The relaunch of Eastern Amazon this time was shrouded in considerable mystery. Despite spending tens of millions of dollars on cross-platform advertising, Eastern Amazon’s campaign was entirely focused on enigma, promising users a massive surprise upon its launch, without divulging what that surprise might be.
In particular, the day before its relaunch, Eastern Amazon seemed to have bought out all ad spaces on Weibo, Google, and Netflix. Eschewing any sophisticated placement tactics, they simply plastered all advertising pages with Eastern Amazon's ads.
The advertisement featured only a single line of text: “Play games, and for every gold coin you earn, you get dollars.”
While the advertisement itself wasn't particularly clever, the message was incredibly compelling.
The ad implied that gold coins could be exchanged for genuine US dollars, and the way to obtain these coins was by playing games.
It was a ludicrous notion, but while you might not be able to get an internet user to do much else, getting them to play a game was an entirely different matter.
Consequently, almost every netizen who saw the ad instinctively clicked the link, finding themselves directed to a page with a golden background. At the center of the page stood a curvaceous CG Amazonian Valkyrie.
It was evident that this CG Amazonian Valkyrie had been meticulously designed and crafted. Her figure was perfect, her features exquisite, she possessed long, golden hair, wore armor fashioned from animal hides, held a longbow in her hand, and her skin had a chocolate-like hue, making her utterly captivating.
In essence, her artistic quality was on par with the "greasy senior sisters" from later versions of Blade & Soul. The male netizens, upon seeing this Amazonian female warrior, couldn't help but lick their lips, their entire beings suddenly electrified.
Of course, to ensure gender equality and to emphasize the importance of women's rights, the page also featured a character swap button. Clicking it would instantly transform the Valkyrie into a muscular Amazonian male warrior, also designed to appeal to the aesthetic preferences of the majority of women.
While viewers were still admiring these two exquisitely detailed CG figures, gold coins began to rain down from the sky across the page, accompanied by a prompt: "Click your mouse to shoot the gold coins."
At this point, most users instinctively clicked their left mouse button, and the Amazonian Valkyrie or Amazonian male warrior would cleanly shoot an arrow. If this arrow struck a falling gold coin, the gold coin counter in the upper left corner of the page would increase by one.
It was then that users generally understood that the so-called game was a simple archery game. Their task was to control the character to shoot gold coins, which could ultimately be exchanged for dollars.
However, neither the Amazonian Valkyrie nor the Amazonian male warrior could move; they could only shoot from their stationary positions. But this also had its advantages, as it further lowered the barrier to entry for the game.
The game itself was very easy to understand, and it initially presented no difficulty. The gold coins descended at a relatively slow pace, while the arrows moved very quickly. Thus, after only a couple of tries, one could easily grasp the shooting rhythm and begin to shoot down the falling gold coins one by one.
However, as time passed, the gold coins would fall faster and faster, while the arrows' movement speed would gradually decrease. Moreover, beads of sweat, reflecting light, would begin to appear on the characters' coffee-colored skin, seemingly indicating that their stamina was almost depleted.
And indeed, this was the case. Eventually, the game character would collapse to the ground, exhausted and unable to shoot any more arrows, signaling the official end of the game.
Afterward, the page would prompt users to click the gold coin box in the upper left corner. Then, a simply produced animation would play, showing a crate of gold coins being handed over to a portly, balding traditional American rich man, who would then present the user with a wad of dollars.
Finally, the page would display the message: "Congratulations! You've exchanged 10 gold coins for $60. Would you like to claim it?"
Who would refuse such a windfall? Naturally, everyone immediately clicked the claim button.
This was followed by an animation of the gold coins being pocketed, and the page continued to remind users, "Your dollars have been credited to your Eastern Amazon account. Would you like to activate your account to receive your dollars?"
At this stage, could anyone refuse?
Users naturally clicked to activate their accounts again, which then presented them with two options.
One was the option to upgrade an existing Amazon account to an Eastern Amazon account. Clicking this option required users to enter their Amazon username and password, which would then automatically upgrade their account.
The other option was for those without an account, leading to a series of account registration procedures, allowing users to create their own Eastern Amazon account.
After completing one of these steps, users, filled with excitement, would open their accounts and indeed find a balance of $60, making them overjoyed.
Just as they were contemplating how to withdraw this $60, a new prompt appeared on the page.
"The dollars in your account are about to be activated. However, once activated, the dollar amount cannot be changed. Would you like to play the game again to earn higher dollar rewards?"
Users would typically hesitate at this point. The vast majority would choose to play the game again, as most people could earn around $60 in gold coins on their first try. Intuitively, they believed that with practice, they could earn even more.
Since there was only one chance, why not aim for more dollars?
So, most people went back to play the game.
Of course, some found it too troublesome and wanted to claim their dollars quickly, so they clicked to activate.
Then, a prominently displayed button on the page appeared with the words "Activate Withdrawal." Users excitedly clicked the button to withdraw, only to be met with another prompt: "Cash will be directly withdrawn to your Western Mustang Wallet. If you have not yet opened a Western Mustang Wallet, please click the link to open your Western Mustang Wallet!"
Good heavens, users by this point were probably ready to curse, but for the sake of the $60, they followed the prompts on the guiding page to open a Western Mustang Wallet. To their surprise, opening this wallet required inputting various bank card account details, social security numbers, and other personal information.
To be fair, Americans were very sensitive about protecting their personal information. Under normal circumstances, unless they genuinely intended to open a wallet service, many Americans would abandon the registration process upon seeing the request for such information.
However, the page promptly displayed a message informing users that if they wished to withdraw funds, the dollars naturally had to be transferred to their personal bank card accounts. Without entering this bank card information, withdrawal would be impossible.
Upon seeing this, users thought it made sense and proceeded to enter their bank card and social security account details, completing the Western Mustang Wallet registration.
"Surely, I can withdraw now!" users thought, feeling rather weary. They returned to the Eastern Amazon account page to initiate the withdrawal, only to find the page displaying the message: "Hello, Eastern Amazon will officially launch at 9 AM on November 11, 2005. The withdrawal function will be open at that time. Please wait patiently!"
Good heavens, these users were utterly stunned.
While this game left many users feeling bewildered, its effectiveness was exceptional.
Firstly, the advertised concept of exchanging gold coins for dollars made every American who saw the ad instinctively click on it, resulting in an astonishing initial influx of traffic.
Then, the game itself was produced to a very high standard. Although its gameplay was quite simple and direct, and there were only two simple CG characters, these characters were beautiful and sexy, striking directly at the desires of all Americans.
This was the game's own creation. In reality, the simpler a game is, the harder it is to make it good.
This is because, for a simple game to attract players, the game's control feel, impact, and various details must be executed flawlessly.
Fortunately, Jiangnan Group boasted one of the world's most formidable game development teams, making the creation of such a small game well within their capabilities. Therefore, the game itself was exceptionally fun, giving many players a feeling of being unable to stop once they started, reminiscent of playing Angry Birds in the past.
Furthermore, the game's difficulty curve was also masterfully designed.
The initial difficulty was very low. Most people could earn around 60 gold coins after playing just a few rounds. However, the difficulty then escalated dramatically.
According to analyses by many players, the game character could shoot a maximum of 100 arrows each time, meaning a maximum of 100 gold coins could be earned. Yet, even top players, after earning around 80 gold coins, would find themselves unable to keep up with the decreasing speed of the gold coins and the shooting rate of the arrows, making it almost impossible to exceed 90 gold coins.
This design was most effective at provoking players who considered themselves experts but were, in reality, just bored. Consequently, there even emerged a group of stubborn players who declared, "I'm not interested in dollars, but I *will* achieve 100 gold coins!"
And if one could indeed achieve a score of 100 gold coins, simply posting a screenshot of it on their social media account would instantly garner numerous comments and greatly satisfy their vanity.
It was so popular that even 100 days after Eastern Amazon's launch, some people were still obsessing over this game, something the original developers had never anticipated.
In summary, on the day before Eastern Amazon's official opening, over 30% of netizens across America were either preparing to claim gold coins or were busy earning them.