Chapter 214: Falling from the Altar
"Miyazaki-san, in my opinion, the difficulty of those bosses is set a little too high."

Aonuma thought for a long time, and finally spoke tentatively.

"Why do you say that, Aonuma-san?" an old thief asked with a smile on his face. He looked so kind that he seemed easy to get along with.

Aonuma briefly organized his words: "First of all, the operating mode of Honor is relatively difficult, and the threshold for players to get started is very high."

"Under the current situation, designing those bosses to be soul-like in difficulty is a bit too difficult."

"In addition, our employer has clearly told us that Honor will focus on the field of player competitive battles in the future."

"Under this general direction, aren't soul-type bosses that are too powerful and too difficult to defeat a bit too much of a distraction?"

"I know you are the developer of Bloodborne, and the most accomplished designer in the field of Souls-based games after Pei Sang, but I still think that Souls-based bosses should not be added to Glory."

As two of Japan's top game developers, compared to Lao Zei who is obsessed with the charm of high-difficulty and painful battles in the Souls series, Aonuma of Nintendo Hell has always been a supporter of the concept of family-friendly games.

Therefore, regarding the difficulty of the game, we have always maintained the view that "all players can enjoy the fun of the game."

In Aonuma's opinion, the game "Glory" itself has violated his gaming philosophy to a certain extent.

There is no game that can discourage a large number of people from playing just for the sake of showing off its skills in the novice village.

But Kotick used his influence to "invite" heavyweight designers, including himself, to do the work, so they had no choice but to do it.

This is not the great Eastern country, and not everyone has the courage to provoke a powerful squid with deep roots.

Especially those of them who make games.

I gritted my teeth and worked on this system which required a lot of technical skills and was extremely difficult to modify.
It seemed that the higher-ups were dissatisfied with their slow progress, so they once again invited the team of a certain old thief to help out, and only then did they complete the upgrade of this advanced game in less than a year.

But I'm sorry, Aonuma really doesn't like the finished product.

His favorite emergent interaction was simplified again and again due to the focus on competitiveness, and it has almost no presence in the official version.

On the contrary, the bosses revised by Lao Zei did not encounter too much obstacles because they were designed in line with the wild monsters in the neighboring League of Legends.

Coupled with the various big and small problems caused by forced stitching and copying from the next door, this new version, which seems to be coming in with great momentum, can only be said to be full of loopholes in Aonuma's eyes.

Miyazaki the old thief listened to Aonuma's gentle questioning, picked up the teacup and took a sip, nodding slightly.

When Aonuma had almost finished speaking, he slowly said, "Aonuma-san is right. These are indeed the problems that Glory may have at this stage."

Seeing that Miyazaki actually agreed with him, Aonuma was even more surprised: "Then why does Miyazaki-san insist on doing this?"

I thought Miyazaki would give some reasons why he chose this design after careful consideration.

Who would have thought that Miyazaki's answer was quite straightforward: "Because this is what I am best at. In a hurry, I can only trust my comfort zone."

At this point, the old thief actually showed some rare feelings of grievance:
"After all, it's that Kodixon who's causing all the trouble!"

"To be frank, this project came too suddenly for me!"

"Before this, my colleagues and I had no experience in developing e-sports games."

"Without any preparation, I was invited to participate in the complete redevelopment of a competitive project that had been running for many years, and its engine was still so complicated."

"That's fine, but the key is that once the finished product is released, it will go head-to-head with the work of Pei Sang, the one and only true god in the gaming world!"

"The other party has even eaten up most of the existing market and is constantly expanding its territory!"

"You must be kidding! Even novels wouldn't dare to write like that, right?"

Miyazaki, who had opened up his mouth, was no longer restrained and started to complain to the other designers.

I was forced to work on such a half-dead project halfway through, and it is about to compete with Tencent Hai's masterpiece.

Is this a task that humans can accomplish?

As Miyazaki continued to talk, the expressions of the other designers gradually changed from surprise to emotion and sympathy.

The old thief is feeling miserable, but aren't they also under tremendous pressure?

We are all wanderers in this world, so no one should say anything good about anyone else.

"Under such circumstances, in addition to referring to Pei Sang's League of Legends and the new version of StarCraft, I can only fill in the game content with the mode I am best at."

“Although I know this will definitely further undermine the player experience, I can only trust my comfort zone under time constraints.”

The old thief sighed.

In fact, there is another hidden reason that the old thief didn't tell.

After Honor goes online, the opponent to compete is Pei Yunteng's League of Legends.

Like Aonuma, Miyazaki is also a loyal fan of Pei Yunteng.

After all, whether it is Dark Souls or Ring of Magic, their production ideas and styles, as well as certain details and creativity, are too consistent with Lao Zei's aesthetics.

The work that made Lao Zei a god, "Bloodborne", was influenced by Teng Hai's Souls series and Circle of Magic.

Although he never said it in public, in the old thief's mind, Pei Yunteng was like his guide.

Lao Zei thought that incorporating his own understanding of the soul system into a work that directly competes with Pei Yunteng was the best way he could think of to pay tribute.

If Pei Yunteng knew that the game he plagiarized in order to gain a foothold could actually provide him with such an assist many years later, I wonder if he would laugh out loud.

The designers, led by Lao Zei, emoted for a while, but in the end, Aonuma was the first to react:
"Although I can understand Miyazaki-san's feelings, I still insist that this difficulty setting is a bit too chaotic."

"If possible, let's modify the BOSS's mechanism, right?"

Before Miyazaki the old thief could speak, Todd, who was in charge of communicating with the e-sports association, spoke first: "It's too late."

"Why? Hasn't the update date been announced yet? Anyway, we're already so far behind Pei Sang, so what's wrong with spending a little more time on revising it?" Aonuma frowned.

Todd shook his head, stood up, and began to operate the projector and computer to project a screen: "Because, the MSI is about to start."

"Msi? What does that have to do with us?" Aonuma was a little confused.

As an insider of the gaming industry, it was impossible for him not to know about this international e-sports grand prix, which was unprecedented in scale and publicity.

But what does this have to do with them?

Todd didn't say anything, but went to the door and closed it tightly, then turned back with a solemn expression.

"I hope everyone will keep their mouths shut about what I am going to say next."

Seeing him like this, the others suddenly became serious.

Todd nodded slightly, then slowly explained:

"In fact, although we have suffered setbacks in the gaming field, the e-sports association has always been able to launch a comprehensive attack on League of Legends and even Tenghai Company in many aspects such as public opinion."

"But after careful consideration, Mr. Codick did not choose to do so." "Why?" Aonuma and Miyazaki were shocked.

As game producers, they know all too well how much damage public opinion and the media can do to a company or a work, especially in the relatively closed media environment in the West.

Apart from anything else, it is still possible to suppress the influence of League of Legends in markets outside of China.

But the e-sports association not only did not do so, but also allowed Tenghai to swallow up the achievements accumulated during the glory period?

What kind of brain circuit is this?

"Because Tencent and League of Legends are making the pie bigger." Todd pointed out the essence of the matter in one sentence.

Teng Hai and Pei Yunteng have indeed occupied Honor's original e-sports market, but how big is this market?
How many e-sports fans can a high-threshold game whose audience is basically entirely dependent on Internet cafes attract?
Therefore, before Tenghai entered the market, the entire e-sports pie was just a piece of scraps for a company of Tenghai's size.

Pei Yunteng would naturally not be satisfied with just eating the meat scraps, so he wanted to open up more markets.

The threshold for playing League of Legends is much lower than that of Honor, and the configuration requirements are also not high. Even the gaming environment has become much more harmonious and cleaner than in the previous life with the help of the system.

Whether you are a college student in the dormitory, a worker after get off work, or an ordinary person who doesn't play games and plays a game on a whim, everyone can happily play a game.

Since people are playing games, naturally some of them will be converted into e-sports audiences.

Up to now, the number of people watching e-sports games during the League of Legends era has increased significantly compared to the peak period of Honor of Kings.

Moreover, with more and more big capital entering the market and stronger financial resources, the originally useless small shrimp market has finally begun to show its huge potential.

It is even enough to attract the attention of those giants who originally looked down on this small plate.

During this process, although Kotick didn't get a single bite of the big cake, he really benefited from it.

His originally marginal position in the family has improved slightly due to the expansion of the e-sports market, and he even has more and more resources at his disposal.

It is precisely because of the benefits that Cotick has allowed League of Legends and Tencent Esports to grow wildly and turned a blind eye.

However, faced with this increasingly large cake that he can only smell but not eat for a long time, Codick will also get impatient.

We have to find an opportunity to cash in.

And this time, in Kotick's view, is undoubtedly after the end of MSI.

He was well aware of the tremendous attention that this first-ever global, unprecedented e-sports event would attract.

After the champion is decided, with the blessing of national honor, what kind of expansion can it bring to the global e-sports audience?

If Honor could re-enter the market at that time, relying on its reputation and sentiments as a veteran leader in e-sports, it would definitely be able to reap a lot of rewards.

Therefore, the new version must be prepared before the end of MSI!

After listening to Todd's explanation, several people looked at each other and could see astonishment in each other's eyes.

"Although Kodecans' considerations make sense, we don't have enough time to make changes to the game..." Aonuma still frowned.

He still insisted that maintaining the current difficulty was not a good thing.

Several others nodded slightly, including Miyazaki himself, agreeing with the idea.

"How about... just change the values? Weakening the attack damage of the bosses may be a temporary solution, but it can also reduce the pressure on the players to a certain extent, right?"

Todd thought about it and suggested.

"Is it okay, Miyazaki-san?"

“…It’s not impossible.” Miyazaki, who was fully aware of the difficulty he had set, finally gave in and agreed.

After all, it’s not your own game, and you can’t create it by force.

Just when everyone reached a consensus and prepared to start working overtime to modify the values, Todd's mailbox rang.

"…These are the results of the offline tests that were arranged earlier. They have been summarized and counted."

Todd glanced at the title and explained as he opened the file.

But halfway through his explanation, his eyes suddenly fixed, as if he had seen something extraordinary, and he froze in silence.

"What's wrong?" Aonuma found something wrong.

“I think you can come and take a look. Players’ feedback on the new version seems to be a little different from what we imagined.”

There was something strange in Todd's tone.

The suspicious Aonuma and Miyazaki took a closer look and were also dumbfounded.

This report collects the opinions of Honor players from all over the world, and contains a wide variety of suggestions for revisions to various details.

There are many people complaining about the imbalance of professions and the randomness that ruins the gaming experience.

However, the point that designers generally agree is most likely to affect the reputation of the game, difficulty, is not discussed by many people.

Todd flipped down and came to the questionnaire, and everyone was stunned.

Among players around the world, less than 15% think that the new version of Honor of Kings is extremely difficult or relatively difficult.

Most of the other players thought that the new mode was moderately difficult or relatively easy, and nearly 20% of the players even chose very easy.

They looked at each other and could see the horror in each other's eyes.

Do today's players all like to pursue excitement so much?

Is this thing very easy to fill out?
Or do we no longer understand the audience for e-sports games?

In the silence, Miyazaki the old thief suddenly became uncontrollably excited.

Although he didn't understand why not many people thought his design was too difficult, but since the players approved of it, it proved that there was nothing wrong with his idea!

The soul system is indeed the strongest!

“Since players’ attitude is like this, do we still need to make changes?”

Aonuma really wanted to hold on a little longer, but the players' attitudes were just that.

Could it be that Lao Zei really has grasped the essence of player psychology?

This version of Glory won’t make him… fall from the altar, right?

"In that case... then let's do this."

　Second update, that's all for today, my hands hurt. Good night everyone

　　Give me some monthly tickets

　　
　
(End of this chapter)