We're Making a Private Server, But Not Selling Equipment

Tao Chenggang stopped drinking alcohol and took a sip of tea to clear his head slightly. "What other business do you want to discuss?"

"Legend Private Servers," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang chuckled wryly. "Private servers aren't easy to run these days. There's too much competition. I can't even be bothered to recruit players online anymore; I just run private servers for internet cafes as a side gig. The private servers across my eight internet cafes, after deducting the recharge bonuses for the managers, only bring in a few hundred to a thousand yuan a month. It's just pocket money."

Chen Guiliang said, "We can create a different kind of private server."

Considering Chen Guiliang's previous unconventional ideas, Tao Chenggang didn't immediately refuse. Instead, he said, "Little brother, tell me more."

Chen Guiliang said:

"Why are private servers struggling to make money now? It's simply a technical issue."

"The technology is in the hands of a few studios and experts. What they offer for free or cheap is basically outdated technology. This leads to the current Legend Private Servers being numerous but highly homogenized, completely lacking appeal to players."

"To be appealing, you have to spend money to buy their modification tools, or even buy their private server architecture directly. While they make money selling technology at high prices, they also develop more new features, gradually phasing out previous private server versions."

"Some people even personally enter the market with their technology, creating the most popular and profitable private servers. And you simply can't compete, is that right?"

Tao Chenggang agreed, "That's the situation. Do you have the technology?"

Chen Guiliang shook his head. "I don't understand technology, but I understand the market."

"You mean that alternative private server you mentioned?" Tao Chenggang asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Before level 40, you level up by just killing a few monsters. After level 40, the leveling speed is also much faster than the official server. The drop rate for equipment like Dragon Tooth and Wrath Sever can also be adjusted to be extremely high. Even if players don't recharge to play the game, they can still get the Six Great Armors. Equipment that requires money to buy on other private servers can be obtained for free here."

Yang Yuhui couldn't help but interject, "If we give away top-tier equipment for free, how will we make money by selling equipment later?"

"Our private server doesn't sell equipment! That's our core selling point," Chen Guiliang smiled mysteriously.

Yang Yuhui said, "If you don't sell equipment, how will the private server make money? We're not running a charity."

Tao Chenggang, however, felt a stir in his thoughts. "Using that free-to-play money-making model?"

Yang Yuhui was skeptical. "Those money-making methods require adding too many features. I'm 100% sure that no one running a private server in China can pull that off within a year or two."

Chen Guiliang smiled without speaking.

Tao Chenggang's curiosity was completely piqued. He quickly poured Chen Guiliang a drink. "Little brother, stop keeping us in suspense."

"Instance Dungeons," Chen Guiliang said.

Yang Yuhui asked, "What are Instance Dungeons?"

EverQuest already had instance dungeons, but not many people paid attention to them.

Chen Guiliang said, "An independent game map that doesn't need to be very large. Players need a specific method to enter the instance dungeon to fight monsters. Only when players form a team will they enter the same instance dungeon, so there's no need to worry about monsters being stolen."

Tao Chenggang laughed. "That gameplay sounds very interesting."

"The top-tier equipment that other private servers sell for money, our players can get on the regular maps," Chen Guiliang said. "And entering the instance dungeon map can drop overpowered equipment. We don't sell that overpowered equipment; we only sell tickets to enter the instance dungeon."

"That's a great idea!"

Yang Yuhui clapped his hands and praised, "Why do current private servers stop making money after only a few days? Because they're too boring. Before recharging, players simply can't beat players who pay for equipment, and over time they get bored. And after spending money to buy equipment, they're too lazy to fight monsters and spend all day PK-ing. They just PK aimlessly, and eventually, that gets boring too."

"In other words, after playing a private server for a few days, players don't know what to do."

"The idea of selling instance dungeon tickets is very good. Paying players don't directly buy equipment; they still need to slowly grind for it themselves. At the same time, paying money also creates a gap with free players, satisfying their vanity."

Tao Chenggang had a concern. "There's a mysterious map that free players can't enter and can't even get close to the overpowered equipment. This will also fail to retain free players, ultimately leading to the loss of paying players."

Chen Guiliang said, "Then, on the top-tier regular maps, there can also be an extremely low chance of dropping overpowered equipment. But don't drop all kinds of overpowered gear; accessories can drop, giving free players hope. As for overpowered weapons and armor, they will forever remain in the realm of possible drops, a legend. This gives regular players a glimmer of hope while ensuring they can never achieve it."

"Haha, you're too wicked!" Yang Yuhui laughed heartily.

Tao Chenggang asked, "How much should an instance dungeon ticket cost? If the price is too low, it will be hard for us to make money. If the price is too high, it will deter many players."

"Give me a pen and paper," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang quickly handed them over.

Chen Guiliang wrote and drew on the paper, saying:

"First, a low-price strategy to attract more players to pay and participate. For example, 10 yuan for one ticket, and 100 yuan can buy twelve tickets. Encourage players to repeatedly enter the instance dungeon to grind monsters. Encourage a wealthy player to give tickets to his followers and take a group of followers into the instance dungeon to grind monsters."

"Second, the instance dungeon BOSS shouldn't be killable by a single player. If it's too easy to kill, paying players will get bored after clearing the instance dungeon a few times. At the same time, this forces more people to buy tickets and team up to enter the instance dungeon. But not too many people, because if there are too many people, there won't be enough overpowered equipment to go around. It's best if 3 to 5 people can defeat the instance dungeon BOSS."

"Third, design instance dungeons of different difficulties, with different drop rates and ticket prices for each difficulty. For example, an instance dungeon with a 5 yuan ticket can be provided for players who have just recharged. Because their equipment isn't very good yet, they can't defeat BOSSes that are too difficult."

"Fourth, each instance dungeon will guarantee at least one piece of overpowered equipment, and occasionally drop two more. However, these guaranteed overpowered drops will mainly be accessories. To get weapons and armor, you must repeatedly spend money to grind the instance dungeon."

"And those guaranteed overpowered equipment pieces, after paying players grind the map multiple times, they will definitely have extra that they don't need and can give to regular players. This is equivalent to making friends or recruiting followers, which increases the enthusiasm of regular players and allows paying players to gain vanity."

Tao Chenggang suggested, "Those overpowered equipment pieces can be ported from Legend 3 and renamed."

"No!"

Yang Yuhui objected again. "Equipment ported from Legend 3 to private servers often has bugs and doesn't display properly. Players clearly spent money to buy the equipment, but they look like they're not wearing any clothes and their hands are empty without weapons. When PK-ing, they're completely naked and hitting with their fists, dealing high damage but looking too ridiculous."

Chen Guiliang said, "Then use the original Legend weapons and modify their attributes and names. For example, Wrath Sever can be changed to 'Heaven Opening Wrath Sever'. Dragon Tooth can be changed to 'Heaven Suppressing Dragon Tooth', and Carefree Fan can be changed to 'Profound Heaven Carefree Fan'. Heavenly Devil Divine Armor can be changed to 'Abyssal Demon God Armor'. By the way, can you do partial beautification of equipment without bugs?"

"Yes, you can," Yang Yuhui also understood a bit of technology.

Chen Guiliang asked again, "Are there any technical issues with creating instance dungeons?"

"No problem," Yang Yuhui said. "Tools like map copiers and map converters can be bought from experts, and I can even modify them myself. However, if I do it, there might be bugs and it will require repeated adjustments."

Chen Guiliang continued, "After the private server goes online, we'll get a bunch of studio employees to go in."

Tao Chenggang laughed, "Game shills!"

Boss Tao is good.

See, he's already learned to answer questions quickly.

Yang Yuhui asked, "What are game shills?"

Tao Chenggang explained in detail.

"Holy crap," Yang Yuhui exclaimed after listening, "This game shill method is really good at scamming those rich people. Leave this task to me, I'll personally pretend to be a girl and trick them into going in circles."

Chen Guiliang asked, "How much would it cost to make a private server with this kind of structure?"

Tao Chenggang estimated, "If we only add the currently mature features and don't need to add any new ones, and just copy maps to make instance dungeons, it should be possible to make it for three to five thousand yuan. To prevent too many bugs, I'll find a reliable expert, at most it'll cost around ten thousand yuan. Advertising on major forums to attract players also costs money, and renting a decent server also costs money. The initial investment will probably be around twenty to thirty thousand yuan, or possibly thirty to forty thousand."

"How do players top up now?" Chen Guiliang knew, but was afraid of making a mistake somewhere.

Tao Chenggang said:

"For official games, it relies on agents selling point cards. For example, Shanda initially entrusted Ubisoft to sell point cards, and had to pay Ubisoft a 33% cut, and Ubisoft often delayed payments."

"In a fit of anger, Shanda created its own sales channel and developed a set of 'Internet Cafe e-sale System'. Internet cafes selling Shanda point cards can get a commission of 8% to 10%."

"So Shanda is very powerful. As long as the game isn't too bad, they can boost it through their sales channels. This is because 70% of internet cafes nationwide have formed a community of interest with Shanda. And it's also very convenient for players, they can just go to an internet cafe and ask the manager to top up."

Chen Guiliang asked again, "What about private servers?"

"Bank transfer, postal remittance," Tao Chenggang said.

Chen Guiliang sighed inwardly: What a primitive and brutal way to top up!

But the current situation cannot be resolved for now.

Even when buying things on Taobao now, you first transfer money to Alipay, and after Alipay receives the money, it notifies the seller to ship the goods.

Strictly speaking, Alipay doing this is illegal, and it will have to wait until next year to get the banks connected.

And Qidian Chinese Website paying authors royalties also involved the site owner riding a motorcycle to the post office to make remittances. There was a great author who would urge for royalties as soon as he accumulated fifty yuan. The site owner was so annoyed that he raised the minimum royalty payout amount to 200 yuan.

The online banking services of the four major banks had been launched successively two or three years ago, but very few people used online banking.

Chen Guiliang asked, "What about mobile phone SMS top-up?"

Tao Chenggang said, "This requires cooperation with Mobile, which is a bit difficult to operate. Moreover, Mobile usually takes 50%, which is even more ruthless than the 33% of traditional agents."

Yang Yuhui said, "Actually, it's quite easy to collect money. Players who want to buy instance dungeon tickets can contact us through QQ. If they buy ten at once, the player sends me their game ID, and after I receive the bank transfer, I'll give them ten entries to the instance dungeon."

It's so complicated, many players who were originally impulsive and wanted to top up will also give up due to these operations.

No choice, it's limited by the times.

"Let's talk about the investment and profit sharing of the private server," Chen Guiliang finally showed his fangs.