Chapter 443: Winning Another Award
At the Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment side, Qiu Jiang also turned around and greeted Chen Mo.
The S-level designers in the very front row were all relatively older, mostly in their forties. Designers like this held a high status in the industry, and many no longer needed to be active on the front lines of development.
As for the designers who were truly active, their ages were generally not too old, mostly between twenty-seven or twenty-eight and forty.
The reason many of these designers appeared very young, even earning the position of S-level designer earlier than Chen Mo, wasn’t because they cheated, but because they took a completely different path from him.
Chen Mo started entirely from scratch, moving from mobile games to PC to VR, step by step. In the beginning, he had no money, no people, no resources, and no channels. Making games on his own was very slow, and it was all accumulated bit by bit.
These younger S-level designers, on the other hand, often started as assistants to other S-level designers as soon as they entered the industry, getting exposure to VR games very early. After working for two or three years, they began independently handling parts of large VR games. Another two or three years later, they started independently managing VR game projects under major companies like Imperial Dynasty or Zen Mind, earning the S-level designer qualification.
You could think of it this way: it’s like being a high-level executive at a company. Some people work their way up from the bottom, constantly getting promoted, but staying relatively low. Others come in through special channels like management trainees, so they reach the top in just a few years.
Relatively speaking, the path Chen Mo took was more difficult, but also more comprehensive, and he wouldn’t be constrained by capital or channels.
In the eyes of others, Chen Mo’s development speed could already be considered monstrous, because other S-level designers usually only worked on VR games, while Chen Mo was proficient in mobile, PC, and VR.
……
Soon, the awards ceremony officially began.
The host took the stage.
The leaders gave speeches.
The list of this year’s honorary committee members of the Game Committee was announced.
Certificates were awarded, and photos were taken.
The entire process was basically fixed. Ten new designers excitedly went on stage to receive their certificates, their faces full of excitement.
Among these designers, some had earned the honorary committee member status after just one or two years in the industry, while most took over five years. Many people who had been in the industry for seven or eight years or even longer couldn’t get it and could only envy from the audience.
For Chen Mo, he had already had the honorary committee member status for a long time. Watching these people go up to receive their awards now gave him a feeling of “time flying by.”
After that, various awards began to be announced one after another.
At the beginning, there were various small awards: Best Music, Best Art, Best Visual Art, Best Debut Work, Best Level Design, Best Character Creation, Best Narrative, Best Performance…
Chen Mo didn’t have high expectations for these awards, mainly because his main works this year, *League of Legends*, *Outlast*, and *Overwatch*, were all competitive games. If you had to talk about artistry, they didn’t have any particular advantage.
However, Chen Mo’s goal wasn’t these small awards anyway. His only goal was Game of the Year.
These awards were mostly taken by A-level designers. The games these designers made had very distinct characteristics, making it easier for them to stand out in these category-based awards.
But what surprised Chen Mo greatly was that he still ended up winning an award.
After the Best Performance award was given, the next award was Best Atmosphere. This award was actually given to Chen Mo’s horror game, *Outlast*.
This surprised Chen Mo a lot. He originally thought that a controversial work like *Outlast* wouldn’t win an award, because there was no “Best Horror Game” category in the classification, and in terms of artistry, *Outlast* didn’t have any particular advantage over other VR games.
This Best Atmosphere award was usually given to first-person adventure games with strong immersion in previous years. This year, probably because *Outlast*’s horror atmosphere was created too well, it was exceptionally given to a horror game.
For Chen Mo, this was also an unexpected surprise. While accepting the award on stage, he also took the opportunity to thank the Game Committee for their understanding and tolerance of *Outlast*, as well as the support from the players.
……
Next was the Most Anticipated Game award. This award was selected from games that hadn’t been released yet, and it ultimately went to Zen Mind Interactive Entertainment’s VR game *Ascending the Immortal Path 2*.
The predecessor of this game had already achieved considerable success and had won the Best Art award. Its art style could be said to be unique. The influence of the predecessor, combined with Zen Mind Interactive Entertainment’s continuous promotion and hype, made this game highly anticipated even before its release.
After that was the Best Expansion Pack award, which went to Ran He’s *Blazing Assault*.
*Blazing Assault* had always been considered a representative domestic FPS game, and the new expansion pack had received a very good response. Winning this award was well-deserved.
Next was a relatively special award: Best Operated Game.
The leader on stage cleared his throat: “I announce that the winner of this year’s Best Operated Game is—*League of Legends*, designer Chen Mo!”
The venue immediately erupted in enthusiastic applause!
Chen Mo stood up very calmly and walked toward the stage.
Indeed, there was basically no suspense for this award. In this regard, *League of Legends*’ limelight completely overshadowed all other domestic games.
Because other games’ operational methods were still stuck in the stage of advertising, promotions, and running events, while *League of Legends*’ operational activities had already focused on esports events.
The *League of Legends* Season 1 World Championship caused a certain sensation both domestically and internationally, breaking records in both popularity and viewership. During the S1 finals, related topics made it onto Weibo’s trending list, sweeping across major gaming media and forums. Even many people who didn’t play games heard about it.
After the World Championship ended, *League of Legends*’ championship skins sold like crazy, giving the game itself a powerful wave of publicity.
Whether in terms of promotional methods or promotional effects, *League of Legends* winning this award was well-deserved.
Chen Mo went up to the stage again, a bit at a loss for words.
Because when *Outlast* won its award, he had already thanked everyone he needed to thank. Now, not long after, he was on stage for the second time. Thanking everyone again seemed a bit inappropriate.
Chen Mo thought for a moment and said, “Once again, I thank the leaders and our dear players. I hope that the success of *League of Legends* in operations will encourage more competitive games to appear, allowing domestic esports to achieve even greater development and progress. Thank you, everyone.”
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