Chapter 641: The Charm of Chicken Dinner
It wasn't surprising that everyone misunderstood. After all, the name "Excavate and Ascend" was far too memorable. Even the people in the work group, let alone most players and streamers, would shudder at the sound of it.
Chen Mo chuckled. "No, no, no. This is a different game entirely. It has nothing to do with that mountain-climbing madman swinging a sledgehammer. Take a look at the concept draft."
Seeing the title on the projection screen, everyone finally understood.
Oh, so it's this "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds"!
Looking at the basic concept of the game, it actually fit the name "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" quite well. One hundred people drop onto a deserted island, and only one can survive until the end. That truly was a "battleground."
Chen Mo began explaining some of the game's basic concepts and settings.
The core fun of the game.
The map mechanics.
Character actions.
The gun system and attachments.
The item system and refresh mechanics.
Vehicle-related content.
...
The game mode of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* wasn't complicated. Although the specific details were somewhat intricate, the basic setup was easy to understand.
In short, it threw one hundred players onto an isolated island, where they had to search for supplies on their own and kill each other until only one remained. At the same time, to control the game's duration and drive players together, the concept of a "poison zone" was added.
As for everything else, it was all just detailed settings added to make the game richer and more fun.
After finishing, Chen Mo looked at everyone. "So, how is it? Do you all understand?"
No one raised any questions. Chen Mo had explained it clearly, and the game's mechanics weren't hard to grasp.
Perhaps the only question was... is that it?
Obviously, this was far from the groundbreaking masterpiece many had envisioned. It didn't have the same shock factor as when *Dark Souls* was first unveiled.
Looking solely at the design concept draft, *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* only innovated in its gameplay. There wasn't really anything else worth praising.
Even if it used the Pangu Engine... this was still a game about firearm combat. The main damage came from bullets, so the visual effects wouldn't be as striking as *Dark Souls*.
Maybe... since this was the first project of the year, they were just starting with a simple one to warm up?
Many people had that thought.
Chen Mo smiled. "Alright, since there are no issues, meeting adjourned."
...
When many people first encountered the game concept of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, they tended to underestimate it. The reason was simple: the gameplay didn't look cool.
Obviously, many people in the work group shared this doubt.
The map, guns, vehicles, attachments, items, actions, and so on—these elements could all be found to varying degrees in other large-scale FPS games. There wasn't any major innovation.
The only thing worth bragging about was this "cockroach-farming" game mode. But would players actually accept it? That remained questionable.
In fact, in the parallel world's foreign markets, there had been some survival games before. For example, a couple of years ago, there was a survival game called *Siege of the Zombies*, where players played as a soldier in a post-apocalyptic world, needing to defend their base from zombie attacks while scavenging for supplies to survive.
It had garnered some response and decent sales, but it was far from being a "massive hit."
And Chen Mo was clearly not the type to be content with small success. Even when making mobile games, he aimed straight for the top of the bestseller charts.
*PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* looked like an FPS game mixed with survival elements. Could it, relying on just one idea, surpass traditional FPS games?
Chen Mo's answer was: yes.
When many people analyzed *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, they often oversimplified the issue: "It's just one idea!"
But in reality, MOBA was also just one idea. Large-scale MMORPGs were just one idea. The prototypes of most classic games were just one idea.
The key was whether you could develop that idea into a rich game and whether you could make that idea appeal to the vast majority of players.
From the perspective of popular taste, *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* surpassed every FPS game on the market (in terms of fun). This wasn't a coincidence but an inevitable result guided by game design principles.
The magic of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* mainly came from five aspects.
First, strong randomness and a constant sense of freshness.
Second, the potential for skill growth through practice.
Third, a well-paced game rhythm with moments of tension and relaxation.
Fourth, moderate-intensity teamwork with high tolerance for teammate mistakes.
Fifth, abundant satisfying moments and exciting triggers.
If you took these five strengths and compared them with other FPS games on the market, you could clearly see why this chicken dinner game was so impressive.
If *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* scored 100 points, you could rate its competitors accordingly.
Traditional FPS games (multiplayer): 50, 100, 30, 70, 70
FPS games (single-player): 30, 100, 100, -, 100
*Overwatch*: 60, 80, 30, 30, 80
*League of Legends*: 100, 100, 100, 80, 100
Of course, this doesn't mean *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* completely crushed these games. Other games had their own strengths that weren't included in this evaluation.
It just meant that on these five points, *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* had a clear advantage.
In terms of strong randomness and freshness, this was the root of the game's longevity. Simply put, *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, like *League of Legends*, offered a brand-new experience with every match.
Single-player FPS games scored well on other indicators, but on this point alone, they couldn't provide players with a highly random experience. No matter how fun they were, playing through them multiple times would eventually feel tedious.
As for traditional FPS multiplayer games, battles often erupted at a few key locations. After playing enough, there was a sense of déjà vu.
Although *Overwatch* allowed players to switch heroes to mitigate this feeling, the visual familiarity of the battle locations remained an unsolvable problem.
For example, on payload maps, fights always broke out at every corner. Combined with the issue of rigid team compositions, after a dozen matches, the experience felt very similar, and the anticipation for the next match dropped significantly.
This was precisely one of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'* killer features. Because the map was large, the plane's flight path varied, the poison zone changed, the number of people dropping into a certain area differed, and the loot was random, players always had a different experience.
As for the potential for skill growth, this referred to whether players could continuously improve their level through repeated practice.
This was a traditional strength of FPS games, no need to elaborate. The only thing worth mentioning was that because *Overwatch* had severe hero counter relationships, sometimes practicing your aim didn't guarantee a win, so it lost points.
[Reminder: Your output must contain ZERO Chinese characters. Translate or transliterate everything.]