Soon, others chimed in.

"Damn, I didn't pay attention before, but now that you mention it, I see that our game's disapproval rate has already reached 47%. This... it's about to be taken down!"

"Is our game really that bad? It has a good review rate of over 80% on other platforms!"

This person was the lead planner of another game company in Jingzhou. Unlike the previous game, this was a paid, standalone casual mobile game.

Logically, the reputation of a standalone game should be better, but the problem was even more serious!

Yan Qi opened the page for the Morning Dew Game Platform and, sure enough, the disapproval rates for both games were very worrying. One was at 44%, and the other had already reached 47%!

The Morning Dew Game Platform didn't have a rating system, only straightforward "Recommend" or "Do Not Recommend" options. If the disapproval rate reached 55%, the game would fail its trial period and be taken down directly.

And if a game had already passed the trial period, but the disapproval rate reached 65% for some reason, the game would still be taken down.

Only a few days had passed, and the disapproval rate had already crossed the 40% warning line. It could be said that it was very dangerous!

Yan Qi felt a little puzzled.

It shouldn't be like this, right?

He knew these two games. Although they were old, their operations on other platforms were basically stable, and their reputations were decent.

The first game was a pay-to-win mobile game. Although it certainly couldn't compare to those excellent masterpieces, it shouldn't have fallen to such a high disapproval rate of 44% in the domestic mobile game circle, right?

The second game was a paid, standalone game, and its overall reputation in the gaming circle was not bad. The fact that the disapproval rate had reached 47% was even more outrageous!

When Yan Qi signed the contract, he noticed that the Morning Dew Game Platform had a regulation stating that games with a disapproval rate exceeding 55% would be taken down directly, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

On the one hand, because half the money could be refunded, so there wouldn't be too much loss. On the other hand, because this disapproval rate had a special weighting algorithm, Yan Qi didn't think it was possible to reach that point.

According to the regulations of the Morning Dew Game Platform, the specific recommendation rate and disapproval rate were not calculated based on the number of players, but rather by assigning a weight to each player.

In short, players who spent more time, spent more money, and purchased more games of a certain type on the game platform would have a higher weight when clicking Recommend or Do Not Recommend.

One very important indicator was the playing experience of a certain type of game. For example, if players A and B both played a game, and player A spent more money, but player B played a large number of action games, then when judging action games, player B's recommendation or disapproval would have a higher weight.

Overall, this was a relatively objective and comprehensive evaluation mechanism. Even if there were some deviations, they wouldn't be too large.

But... it seemed that this mechanism wasn't working very well at the moment?

The others in the group were also alarmed and all expressed great concern.

Because the game platform's mechanism would also affect them!

These game merchants had all signed agreements with the Morning Dew Game Platform, and there would be a "trial period" of one week after the game was launched. If the disapproval rate exceeded 55%, it would be taken down!

At first, everyone thought this shouldn't be too difficult. After all, a game recommendation rate lower than 45% was roughly equivalent to a score lower than 2 out of 5 on other platforms.

There weren't many games with a score of 2 on other platforms, right?

In addition, with the weighting algorithm, as long as the game was of decent quality and had no bugs, getting a passing score during the initial launch period should be normal, right?

But looking at the situation of these two games, things were clearly not that simple.

"What's going on? Why is the disapproval rate so high?"

"Could it be that the weighting algorithm isn't working? After all, the Morning Dew Game Platform hasn't been open for long, so players' data on this platform is scarce, and the weighting algorithm can't distinguish players very clearly."

"That's possible! Also, it may be because there are few players and a small sample size, so there may be a large deviation in probability, leading to inaccurate ratings."

"That's not right either. Players must buy the game to be able to rate it. Players who don't like this type of game won't buy it at all. Why would they click 'Do Not Recommend'?"

"In any case, we have to improve this rule as soon as possible. The bugs in our game are almost fixed, and it will be launched in the next few days. What if it's also taken down?"

Everyone was very concerned, helping to analyze the situation and @ing the group owner to find a solution.

Before the group owner could come out and express an opinion, the person in charge of the first game spoke up again.

"The fact that the new platform has little player data and the weighting algorithm is inaccurate is indeed a problem, but it's not the main problem!"

"I was also wondering why the disapproval rate was so high at first. Later, one of our employees infiltrated the player group and found out what was going on!"

"It turns out that some gaming guilds are exploiting loopholes, wanting to use this method to get half of their money back after recharging in the game!"

"Because other players can also benefit from the game being taken down, many players support it, and now the disapproval rate is getting higher and higher!"

The person in charge of the standalone game also suddenly realized: "So that's it! That explains why our game, which is clearly a decent standalone game, has such a high disapproval rate!"

Some people hadn't understood and asked, "Huh? But what's the benefit of taking down the game for the players? They won't be able to play it either, right?"

Someone immediately reminded them, "No, even if the game is taken down, players can still play it, but there won't be any new servers opened, and there won't be any follow-up maintenance. But the problem is, the current games wouldn't have any follow-up updates or maintenance anyway!"

The group was full of heads of various game companies, so they knew too much about these inside stories and quickly analyzed the truth of the matter.

Obviously, the refund system was being exploited by players!

According to the regulations of the Morning Dew Game Platform, if a game's disapproval rate was too high, it meant that the game had serious problems. Taking down the game and partially refunding the money was considered a responsible act for the players.

But now, players were clearly not clicking "Do Not Recommend" because the game's quality was poor, but for the sake of getting a refund!

One of these two games was a pay-to-win online game that had entered the end of its life cycle. On the first day of the server's opening, some gaming guilds moved in.

After studying the platform's mechanisms, these people suddenly realized that making the game taken down seemed to be more beneficial to them!

According to the platform's regulations, they could continue to play the game even after it was taken down, but no new players would join, and there wouldn't be any version updates for the game in the future.

But for this old game, there wouldn't be any version updates anyway!

Even if there were updates, they would mostly be some insignificant content, and the impact on the game's enjoyment itself wouldn't be very large.

Moreover, mobile games were operated in small server mode, with a new server opening every two or three days on average. So, for these old players, the arrival or non-arrival of new players didn't affect their gaming experience, because even if new players came, they would go to the new server, not the old server.

Taking down the game meant that the players who had recharged could get half of their money back.

Don't underestimate this half refund. How many pay-to-win games would have this kind of unlimited, undifferentiated 50% promotional activity?

Now, they could recharge enough money in one go, and after the game was taken down, they could get half of the rebate. In the future, they wouldn't be able to recharge in the game, but they could completely maintain their lead over other players with the money they had recharged before and continue to dominate.

And the players of that standalone game were clearly doing it for the same purpose.

There were even fewer restrictions for them because the standalone game had also entered the end of its life cycle. It was difficult for developers to recover their costs if they invested resources in developing a new version, so it was better to develop a new project.

Therefore, taking down the game could directly save these players half the money, with no negative impact.

Since they could do it by simply clicking the "Do Not Recommend" button, why wouldn't they click it?

Moreover, as many people had analyzed, the new platform couldn't accurately determine the players' true weight, and the players who had just been directed to the platform were all players who were more greedy for immediate benefits. These two points further fueled this phenomenon.

That was why it had developed into what it was now.

Soon, the group owner came out and spoke.

"Everyone, please calm down. We have already noticed this problem."

"The platform has urgently discussed it and decided to make some changes to the agreement. After the game is taken down, it can be modified and reapplied for, but there is a time limit."

"After the first time it is taken down, it needs to be reapplied for after one month; after the second time it is taken down, it can only be reapplied for after two months, and so on."

"For games that are re-listed after being taken down, old players who have already rated them will not participate in the rating. The original rating will only be used as a record and will not affect the data during the trial period when it is re-listed."

"If the game still doesn't pass the trial period, then it will continue to be taken down according to the previous rules, and the next application will be extended to two months later."

"If the game passes the trial period, then old players can regain the latest version of the game by making up the difference in price."

Yan Qi carefully analyzed this new regulation and found that it did plug some loopholes.

At least the game would no longer be sentenced to death directly, but could be appealed again.

It was equivalent to changing from instant death to infinite resurrection.

Games that were taken down because of too many bugs or incomplete game content could be modified and then relaunched; games that were maliciously taken down by players would not be able to be rated by those players after the next launch, and a new batch of players would be replaced, which was fairer.

But the problem was... this method seemed to be more of a temporary solution than a permanent one!

Sure enough, someone in the group soon raised an objection.

"This method won't work. The most profitable time for a mobile game is in the first month or two. If it is maliciously taken down and needs a month to be relaunched, isn't that a complete waste of time? This time is too long!"

"Yes, and replacing a batch of players may not solve the problem. What if most of the players on the entire platform want to use this method to get half-price games for free? Wouldn't most of the games be taken down? How can the platform continue to operate!"

"Don't blame me for being blunt, but in my opinion, this measure is too unprofessional. It's obviously something that someone who doesn't understand games came up with."

"That's right, this measure is not feasible at all. Just cancel it! Games with low ratings just shouldn't be given recommendation resources. There's no need to take them down! It's also a loss for the platform!"

However, the group owner remained unmoved: "Sorry, the rules are the rules, and this cannot be changed."

"Regarding the problem of players deliberately clicking 'Do Not Recommend' and maliciously taking down games, we already have countermeasures, but we can't announce them yet. Everyone, don't worry, we will definitely give you a satisfactory answer soon!"