When the first "CG" of "Conquer the World" was officially released online, netizens who had already learned about some of the graphic visuals from various media websites went crazy once again.
Because rendering 2D images is relatively easy, it is difficult for 3D models to achieve a close resemblance to reality.
In the CG of "Conquering the World", people saw ethereal beauties in oriental palace attire, brave and domineering holy knights from Europe, dark and cold vampires, and oriental sword immortals flying on swords...
There are also the almost dreamlike and gorgeous scenes, and the immersive and realistic visuals. In this game, players do not necessarily have to conquer the world. They can also travel with friends, enjoy the scenery, and fish and catch shrimp.
How could netizens not be excited to see such game visuals?
For a time, titles such as "The First Online Game in History" and "Super Realistic Visual Impact" flooded the internet. Everyone wanted to experience the game's powerful charm as soon as possible. The number of messages on the official website of "Conquer the World" has exceeded one million, mostly asking when the closed beta and open beta will start. On 17173 and some player forums, countless guilds are also recruiting members, having made all the preparations before the game even started.
Company S was clearly trying to whet the players' appetites, and then released three more CGs. The release of each CG caused an almost earthquake-like impact in the online world.
The second CG is a combat video that reveals the combat skills and visuals of the various classes in the game.
This game is different from other online games. After seeing "Conquer the World", any game that dares to claim that its setting is grand will be embarrassed, even if players don't criticize them.
There are more than fifty standard professions in "Conquer the World". In addition, special professions are also available for each country with a long history of mythology!
For example, there are Chinese sword immortals, American Amazon warriors, British Knights of the Round Table, Norse berserkers, Greek gods, Egyptian pharaoh guards, and so on. Of course, the opening of these professions is very balanced, because in an online game, there can never be a profession that is superior to other professions, otherwise what is the point of the game?
There are over three hundred professions alone! In addition, the life skills are almost entirely linked to the real world, making this a realistic second world!
The third CG is a mission video. When the news of the release of this CG came out, players were very surprised... because in the eyes of many players, game missions are just something that consumes game time cards, and it doesn't matter whether they do many missions or not. Although many online games have now launched something like "missions" that players have to do, many players still have little interest in missions.
However, this time, the mission video, along with some information, immediately caught the attention of many players.
The creators of this game, "In the Future," were supposedly a group of down-on-their-luck guys. These guys were all geniuses, but geniuses often have all sorts of flaws and are ostracized by ordinary people. So, when they were writing the game plan, these geniuses got together and came up with countless quirky and absurd things.
Because these game developers never intended to make this online game a fast-paced game, where players quickly level up, get top-tier equipment, and then quit once they run out of motivation, only to have a new server opened to scam the next batch of players.
They incorporated numerous settings into the game that required advanced skills and research, and also added countless "chance encounters" into the plot.
For example, one of the missions revealed in this CG is that a player accidentally comes to a hidden map, and the NPC in this map is named... Zhuge Liang!
The greatest strategist in history, Zhuge Liang!
Legend has it that Zhuge Liang was a scholar of heaven and man, and there was nothing he did not know about yin and yang and the five elements. In this mission, players can obtain a skill called "Observing the Heavens" from Zhuge Liang, but the prerequisite is that they must answer Zhuge Liang's questions correctly within the specified time... How could Zhuge Liang's disciple be an ordinary person?
The trigger condition for this task is also quite bizarre: the player must demonstrate "intelligence" in the basic task.
Players of "Fantasy Westward Journey" know that there is an imperial examination activity in the game, which includes many questions... Many of these questions test players' basic knowledge. This setting is very good, as it allows players to learn while playing the game.
In "Conquer the World", there are countless similar questions, and they appear randomly from time to time, leaving players no time to test their knowledge on Baidu.
These questions test players' basic knowledge; only players with solid fundamental knowledge can answer these unexpected questions... Of course, the rewards are also very high! And ultimately, they will be added to the player's "intelligence" data, thus serving as a condition for unlocking some hidden side quests.
Therefore, in the future, many players will study very hard in order to cope with these suddenly appearing test questions... These test questions may come after the player defeats a monster, or when encountering an NPC... The game developers have added random elements, which means that it is impossible to solve these tasks by following certain steps. The only way is to improve one's own skills.
The release of this CG and information has caused many to lament while many others have raised their hands in support... A game that can integrate the fun of learning into play is naturally welcomed by many parents. In fact, the game "Conquer the World" does place great emphasis on intelligence, and has added many learning modes and rewards to encourage players to learn new knowledge.
After the game was released, there were indeed many cases of families of three playing the game together, and parents were not worried that the game would make their children addicted and forget about their studies.
The last cutscene is the team battle that most players are most interested in.
Modern online games are no longer about one person conquering the world. The game map of "Conquer the World" is so large that the number of players will definitely be huge. Therefore, the effectiveness of team battles has become the focus of attention for many players.
When releasing this CG, Company S finally announced a major piece of news.
The online game "Conquer the World" will become the first world-class online game, with its servers spread across several countries around the world. At that time, netizens from all over the world will be able to play and communicate together online! Unlike other online games that frequently open new servers, this game will only have one server open from beginning to end. The game map is similar to the current world map, which is enough to ensure that billions of players are online at the same time without congestion!
When this news was released, the world was shocked!
No one has ever dared to say this before, but now that someone is saying it, no one dares not believe it...
Because facts have proven that anyone who questions SMMH ends up with a tragic fate.
The fourth video is a recording of a challenge against a level 50 BOSS, which was participated in by all 1,500 game testers from Company S.
This video shows what a real group battle looks like.
1,500 people, a real battle involving thousands!
However, the visuals are incredibly clear; every skill and every movement is crystal clear, and there's no sense of crowding at all!
Moreover, this is far from the limit!
Want to experience a battle involving millions of people?
"Conquer the World" will officially begin its open beta test during the Lunar New Year!
Chapter 340 Public Beta (Part 2)
The fact that "Conquer the World" launched its global open beta without a formal closed beta has baffled many media outlets. They see S Company as incredibly arrogant – releasing such a large game without testing? They suspect it must be riddled with bugs! Meanwhile, many domestic and international online game companies, facing this aggressive intrusion, have secretly joined forces to enter the game immediately after the open beta, search for bugs, and create cheats to destroy the game.
However, to their disappointment, after downloading the 18GB client released by "Conquer the World", they found that the entire client was a single, perfect unit.
There is only one file, named "纵横天下.exe".
Unlike modern software programs that have many files, all the files were integrated into an 18GB EXE file. They had no idea how this large file worked... According to basic computer rules, the larger the file size, the more system resources it consumes. If a game were truly an 18GB file, opening it would completely crash the computer, causing the CPU to freeze and memory to be full.
However, after running the "纵横天下.exe" file, according to system monitoring, it only requires a little over 200MB of memory. Although the graphics card requirements are a bit higher, it only requires a dedicated graphics card with 256MB of memory to run. Of course, if you want to get a better gaming experience, you will need to upgrade your hardware.
"There will absolutely be no cheats in our game. We can guarantee that all the characters in the game are real people, not like the robots that are everywhere in current online games." Yi Shuihan proudly made this promise in a media interview: "Our company is offering a reward of ten million yuan. If any studio or organization can write a cheat for 'Zongheng Tianxia', we will give them ten million yuan."
Upon hearing this, everyone felt that Company S was far too arrogant, but a considerable number of people also felt that they had the right to be so arrogant!
You should know that the creator of this game... is that internet god!
The god of the internet who directly propelled the entire Chinese-speaking world's computer technology advancement with just one book, "Chinese Language"!
The game "Martial Artist" truly showcased the terrifying skill of this game developer. Some low-quality gamers have actually had their ID cards banned, and now they can only play the game by borrowing other people's... However, many people are also afraid of having their IDs banned, so few people lend them their IDs. The current state of "Martial Artist" is quite harmonious... Of course, some people try to manipulate ID card numbers, because many games now have anti-addiction systems, but these systems are just a facade. Some ID card registration bots can easily bypass them, but so far, no software has been heard of that can bypass "Martial Artist's" defense mechanism.
Game cheats are something that many gamers deeply hate. The existence of cheats has made many online games full of bots, and many online games pursue levels. If you are low level, you will be left behind by others.
Therefore, once cheats are available, many players who don't want to use cheats are forced to use them in order to avoid falling behind in level. This results in the entire game being filled with AFK leveling. If the cheats also have auto-talk, then the entire guild will be filled with bots repeatedly advertising, making the game completely devoid of any fun.
Back when Chen Xu played Legend of Mir, there was no such thing as cheating. At that time, they would light candles and control those game characters that look ugly now to level up. The guild was always lively, and everyone was calling on friends and asking for help to team up and level up. Unlike later, when the whole guild was full of people AFK selling equipment, the whole game became lifeless.
Can cheat programs be banned?
From a technical standpoint, there are also some problems, because there are simply too many skilled players now. Even Blizzard wouldn't dare say that no one can crack World of Warcraft. Some online game companies that are only interested in making money may say nice things, but they actually condone cheating behind the scenes... because they need cheats to make players spend game time cards, thereby generating profits.
Therefore, from all aspects, it is quite difficult to completely ban cheats in a game. However, many official developers have tacitly accepted the existence of some auxiliary plugins. As long as they do not affect the game balance, or if the distributors have a conscience and value the future development of the game, they will ban AFK cheats. It is probably very difficult for developers who distribute Korean games, because Korean games are notoriously difficult to level up. They rely on killing monsters to consume game time cards. Once a player reaches the maximum level, they are basically idle. So, it seems that "World of Warcraft" and "Fantasy Westward Journey" are still the two games with the most online players and the best reputation among the major online games in China.
However, these two games will soon be replaced by "Conquer the World".
Judging from the feedback from surveys on various forums, in just one month, "Conquer the World" has become the most anticipated online game among players, far surpassing "Aion" and "JX3" which will be released next year. It has to be said that the release of this game is a great stroke of luck for players, but a disaster for other game companies.
Of course, Yi Shuihan was well aware of the principle that "the tallest tree in the forest will be felled by the wind."
Offending all domestic and foreign game companies at once is not in line with S Company's development plan. Therefore, he is now contacting several major domestic game operators to share a portion of the profits from "Conquer the World" and also to utilize the well-established server equipment of these game companies. Indeed, according to S Company's internal research report, once "Conquer the World" is officially launched, it will be able to capture at least 70% of the domestic online game market within a year, and its share internationally will not be much different.
By then, when major game companies are struggling to stay afloat, Company S will be fully capable of acquiring their shares and equipment at low prices, and even poaching top talent.
However, if Yi Shuihan does this, then Company S will probably not fare well either.
How could giants like NetEase and Shanda in the Chinese online gaming industry willingly be swallowed up? Their final blow was terrifying. Moreover, these large gaming companies have been established for a long time and have their own connections and influence in various aspects, which should not be underestimated.
Of course, S Company is essentially an asset of SMMH, and its backing is considerable. If they were to truly clash, the consequences would undoubtedly be the collapse of several major domestic companies. However, S Company was able to rise from the ashes after a series of trials and tribulations... After all, with SMMH's technical support there, it was a reliable guarantee.
Yi Shuihan knew this, and so did the other companies. In the end, they knew they absolutely couldn't outlast the elusive SMMH. They also couldn't be unaware of the shock this game had caused to the entire online gaming industry. So, right now, they had no other choice but to cooperate with Company S.
But is this kind of cooperation enough? It is foreseeable that as Company S expands and the online game market share of "Conquer the World" grows, the influence of these companies will diminish, and they may even be completely replaced in the end, forced to relinquish their share of the domestic online game market.
Many people could have predicted this consequence, but to use a very vulgar phrase... no one can stop the wheels of history. Some companies want to play dirty tricks behind the scenes, and there are quite a few people who have this idea and some have actually done it, but none of them are Shanghai companies that dare to do such a thing... Huang Anping, the young master of Shanghai, is a very famous name.
Chen Xu doesn't need to worry about how S Company develops; his only concern now is... how to make more money.
Because if you think you can build an island that surpasses the world just through an online game, that's just wishful thinking... Although the prospects of this online game are very bright, and the expected revenue is enough to make anyone laugh in their dreams... except for Chen Xu, because Chen Xu feels that he is currently a debtor... a debtor of hundreds of billions of dollars.
This really annoyed Chen Xu. There were many things in the supercomputer, but he didn't know whether he should take them out. He had to consider the consequences of taking these things out. Yi Shuihan told him that many companies were now willing to pay high prices to acquire SMMH for use in martial arts and cross-world applications, as well as other software protection measures. Even the military was interested in acquiring it.
This patent would be worth a lot of money if it were sold, but Chen Xu cannot sell it.
His published book, *Chinese Language*, vaguely mentioned something similar, but that was only a beginner's course. As for advanced courses, Chen Xu kept them to himself... Computer knowledge was the foundation of Chen Xu's livelihood, and his leading advantage in this area absolutely could not be transferred... Chen Xu was currently planning to have Yi Shuihan add a business to help other companies get orders by encrypting the software they provided, but the encryption methods and code absolutely could not be leaked.
In that case, he should be able to make some money... Little by little, it adds up. Chen Xu is eager to make money right now, so he can't let any opportunity slip by.
When it comes to business, Chen Xu's brain isn't quite up to par, but he has Guan Yi by his side! Chen Xu doesn't know much about Guan Yi's family background and hasn't asked much about it, and Guan Yi hasn't brought it up on his own initiative either.
Moreover, although Chen Xu is now rich, he is not enlightened. In his opinion, as long as they are in love, they can be together. He has never thought about the issue of family background. Therefore, he does not care about Guan Yi's family. Guan Yi, with her own little thoughts, has never wanted to talk about this matter.
But on this day, which is the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month in previous years, Guan Yi suddenly asked Chen Xu, "Xu, would you come home with me? I have something to tell you..."
Chapter 341 Las Vegas
Las Vegas, the gambling capital.
This city is famous not only to Chen Xu, but to everyone.
There are countless world-renowned cities in the world, but Las Vegas is certainly one of the most unique... the gambling city. This city built in the desert attracts gamblers from all over the world with its unique charm. Countless people have become rich overnight and gone bankrupt in an instant.
Is Guan Yi's home here?
Chen Xu had many questions, but he didn't voice them. He could tell that Guan Yi's expression was strange. Since she wouldn't say, Chen Xu didn't press her for an answer. However, Guan Yi said she didn't know why she had come back this time... She had originally said she wouldn't come back for the New Year, but the housekeeper called and told her to come back urgently, without saying what it was about... Guan Yi had a premonition that something must have happened, so she hurriedly dragged Chen Xu back.
The moment Chen Xu stepped off the plane, he was truly shocked. At the airport entrance, a row of luxurious extended Rolls-Royces were parked there, and hundreds of men in black suits stood at the entrance. In front of them was Douglas, Guan Yi's black bodyguard, whom Chen Xu recognized. There was another man he recognized as well; he was the one who had accompanied Guan Yi's father when they met last time. Chen Xu remembered that his surname was Xie. Such grandeur was rare even in Las Vegas... If it weren't for recognizing Douglas, Chen Xu probably would have thought these guys were robbers.
However, all of these people had a golden four-leaf clover badge on their chests.
A family crest?
Chen Xu felt like a country bumpkin in the city, and in a daze, he followed Guan Yi into the car.
Once in the car, Guan Yi gave Chen Xu an apologetic smile. She hadn't expected such a large commotion and asked Xie Zhan, "Uncle Xie, what exactly happened? Why did you call me back so urgently? And why did you send so many people? Has something happened? Where's my father?"
Xie Zhan glanced at Chen Xu, a hint of confusion in his eyes as to why the young lady had brought him back as well. However, he didn't say anything, because he knew the young lady's temper. Since she had brought Chen Xu, it meant that she shouldn't hide anything from him.
Xie Zhan pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, this matter is neither a big deal nor a small one... Master is getting married."
"What?!"
Guan Yi jumped up suddenly, but luckily Chen Xu pulled her back in time, otherwise she would have hit her head on the car roof. Guan Yi sat down, her face gloomy: "What's going on? Why does Dad suddenly want to marry... to marry me a stepmother? Which woman is it?"
Xie Zhan was a little embarrassed. Guan Yi's words clearly meant that although Grandpa Guan was unmarried, he had many mistresses, and this was indeed true... Xie Zhan wiped his sweat and said in a low voice, "Yes, it's Miss Huang Xiusha, Miss's stand-in."
"What?!" Guan Yi jumped up again, and this time Chen Xu couldn't hold her back. She really bumped her head on the car roof, and tears welled up in her eyes from the pain. Chen Xu quickly reached out to rub her head, but Guan Yi ignored the pain and cried out, "How could this be... how could this be?! Dad, you can't look for her! She is, she is my substitute... she is me, she is also his daughter!"
Chen Xu looked completely bewildered... He didn't understand what was going on at all.