17577 Forum.
Can Ying, the site owner, was chatting with several partners on QQ.
They had already produced multiple versions of "17577 Legend," mainly making money by building private server platforms, private server frameworks, and development tools.
"Holy shit, 'Legend of the Abyss' is packed even with 5,000 people."
"We've been making private server platforms for so long, and this is the first time we've encountered someone actively cutting off download links."
"Yeah, we used to worry about having too few players. This time, we're actually afraid too many players will crash the server."
"I just got back from reading the post. I'm dying laughing."
"Laugh my ass. They're making a killing, okay?"
"Who's gone in and played?"
"I made it to level 19. It lagged so badly that I quit."
"I'm doing quests right now. I heard you can get Abyss Map Teleportation Scrolls as rewards."
"What are those?"
"They're basically tickets that let you enter hidden maps. The monsters in the hidden maps are insanely powerful, and the equipment they drop is insanely good too. They make money selling tickets. Of course, players can also avoid spending money. They can get one ticket a day by doing quests, and mutated monsters have a chance to drop tickets too."
"This gameplay is pretty fresh. We could copy it too."
"What's fresh about it? It's just copying foreign games. The Abyss Map is basically a dungeon."
"Who cares who they copied? As long as it makes money, let's make one too!"
"Forget it for now. I'm going to grind the Abyss Map."
"How about developing Game Cheats that let you farm unlimited tickets?"
"That's fucking disgusting. Can you not be so gross? Even if we make private servers, we need some bottom line."
"What the hell are you talking about? You used to make and sell private server cheats for money!"
7GG Forum.
This gaming forum was close to overtaking everyone else and becoming the biggest private server hub in the country.
There were simply too many experts there. It was practically the Whampoa Military Academy of the private server world!
"DuDu Legend" was one of their products.
"Bro, have you played 'Legend of the Abyss'?"
"I was just about to top up and run the Woma Temple Abyss Map when you called. It's not lagging much now."
"I'm in the game too. I just topped up. Let's run the Abyss together! Oh, and I'm using my old ID."
"Get over here. I'll send you the coordinates."
"The Abyss Dungeon gameplay has real potential. Should our private server copy it too?"
"Let's sort out the internal conflicts first. Once the money started increasing, everyone started having more ideas. We argue every day. Sooner or later, we're fucking going to split up!"
"..."
The experts on 7GG Forum were now suffering from extremely serious infighting.
They all thought they were incredible, yet felt they were getting too small a share of the money.
At that very moment, one expert had decided, after playing "Legend of the Abyss," to imitate its dungeon gameplay and strike out on his own.
In another week or two, a whole bunch of private servers focused on dungeon gameplay would probably pop up in imitation.
After ten at night, the server became slightly smoother. Players' levels had risen as well, so more and more people began topping up.
There might be even more top-ups tomorrow, because many players needed to wait until daytime to transfer money at the bank or make the exhausting trip to the post office to send a remittance.
Those who chose to remit money through the post office often didn't even have bank accounts!
These days, UnionPay was still in its promotional stage. It was perfectly normal for players not to have accounts.
Four people were responsible for communicating with players who topped up. They sent the players' IDs to Yang Yuhui, who then issued tickets to them. But Feng Tao, Chen Guiliang's uncle, was the one confirming that payments had arrived and tallying the top-up amounts.
Feng Tao had a job during the day, so he definitely needed to be replaced.
Having him tally the top-up amounts today was naturally Tao Chenggang's way of reassuring Chen Guiliang.
As for internet café players, they topped up through the café managers. The managers sent over the game IDs, and Yang Yuhui then issued tickets to the players. Once the accumulated top-up amount reached a certain level, the managers deducted their commissions and transferred the money into the bank account supervised by Feng Tao.
After making a round, Tao Chenggang said, "Taking payments and issuing tickets has been pretty easy today. Tomorrow will probably get busier. We'll see then whether we need to send in more people."
"Whatever Brother Gang arranges is fine with us. We're all completely at ease," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.
"You brat... Forget it. Let's talk about something else."
Tao Chenggang asked, "Should we accept an interview from 'Popular Software'?"
Chen Guiliang said, "Of course. Since we've already made this big, we might as well make it bigger and put a little public pressure on Shanda."
Yang Yuhui said, "We also need to keep an eye on Game Cheats. The moment we find any, ban the accounts!"
"I'll arrange people for that," Tao Chenggang said.
Official games weren't the only ones troubled by Game Cheats. Private servers suffered from them too.
It wasn't yet the active period for private server cheats. After the special crackdown next New Year's Day, some private server platforms were scared into shutting down entirely, while others went quiet. At that point, everyone's income plummeted, and some experts began selling Game Cheats like crazy.
Only after the heat died down and private server platforms became active again did the big names and experts in the private server world join forces to suppress private server cheats.
"A player called Old Poison who topped up wants to talk to Drunk Lying in Mortal World and One Sword Comes West!" one of the underlings responsible for dealing with top-up players shouted.
Drunk Lying in Mortal World and One Sword Comes West were the two founders of the "Abyss Private Server" that Chen Guiliang had invented.
Chen Guiliang said in surprise, "We've run into an expert."
This Old Poison was still famous even twenty years later. Who in Legend private servers, browser games, and mobile games didn't know him?
He later developed something called the "Little Torch Engine," which could easily create and heavily modify "Legend" at will.
Chen Guiliang had Old Poison add his QQ. "Hello, I'm Drunk Lying in Mortal World."
"Haha, I've heard so much about you. Your Abyss gameplay is really interesting. I couldn't resist topping up to grind the Abyss myself," Old Poison flattered him on QQ.
After that, they just chatted casually. It was only an initial contact.
Old Poison was also an expert on 7GG Forum. Things were going very unpleasantly on his side, and he was considering breaking away from 7GG to go solo.
He understood the technical side very well, but he didn't know much about operations.
That was why he had come into contact with the "Legend of the Abyss" team. Perhaps they could cooperate and complement each other in the future.
"Guiliang, come over. The interview's starting!"
Lao Wei, an editor from "Popular Software," said, "Hello. Are you Drunk Lying in Mortal World or One Sword Comes West?"
"One Sword Comes West," Tao Chenggang answered.
"I'm very glad to meet you. I play games often too. I work at 'Popular Software,' mainly writing articles about online games."
"I've heard a lot about you. I've loved reading your magazine since I was a kid."
"Haha, hearing you say that makes me feel old."
"Not at all, not at all. You're a senior."
"Can you tell me about your real-life experiences?"
Tao Chenggang turned back and asked Chen Guiliang, "How should I make it up?"
Chen Guiliang said, "Nine parts truth, one part lie."
Tao Chenggang immediately typed, "My parents both worked for state-owned enterprises, and after graduating from junior college, I joined one too. But young people can't stand being bored, so I quit and went to a coastal city to make my way. I changed jobs many times. I even worked as a hotel security guard and as an internet café manager. In the summer of 1998, I joined Starcom and promoted Xiaolingtong services in the Yangtze River Delta."
"You worked for Starcom?" Lao Wei immediately became excited. If he included that, his report would have a much stronger hook.
Tao Chenggang typed, "I used to work there. After the Xiaolingtong market in major cities stabilized, I was assigned to promote it in third- and fourth-tier cities. That was when I discovered that IC Phone Cards were still in a relatively early stage of promotion in those cities. So I resigned from Starcom and began specializing in selling IC cards as an agent."
"You made a lot of money, right?"
"I made several hundred thousand over two years. Later, the market became saturated. IC cards had very low profits, and the competition was fierce, so I went back to my hometown and opened internet cafés. It was also because I opened internet cafés that I became obsessed with 'The Legend of Mir.'"
Lao Wei felt there was even more of a hook. "Your life experience is especially colorful. You can tell at a glance that you're someone who dares to fight and strive."
"Haha, you flatter me."
"How did you think of making a Legend Private Server?"
"Just like the post said. Drunk Lying in Mortal World is a friend I met in the game. He took a train over to drink with me. We talked about many people and many things. We were both drunk at the time, and in a rush of impulse, he went to the forum and made that post."
"You never thought of making money from private servers?"
"I'm not short on that little bit of money. I have eight internet cafés and a computer shop. I'm already too busy with legitimate business. There's no need to get into a gray business like private servers."
"You think private servers are a gray industry?"
"After the 'Abyss Private Server' blew up, I specifically consulted a lawyer. The relevant laws are still a blank slate, but it also violates the Copyright Law. Whether private servers are black or white, they can only be considered a gray industry."
"Do you support legislation targeting private servers?"
"Of course. I'm just an ordinary citizen with no power or influence. Naturally, I hope my country's laws become more complete."
"But that would affect your ability to make money from private servers."
"I don't make money from private servers. If I can't do it, then I won't."
"But given the current situation, the 'Abyss Private Server' could make a huge profit."
"This was an accident."
"If Shanda asked you to shut down the private server, would you agree?"
"That depends. The 'Abyss Private Server' no longer belongs to me alone. It's a gaming refuge for countless netizens. If Shanda wants me to shut it down, they have to come up with a plan. The players are already Legend refugees. Are they supposed to become refugees all over again?"
"Why do you think the 'Abyss Private Server' became so popular?"
"Players are too resentful toward Shanda. Many came over here out of spite."
"Isn't it because the Abyss Map gameplay in the post is interesting? How did you come up with that idea?"
"All of the ideas were provided by netizens. The power of the masses is limitless, and they have all kinds of strange ideas. Every modification in 'Legend of the Abyss' came from enthusiastic netizens' suggestions. I merely spent money to help them make those ideas happen."
When Chen Guiliang saw this, he gave Tao Chenggang a thumbs-up.
Tao Chenggang laughed.
"Do you also resent Shanda deeply?" Lao Wei asked again.
Chen Guiliang said, "Let me handle this one."
Tao Chenggang immediately stood up from the computer.
Chen Guiliang said, "I used to resent them, but not anymore."
"Why?" Lao Wei asked.
"I'm afraid of going to prison, so I consulted a lawyer and looked up a lot of news about Legend. 'Legend' went without updates for more than half a year, and the root cause was that the Korean side was too greedy. They actually wanted Shanda's user database, which is a game company's core secret. If I were Boss Chen, I wouldn't have agreed either."
"So you think the Korean side was at fault?"
"Of course the Korean side was at fault. A game development company actually demanded the operator's user database. They really thought they were the emperor. Boss Chen had already shown them plenty of respect by sending over a database according to the contract. Even though there were issues with the database, the contract had never specified things clearly in the first place. They just needed to give each other a way out, but the Korean side unilaterally terminated the partnership. In this matter, the Korean side breached the contract first, one hundred percent."
"It seems you support Shanda."
"I don't support any company. I only support justice and the law."
"What are your plans for the future?"
"Making games is pretty fun. Maybe I'll develop and operate games myself in the future. Haha, I definitely won't have enough startup capital, though. I hope some big boss will invest."
"China's current online game market has almost been occupied by foreign games. Chinese game companies all tend to represent foreign products. Are you confident that you can develop a game yourself and succeed?"
"Isn't there still 'Westward Journey'?"
"'Legend,' 'Miracle,' 'Magic Baby,' and 'Journey to the West 2' accounted for 50 percent of the market this year. Only 'Journey to the West 2' is domestically produced. If you include the games after them, Japan and South Korea games hold over 85 percent of the market."
"I've always believed that Chinese people are no worse than foreigners. We only started later. Within ten years, domestic games will reclaim 75 percent of the market share!"
"You firmly believe domestic games can rise again?"
"Yes. The internet has created an enormous market, and online games are one part of it. There is currently negative public opinion calling them spiritual opium and such, but one day, the gaming industry will become part of China's economic prosperity and development. We can't just stand by and watch foreign companies take all the money!"
"How do you think the gaming industry should develop?"
"Legislation needs to improve. That's at the national level. As for people in the industry, at this stage, we should absorb and imitate foreign game technology and ideas. The next step is to innovate through imitation."
"Like making cars?"
"You could put it that way. But both the automobile industry and the gaming industry have one fatal problem. Big companies can make money lying down by representing foreign products, and some even make money on their knees. Why would they take risks and make money standing tall?"
"How can that be broken through?"
"That requires someone to clear the way through thorns and brambles. I'm willing to be a pioneering pathfinder for China's gaming industry! Even if I lose everything, I can still help those who come after me learn through trial and error."
"My blood's pumping just hearing that. I wish you success."
"Thank you."
After chatting for a while longer, Lao Wei asked, "Can I interview Drunk Lying in Mortal World too?"
"He's a student and doesn't want to be disturbed."
"He's still a student?"
"Yes. I can give you his QQ, but I doubt he'll have much to say."
"..."
The interview ended.
Tao Chenggang scrolled through the chat history. "You're showing goodwill to Shanda?"
Chen Guiliang smiled. "And advertising your future game while I'm at it. Maybe it'll attract a few investors."
Just then, one of the underlings shouted, "President Tao, someone wants to top up 3,000, and he says his surname is Shi..."
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