Magic City.
Shanda headquarters.
Zhang Yingfeng was reporting on his work.
Mr. Zhang was responsible for screening, introducing, and negotiating all of Shanda's game projects, as well as licensing, operating, and protecting the relevant copyrights.
In the future, he would rise all the way from head of legal affairs to Shanda's CEO.
From legal affairs to CEO—tell me, wasn't that terrifying?
Boss Chen sipped his coffee and invited Zhang Yingfeng to sit down. In a good mood, he said, "The higher-ups have pulled the strings. A special campaign will begin next New Year's Day, with five ministries jointly cracking down on private servers and Game Cheats. How is your legal department doing with evidence collection?"
Zhang Yingfeng took out a thick stack of documents. "The main targets are 17173 and 17577."
"17173 was just acquired by Sohu and has transformed into a gaming portal. But it has a large number of posts involving private server and Game Cheats transactions. This website will not be easy to handle. First, it has Sohu backing it; second, it can shirk responsibility by claiming those were private actions by users and that the website itself merely failed to supervise them properly."
"As for 17173, I suggest we first send them a Lawyer's Letter—send it when the five ministries launch their special campaign. Order them to publish an apology statement on their homepage, delete all posts involving illegal transactions, and promise to strengthen post management in the future."
"As for 17577, that forum is the most rampant. It is the country's largest private server hub, openly selling private server frameworks while also selling Game Cheats for Legend and The World of Legend. We have to make an example of it to warn the rest and shut the forum down. We have already gathered a large amount of evidence, but evidence involving specific monetary transactions must be collected through the relevant authorities."
"My recommendation is that we not only shut down 17577, but also send its webmaster, Can Ying, to prison!"
Boss Chen took the stack of documents and read through it carefully.
Zhang Yingfeng summed up, "Private servers and Game Cheats can never be wiped out. Shut one down, and ten more will pop up. We need to concentrate our efforts on gaming forums. They are the roots of private servers and Game Cheats. Only by pulling up the roots can we solve the problem once and for all. Without platforms to spread through, those who run private servers and sell Game Cheats will quickly become rootless duckweed. After taking down 17577, we can send Lawyer's Letters to forums such as Ledou, demanding apologies, post deletions, and stricter management."
Zhang Yingfeng's thinking was clear: remove the roots, not the weeds.
There were simply too many weeds, and they could never all be cut down. The spring wind would blow, and they would grow again.
But once the roots were gone, the weeds would naturally wither and die.
They talked about a joint operation led by five ministries, but where would they find that much manpower to help Shanda?
From evidence collection to sentencing, the entire process would be incredibly long.
By the time the punishment was handed down, the special cleanup campaign would already be over.
Boss Chen instructed, "Fine, proceed according to your plan. But sending 17577's webmaster to prison is still open to discussion. There is no need to go that far."
"Chairman, if we do not prosecute him and establish a negative example, I fear we will not scare off other websites of the same kind," Zhang Yingfeng said.
Boss Chen asked, "Do you have a legal basis for that?"
Zhang Yingfeng said, "There are no specific statutes for it yet, but we can cite copyright-related regulations. It will be somewhat difficult, but we can give it a try."
Trying would not help!
The relevant statutes had not even been drafted yet. They would not appear until 2006, and for now they could only rely on administrative measures like special crackdowns.
The Internet Information Management Measures prescribed fines and confiscation of illegal gains.
If they were actually caught by the special task force, at most they would face administrative fines.
When the Regulations on the Protection of the Right to Disseminate Information over Information Networks were promulgated in 2006, anyone continuing to run private servers would have to worry about going to prison.
The first case resulting in a prison sentence for running a private server came in 2007, after the legislation was enacted. Legend of the World had grown to the point of renting ninety-four servers, and Shanda made it an example through a harsh crackdown. All five private server partners were arrested.
Boss Chen laid out the principle of action. "Since the law has difficulty defining it, there is no need to create extra complications. This time, we will cooperate with the five ministries' operation. The momentum must be strong, but we should raise the stick high and bring it down lightly."
Zhang Yingfeng understood. They were simply going to frighten those who did not understand the law, putting on the appearance of sending people to prison!
In another timeline, Can Ying, the webmaster of 17577, really was frightened by Shanda. He shut down the website and fled immediately. Later, when he realized nothing had happened, Can Ying resurfaced, but his influence was already far weaker than before.
Boss Chen casually asked, "Did you see those two popular posts while gathering evidence recently?"
"The ones about wanting to create a private server that did not sell equipment?" Zhang Yingfeng asked.
Boss Chen nodded.
Zhang Yingfeng said, "Two players got drunk and bragged, and a big group of players merely joined in for the excitement. If they do not sell game cards, Game Cheats, or equipment, how will their private server make money? Even if they manage to make it, the server will shut down once the funds run out."
Boss Chen sighed. "The players have a lot of complaints about us. Terms like 'Legend refugees' and 'internet orphans' have already become popular. I am afraid even traditional media will report on it. Sigh, we will have to spend money on public relations again!"
Some traditional newspapers nowadays especially loved covering popular online incidents.
One post, one phenomenon, and the print media could turn it into long-winded commentary, even a series of reports.
The newspapers gained a selling point, while readers found it fresh and interesting.
Ever since Legend exploded in popularity, Shanda had remained at the center of a public opinion whirlpool. Internet-addicted youths, electronic opium, and the like had left Boss Chen overwhelmed, forcing him to personally appear and explain himself on multiple occasions.
The public backlash had probably left some kind of psychological scar on him, causing Boss Chen, who had become rich through games, to look down on the online gaming industry for the rest of his life.
He felt it was not prestigious enough, and it was always getting criticized.
The two popular posts created by Chen Guiliang and Tao Chenggang had gone viral online. That was practically handing weapons to the print media, and Shanda would one hundred percent be criticized again!
Boss Chen's head hurt just thinking about it.
He picked up his coffee again, and Zhang Yingfeng immediately took his leave.
Only one person remained in the office.
Boss Chen drank his coffee, picked up the mouse, and opened the text livestream post titled "Private Server Development Log."
He always felt there was something fishy about this.
The original poster had posted the latest update: "Thanks to the creative idea provided by user 'I Wet My Shoes by the River' (Internet Trolls), One Sword Comes West and I have decided to adopt his world setting..."
"Namely, the Marfa Continent is facing an invasion by a mysterious force. This mysterious force is the power of the void from the Abyss. Void power has caused some monsters on the Marfa Continent to mutate, and the equipment dropped by these monsters will mutate as well..."
"To put it bluntly, they are the old elite monsters and elite equipment, but we will make the elite monsters especially powerful and give the elite equipment randomized attributes. Players will have a chance to encounter mutated monsters on every map."
"It is possible that killing a scarecrow will drop a Void Ebony Sword with attributes close to Purgatory. Moreover, different Void Ebony Swords will have different attributes. Every time players run through a map, it will be like treasure hunting, full of surprises..."
"Thanks again to all my brothers and sisters. Thank you for your many suggestions and selfless support. We will definitely make this private server well. Every monster in the game will be the crystallization of all our hard work!"
Boss Chen carefully read every reply and found that the users were as fired up as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
The game had not even been made yet, but they were already cheering and celebrating.
Many users also offered all kinds of suggestions, even arguing with one another over differing ideas.
At that moment, Boss Chen was completely certain that if this private server was made, it would inevitably explode in popularity in a short time.
Of course, it would probably be difficult to make money. It would be nothing but a loss-making effort for the sake of publicity.
Because the moment they charged money, they would suffer a public opinion backlash.
They had promised it would be free!
The more enthusiastic the users were now, the more fiercely they would rage once charges appeared. They would feel betrayed, feel that their feelings had been toyed with, and feel that their youth had been desecrated.
Chen Guiliang had already felt this potential public opinion backlash.
He repeatedly discussed it by phone with Tao Chenggang, Yang Yuhui, and Feng Tao, deciding to alter their original game concept and compromise with the emotionally charged users.
A ridiculous private server where one slash dealt 9999 damage was definitely out of the question.
Chen Guiliang registered an account and made a probing post, suggesting that each slash could raise several levels. He was immediately mocked by nostalgic veteran players and cursed at by countless people until he could barely function.
But they could not simply cater to the players' every demand either, or they would have no way to make money.
They could only compromise.
They would slow the leveling speed slightly and lower the Abyss Dungeon's level requirement a little. Then they would increase the number of void equipment drops in ordinary maps, improving the experience for ordinary players while ensuring that such equipment did not interfere with the dungeon plan.
Every user who replied to the posts was Chen Guiliang's free game planner. Calling them the godfathers of the private server would not be an exaggeration.
Imperial Capital.
Fu Guoqiang, this Beijing local, was idle again today, but he contacted many old Legend brothers and sent the post links to his friends through QQ.
His old brothers, whom he had not contacted in a long time, were deeply moved after reading the posts. All of them replied and left comments to express their feelings.
The original "Legend Refugees Post" had now reached more than 9,900 replies, on the verge of becoming China's third ten-thousand-reply post—the first was NetEase's "First News Post," and the second was Tianya's "Cairo Declaration Post."
NetEase and Tianya's ten-thousand-reply posts had relied on their enormous user bases.
Chen Guiliang's "Legend Refugees Post," however, relied entirely on the enthusiasm of game players.
One old player after another recounted unforgettable experiences. Some even called friends and invited their old companions to take a look; those old companions then came and continued replying. In the end, people who knew each other and people who did not simply started chatting right in the post.
Fu Guoqiang and his friends contributed more than a hundred replies. They had added one another on QQ long ago, but now they did not use QQ to reminisce. Chatting in the post somehow seemed more ceremonial.
Fu Guoqiang typed out his final sentence in the post: "If this private server is completed, are the old brothers of Radiance willing to fight again? Reply if received!"
"Received!"
"Received!"
"Received!"
"..."
Chen Guiliang looked at the wall of "Received" replies and instantly felt tremendous pressure.
He had managed to talk people into coming, but if charging for the dungeon upset them, the public opinion backlash could curse this private server to death!
Tao Chenggang called as well. "Fuck, I do not dare look at the post anymore."
Chen Guiliang said, "Let's polish the game carefully and make it as complete as possible."
"Then we will postpone the server launch until next Friday night." Tao Chenggang was under enormous pressure as well. For the first time, he felt that publicity being too successful could also be a headache.
Before you continue