Chapter 310: Cursed by Misfortune
February 14th, the day of suffering for single dogs.
*League of Legends* had been online for a full week, maintaining a strong growth momentum, with daily active players successfully breaking through one million.
Under multiple promotional strategies, *League of Legends* had expanded to more and more player groups who had never been exposed to RTS games or COGs. Moreover, promotional tactics like internet cafe promotions and friend invitation rewards had become important means of attracting new players.
On the third day after launch, Chen Mo had released the Valentine's Day event content on the in-game activity page, which had players eagerly anticipating it.
This Valentine's Day event primarily featured the [Heartseeker] Vayne skin as its main selling point. If you missed this week's event, you'd have to wait until next year to buy this skin.
In addition, there were corresponding active missions. Completing matches in a party would reward players with gold coins, avatar frames, trial cards, and other prizes. These were all important measures to further expand the player base.
It was predictable that if girls played *League of Legends*, their boyfriends would have a high probability of being dragged into the game; if guys played *League of Legends*, their girlfriends would have a small probability of being dragged in as well.
Many players logged into the game on Valentine's Day to participate in the event, and in various internet cafes, you could occasionally run into couples playing together.
...
At the headquarters of Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment, Jin Jieguang's expression was grim. Not because he was a single dog, but because COG had started its open beta yesterday, and the first-day data had already come out.
Although this game had received widespread praise after its launch, with its rating staying around 8.8, giving Jin Jieguang a glimmer of hope, the first-day data poured a bucket of cold water on him.
The number of players who logged in on the first day was 330,000, but the day-two retention rate was only 43%.
If this were a mobile game, that day-two retention rate would be considered decent, but this was a PC online game, and a free competitive one at that. This abysmal day-two retention rate could only be described in three words: failing.
With such a day-two retention rate, forget about becoming a hit; even maintaining active players and ensuring the fairness of the matchmaking system would be difficult. Even with Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment's powerful channel capabilities for promotion, it would be hard to push forward.
The data was too ugly, to the point where Jin Jieguang didn't really know how to explain it to Lin Chaoxu.
However, Jin Jieguang also had a vague feeling that compared to *League of Legends*, COG's gameplay mode leaning toward RTS games was likely one of the important reasons. But without corresponding data to support it, Jin Jieguang didn't dare to make a definitive claim.
After learning about this data, Lin Chaoxu remained relatively calm. He told Jin Jieguang to check the backend data to see at which game nodes players were dropping off the most. At the same time, he was to create a detailed survey questionnaire and send it to those players who had churned from COG, conducting a thorough investigation.
...
While Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment was busy collecting player feedback on COG, *League of Legends'* Valentine's Day event continued to heat up.
On Valentine's Day itself, *League of Legends* reached a concurrent player count of 330,000. Considering that this was the first day of Valentine's Day and many couples had other things to do, this data actually had room to grow.
Nevertheless, this data was already enough to highlight the game's popularity.
In the experience store.
Chen Mo was hesitating.
On the virtual screen of his wristband, there was a new item: the Luck Generator. Chen Mo had just drawn it a few days ago, and there were ten of them. The effect was incredibly overpowered.
[Luck Generator: A magical device that can bring you good luck in most situations. After use, there is a 50% chance of receiving good luck or bad luck, lasting one day. If you receive bad luck, you can reverse it into good luck by completing tasks.]
From the item description, it felt like a no-loss item.
Chen Mo had tried it once before. That time, after using the Luck Generator, he immediately got good luck. Chen Mo "happened" to open his phone and scroll through Weibo, "happened" to see Jin Jieguang's Weibo in the discovery section, and "happened" to find his verified profile and that selfie taken at the entrance of the experience store.
Otherwise, Chen Mo wouldn't have specifically gone down to the first floor of the experience store to trick him.
After tasting the sweetness once, Chen Mo really wanted to try again. However, this item had a cooldown and couldn't be used frequently.
Today happened to be February 14th, and the item's cooldown had ended.
"Ah, if only this were a Romance Luck Generator. After using it, a certain cold and aloof singer surnamed Zhang would get drunk and show up at my door, or a certain mysterious beauty surnamed Wu would suddenly send me a bunch of artistic selfies or something," Chen Mo sighed.
Putting aside those unrealistic fantasies, Chen Mo used another Luck Generator.
But this time, the pleasant good luck icon didn't appear. After a puff of smoke effects, a "Cursed by Misfortune" bad luck icon emerged.
[Cursed by Misfortune: Your luck value drops to negative numbers. Things like eating instant noodles without the seasoning packet are just the small stuff.]
"What the hell!"
Chen Mo was dumbfounded. It said a 50% chance, and it really was a 50% chance? Last time it was good luck, and this time it's bad luck?
And eating instant noodles without the seasoning packet was just the small stuff? What would the medium stuff be like?
Chen Mo was starting to panic. Other times would be fine; at worst, he wouldn't go out, and the worst that could happen would be choking on his own spit or tripping on flat ground while walking in the experience store. Those wouldn't be big problems. But now was a critical period for promoting *League of Legends*!
What if the game had some serious bug? What if the server experienced some strange fluctuations? What if some player went berserk and attacked their teammate, creating a big news story?
For Chen Mo, these were all completely unacceptable!
"Didn't it say I could reverse it into good luck by completing tasks? Where are the tasks?"
Chen Mo quickly looked at the wristband screen. Behind the [Cursed by Misfortune] icon, a system task had already appeared.
[System Task (1/5): Arrive at the lobby on the first floor of the experience store. Time limit: 20 minutes]
"That's it? Too easy, right?" Chen Mo let out a long breath. "See, I knew the system still loves me. How could it screw me over?"
Chen Mo walked out of his studio and pushed the door.
"Click." "Clunk."
The door wouldn't open.
Chen Mo: "???"
What the hell was going on?
Chen Mo's studio was connected to his living area, separated from the experience store's work area by a security door.
This security door was a high-tech product that could be unlocked with a password or fingerprint. When Chen Mo installed it, he didn't think much about it; he just thought the door looked nice and stylish, so he had it put in. It had worked perfectly fine all this time.
But today, it wouldn't open.
Normally, this door could be unlocked from the outside with a fingerprint or password, but from the inside, there was a dedicated button to open it. However, that button seemed to have conveniently broken; pressing it did nothing.
Chen Mo: "...Damn, is this already starting?"