When you open the video, you see Xixi lying happily on the floor, playing with an invitation to the Blue Star Carnival.
It played for a long time, only to have the invitation taken away by a hand off-screen.
Xixi immediately sat up and barked in protest.
Voiceover: "You're asking me for an invitation? You think I have one? I've already lost mine, I'm going to sneak in using a backstage work pass! This last one is for my wife!"
XiXi: "Woof!"
Voiceover: "The new game hasn't even started production yet, stop rushing me, or I'll want to hang myself at your doorstep!"
XiXi: "Woof woof woof!"
Voiceover: "You're still not convinced?"
With a "ding," a hand placed a gleaming kitchen knife next to Xixi.
XiXi: "..."
Xixi was so frightened that her ears drooped down. She sat up straight, looking like she was being incredibly obedient.
A voice-over says, "No invitation, no new game, just a dog's life!"
Chapter 51 Player Meetup
May 21-22 marks the third anniversary of Blue Star Studio.
This is also the time when the first Blue Star Carnival will be held!
The venue was set up well in advance, and the invited performance teams arrived on time.
The opening ceremony featured a renowned local symphony orchestra performing the theme song for the second season of League of Legends.
After the performance, the entire venue was filled with joy as the host gave an enthusiastic opening speech.
The first day of the carnival mainly focused on performances, exhibitions, and player experiences.
The entire venue covers an area of 50,000 square meters, which is enough for the entire team to showcase their skills and for more than 5,000 invited players to enjoy themselves to their heart's content.
Besides the fixed locations such as the entrance and rest areas, the venue mainly consists of a central stage, an indoor exhibition hall on the west side, and various scattered small experience areas and surrounding stalls.
During the carnival, there will be a performance on the central stage at 10:00 and 15:00 every hour.
At other times, promotional trailers for several games will be played on the big screen.
At 8 p.m. sharp, it's time for the official cosplay team to perform. The entire cosplay team will tour around the venue and perform.
According to the major game zones on Blue Star, each experience center will provide the latest game versions.
For example, League of Legends has just finished its second season, and the version has been updated to 3.2, while the studio is actually already testing version 3.3.
The experience center allows players to play version 3.3 on-site, including some content that has not yet been confirmed for release.
This is what is commonly known as the "test server".
Many players attended the carnival intending to participate in offline activities and interact with the designers.
—What? We can play games here?
—But can't I play at home? I finally got the carnival invitation, how can I spend my time playing games!
...
However, when they learned that the experience center offered the chance to play the new class in the next version.
They immediately declared, "Human nature is such that people are obsessed with something that actually tastes good."
On the day of the carnival, the official Bluestar forum was almost entirely flooded with news about the experience center.
[Live stream of the Blue Star Carnival!!! No video available, but you can vote for the pretty girls.]
[The new Alliance class is super interesting! It can steal other players' skills! And they've also released new gear, doubling your critical strike chance, anyone?]
Has anyone managed to get a spot at the concept launch hall for the latest game? I got number 1400-something, and I heard the wait is until 3 PM.
It's already common knowledge that Bluestar's latest project is codenamed "Soul".
The earliest source of the news was the official forum, where a player claimed: "My uncle works on Earth, and he explained the new game designed by the chief designer, blah blah blah..."
Because it was such a rumor, it even became a meme on the forum.
After that, anyone who leaked insider information was jokingly referred to as an "insider party".
Official news about the new game was, of course, revealed at the official Blue Star player meet-up.
— Although it was called a meet-and-greet, the first part was actually a press conference. Only after the official speeches were over did players get a chance to have a Q&A session with the designers.
At the press conference, the heads of each game first introduced the next version of the game.
Then came the main event: Chief Engineer Ming personally came up to talk about Blue Star's next project.
In fact, as soon as Mingyan stepped onto the stage, screams immediately erupted from below.
Because it was an online press conference, Mingyan used a virtual avatar—a small rag doll with a halo above its head.
The audience below the stage was also incredibly diverse, including zombies, demons, elves...
Humanoid figures are already quite common; there's even a tank spirit sitting in the stands—the kind whose cannon barrel on its head automatically rotates 360 degrees when people cheer.