Charging Players Again: Qisheng's Shameless Move

Chen Ze leaped to his feet in excitement during the livestream.

Mai Senpai's comeback had truly amazed him. Her plays and the thinking behind them were remarkable.

That round of Bed Wars had amazed not only Chen Ze, but everyone watching the stream.

[She turned it around, guys! She actually turned it around.]

[Mai Senpai is incredible. I could never pull off plays like that.]

[Forget you, even Xiao Dingdang got outplayed and killed.]

[True, though the main thing was that Xiao Dingdang messed up. His Ender Pearl didn't land on the island.]

[What can I say? Mai Senpai really showed me what she could do this time.]

Meanwhile, in Xiao Dingdang's livestream.

Xiao Dingdang wasn't all that dejected. On the contrary, he was fired up.

That game had shown him what real competition felt like.

Being on the verge of elimination and then falling through the air after making a mistake had left him breathing rapidly, his heart pounding.

He seemed to have... fallen in love with the feeling.

If only Starfield Entertainment could make an even more exciting game.

With that thought, he started another round of Bed Wars, eager to experience that thrilling competition again.

As Minecraft flourished on multiple fronts, from its servers to its modpacks, it could now be said to have broken out beyond its original audience.

Even some people outside the gaming community knew about it.

Of course, alongside the praise came the smear campaigns.

Game review streamers like Galiang kept slandering Minecraft.

That had also caused quite a stir online.

Some players spoke about Minecraft's merits, while some netizens mocked the players for being stupid.

[What's so fun about this crappy game? I really don't know what kind of people play it. Kids?]

[Idiot, do you think everyone's like you, passing judgment without even playing it?]

[Heh, I wouldn't play a crappy game like this even if you gave it to me. The garbage graphics hurt my eyes.]

[Fine, fine. If you ever play it, I'll look down on you.]

[Play it or don't. Nobody's forcing you. The way you're slandering it here, someone might think you were paid to do it.]

The abuse online grew increasingly intense.

At the same time, Qisheng Game released several CG trailers for Mini World.

Like Minecraft, the game allowed players to mine blocks and build, and its graphics were a considerable improvement over the original Minecraft.

Perhaps because they were pressed for time, or perhaps because they were preparing to make a game better than Minecraft, they had already released the CG trailers.

Meanwhile, Qisheng Game Company updated its games that day, rolling out a unified update across its entire catalog.

The update wasn't aimed at the games themselves, but added skins and decorative items to some of them.

Bicycle Simulator added a selection of bikes, including road bikes, mountain bikes, and extreme sports bikes.

Each type of bike had different stat bonuses, which players could obtain by purchasing them.

In Xiao Dingdang's livestream.

After playing Bed Wars for several days, he was a little tired.

It wasn't that he no longer wanted to play, but he wanted to switch games to relax. Even he was having trouble taking the constant high-pressure competition.

He opened the Qisheng Game Platform and found that many of the games he played needed updating.

After looking them over, he chose to update Bicycle Simulator. He had earned first place on one of its leaderboards through skill.

The update was quick, only a few hundred megabytes in all, and it finished in under a minute.

He entered the game, and just as he was about to go for a leisurely ride on the road, he noticed that the gold badge on his bicycle was gone.

The gold badge was the mark he had earned for ranking first. Every player on the leaderboard received a badge on their bicycle.

He had barely slept for several days while striving for the gold badge. It was a mark of honor to him.

He frowned and opened the speedrun cycling leaderboard.

Sure enough, he was no longer in first place. The top time was now 11 minutes and 28 seconds, fully twice as fast as his former time of 24 minutes.

His pupils contracted at the sight. How was that possible?

It wasn't just the first-place player. The next several had times in the teens, and he wasn't even in the top hundred anymore.

What had happened?

He looked at the comments in his livestream, hoping to find an explanation.

Soon, his gaze landed on one comment.

[God Zuo, stop playing Bicycle Simulator. It's called Pay-to-Win Simulator now. Actually, no, all of Qisheng's games require you to pay now.]

After reading it, Xiao Dingdang, Zuo Zixuan, noticed a newly added shop icon in the game.

He clicked it open and saw several different styles of bicycle.

The cheapest bicycle cost 29.9 yuan, while the most expensive cost 1,288 yuan.

The most expensive bicycle had powerful stat bonuses: a 100% speed increase, a 100% reduction in speed loss when turning, and a 100% increase in friction.

After reading the bicycle's stat description, Xiao Dingdang's mouth twitched a few times.

What? He had worked himself to the bone for that ranking, and now anyone could get it just by spending money?

How was that fair to him? Was he supposed to spend 1,288 yuan on a bicycle with stat bonuses and ride his way back up?

That was absolutely impossible. Leaving aside whether he had the money, even if he did, he wouldn't spend it and ride his way back up just for that ranking.

Everyone had originally competed for the leaderboard on the same starting line, and now paying could make you stronger. How was that fair to ordinary players?

Not everyone would spend that money on a bicycle with stat bonuses, so ordinary players just didn't deserve to make the leaderboard, right?

The more Xiao Dingdang thought about it, the angrier he became.

Without another word, he closed Bicycle Simulator.

Seeing Xiao Dingdang do that, the people in his livestream began discussing it heatedly.

[I told you, Qisheng's ruined this game. Now you can get privileges just by having money.]

[Exactly. It's not just Bicycle Simulator. Now you have to pay in Skiing Simulator and Mountain Climbing Simulator too.]

[That's disgusting. This money-grubbing is revolting. Is Qisheng that desperate for cash?]

[I bet they saw Starfield making money, got jealous, and followed suit by selling skins.]

[Heh, all of Starfield's official skins and plugins are free, and even the most expensive player-made ones are only five yuan. It's not the same thing at all.]

[True. Qisheng's money-grubbing is downright ugly.]

Xiao Dingdang said nothing as he read the popular comments in his livestream.

He was just a game streamer, and he wouldn't comment on game companies' affairs at all.

But what he could do was stop playing. He wouldn't touch such a disgusting game again.

It wasn't just Bicycle Simulator. He wouldn't touch any Qisheng game that charged money for stat boosts again. It was simply too disgusting.