Chapter 1429 Preparing to Write the Graduation Thesis

Seeing President Pei off, Ye Zhizhou looked at the shelves piled high with Safe and Civilized Driving Simulators and fell into deep thought.

President Pei's attitude towards the matter of *Safe and Civilized Driving* seeking authorization from car companies had clearly changed.

Before the game was launched, President Pei's attitude was relatively Zen.

Buying authorization was acceptable, but definitely not at a high price. He had also made it very clear to the car companies in advance that this game was different from other games. Collisions would indeed cause serious vehicle damage. If they accepted the price and conditions, they would pay for the authorization. If they didn't, then they would go their separate ways.

Now that the game had been launched, President Pei's attitude had changed again.

Not only was he not giving authorization fees, but he was also demanding money from the car companies, and even requiring them to provide sample cars for collision testing. The conditions had become much stricter than before.

It was known that President Pei's change in attitude was definitely not a matter of acting on impulse, so what deep considerations were behind it?

Ye Zhizhou felt a little regretful at this time, that Wang Xiaobin was still suffering and unable to offer advice.

But it didn't matter. As a qualified Tengda department head, he had to have the ability to independently solve President Pei's puzzles and complete tasks.

"President Pei's change in attitude shows one thing: the objective environment for cooperation with car companies has changed before and after the game's release. So, how did it specifically change?"

"...Hmm, before the game was released, the uncertainty about whether the game would be a hit created a screening effect, so there was no need to screen again? And after the game was released, because the game had already become popular, many car companies followed suit, so there might be some who wanted to muddy the waters, so it was necessary to strictly control them and be responsible to the players?"

"That must be the reason!"

Ye Zhizhou suddenly understood the principle.

The objective environment of the game's release had indeed changed!

Before the game was released, no one knew whether *Safe and Civilized Driving* would be successful. Due to the game's characteristics, car companies felt that the serious vehicle damage in the game would affect their corporate image, so they were unwilling to cooperate. This in itself had played a certain screening role.

Most of the manufacturers who signed contracts with Shang Yang Games and recognized the vehicle damage in the game were indeed those who needed to leverage Tengda's popularity and were confident in their own brands.

They knew that *Safe and Civilized Driving* would cooperate with iiAs and put real collision data into the game, but they still chose to cooperate. This in itself was enough to explain the problem.

But after the game became popular, the situation was different.

Many car companies saw the potential for popularity and became more willing to cooperate.

The problem with this was that some car companies might want to muddy the waters and bargain. It would inevitably take Shang Yang Games a lot of time to negotiate with these car companies one by one, and it would be difficult to treat everyone equally.

Some car companies might rely on their good brand advantages and demand some superior conditions, requiring Shang Yang Games to make concessions on certain details; while some car companies might be thinking more simply and completely follow Tengda's regulations.

The end result was likely to be that the car companies that haggled would get some advantages, while the car companies that didn't haggle would suffer a bit.

Wasn't this bullying honest people?

President Pei's attitude was simple: all car companies should be treated equally, and a seemingly strict screening condition should be used to complete the screening of all car companies!

Behind this, obviously, was President Pei's strong confidence in the game *Safe and Civilized Driving*.

President Pei believed that this condition of mandatory screening was time-saving and labor-saving, and could maximize the fairness and impartiality of the game's performance of different vehicles. Moreover, there was no need to rush the authorization of vehicle brands. As the number of game players increased and the game's influence grew, car companies that did not accept these conditions would eventually accept them.

And the sooner a car company accepted this condition, the more it could show its sincerity in cooperating with Tengda and show its confidence in its own products, and naturally it could obtain more and better exposure opportunities from the game.

Thinking of this, Ye Zhizhou understood.

Whether car companies authorized or not was not something that Shang Yang Games should be worried about.

Whether you authorize or not, there will always be other car companies begging for authorization.

The game was already a success, so what was there to worry about?

Now, the primary goal of *Safe and Civilized Driving* was not to obtain authorization from as many car companies as possible, but to be responsible to the players and to the social impact of the game. It was necessary to ensure that the information about vehicles that players learned in the game was true, effective, and reliable.

Only by making the game good and making it real could other things be considered.

"As expected, President Pei is amazing, he saw through the essence of the problem at a glance!"

Ye Zhizhou sincerely sighed, immediately got up and returned to Shang Yang Games to work on the follow-up matters.

…

After lunch, Pei Qian returned to his office, feeling a little melancholy.

The morning's events had dealt him some blows.

Every time it was close to settlement, bad news came one after another, what was he going to do!

The key was that after *Safe and Civilized Driving*, the crisis had not passed. There were still highly destructive games like *Ghost General 2* and *Bullet Marks 2* that had not been launched!

Although Pei Qian felt that these two games would not be popular, he now had no confidence in his own judgment at all.

As he was struggling, he heard a knock on the office door.

Looking up, he saw the face before he heard the sound.

It was Ma Yang who had come.

"Brother Qian! I have something very important to tell you!"

Seeing Ma Yang's serious look, Pei Qian almost had a heart attack.

Damn, could it be that something went wrong with Rabbit Tail Live again?

Don't scare me, I was just frightened this morning, my little heart can't stand this kind of stimulation!

"What's the matter?" Pei Qian asked.

Ma Yang paused slightly and said, "We have to start writing the graduation thesis!"

Pei Qian was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"

He didn't react immediately, and after a while, he breathed a sigh of relief.

You scared me to death, it's just a graduation thesis? No big deal. I thought Rabbit Tail Live was making money again!

"Look at you making a fuss, it's just a graduation thesis. We're in the liberal arts, it's not as troublesome as doing a graduation design in science and engineering."

Pei Qian said this because he remembered that he had done a graduation thesis before, and it was not difficult.

The requirements for undergraduate graduation theses are not that high. After all, students from Handong University who are employed, studying abroad, and pursuing further studies each account for about one-third of the total. For those students who are going to find a job, the school is eager for them to graduate smoothly to improve the employment rate, and generally will not deliberately make things difficult.

As long as the thesis is not particularly outrageous, it can basically pass.

It is only at the master's and doctoral stages that the requirements for theses become suddenly strict and cause a lot of stress.

What's more, Pei Qian has now donated so much money to his alma mater and provided a lot of job opportunities. He hasn't even failed an exam, let alone a thesis.

After all, many closed-book exams require memorization, while a thesis allows you to check materials and have the supervisor check it. After several revisions and corrections, and checking for plagiarism, it is almost impossible to be stuck because of this.

Of course, even though it is said to be simple, it actually takes some time. Pei Qian felt that it would not be too late to do it after this cycle passed.

Ma Yang couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "As expected of Brother Qian, so calm and composed. Unlike me, I get a little flustered when I hear that I have to write a graduation thesis."

"The final draft of the thesis must be submitted before April 10th, and the defense is in early May. Many students have already contacted their supervisors. Brother Qian, let's hurry up, it's already a bit late."

"Undergraduate graduation theses can be supervised by any of the course teachers. Brother Qian, which one should we choose?"

Pei Qian chuckled, which one to choose? Old Ma, you think too highly of me.

I haven't even attended a few classes, I don't even know these people!

If the first question on the exam paper was "Select the photo of the course teacher", then I would definitely get zero points!

You still want me to choose a supervisor? You must be out of your mind.

Pei Qian coughed lightly twice: "This matter is easy to handle. We don't need to choose. Someday I'll go to the counselor and let him assign us a reliable supervisor, wouldn't that be the end of it? He should be more concerned about our graduation issues than we are."

Ma Yang: "Oh... that makes sense! Brother Qian, you're so smart!"

"Then I won't worry, I'll follow you! Remember to call me when you go."

Pei Qian felt a little guilty when he saw that Ma Yang trusted him so much.

Old Ma, are you sure it's okay to trust me?

On the issue of learning, Pei Qian felt that he and Ma Yang were basically on par, and sometimes he was even less reliable than Ma Yang.

But the boast has already been made, and it's not easy to take it back.

Forget it, a thesis shouldn't be too difficult, so I'll discuss it with the counselor and try to barely pass.

In fact, Pei Qian doesn't need this diploma at all. Tengda Group has become so big, and he doesn't need to find a job. What's the use of getting a diploma?

But the problem is, it wouldn't be right if the news that President Pei didn't graduate from college spread.

It's not that Pei Qian is afraid of being ridiculed, and no one should ridicule him, after all, President Pei doesn't need a diploma to prove himself now.

The main thing is that he's afraid that this matter will become a magazine anecdote again, and he will be compared with the founders of Microsoft and Apple, becoming a "successful entrepreneur who didn't graduate from college", and be used by some people with ulterior motives to promote "the uselessness of reading." That scene would be a bit awkward to think about.

Besides, he has overcome many difficulties in his four years of college and has not failed any subjects. It wouldn't be right if he failed the final graduation thesis.

He can't give up halfway.

Anyway, after passing this last hurdle, he can say goodbye to his college career.

When he thought that he hadn't attended class properly in his four years of college, and had only racked his brains to lose money, he suddenly felt that he had been busy for a long time, but he had been busy for nothing.