Chapter 113: The Negotiation Strategy That Kills the Conversation
Zou Zhuo watched a couple of matches as well. He could understand more than the others, but it made his head spin!
When Chen Mo was playing, he already had a clear plan in mind, so even though the screen switched rapidly, he didn't get dizzy himself.
As for Zou Zhuo, he had absolutely no mental preparation for what Chen Mo intended to do. Chen Mo's hands were fast, and sometimes, just when the fight was intense, Chen Mo would switch the screen to his expansion base, giving Zou Zhuo a real headache to watch.
Moreover, every single game was won too easily, almost inexplicably. As they played, the opponent would just GG, and Chen Mo wouldn't even look at the post-game screen before immediately queuing for the next match.
For someone like Zou Zhuo, who often played 25-minute games and sometimes had bladder-busting matches that dragged on to 40 minutes, Chen Mo finished every game in just over ten minutes!
What the hell was there to learn from that?!
Zou Zhuo watched two matches and, although he gained a little something, he was truly dizzy and couldn't keep going.
He just felt that the person in front of him was a bit uncanny—his hands were way too fast!
Zou Zhuo retreated in defeat.
...
In the player group.
Xue Kai got home that evening and originally planned to start streaming ranked matches immediately, but he found someone had @'d him in the group.
He was generally a pretty warm-hearted guy, otherwise he wouldn't have made so many tutorial videos or written suggestion letters to the developers.
Kaiser: "@zzz, what's up?"
After two minutes, Zou Zhuo replied: "K God, today I met a god at the internet cafe and got crushed. Please take a look at the two match videos I posted in the group and give me some pointers!"
Xue Kai was a bit surprised. Everyone's ranked scores were in the group info, and he knew this zzz had over 2800 points, which was a decent level. How could he get beaten by someone at an internet cafe?
The opponent's skill level seemed flawless. Basically, as long as the Undead showed even the slightest opening, it would be exploited, and a chunk of flesh would be bitten off.
Many small advantages accumulated, and this Orc's advantage grew larger and larger. In the early decisive battle, through his exquisite micro-management, he killed off the Undead in one wave.
Xue Kai's impression was that this Orc player was definitely not simple.
Others might not see it, but Xue Kai could. The APM, multi-tasking, game rhythm—all of it was top-notch. He said, "I'm too weak. He won't come."
The bystanders weren't having it: "Wow, you fat bastard, you're useless! If he won't come, why don't you beg on your knees? Hug his leg tightly and don't let him leave until he joins the group. Go!"
Zou Zhuo was speechless: "Go screw yourselves! Besides, he left a long time ago."
Kaiser: "Left?"
Zou Zhuo replied: "Yeah, left around 7 PM."
The onlookers expressed their deep regret: "Wow, you actually missed the chance to recruit another god for our group! Why don't you quickly commit seppuku to atone for your crime!"
Zou Zhuo was dumbfounded: "Damn it! I already sent the replay files, and none of you paid any attention. Now you're blaming me!"
The onlookers: "No excuses! Starting today, you're stationed at that internet cafe. You have to catch him!"
Xue Kai searched for the ID "silent" in Warcraft and found that the account was indeed created today. When he checked the match history, the ten placement matches were all wins, and the ranked score was directly set to 2400 points.
Although this score wasn't low, it was still far from Xue Kai's 3700 points. Based on gaining 15 points per win and a 70% win rate, it would take over a hundred matches. It was unlikely they'd meet in ranked anytime soon.
Xue Kai also felt a bit regretful: "Too bad. He seems like a skilled player. I was hoping to play a couple of games with him."
...
The next day.
Chen Mo was negotiating with the overseas publishing representative from Meteorite Technology about releasing the overseas version of Warcraft.
Whether domestically or abroad, there are many such publishing companies. They don't develop games themselves but regularly evaluate popular games on the market and cooperate with developers to publish foreign games domestically or domestic games overseas.
Obviously, Warcraft's data was excellent, its popularity was high domestically, and being a Western fantasy theme, it naturally had an advantage for promotion in European and American markets.
Chen Mo had actually considered this aspect long ago, so during the negotiation, he was very firm and direct, basically making three points.
First, all game modifications were his sole responsibility. The publisher had no right to change any game content.
Second, Chen Mo had the final say on game translation and overseas operational strategies.
Third, revenue sharing was negotiable, but it had to be higher than the share for any other domestic game on the market.
As soon as these three points were raised, the conversation almost died right there.
In fact, making an overseas version of a game is no small task. It's not just about translating all the Chinese content into English.
The most important point is the promotion strategy. Games don't just make money by being uploaded to foreign app stores. Besides preparing the necessary store listing graphics and text, you also need to set up social media pages, SNS sharing mechanisms, localization operational strategies, and so on.
During the promotion process, the publisher is more familiar with the overseas market, so localization changes are often necessary. For example, Vietnamese users like characters with wings, while Japanese users tend to trust loot box and gacha mechanics.
Given these characteristics, publishers often need to obtain some modification permissions for the game and cooperate with the developer to make appropriate adjustments.
But Chen Mo directly stated that Meteorite Technology would only handle promotion, take the lowest revenue share, and could not modify any game content. Not only that, but Chen Mo even wanted to oversee translation matters and have the final say.
Wasn't this clearly trying to kill the conversation?