บท 11: Chapter 7 How Did It Get Rave Reviews?
After ending his livestream, Liu Liang took a little over two hours to successfully clear the VR version of "Zen."
Since the live broadcasting function for VR games is still not perfect, he had no choice but to leave his audience behind and hog the game to himself.
As for how to evaluate this VR version...
You can't say there's little difference from the PC version, you can only say it's exactly the same.
The gameplay hasn't changed at all!
Initially, Liu Liang had some unrealistic expectations for the VR version of the game.
After all, VR technology is already in its fifth generation, which can achieve consciousness connection, meaning that a player's actions in the virtual world correspond almost exactly to those in the real world.
While this technology is still developing and there isn't yet a game that can achieve 100% realism and allow interaction with everything in the game, some games have started to explore this.
For instance, some of the latest shooting games have already implemented actions completely identical to real life, such as disassembling and loading guns, and even jamming.
And most games that have made it to VR would at least take advantage of this consciousness connection technology, making significant changes in the gameplay from the PC version.
Otherwise, how could they have the nerve to charge so much more than the PC version?
However, the producer of "Zen" showed no such enlightenment!
The VR version of "Zen" had absolutely no unique designs for VR, just a crude transplantation of the operations from the PC version.
For instance, in the chapter "Prison," what was originally moving with the ASDW keys and mouse now became free movement for the player; in the chapter "Tree," what was turning the view with the AD keys now became the player struggling to control their body's sway to turn the view; in the chapter "Mountain," what was originally playing music with keys now became a translucent virtual piano keyboard in front of the player for music playing.
It just highlights a brute-force port!
And they still have the shamelessness to sell it for 10 bucks, doubling the price of the PC version. Where's the shame?
Of course, if you must say, these 10 bucks aren't exactly a total loss, given that the game's materials are indeed of extremely high precision.
It's even more apparent in the VR version.
You know, VR games with consciousness connection demand much higher precision for materials than PC versions do.
Technology in this world is developing quite rapidly. On PC, 4K resources have fully replaced 1080P as the standard, but on VR, 4K is far from enough.
Even with the use of "real-time focus rendering technology," you still need a 16K resolution and a 240-frame rate to truly achieve an effect that is indistinguishable from reality.
For VR headsets using the fifth-gen consciousness connection technology, the hardware is up to par, but many game developers' materials and resources are not, so many VR games on the market still feel very blurry when played.
Yet, "Zen" has no such feeling of blurriness at all, indicating that its VR materials are ultra-high-definition, enough to instantly eclipse most of the old VR games on the market.
"Alright, it's about time to reach a final verdict for this game.
"Now the question is, which category should I put it in? This is about the accuracy of my prediction and a thousand bucks..."
As a well-known streamer in the gaming section, Liu Liang runs several different columns to introduce various types of games.
The two most popular columns are "Likely to be a Hit" and "Bound to Fail."
As the names suggest, the former is for introducing games with novel play styles and heaps of positive reviews, potential new hits that he recommends; the latter is for introducing games with frustrating mechanics and terrible reputations, essentially games he critiques.
In reality, which column he chooses doesn't make much difference to the audience, as many of them don't pay much attention to what the streamers specifically title their videos.
But it's very important for Liu Liang because he isn't just doing reviews, he's making predictions.
Liu Liang releases videos the moment a game comes out and predicts its sales and reputation.
Moreover, to make these predictions more exciting, he's added a wager: if he's wrong, he will pay out of his pocket for a ten thousand bucks' worth lottery to give back to his fans!
It's all about the thrill.
This approach is high-risk but also high-reward, making Liu Liang appear more professional than other gaming streamers.
He had previously predicted the flops of several big company games and the surprise success of some niche indie games, attracting lots of fans and earning the nickname "The Prophet."
So what will be the reputation and sales of "Zen"?
If it reaps both sales and acclaim, it should go into the "Likely to be a Hit" column; otherwise, it should go into the "Bound to Fail" column.
After some consideration, Liu Liang made his decision: it should be placed in the "Bound to Fail" column!
Although the game has some novel aspects, it doesn't seem too different from other disappointing games, does it? Sales definitely won't be high, and at best, the reputation will be mixed, with a high likelihood of majority negative reviews.
Yeah, this shouldn't be wrong.
Having determined the tone and content of the video, Liu Liang immediately began to edit.
What's the most important thing for streamers in the Internet age? Speed!
Posting the same trending topic earlier rather than later can mean a difference in popularity by several fold — the early bird gets the worm.
Liu Liang is well aware of this, so he must finish the video on "Zen" as fast as possible.
Video editing software in this world is also highly advanced, with features like high-precision intelligent subtitles and "AI rough cut," which can use AI to identify materials in the video and match them with keyword content in the script to complete the initial rough cut.
The widespread adoption of this technology has led to the unemployment of many average video editors, but it has also catapulted the work efficiency of content creators to a new level.
Liu Liang figured that before going to bed tonight, he would pull an all-nighter to finish editing the video and upload it, so it would automatically be reviewed and published while he was sleeping!
He knew the viewers would complain about "being murdered by a late-night update", but that didn't matter, as it had already become part of his internet persona.
...
...
The next morning, Liu Liang was woken up by a call from his agent.
Many popular streamers and content creators have agents, some arranged by companies, some by video websites or live streaming platforms. These agents could also be considered as operations staff, mainly responsible for daily work scheduling, channel resources negotiation, and other tasks.
Of course, there's another important aspect of their job: organizing events for the creators, such as prize draws.
Groggy and suffering from sleep deprivation, Liu Liang answered the call, "Hello? What's up?"
The agent said, "Liu, I've arranged the prize draw event. If you think there's no problem with it, I'm going to post it, alright?"
Liu Liang, who had been half-asleep, jolted awake at this, "Ah? Wait a second, what prize draw?"
When did I decide to host a prize draw?
Could it be for yesterday's video?
That's not right, how could the prediction in that video have gone wrong? Could it be that garbage game actually got mostly positive reviews? Impossible!
The agent explained, "It's for the video you uploaded yesterday. Hey, I won't say much more, go take a look for yourself. The fans are all clanging their bowls, waiting for you to do the prize draw."
Liu Liang: "?"
He hung up the phone feeling bewildered and immediately searched for yesterday's video on his phone to watch it.
Video Title: Destined to Fail! The Most Boring Game I've Played—Simulating a Tree and It Costs $5?
Video Views: 390,000 with over 10,000 people currently watching
The numbers looked pretty good.
"Moo~ Hello my dear zookeepers, it's your diligent Old Ox, uploading thirty videos a month.
"Today, I'm roasting a new game called 'Zen'..."
The content of the video isn't complex; Liu Liang hadn't thought much about it while making it—he had just edited his live streaming footage and combined it with his rant about the game, along with some common video effects.
Barrages of comments quickly scrolled past, filled with endless "hahahahas" and "23333", as the amusing experiences while playing the game left the audience in stitches.
"And now we've reached the much anticipated final review and prediction.
"The art of the game is pretty good, especially the VR version, which showcases highly detailed textures, but that's about it.
"As a silly game, its thinking is off the beaten track and quite exceptional. But from a normal gaming perspective, it's rather meaningless and not much fun. As for artistic and profound content... sorry, I totally don't see it!
"Most players probably won't like such a game, let alone spend money on it.
"So, I boldly predict: 'Zen' will end up with 'mostly negative reviews' and the sales won't exceed 50,000! Let's wait and see if this prediction holds true!"
The video had now reached the wrap-up stage, with the remainder being chit-chat with fans and requests for likes and such.
But just now, the comment density on the progress bar had reached the peak for the entire video!
"Hahaha, Old Ox has messed up this prediction big time, getting both the sales and the reviews wrong!"
"'Mostly negative reviews'? Surprise, surprise—overwhelmingly positive!"
"You totally missed the sales too; the game is now in the top ten of today's indie game bestseller list on the official platform!"
"Old Ox, you're hitting the jackpot! Quick, we're clanging our bowls for the prize draw!"
As Liu Liang read these comments, he was completely dumbfounded.
What the heck? Overwhelmingly positive?
If this trash game gets overwhelmingly positive reviews on the official platform, I'll eat this monitor right here and now!
Liu Liang refused to believe it and immediately went to check on the official game platform.
He almost couldn't believe his own eyes.
What the heck? How can it really have overwhelmingly positive reviews?
Looking at the sales, indeed it had made it into today's hot seller list, top ten!
Was this considered a victory for both sales and public opinion?
Unbelievable!
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