Almighty Video Game Designer - Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Chapter 104: Always Copied, Never Bested
Everyone was getting excited just from the sketches, especially when they thought about how the world of Azeroth would be made into an RPG game.
Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng and the others did not expect that Chen Mo would want to make an RTS as it was dominated by one overseas company, and none of the Chinese companies were able to properly integrate into the market.
Which was why the others thought that Chen Mo would make an RPG, because it would be the safest choice.
All of a sudden, Wen Lingwei mentioned, “By the way, manager, have you seen Zen Entertainment’s newest game?”
Chen Mo shook his head, “Nope, what is it?”
“I think it’s called ‘Seven Heroes’. It’s a Wuxia themed large scale RPG on the PC,” answered Wen Lingwei.
Zheng Hongxi said, “Oh that, I think it just entered closed beta today, and would enter public beta in two months.”
That managed to grab Chen Mo’s attention, “Really? What type of game is it?”
Zheng Hongxi replied, “I watched the trailer, and it feels like a reskin of Legend of the Sword, swapping out the Xianxia theme into Wuxia theme.
“Huh? They’re doing that? Zen Entertainment sure is lazy,” said Jia Peng.
Zheng Hongxi said, “It’s not really lazy. Because of how successful Legend of the Sword was, any small changes could completely destroy the game. Copying their own game would be a safer choice.”
Chen Mo nodded in agreement. This was actually quite common in his previous world. A large majority of the companies don’t have the courage to make big changes to a game that was already successful. It isn’t easy to create something new too, and I may even have the opposite effect.
Therefore, the safer choice would be to reskin their own game, changing out Xianxia to Wuxia. They would need to change things such as the content, how it’s sold, jobs, and the combat system, but the core of the game would remain the same, minimizing the risk of failure.
Qian Kun said, “It seems like they are just testing the waters. If it was successful as a PC game, they’ll make it into a VR game. Same old plan.”
“The PC version will probably be successful, as in China, Legend of the Sword still has the best of the best gameplay,” said Zheng Hongxi.
As they were discussing, Su Jinyu exclaimed out of nowhere, “Huh? Take a look guys at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s Weibo! They are releasing a new game!”
Everyone took out their phone to check their Weibo. Indeed Emperor Dynasty Entertainment posted a Weibo on their new game,
After the launch of I Am MT, Chen Mo developed Thunderbolt Tabletop as well as Lifeline. Including the development time, as well as testing, pre-release preparations and everything else was around four month’s of time.
It was now evident that Emperor Dynasty Entertainment hadn’t been slacking during that time.
The Weibo was as follows : Our newest game Ain World is now in closed beta! Expansive world, rich character customisation and different races, providing you with a unique RPG experience!
There were a few artworks included in the Weibo post, human knights, orc warriors, and elven archers. There were also a few artworks for the background setting, giving off strong Western Fantasy vibes.
Zheng Hongxi was also shocked, “What is this? Why would Emperor Dynasty make a Western Fantasy game?”
Wen Lingwei said disapprovingly, “It’s even called Ain World. It’s a knockoff of Azeroth right?”
“Manager, what do you think?” asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo laughed, “What is there to think. Western Fantasy as a theme is currently in limbo in China. Emperor Dynasty and Zen have avoided it like the plague in the past, but decided to try it again out of nowhere. Moreover, it’s a completely original fictional world. Obviously…”
Zheng Hongxi finished off his sentence, “They’re copying Azeroth.”
Chen Mo nodded, “Bingo.”
“Wow, that’s really a new low for Emperor Dynasty, they copy everything the manager does. Does a huge company like them have no sense of dignity?” Jia Peng said angrily.
Wen Lingwei added, “They’ve even copied it before we made it.”
Chen Mo laughed, “Don’t worry, out of all the knockoffs they’ve made, was there a single one that performed better than the original?”
“Well, we can’t do nothing about it, right? Copying fictional worlds like this should warrant a lawsuit right?” said Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo said, “They’ve already made changes no? Look, obviously they’ve based it off Western Fantasy, and just ‘referenced’ some content from World of Azeroth, they wouldn’t dare reference too much.”
Su Jinyu was still unsatisfied, “Well, manager, does that we’re not going to do anything?”
Chen Mo shook his head, “Of course not. Am I the type of guy to just take it? Hand the great Chen Mo his mobile phone, Goldfish.”
Su Jinyu was shocked, “Huh?”
Chen Mo pointed at his phone on the table, “Over there.”
SU Jinyu was speechless, “You’re such a drama queen, manager. Couldn’t you have done that yourself? And even went as far to refer to yourself in third person…”
Su Jinyu still walked the few steps to pass Chen Mo his phone.
Everyone was curious as to what Chen Mo was going to do. Was he going to start something that would benefit him again?
Chen Mo sent a Weibo with only a picture: Arthas’s concept sketch.
After some thought, he added a sentence :”Always copied, never bested.”
His Weibo basically followed Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s Weibo, with only a five minute gap between them.
The drama hungry fans were surprised upon seeing the Weibo!
They were about to start trash talking Emperor Dynasty Entertainment upon seeing their Weibo, but upon seeing Chen Mo’s Weibo, all their attention was shifted!
Although Chen Mo only posted a picture and one sentence, the message was clear as day.
There were dozens of entries on the World of Azeroth on Arthas. Therefore, everyone knew that he was a key character in the world of Azeroth, a fact that even the drama waiting players knew.
Even without context, the art for Arthas was amazing in and of itself.
The design, the expression, the setting, and when combined with the skeleton horse and Frostmourne, there were only two words that could be used to describe it: Extremely handsome!
Compared to this sketch, the detailed artwork for Ain World was like a woman with heavy makeup. No matter how much foundation they put on, they were completely overshadowed by the beauty of Chen Mo’s sketch!
The knockoff aspect became even more obvious.
Moreover, Chen Mo added a ‘Always copied, never bested.’ which he didn’t need to.
Yeah, that rings so true!
Plants vs Zombies, I Am MT, or Thunderbolt Tabletop, no matter what theme, what genre, and no matter how good or ill of an intent the game had, the other designers would copy Chen Mo. It was starting to get hard to watch!
Moreover, Emperor Dynasty decided to copy the World of Azeroth now? That’s a new level of ridiculous!
But looking back at Chen Mo’s games, none of them were bested! No matter how they copied it, Chen Mo’s next game would undoubtedly be better!
