Chapter 1 The H4 Club Joins the Practice

Old Zhou chuckled. "H4 Club will be adding extra practice soon. If we practice entirely according to the DGE model, none of you will be able to escape."

Huang Wang: "I'm happy! You don't know how uncomfortable I've been these past few days without exercising. I'm going to actively add extra practice tonight! And these teammates of mine are all in such poor physical condition, I'll definitely have Coach Ya Ling arrange a good schedule for them!"

Hearing this brief exchange, both the new mid-laner from DGE and the members of H4 Club wore expressions of impending doom.

Pei Qian stood silently by, watching all of this, completely lost.

What's going on?

H4 Club's GOG division moved directly to Jingzhou?

I did give you money to provide Huang Wang with a better training environment, but I didn't allow you to come to Jingzhou!

This is a mess. I sold one player and got a whole club back!

Team Leader Su came to President Pei and said with emotion, "President Pei! I haven't had a chance to thank you yet. If it weren't for your generous funding, we wouldn't have had the financial strength to decide to come to Jingzhou. In any case, please take care of us in the future!"

Pei Qian: "..."

Damn it, this is my fault again!

However, Pei Qian couldn't say anything and could only force a smile.

Zhang Yuan called out, "Everyone, don't stand outside, come inside and sit down. Jiang Huan, give us a hand and help carry the luggage."

The group entered the DGE club, and Zhang Yuan called Manager Cui of Ming Yun Villa to help him find another vacant villa for rent.

There would definitely be no discounts on the price, but for H4 Club, even renting at the original price was cheaper than in Shanghai.

At the same time, the subsequent costs of tables, chairs, ROF computers, gym expenses, etc., were all borne by H4 Club, but President Pei had specifically set aside 2.2 million for them to "improve training conditions," so they had plenty of funds.

Pei Qian realized that this money had gone around in a circle, and a large part of it seemed to have returned to his pocket...

Apart from the money for renting the house, H4 Club's money for fitness, buying computers, ordering takeout, etc., was all earned by Tengda!

"You guys go ahead and get busy, I'll leave first." Pei Qian couldn't stand this lively moving scene and chose to slip away.

After President Pei left, Team Leader Su said to Zhang Yuan, "Why do I feel like President Pei isn't very happy?"

Zhang Yuan was taken aback. "Really? Oh, maybe it's your illusion. President Pei is a very deep person; he doesn't show his emotions."

"In fact, President Pei attaches great importance to esports. Although he doesn't say it, you can tell from his specific actions."

"For example, today, he heard that we had recruited new players, so he took time out of his busy schedule to come and see us, fearing that the new players wouldn't integrate well with the team."

Team Leader Su suddenly understood. "I see! Manager Zhang, we've just moved to Jingzhou and don't know anyone here. We'll need you and President Pei to take care of us. Also, please share some information about President Pei with me."

Zhang Yuan patted his chest. "Of course!"

"By the way, Team Leader Su, what do other clubs think about your move to Jingzhou?"

Team Leader Su smiled. "They're still watching."

"Actually, these clubs are all paying attention to our movements and are eager to play training matches with us."

"They want to see how effective our player purchases and training method changes are. Only after they see that it works will they follow suit."

"That's good too. We can take advantage of this time to train hard and widen the gap between us! Let them watch, and in the next training match, our gap with them will be so large that they'll be shocked!"

...

...

August 28th, Sunday.

In a coffee shop near Handong University, Qiu Hong's last lesson.

"President Ma, I've basically told you everything I know about the experience of failure. Uh... there's one last thing."

Qiu Hong paused, seeming to think that the phrase "told you everything I know" was a bit problematic, but after thinking about it, there didn't seem to be a more suitable way to put it.

"This last one may not be right, but it's really the last thing I can tell you."

Pei Qian nodded. "Please, go ahead."

Qiu Hong was silent for a moment, then said, "Persist in your dreams."

Pei Qian was stunned. "This is... an experience of failure?"

Qiu Hong nodded, his voice a little melancholy. "Yes."

"Has President Ma seen my resume? You can find my resume online. The earliest record is in 2001, when I served as a numerical planner in a Xianxia (fantasy) cash-grab game."

"Doesn't President Ma find it strange? Why could I be in charge of the main numbers for a large-scale online game when I had just entered the industry?"

Pei Qian recalled that it did seem a bit odd.

Because Tengda always promoted people beyond their qualifications, whether they were numerical planners or main planners, they were all promoted from the bottom up. So Pei Qian didn't think there was anything wrong with Qiu Hong's resume at first.

But now that Qiu Hong had brought it up, Pei Qian thought about it carefully and realized that it was indeed unscientific to be in charge of numerical planning right after entering the industry, especially in a regular game company ten years ago.

In domestic cash-grab games, the numerical planner's position is second only to the main planner because the most important parts of the game—the combat system, the cash-grab system, the game experience, etc.—are all closely related to the numbers.

The numerical planner can be seen as the main planner's right-hand man, and many main planners or producers themselves are promoted from numerical planning.

Conventionally speaking, even a top student majoring in mathematics at a top university can only work as an ordinary executive planner兼任numerical planner to transition when they first join the company. At the beginning, they can only be responsible for filling out forms, and it may take a year or two or even longer before they are promoted to be in charge of the main numbers for a game.

This is even more obvious in large companies and large projects.

But Qiu Hong was a numerical planner for a large company and a large project right after entering the industry, fully responsible for the game's numbers. Excluding the possibility that he might be related to the company's boss, the biggest possibility is that he actually had work experience before that.

Even if his previous work experience wasn't successful enough, as long as the part he was responsible for was good enough, he could still get the position of main numbers in a new company.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, "So, you didn't actually enter the industry in 2001. Your actual entry time was earlier than that."

Qiu Hong nodded. "That's right. My actual entry time was two years earlier."

"In the era when I entered the industry, it was once the golden age of domestic single-player games. *Magic Sword Fairy Tale* sold 300,000 copies, earning 10 million; the long-awaited *Dark Age 2* was introduced to China and sold about the same amount. Although it couldn't be compared with overseas sales, it was considered a record-breaking number. *Heroes and Warriors* also sold well."

"In that era, all the game developers who entered the industry at the same time as me had dreams. They all felt that we were going to sell domestic single-player games all over the world, and one day we would win enough awards in various international game selections."

"However, just one or two years later, the situation changed dramatically."

"At that time, I was fortunate enough to meet the president of a domestic single-player game company. He told me that single-player games had no hope and that I should quickly switch to online games. I didn't listen, and neither did the producer of our project at the time."

"Later, in 2001, all single-player games couldn't be sold anymore. Our first game, which we had worked so hard to develop, was never released."

"The company couldn't pay wages, and we stubbornly supported the company for more than two months. In the end, our producer gave up first."

"So I went around sending out resumes. Because I was doing numerical planning, many companies accepted my resume, but the first thing they always said during the interview was: 'Do you have online game development experience?'"

"Why is this happening? Why did domestic single-player games die out in just two years?"

Pei Qian felt a little confused. "Die out? It's not that bad, is it? Single-player games are doing fine now, aren't they?"

He was a little puzzled. If single-player games were really dead, then there was no reason for him to make money after making so many single-player games.

Qiu Hong smiled. "President Ma, you're still young. You were probably not even ten years old at that time, so you wouldn't know about these things."

"In those few years, domestic single-player games did die out."

"And the reason why domestic single-player games are doing pretty well now is because the ESRO official platform was established around 2006, and piracy in various fields was strictly prohibited. That's why domestic single-player games slowly regained a way to survive."

"But even so, that five- or six-year vacuum still created a huge gap between our game industry and overseas countries, which we still can't catch up with."

"Why was domestic single-player gaming in its golden age when I entered the industry, but only two years later, all the single-player game projects that were being made died out?"

Pei Qian thought for a moment. "That period should have been the period when online games rapidly became popular, taking over the single-player game market, and a large number of game companies switched to online games."

Qiu Hong nodded. "That's right. A large number of single-player game manufacturers switching to online games is the direct reason for the demise of domestic single-player games. Then the question is: Why didn't foreign single-player games die out under the impact of online games?"

"Moreover, even if online games make more money than single-player games, it won't lead to the death of single-player games because not all companies are good at making online games."

"As long as single-player games still make money, even if they make less, there will always be companies that do it."

"In fact, this is a very complicated issue, not just caused by one single reason, just like the demise of a dynasty, which is not only due to a flood, a plague, or a war."

"All disasters always happen to come together."

"That era happened to be the era when foreign game consoles were booming, but our country didn't have home consoles, only personal computers. Computers are a platform that can easily write and modify software, so including the operating system, it quickly entered the era of piracy."