This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 32: The Cowherding Sect That Everyone Wants to Destroy
The studio’s logo design was commissioned to a fan by Chen Ba.
The core gamers are full of hidden talents!
When Chen Ba revealed in the fan group that Tianba Studio was about to change its logo and wanted everyone’s suggestions, unexpectedly, a design genius emerged.
In addition to that, there are many other big shots hidden in the group.
Some employees from the Pig Factory who make mobile games play "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator" while slacking off at work, and at night they rally people in the group for gaming.
There’s a low-key uncle who drives a Cullinan, cautiously asking in the group if his computer could run at the highest settings? Then everyone looked and thought, huh... a 3090?
The identity of these single-player gamers truly varies.
Chen Ba felt deeply about this.
If the person hadn’t voluntarily confessed, he might never have imagined that in his core gamer group, there’s not only employees from the Pig Factory but also one from Tencent.
"Give it some serious thought!"
Though the identity of the Tencent employee remains unknown, he told Chen Ba that Tianba Studio had already caught Tencent’s attention, and they might approach him in the next couple of days.
Don’t get it wrong!
It’s not about directly discussing acquisition or investment.
Tencent reaching out to Tianba Studio merely aims to bring "Cold Window Study Simulator" and "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator" to their WeGame platform.
"I think it’s quite good."
On this matter, Yang Dong and Lu Jing both expressed acceptance.
WeGame may have a poor reputation among players, but that’s from the player’s perspective. From a game developer’s standpoint, since they’re extending the invitation, why not agree?
Aren’t we here to make money?
Although WeGame was once dubbed the online game launcher, and most players there only play online games, with few buying single-player ones.
The user base is still huge, and with such a terrifying user base, some single-player games can still achieve good sales performance.
What’s most important is that the two games under Tianba Studio are not "exclusive" to any platform.
Since they aren’t exclusive, selling on another platform provides another source of income. As long as the shared revenue ratio is decent, why not?
Tencent’s people came quickly.
Probably because they often talk about such matters, so after understanding the situation, there were basically no points of contention between the parties, quickly reaching an agreement.
Before leaving, the Tencent representative left his contact.
He told Chen Ba that if he encounters difficulties, he can reach out anytime. Tencent is very willing to invest in promising studios like Tianba.
"No wonder they have money!"
After seeing off guests from Peng City, Chen Ba scrutinized the business card in hand and couldn’t help but laugh.
Tencent is still the same, casting a wide net.
No matter whether they can catch big fish or not, anyway, we’ve got money, just spread the net everywhere. A blind cat can sometimes meet a dead rat; if the investment spread is wide enough, they will surely hit the mark once or twice.
Even for a fledgling workshop like Tianba Studio, they didn’t want to miss it, becoming the first investment party to extend an olive branch to Chen Ba.
Having money sure is great!
After casually putting the card in his pocket, Chen Ba didn’t have other thoughts.
Encountering extreme people, some might feel a surge of passion at this moment, thinking that taking Tencent’s money is dirtying their hands, and immediately toss the card into the trash can.
But he wouldn’t throw it away, nor does he reject such goodwill.
Keeping a way out for oneself is always good. No one can guarantee a smooth journey in the future. Since life is full of uncertainties, why make absolute statements?
What’s wrong with Tencent’s money?
When you reach a critical moment, whoever gives money becomes your lifeline!
...
Besides Tencent’s platform, Chen Ba has also moved the studio’s games to several other PC gaming platforms.
The console platforms are up too.
However, Tianba Studio did not perform any optimization for console platforms, which resulted in the gaming experience being far from comparable to PC.
Especially for Ren Family’s Switch.
This thing, while playable, doesn’t promise great or smooth experiences. Anyway, since Chen Ba didn’t optimize it and few Switch players purchase or download, it’s whatever.
PC is currently Tianba Studio’s focus of optimization.
No choice there, given that PC players account for 99%. If you don’t cater to PC players’ feelings, are you waiting to receive negative reviews?
Speaking of negative reviews, Chen Ba gets really worked up.
On the Steam Platform, the evaluation of "Cold Window Study Simulator" has shifted from "Overwhelmingly Positive" to "Mostly Positive".
The reason is quite simple.
Many early adopters felt betrayed when they saw the latest discount for this game, so they changed their positive reviews to negative ones.
"Bought at full price, I’m a fool!"
The review section is full of this phrase, appearing alongside it are red thumbs down, meaning "Not Recommended".
Besides the half-price promotion and aggrieved player negative reviews, part of the game’s negative reviews comes from the annoying "Cowherding Sect".
Because the Cowherding Sect is just too rampant, in the player community and official fan groups, any sect members found are immediately expelled + muted.
Thus, they fought back.
Under the call of the Cowherding Sect Leader, countless sect followers flooded the game review pages and bombarded the game with negative reviews.
But that wasn’t the end. If it were merely negative review bombing, Chen Ba wouldn’t feel as repulsed by the Cowherding Sect, probably just ignore them.
But this group is just too abstract!
Not only do they recruit followers in "Cold Window Study Simulator," but they also venture into other games’ videos, comment sections, or fan groups, spreading their teachings to recruit followers.
This behavior is commonly called starting fights!
Other game’s fans aren’t pushovers, but when faced with provocations from the Cowherding Sect, they definitely retaliate, though they can’t do anything about ordinary sect members.
So what can they do?
Of course, they rush to "Cold Window Study Simulator" bomb with negative reviews and rant about the lousy game, with Cowherding Sect needing eradication.
"I’m literally crying..."
Chen Ba wiped away nonexistent tears from the corner of his eyes and pretended to be moved: "For the sake of bringing more players to their beloved game, how hard they work!"
"Yeah! I’m already tearing up."
Yang Dong, equally amused, said: "Achieving a state where everyone’s against you might not be without skill! On the bright side, at least it has nothing to do with us, we’ve always been against the Cowherding Sect."
Those who don’t know might think the so-called Cowherding Sect is a group deliberately hired by Tianba Studio for marketing. After all, this traffic-driving method is too low-level.
Luckily, Tianba Studio released the Holy Separator early, thus cutting ties with this group. Otherwise, they’d be criticized even more harshly.
Ah, hired reviewers...
Chen Ba thought of someone.
"Ba, don’t worry, I’ll help promote in the comment sections of various game videos and lure a few players into the pit..."
Remembering what Wang Kun once said, Chen Ba suddenly fell silent.
That mysterious individual, speaking nonsense, acting unreasonably—the Cowherding Sect Leader—might just be his good buddy, perhaps?
