Brag First, Deal With It Later

17577 Forum.

The webmaster, Can Ying, was chatting with a few partners on QQ.

They had already created multiple versions of "17577 Legend," primarily making money by running private server platforms, private server frameworks, and development tools.

"Holy crap, 'Legend of the Abyss' is packed with 5000 people."

"We've been running private server platforms for so long, this is the first time we've encountered someone actively disconnecting the download link."

"Yeah, before we were worried about too few players, this time we're actually afraid of too many players crashing the server."

"Just got back from reading the posts, it's really making me laugh my ass off."

"Laugh my ass off? They're making a killing, alright?"

"Who's gone in and played?"

"I played until level 19, it was so laggy I quit."

"I'm doing a quest right now, I heard you can get an Abyss Map Teleportation Scroll as a reward."

"What's that?"

"It's like a ticket, you can enter a hidden map. The monsters in the hidden map are super abnormal, and the equipment they drop is also super abnormal. They make money by selling tickets. Of course, players don't have to spend money, they can get one ticket by doing quests every day, and there's also a chance for mutated monsters to drop tickets."

"This gameplay is really fresh, we can copy it too."

"Fresh my ass, it's just imitating foreign games, the Abyss Map is equivalent to a dungeon."

"Who cares who they imitate, as long as it makes money, let's make one too!"

"Let's talk about it another day, I'm going to grind the Abyss Map."

"How about developing a hack for unlimited ticket farming?"

"That's too damn dirty, can you not be so disgusting? We should have a bottom line even when running private servers."

"What the hell are you talking about? You used to make and sell private server hacks!"

7GG Forum.

This game forum was close to overtaking and becoming the largest private server base in the country.

Because there were so many experts, it was practically the Whampoa Military Academy of the private server world!

DuDu Legend was one of their products.

"Brother, have you played 'Legend of the Abyss'?"

"I was just about to top up to play the Abyss Map in Woma Temple when I got your call. It's not as laggy now."

"I'm in the game too, just topped up, let's go fight the Abyss together! Oh, I'm using my old ID."

"Hurry up, I'll send you the coordinates."

"The Abyss dungeon gameplay is really promising, should our private server imitate it too?"

"Sigh, let's sort out the internal conflicts first. The more money we make, the more ideas the brothers have. Arguing every day, sooner or later we're going to break up!"

"..."

The experts on the 7GG Forum were now in serious internal conflict.

They all thought they were awesome, but the money they were getting was too little.

At this moment, one expert, after playing "Legend of the Abyss," had decided to imitate the dungeon gameplay and go solo.

It was estimated that in another week or two, a bunch of private servers focusing on dungeon gameplay would pop up, following the trend.

After 10 PM, the server became slightly smoother, and players' levels also rose, leading to an increase in the number of top-ups.

There might be even more top-ups tomorrow, as a large number of players needed to wait until daytime to transfer money at the bank, or painstakingly go to the post office to send a remittance.

Those who chose to send a remittance via the post office often didn't even have a bank account!

In those days, China UnionPay was still in the promotion stage, so it was completely normal for players not to have accounts.

There were four people responsible for communicating with players who topped up. They would send the player IDs to Yang Yuhui, and then Yang Yuhui would issue tickets to the players. However, it was Chen Guiliang's uncle, Feng Tao, who confirmed the top-ups had arrived and tallied the top-up amounts.

Feng Tao had a job during the day, so he would definitely need to be replaced.

Arranging for him to tally the top-up amounts today was naturally Tao Chenggang giving Chen Guiliang peace of mind.

As for internet cafe players, they topped up with the internet cafe manager. The manager would send the game IDs, and Yang Yuhui would then issue tickets to the players. When the top-up amount accumulated to a certain level, the manager would deduct their commission and transfer the money into the bank account supervised by Feng Tao.

Tao Chengang walked around and said, "The work of collecting money and issuing tickets was relatively easy today. It will probably be a bit busy tomorrow, and we'll see then if we need to add more people."

"Whatever Brother Gang arranges, we're all very confident," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

"You kid... forget it, let's talk about something else."

Tao Chengang asked, "Should we accept an interview from 'Popular Software'?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Accept it. Since it's already gotten big, we can make it even bigger and put a little bit of public pressure on Shanda."

Yang Yuhui said, "We also need to keep an eye on the hacks. Once we find one, we'll ban the account!"

"I'll arrange for people to do that," Tao Chenggang said.

Not only do official games have headaches with hacks, but private servers do too.

The active period for private server hacks hasn't arrived yet. It will be after the special crackdown around New Year's Day next year, which will scare some private server platforms into shutting down their sites directly, while others will lie low. At that time, everyone's income will plummet, and some skilled individuals will start selling hacks like crazy.

It won't be until the storm passes and the private server platforms become active again that the big players and experts in the private server scene will join forces to suppress the private server hacks.

"There's a paying player named Old Poison who wants to chat with Drunk Lying in Mortal World and One Sword Comes West!" shouted a subordinate responsible for connecting with paying players.

Drunk Lying in Mortal World and One Sword Comes West were the two initiators of "Abyss Private Server" that Chen Guiliang had fabricated.

Chen Guiliang was pleasantly surprised, "We've met an expert."

This Old Poison was still famous twenty years later. Who in the Legend private server, web game, or mobile game scene didn't know him?

This person later developed a "Little Torch Engine" that could easily create and modify "Legend" at will.

Chen Guiliang had Old Poison add his QQ: "Hello, I am Drunk Lying in Mortal World."

"Haha, I've long admired you. Your Abyss gameplay is very interesting, I couldn't help but top up to play in the Abyss," Old Poison complimented on QQ.

They just chatted casually after that, it was just an initial contact.

Old Poison was also an expert on the 7GG Forum. Things were very unpleasant for him there, and he had the idea of leaving 7GG to work independently.

He understood technology very well, but not so much about operations.

So, he came to contact the "Legend of the Abyss" team, perhaps they could cooperate and complement each other in the future.

"Guiliang, come over, the interview has started!"

Lao Wei, an editor from "Popular Software": "Hello, are you Drunk Lying in Mortal World or One Sword Comes West?"

"One Sword Comes West," Tao Chengang replied.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I also play games often. I work at 'Popular Software' and mainly write articles related to online games."

"I've long admired your name. I've loved reading your magazine since I was a child."

"Haha, when you say that, I feel like I'm getting old."

"Not at all, not at all. You are a senior."

"Can you talk about your experiences in reality?"

Tao Chenggang turned to ask Chen Guiliang, "How should I make it up?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Nine parts truth, one part fiction."

Tao Chenggang immediately typed his reply: "My parents are both state-owned enterprise employees, and I also entered a state-owned enterprise after graduating from college. But young people can't stand loneliness, so I quit my job and went to coastal cities to make a living. I changed many jobs, even worked as a security guard for a hotel, and also as a network administrator in an internet cafe. In the summer of 1998, I joined Starcom and promoted PHS in the Yangtze River Delta."

"You were a Starcom employee!" Lao Wei immediately became excited. If he wrote this in, his report would have more selling points.

Tao Chenggang typed: "I was a former employee. After the PHS market in big cities stabilized, I was sent to third and fourth-tier cities for promotion. At this time, I found that IC phone cards were still in a relatively initial promotion period in third and fourth-tier cities. So I resigned from Starcom and specialized in reselling IC cards."

"Did you make a lot of money?"

"I made hundreds of thousands in two years. Later, the market became saturated, the profit from IC cards was very low, and the competition was fierce, so I went back to my hometown to open an internet cafe. It was also because I opened an internet cafe that I became obsessed with 'The Legend of Mir'."

Lao Wei felt even more that there was a selling point: "Your life experience is particularly exciting. You can tell you're someone who dares to fight and work hard."

"Haha, you flatter me."

"How did you think of making a Legend private server?"

"It's just like what was said in the post. Drunk Lying in Mortal World is my friend in the game. He took a train to come and drink with me. We talked about many people and many things. We were both drunk at the time, and on a whim, he went to the forum to post."

"Didn't you think about making money from the private server?"

"I don't lack that bit of money. I have eight internet cafes and a computer store. I'm too busy with my legitimate businesses, so there's no need to do something like a private server, which is a gray area."

"Do you think private servers are a gray industry?"

"After 'Abyss Private Server' became big, I specifically consulted a lawyer. The relevant laws are still blank, but it violates copyright law. Whether private servers are black or white, they can only be considered a gray industry."

"Do you support legislation on private servers?"

"I do. I'm just an ordinary person with no power or influence, so naturally I hope the laws of my country are more complete."

"But it will affect your private server making money."

"I don't rely on private servers to make money. If I can't do it, I won't."

"But based on the current situation, 'Abyss Private Server' can make a lot of money."

"That's an accident."

"If Shanda asks you to shut down the private server, will you agree?"

"It depends on the situation. 'Abyss Private Server' is no longer just mine, but a game refuge for many netizens. If Shanda wants me to shut down the game, they have to come up with a plan. The players are already Legend refugees, do they have to be refugees again?"

"Why do you think 'Abyss Private Server' became popular?"

"Players have too much resentment towards Shanda, and many of them came over out of revenge."

"Isn't it because the Abyss Map gameplay in the post is very interesting? How did you come up with this idea?"

"All the ideas were provided by netizens. The power of the masses is infinite; they have all sorts of strange ideas. All the changes in 'Legend of the Abyss' came from suggestions from enthusiastic netizens. I just spent money to help them realize it."

Seeing this, Chen Guiliang gave Tao Chenggang a thumbs up.

Tao Chenggang laughed heartily.

"Do you also have a lot of resentment towards Shanda?" Lao Wei asked again.

Chen Guiliang said, "Let me do it."

Tao Chenggang immediately stood up from the computer.

Chen Guiliang said, "I used to have resentment, but not anymore."

"Why?" Lao Wei asked.

"I was afraid of going to jail, so I consulted a lawyer and looked up a lot of news about Legend. The reason Legend couldn't be updated for more than half a year was ultimately because the Korean side was too greedy. The Korean side actually wanted to obtain Shanda's user database, which is a core secret of a game company. If I were Boss Chen, I wouldn't agree either."

"So, you think the fault lies with the Korean side?"

"It's definitely the Korean side. A game development company actually demanding the operator's user database, they really think too highly of themselves. Boss Chen already gave them a lot of face and sent a database according to the contract. Although the database had problems, the contract didn't specify it clearly in the first place. They could have just given each other a way out, but the Korean side unilaterally terminated the cooperation. This matter is 100% the Korean side breaching the contract first."

"It seems you support Shanda."

"I don't support any company, I only support righteousness and law."

"What are your plans for the future?"

"Making games is quite fun. Maybe I'll develop and operate games myself in the future. Haha, the startup capital is definitely not enough, I hope some big bosses will invest."

"The current Chinese online game market is almost occupied by foreign games. Chinese game companies tend to act as agents for foreign products. Do you have the confidence to develop your own and succeed?"

"Isn't there also Westward Journey?"

"The four games, Legend, MU, Magic Baby, and Westward Journey 2, accounted for 50% of the market share this year. Among them, only Westward Journey 2 is domestically produced. If you include the next few games, the market share of Japanese and Korean games is over 85%."

"I always believe that Chinese people are no worse than foreigners, it's just that we started later. Within ten years, domestic games can reclaim 75% of the market share!"

"Do you firmly believe that domestic games can be revitalized?"

"Yes. The internet has spawned a huge market, and online games are one of them. There is still negative public opinion like 'spiritual opium' now, but one day, the game industry can become a part of China's economic prosperity and development. We cannot just watch foreign manufacturers take the money!"

"How do you think the game industry should be developed?"

"Legislation needs to be improved, this is at the national level. For practitioners, at this stage, we should absorb and imitate foreign game technology and concepts, and the next step is to innovate through imitation."

"Like making cars?"

"You could say that. But both the automotive industry and the game industry have a fatal problem. Large companies act as agents for foreign products and can make money lying down, some even make money kneeling. Why would they take risks and make money standing tall?"

"How to break through?"

"This requires someone to blaze a trail. I am willing to be a pioneer in the Chinese game industry, starting from scratch! Even if I lose everything, I can still test the waters for those who come after."

"I'm getting a little excited hearing this. I wish you success."

"Thank you."

After chatting for a while, Lao Wei asked, "Can I interview Drunk Lying in Mortal World again?"

"He's a student and doesn't want to be disturbed."

"Still a student?"

"Yes. I can give you his QQ, but I doubt he'll say much."

"..."

The interview ended.

Tao Chenggang flipped through the chat records: "Are you showing goodwill to Shanda?"

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "By the way, I'm helping you advertise your game, maybe it can attract a few investors."

Just then, a younger brother shouted, "Boss Tao, someone wants to top up 3000, and he says his last name is Shi..."