Chapter 17 Friday, August 24th

Yesterday was busy with overtime until 10 PM, and today I've been busy until noon. *Blade of the Empire* is finally going live!

To be launched on the Morning Dew Games platform, *Blade of the Empire* has been delayed for a full two weeks.

But thankfully, except for that one bug that just couldn't be reproduced, all the other bugs should be fixed.

As the launch approached, Yan Qi was very uneasy.

For a mobile game, the data from the first two days basically determines its fate to some extent.

Unlike those large-investment, big-production PC games, mobile games have a rather unique operating mechanism.

Most startup companies that make mobile games can't get too many resources for recommendations or game promotion in the early stages. Therefore, the only way to get more recommendation resources from the channels is to let the data speak for itself.

If the various data on the launch day are very good, and players are active and willing to spend money, proving the game's potential to make money, then the platform will naturally be willing to put more resources into promotion.

The better the data, the more promotion you get, and the more promotion, the better the data. This is how a virtuous cycle is formed.

But if the data is poor from the very beginning, it will fall into a vicious cycle that is difficult to salvage.

Because it's hard to say exactly which part of the game players don't like, and even if you modify it, it's hard to guarantee that players will like it after the modification.

The *Blade of the Empire* developed by Yan Qi and his team is relatively less hardcore and less pay-to-win. As an action mobile game, although there are charging points, they still put their main energy into polishing the gameplay and quality.

He worried that this would make the game's recharge data not very good, thus dragging down the overall performance of the game on the first day of its launch.

In addition, the recent series of negative events on the Morning Dew Games platform, and the rule that games will be taken down if the disapproval rate exceeds 55%, made Yan Qi even more worried.

Now, everything is finally ready. The status of *Blade of the Empire* on the Morning Dew Games platform has also changed to "about to open the server". As long as you wait patiently for a few more hours, you can know the final fate of this game.

But just then, Yan Qi suddenly noticed that there was a huge promotional page in a prominent position on the platform.

"Find bugs and win a 100,000 yuan bonus??"

"What the heck is this!"

"It can't be the literal meaning of what I understand, right?"

Seeing the information on this promotional page, Yan Qi was shocked and quickly clicked to view it.

And it really was. It clearly stated that as long as you find the same number of bugs as recorded on the platform, you will be rewarded with one thousand yuan, and if you find one more, you will be rewarded with one hundred thousand yuan!

However, this event has a series of additional conditions.

First, the definition of "bug" only refers to programmatic bugs that affect the normal operation of the game. Errors in the text, grammatical errors, etc., although they also belong to the scope of bugs in a broad sense, are not counted in this event.

Second, this event is based on the official game version number recorded on the Morning Dew Games platform. If the game is updated and the content changes, the number of bugs needs to be re-counted.

Third, players need to provide a full video recording of the process of finding the bug to prove that the game was downloaded from the official platform, is a normal version that has not been maliciously modified, and that the bug found can be stably reproduced at least once.

Finally, this event will only last for two weeks. The same bug will only be given one reward, and the order depends on the specific time when the official is provided with valid proof materials. This event may be reopened in the future, and the specific time will be notified separately.

After reading the rules repeatedly several times, Yan Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, this rule is still relatively complete.

The worst thing about doing this kind of event is that the rules have loopholes, allowing players to exploit them, and in the end, it's difficult to clear up the mess.

And this event's series of additional conditions basically blocked most of the loopholes that could be exploited.

The first rule is to prevent players from playing word games and arguing.

It is inevitable that there will be typos and grammatical errors in the game, and most testers will not focus on this aspect. If players hold on to a typo and insist that it is a bug, it will be a bit difficult.

Limiting it to programmatic bugs that affect the normal operation of the game will make the definition clearer and more intuitive, and it will not be easy to blur over.

The second rule is to prevent internal fraud by game developers.

What if an employee secretly uploads a bug and then finds it himself to claim the bonus?

The Morning Dew Games platform's approach is to use the game version submitted by each game manufacturer to the platform as the standard, which is the version that Director Tang tried out.

If the game developer wants to modify this version, they must first obtain the consent of the platform, and secondly, traces of the modification will be left. Secret modifications will definitely be discovered.

If it is a normal version update allowed by the platform, then the number of bugs recorded on the platform will naturally change accordingly, and the bug-finding event will be based on this new number of bugs.

Of course, during this event, the game version will definitely be avoided as much as possible to update, so as not to waste the efforts of players who have been looking for bugs for a long time.

Although most of this effort is in vain.

The third rule is to prevent some technical players from cheating by modifying the game's client.

You must download from the official platform, provide a full video recording, and be able to stably reproduce it twice. Moreover, when playing the game on the platform, you will be online throughout the entire process, automatically verifying the integrity of the client version and detecting whether it has been modified.

In this way, the possibility of players cheating through technical means also becomes very small.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that there are some particularly awesome technical experts who can bypass these restrictions and forcibly cheat, but the official platform must also have a way, such as reimbursing him for round-trip travel expenses, asking him to come to the scene to prove it with the official machine, recording and broadcasting the whole process. As long as it proves that this bug really exists, he will be given an extra bonus.

If it is a cheater, he will definitely not dare to come, and will at most make unreasonable demands online.

The fourth rule is to determine the timeliness of the event. Events like this will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and it is definitely impossible to keep doing it all the time.

Although it only lasts for two weeks, it will definitely attract a lot of attention.

Moreover, even if someone really finds a bug, so what? Just pay the money normally. Judging from the marketing activities that the Morning Dew Games platform has done before, this platform is not short of money at all. Paying a little money to a very small number of players is equivalent to buying popularity. Compared with a large amount of publicity expenses, what is it?

Of course, there is a premise that there cannot be far more bugs in the game than the number of bugs on the platform.

Take *Blade of the Empire* as an example. The platform says there is one bug. If there are actually dozens of bugs in the game, and they are all easy to reproduce, then these dozens of bugs will be exploited by players dozens of times, directly costing millions, which is definitely a disaster.

But Yan Qi knew very well that this place was a treasure land, which had been repeatedly verified by testers from many game companies!

If you can only find one bug in the treasure land, then the possibility of players finding two bugs is very slim.

Even if they really find it, it's a big deal to give 100,000 yuan. This 100,000 yuan is nothing more than being regarded as publicity expenses to achieve the effect of buying a horse's bones with a thousand pieces of gold.

Not to mention for a game platform, even for some small mobile games with a monthly turnover of several million, a bonus of 100,000 yuan is nothing.

"This is a good thing!"

"As soon as this event comes out, a large number of players will definitely flood into the platform to find bugs for the bonus."

"Our game has just been launched, and we can eat the most of this wave of dividends!"

Yan Qi couldn't help but sigh that the Morning Dew Games platform had made frequent昏招(confused moves) before, but now it has finally come up with an event that is smart!

Although this event completely relies on the treasure land and has nothing to do with the platform's own strength, so what? Every platform must make full use of its advantages!

"Wait, no."

"Doing this will indeed increase the short-term popularity, but after the event ends, I'm afraid it will still cause controversy, right?"

"No, let alone after the event ends, I'm afraid the controversy will reach its peak when the event is only a week old."

As soon as Yan Qi analyzed it, he found that this matter was not as simple as he thought.

In the early stage, the huge bonus of this bug-finding event will definitely cause a heated response online and attract a large number of players.

These players are all coming with the purpose of finding bugs, and they must all be full of confidence.

But after they find bugs with high intensity for a few days, most of them will not be able to find any bugs at all.

At this time, some people will definitely think of various骚操作 (tricky moves), such as faking videos, or denouncing and muddying the waters online.

For example, saying that they have already found a bug, but the official is not giving money, etc.

It is also possible that some people will say that some games have already fixed all the bugs, and the actual number of program bugs is zero, but the Morning Dew Games platform deliberately wrote the number of bugs as 1 in order to induce players to find them.

Even if a player really gets the bonus, he will be questioned by others as an official stooge.

In short, those players who came to get the bonus and薅羊毛(get wool from the sheep), as long as they don't get the bonus, they will definitely not let it go and will definitely cause trouble.

What if this group of people become angry because they can't find bugs and frantically click on the disapproval button for the game, causing more games to be taken down?

Although the event attracted popularity, how can the negative public opinion triggered by the anger of some players be quelled in the future?

Yan Qi just thought about it and felt a headache.

He knew very well that this kind of public opinion event is the most difficult to deal with, because once it ferments, it is difficult to gain the trust of the public even if the official's statement is true, and the public opinion is difficult to reverse.

If the problem worsens at that time, I am afraid that it will be difficult to solve it properly no matter how much publicity expenses are spent.

Yan Qi, who was still very happy just now, became listless again.

I thought that the Morning Dew Games platform had suddenly become enlightened and made a good move, but after careful research, I found that this move was not so good!

There are benefits, but there are also risks, and they are great!

It's like dancing on the tip of a knife, and you can burn yourself if you are not careful.

Yan Qi couldn't help but sigh, this Morning Dew Games platform is really многострадальный (suffering a lot)!

Although it is difficult to make a game platform, as long as you have money and resources, it is not that difficult.

And the Morning Dew Games platform obviously has money and resources, but it has managed to play it into hell difficulty through a series of骚操作 (tricky moves).

This operation of playing a good hand of cards with four twos and two kings is also unmatched.

But Yan Qi had no choice but to work on his own game while waiting to see what happened.