Chapter 62: Anime Premiere
Of course, if following the habits of his past life, calling it "Azeroth National Geographic" (NGA) might have been better, but what Chen Mo needed now wasn't a player discussion forum, but an official website dedicated to introducing Azeroth.
Naturally, NGA could serve as an important component of this website, to be added later.
The concept of the "Azeroth Universe" drew some inspiration from the "League of Legends Universe."
After the explosive popularity of *League of Legends*, Riot Games spared no effort in building their own gaming culture, with the most important aspect being the game's world view, or the "League of Legends Universe."
As a unique artistic medium, games can have extremely vast worldviews that cannot be fully conveyed through in-game plots and settings alone. Therefore, to further expand the cultural influence of *League of Legends*, Riot launched the "League of Legends Universe."
MOBA games, limited by their inherent characteristics, feature numerous heroes and relatively fragmented worldviews, making the promotion of the "League of Legends Universe" more challenging.
In contrast, the worldview of *World of Warcraft* is already highly mature. The "Azeroth Universe" that Chen Mo was creating should be easier to accept and would have a stronger impact.
What kind of website was the "Azeroth Universe"?
In Chen Mo's plan, this website was primarily used to introduce the relevant settings of Azeroth and the Warcraft series. It was divided into four main sections: History, Heroes, Rules, and Regions, documenting the historical evolution, character biographies, world rules, and regional divisions of Azeroth.
Of course, transferring all the settings of the Azeroth world in their entirety was a very long-term systematic project that couldn't be completed in just a few months. Chen Mo was prepared for continuous updates, adding bits and pieces whenever he had free time.
His focus was mainly on the three sections: History, Rules, and Regions.
History primarily explained major events such as the Orc invasion, the founding of Orgrimmar, and the Human Alliance, clarifying the relationship between the Alliance and the Horde.
Rules introduced related settings, such as Hearthstones, corpse running for resurrection, races, classes, skills, and so on.
Regions introduced the main cities of various races and some distinctive locations in Azeroth.
This was to help players better understand the content of *I Am MT* and to lay the groundwork for the future. Once Chen Mo had enough ability and resources, he would create the entire *World of Warcraft* content in a better way, and this website served as an early warm-up.
...
The first three episodes of *I Am MT* Season 1 were simultaneously updated on major video streaming sites!
Before the anime launched, Chen Mo did some preparatory work. On one hand, he contacted several large video sites to purchase homepage recommendation spots in the gaming section.
The Xuan Dong Ji Guang Studio was relatively familiar with this kind of business process and knew some editors at various video sites. As long as the money was sufficient, they could secure some basic recommendation spots.
Of course, the more prominent homepage positions required a certain level of viewership and popularity to achieve; buying them directly was too expensive, so Chen Mo didn't consider it.
The Xuan Dong Ji Guang Studio's own website also did some promotion and warm-up.
On the other hand, Chen Mo posted news about the upcoming launch of the *I Am MT* anime on the *Plants vs. Zombies* in-game platform and his Weibo, briefly introducing the story's background and hinting that it would be related to his new game.
On Weibo, Chen Mo also released a promotional video for the *I Am MT* anime, which was the opening introduction video, about two minutes long, showcasing the full scope of Azeroth.
In a very short time, Chen Mo's Weibo was reposted thousands of times!
Among these were loyal players of *Plants vs. Zombies* and *Flappy Bird*, gaming media outlets that had been following the bet, and some players from Di Chao Interactive Entertainment.
Soon, players who were initially unaware also noticed this news. After watching the promotional video, some of them became interested.
"What's going on? An anime? Am I seeing this right?"
"...Wasn't the bet about monthly game revenue? A month has passed, and Chen Mo throws out an anime?"
"And it's produced by Xuan Dong Ji Guang Studio. I'm stunned, this was clearly premeditated. That must have cost a lot, right?"
"I'm more worried about whether Chen Mo still has time to develop the game..."
"The promotional video is pretty interesting. The world view feels vast. I might check it out."
"Yeah, let's see first. How exactly is it related to the game?"
At 8 PM, the *I Am MT* anime officially launched!
Thanks to the previous warm-up and the influence of video site recommendations, the anime garnered a lot of attention as soon as it aired. It also sparked relevant topics on Weibo, and the comment sections of *Plants vs. Zombies* were flooded with discussions about the anime!
The initial warm-up was basically fine, but this was only the first step. The key was to see the audience's reactions and whether they could stick with it.
Chen Mo was a bit nervous, constantly monitoring the viewership data and player comments on various sites.
It could be said that the success of this anime would largely determine the game's popularity. If the anime completely flopped, the game would undoubtedly be severely affected. While it might not die completely, it would certainly suffer significant damage.
Su Jinyu and Jia Peng were also quite tense, constantly refreshing the data on various video sites.
Soon, audience comments began to increase.
"That's it? Damn, that was short!"
"It's over? What comes next?"
"A cow as the main character? So non-mainstream! But I like it!"
"Even though I'm a bit confused, the world view feels really interesting."
"All the characters here are so goofy, lol."
"It feels... a bit unexpected. Chen Mo must have planned this anime, right?"
Although some viewers were in a state of "not understanding but feeling impressed," overall, their first impressions of the anime were quite positive. The most crucial point was that the anime felt very novel to them, especially the background setting, which was very appealing.