Tao Chenggang stopped drinking and took a sip of tea to clear his head a little. "What business is there left to discuss?"
"Legend Private Servers," Chen Guiliang said.
Tao Chenggang laughed. "Private servers haven't been easy to run lately. There are just too many competitors. I can't even be bothered recruiting people online anymore. I only casually run private servers for internet cafes. Between the private servers at my eight internet cafes, after paying the admins their cut of top-up revenue, I only make a few hundred or maybe a thousand yuan a month. Just enough for some pocket money."
"We can make a different kind of private server," Chen Guiliang said.
Thinking of Chen Guiliang's previous clever schemes, Tao Chenggang did not reject the idea outright. Instead, he said, "Go on, little brother. Tell me the details."
Chen Guiliang said:
"Why are private servers so hard to make money from nowadays? It all comes down to technical problems."
"The technology is controlled by a small number of studios and experts. What they give away for free or sell cheaply is basically outdated technology. That has led to countless Legend Private Servers that are all seriously alike, with no appeal to players at all."
"To make one appealing, you have to spend money on their modification tools or directly buy their private server framework. They make money selling technology at high prices while developing more new features and gradually phasing out their previous private server versions."
"Some people even enter the market themselves with their technology and create the hottest, most profitable private servers. You simply can't compete with them, right?"
Tao Chenggang agreed. "That's exactly how it is. Do you have the technology?"
Chen Guiliang shook his head. "I don't understand technology, but I understand the market."
"The different kind of private server you mentioned?" Tao Chenggang asked.
Chen Guiliang said, "Before level 40, players can level up just by killing a few monsters. Even after level 40, they can still level much faster than on the official servers. The drop rates for equipment like Dragon Tooth and Wrath Sever can also be set extremely high. Even players who do not top up can eventually get all Six Great Armors. Equipment that other private servers make players pay for can be farmed for free on ours."
Yang Yuhui could not help cutting in. "If we give out those top-tier items for free, how are we supposed to make money selling equipment afterward?"
"Our private server won't sell equipment! That's our core selling point." Chen Guiliang smiled mysteriously.
"If we don't sell equipment, how will a private server make money? We're not running a charity," Yang Yuhui said.
But Tao Chenggang's interest was piqued. "Using that Free Game monetization model?"
Yang Yuhui disagreed. "Those monetization methods require far too many added features. I can say with absolute certainty that no one in all of China who makes private servers could develop them within a year or two."
Chen Guiliang merely smiled without speaking.
Tao Chenggang's curiosity was fully stirred. He hurriedly poured Chen Guiliang another drink. "Little brother, stop keeping us in suspense."
"Instances," Chen Guiliang said.
"What are instances?" Yang Yuhui asked.
EverQuest already had instances, but not many people paid attention to them.
Chen Guiliang said, "An independent game map. It doesn't need to be large. Players need a specific method to enter the instance and kill monsters. Only players who form a party can enter the same instance, so they won't have to worry about others stealing their monsters."
Tao Chenggang laughed. "That sounds interesting."
"The top-tier equipment that other private servers sell can be farmed by our players on regular maps," Chen Guiliang said. "But instance maps can drop overpowered equipment. We won't sell that overpowered equipment. We'll only sell tickets to enter the instances."
"That's a great idea!"
Yang Yuhui clapped and praised him. "Why do private servers stop making money after just a few days? Because they're too boring. Before players top up, they can't beat players who paid for equipment. After a while, they get bored. But after buying equipment, they can't be bothered killing monsters anymore either. They just PK people all day long. They PK back and forth like idiots, and eventually that gets boring too."
"In other words, after playing a private server for a few days, players no longer know what to do."
"The idea of selling instance tickets is excellent. Paying players won't directly buy equipment—they'll still need to farm it themselves. At the same time, paying lets them pull ahead of free players, satisfying their vanity."
Tao Chenggang had a concern. "If there's a mysterious map that free players cannot enter and they can't even touch overpowered equipment, then we won't retain free players either. That will ultimately cause paying players to leave too."
Chen Guiliang said, "Then let the top-level regular maps have an extremely low chance of dropping overpowered equipment as well. But don't let every type of overpowered item drop. Accessories can drop, so free players can see some hope. But overpowered weapons and armor should forever remain a legend that might possibly come true. Give ordinary players a sliver of hope while ensuring they can never achieve it."
"Haha, you're too evil!" Yang Yuhui laughed.
"What price would be most appropriate for an instance ticket?" Tao Chenggang asked. "If it's too cheap, we'll have trouble making money. If it's too expensive, too many players will be discouraged."
"Give me some paper and a pen," Chen Guiliang said.
Tao Chenggang hurriedly handed them over.
Chen Guiliang wrote and sketched on the paper as he spoke:
"First, a low-price strategy to attract more paying players. For example, one ticket costs ten yuan, while one hundred yuan buys twelve tickets. Encourage players to repeatedly enter instances to farm monsters. Encourage wealthy players to give tickets to their underlings and lead a whole group into instances to farm."
"Second, instance bosses cannot be something players can kill solo. If they are too easy to kill, paying players will get bored after farming instances a few times. This also forces more people to buy tickets and enter instances in parties. But the parties cannot be too large, because there won't be enough overpowered equipment to divide among too many people. Ideally, three to five players should be able to defeat an instance boss."
"Third, design instances with different difficulty levels. Each difficulty should have different drop rates and ticket prices. For example, an instance with five-yuan tickets can be for players who have just topped up. Their equipment will not be very good yet, and they won't be able to defeat bosses that are too difficult."
"Fourth, every instance should guarantee at least one piece of overpowered equipment, with an occasional chance of dropping two extra pieces. However, the guaranteed overpowered drops should mainly be accessories. If they want weapons and armor, they must repeatedly spend money farming instances."
"After paying players farm instances many times, they will definitely have spare guaranteed overpowered equipment they no longer need. They can give it to ordinary players, essentially making friends or taking on underlings. That will increase the enthusiasm of ordinary players while letting paying players enjoy their vanity."
Tao Chenggang suggested, "We can transplant those overpowered items from Legend 3 and give them different names."
"No!"
Yang Yuhui objected again. "Equipment transplanted from Legend 3 into private servers often has bugs and cannot display properly. Players clearly paid for equipment, yet it looks like they aren't wearing armor and have no weapon in either hand. When they PK, they fight naked with their fists. The damage is high, but it looks ridiculous."
"Then use the original Legend weapons and change their attributes and names," Chen Guiliang said. "For example, change the overpowered Wrath Sever into 'Heaven Opening Wrath Sever.' Change Dragon Tooth into 'Heaven Suppressing Dragon Tooth,' and Carefree Fan into 'Profound Heaven Carefree Fan.' Change Heavenly Devil Divine Armor into 'Abyssal Demon God Armor.' Oh, right. Can you beautify parts of the equipment without causing bugs?"
"Yes." Yang Yuhui understood a little about technology as well.
Chen Guiliang asked again, "There won't be any technical problems with making instances, right?"
"No problem," Yang Yuhui said. "Tools like map duplicators and map converters can be bought from experts. Even I can modify them myself. But if I do it, there might be bugs, and it will need repeated adjustments."
Chen Guiliang continued, "Once the private server goes live, get a group of studio employees into it."
Tao Chenggang laughed. "Game shills!"
Boss Tao was pretty good.
Look, he had even learned to answer first.
"What are game shills?" Yang Yuhui asked.
Tao Chenggang explained it to him in detail.
"Holy crap," Yang Yuhui exclaimed after hearing it. "This game-shill method can scam rich people so damn well. Leave this task to me. I'll personally pretend to be a girl and play a cute little sister, fooling them into circles."
"How much would it cost to make a private server with this kind of framework?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Tao Chenggang estimated it. "If we only add features that are already mature and do not need to add any other new functions, plus copy maps for instances, it should cost three to five thousand yuan. To prevent too many bugs, I'll find a reliable expert. At most, it'll be around ten thousand yuan. Advertising and recruiting players on major forums costs money too, and so does renting a better server. The initial investment will probably be twenty to thirty thousand yuan, though it might take thirty to forty thousand."
"How do players top up now?" Chen Guiliang knew, but he was afraid something might go wrong.
Tao Chenggang said:
"For legitimate games, agents sell point cards. For example, Shanda initially entrusted Ubisoft with selling point cards. Shanda had to give Ubisoft a 33% cut, and Ubisoft often delayed payments."
"Furious, Shanda created its own sales channels and came up with the Internet Cafe e-sale System. Internet cafes that sell Shanda point cards receive an 8% to 10% commission."
"That's why Shanda is so formidable. As long as a game isn't too terrible, they can boost it through their sales channels. Seventy percent of internet cafes nationwide have already formed a community of interests with Shanda. It's also convenient for players—they can just go to an internet cafe and ask an admin to top them up."
"What about private servers?" Chen Guiliang asked.
"Bank transfers and postal remittances," Tao Chenggang said.
Chen Guiliang sighed inwardly. What a fucking primitive and crude top-up method!
But there was no way to solve the problem for now.
Even when buying things on Taobao, people first sent money to Alipay, and Alipay notified the seller to ship the goods after receiving the payment.
Strictly speaking, what Alipay was doing was illegal, and it would not be able to establish banking connections until next year.
When Qidian Chinese Website paid authors their manuscript fees, the site administrator even rode a motorcycle to the post office to send remittances. One impressive author would demand payment whenever he had accumulated fifty yuan. The administrator was so annoyed that he raised the minimum payout threshold to two hundred yuan.
The online banking services of the four major banks had gradually launched two or three years earlier, but very few people used online banking.
"What about topping up by text message?" Chen Guiliang asked.
"That requires reaching a deal with China Mobile, and that's difficult," Tao Chenggang said. "Besides, China Mobile usually takes 50%, which is even harsher than the 33% taken by traditional agents."
"Actually, collecting money isn't that hard," Yang Yuhui said. "Players who want instance tickets can contact us through QQ. If they buy ten tickets at once, they send me their game ID. Once I receive the bank transfer, I'll grant them ten instance entries."
That was far too complicated. Many players who had impulsively wanted to top up would give up because of all those steps.
There was no helping it. The era imposed its limits.
"Let's talk about the investment and profit-sharing for the private server." Chen Guiliang finally bared his fangs.
Before you continue