the 2002 Italian-server Legend leak, online articles, posts, and videos that only discussed it in broad terms all insisted it was a "source code leak."]
[But posts containing real details about specific people, sites, and technical matters said that the "server-side program" had leaked, including configuration files and scripts. A few people who had made private servers back then even explicitly stated that before Ling Feng Studio disbanded, Legend's source code had never been completely leaked.]
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