Chapter 627: Planning New Year Events
At this moment, the military decided to use a nuclear bomb to level the fully infected Manhattan and prevent the virus from spreading further.
Alex chose to step up, using a helicopter to carry the countdown detonating nuclear bomb away from New York and sink it to the bottom of the water.
The nuclear explosion tore Alex into pieces. At this point, everyone’s hearts were in their throats. They understood clearly that Alex, as a viral entity, as a being truly at the top of the food chain, was incompatible with human society, and this could very well be a tragic ending. But everyone also secretly hoped, hoping that Alex could survive the terrifying nuclear blast.
Just as everyone was feeling somewhat desperate, a crow landed on some trash and was absorbed by Alex. At the very end of the story, Alex successfully revived!
This ending caught many players off guard, and the meaning embedded in the story was also very thought-provoking.
As a human, Alex, with no way out, decided to drag all of New York down with him. Yet Alex, a viral entity that had only existed for eighteen days, risked his life to transport the nuclear bomb away to save others.
Keep in mind, Alex was already at the top of the food chain. As long as he didn’t lose his mind, he wouldn’t die. But to save these humans who had nothing to do with him, he was even willing to risk being melted by the nuclear bomb. This created a stark contrast and instantly made Alex’s character full and vivid.
The character assassination of Alex in *Prototype 2* happened because it abandoned this setup. Alex should be a lone wolf assassin, a "no one," with the philosophy "if I want to kill you, you’re as good as dead." At the same time, Alex had his own values and his own convictions. Clearly, he shouldn’t become an ambitious schemer trying to rule the world, nor should he become a villain who talks way too much nonsense.
Of course, Chen Mo wouldn’t allow any of that to happen. Alex’s image was now fully fleshed out. He would stand as a classic character in the game, his image forever frozen at the moment he transported the nuclear bomb and revived through the crow.
...
After completing the first playthrough, many gaming media outlets also reviewed *Prototype*. The scores weren’t particularly high, mostly around 8 out of 10.
This was determined by the game’s inherent quality, but these review outlets also clearly pointed out *Prototype*’s strengths.
On one hand, the character portrayal of the protagonist Alex was very successful. It could be said that the entire plot, combat arrangements, and level unlocks of *Prototype* all revolved around Alex. So, while other characters had no presence, Alex undoubtedly became a classic game character.
On the other hand, the game maximized the sense of thrill. Every player could experience things in the game that were impossible in the real world, slaughtering wildly as a morally ambiguous character.
In terms of sales, *Prototype* clearly achieved sales and popularity far exceeding its actual quality, becoming a highly talked-about work before the New Year!
Of course, from various data points, although *Prototype*’s initial sales even approached *Dark Souls*, it eventually lost momentum.
Still, even so, *Prototype*’s sales and popularity were enough to make a large number of domestic developers envious. Moreover, the internet café version also contributed a significant portion of *Prototype*’s revenue, which was a unique approach.
...
At the experience store.
The VR gaming experience area was still packed, and this situation might continue until the Spring Festival.
Although *Prototype* didn’t score high in reviews from major gaming media, it didn’t affect players’ love for it.
Especially players around the capital, they traveled long distances to the experience store to try out this game. This craze should last a long time before fading.
As for Chen Mo, he was already planning the Spring Festival activities with Qian Kun.
As the Spring Festival approached, all online games still in operation would take this opportunity to launch some events. On one hand, it boosted game popularity; on the other hand, it generated revenue.
For many games, it wasn’t a question of whether to hold events, but rather, if you didn’t hold events, would players rebel?
Many players looked forward to developers releasing attractive skins and in-game items to entice spending during the Spring Festival. If they didn’t, players would feel uncomfortable.
For Chen Mo, he had many games on his hands, so when planning operational events, he had to consider all of them.
He wouldn’t consider long-abandoned single-player games. The focus was mainly on online games still in operation.
For PC games, the main one was *League of Legends*.
For mobile games, there were *Thunder Chess & Cards*, *Onmyoji*, *Rate of Land*, and *Honor of Kings*.
Although *Onmyoji* had been on a long decline, it still had a large group of die-hard fans grinding away day and night.
For VR games, there was the extremely long-lived *Minecraft* and *Overwatch*, which had a huge player base.
Additionally, games like *Super Mario Odyssey* and *Dark Souls* could sell DLCs during the Spring Festival, or even release some free updates.
Furthermore, Chen Mo hadn’t forgotten to continue selling his Switch. He was even considering releasing a Spring Festival edition of the Switch, with a Chinese-style red packaging, some Chinese-style patterns, appropriate discounts, and maybe some free games?
Yeah, players would definitely buy, buy, buy!
The operational events for *League of Legends* were the simplest. This year’s S2 World Championship was still held in the magic capital, but the champion wasn’t IF or NRG; it was EC.
Of course, the twists and turns don’t need to be detailed. In S1, *League of Legends* was in its early stages. Teams that won the championship relied on strong individual skills and flashes of tactical brilliance.
But starting from S2, as major clubs became increasingly professional, the strength of each team no longer depended solely on a few high-ranked solo queue players, but on club management, team coordination, tactical research, adaptability to patches, and player champion pools.
The domestic league had its ups and downs, but in the end, the veteran team EC came from behind, winning the S2 championship as a dark horse.
Fortunately, the championship trophy stayed in the country again.
In this parallel world, the domestic *League of Legends* professional league was one step ahead, and that lead kept growing.
With Chen Mo’s facilitation and promotion, *League of Legends* had the broadest player base in the country and was the first region to establish a league. Under intense competition, major clubs were constantly moving toward greater professionalism. In this regard, they were ahead of Europe, America, and Korea.
Moreover, since *League of Legends* was a domestic game and the S1 championship trophy stayed in the country, players had high expectations for all teams. Not winning the championship meant getting flamed to hell.
For example, IF, despite being a veteran powerhouse with several popular players, would still get roasted by fans if they didn’t win the championship.
In this environment, domestic teams faced immense pressure, but it also drove the domestic *League of Legends* professional scene to work harder for results.
Esports changes rapidly. Slack off for a month, and countless others might surpass you. Domestic players weren’t inferior to foreign players. Even in Chen Mo’s previous life, the LPL had defeated the once-invincible Korean teams at the Rift Rivals and All-Star events. This fully showed that domestic professional players had the potential; they just lacked some spirit and discipline.
In this parallel world, Chen Mo had been doing his best from the start to avoid all that, and now it was finally showing results.