In the eyes and memories of many, Lianliankan was just an ordinary puzzle game, an exceedingly simple one, seemingly without much influence.
But that was because most people here weren't the core user group of Lianliankan, and thus had no idea about the terrifying influence it wielded between 2005 and 2010.
A saying circulated in online rooms back then: "My parents always said computer games were the most wicked things in the world, until they started playing Lianliankan, and then they stopped saying that."
Indeed, the main market for Lianliankan at that time was the middle-aged and elderly demographic, abandoned by the mainstream gaming market or simply too advanced for it. The effect was astounding, sweeping across the entire Chinese middle-aged and elderly market overnight. Within a year, the player base surpassed thirty million, making it the undisputed king of games at the time, with far more players than Warcraft or similar titles.
It caused many parents, who had chided their children for being addicted to games, to change their tune. They began telling their children not to play violent games, and if they insisted on playing, they should play something that exercised their brains, like Lianliankan.
Lianliankan's popularity among this demographic was inevitable, as it opened up the computer game market for the middle-aged and elderly.
Around 2005, the world's largest computer market was actually in offices; there were more office computers than personal computers, especially in China, as ordinary households couldn't afford computers yet.
Starting from 2003, with the promotion of paperless office systems, numerous government agencies began equipping their departments with computers. Many grassroots units also started adopting fully computerized operations. Those qualified to use these computers were primarily middle-aged and elderly staff members from various units.
Computer sales companies catering to these units didn't recruit salespeople based on eloquence, but on computer proficiency and patience. This was because the salespeople's most crucial task wasn't market development, but teaching individuals who had never touched a computer, who shied away from them with an innate fear, how to use them. This was a life-draining job, as they might be called upon a dozen times for a simple power-on issue, requiring them to travel by bus to help someone turn a computer on or off, a truly moving experience.
These were also the people who cursed computers the most. After all, they usually had families and children, and their children were, at that time, largely engrossed by computers, leading to them neglecting their studies, disrespecting their parents, disobeying them, and performing poorly in school. In essence, any kind of trouble could be blamed on the computer.
But did they genuinely dislike playing computer games?
Of course not. The inclination for games is a natural human trait. Otherwise, why would these people spend their days in mahjong parlors or card rooms? Wasn't that their internet cafe?
So, these individuals simply didn't know how to use computers. Now, as they were being introduced to computers, partly forced by their jobs and partly by their own volition, besides using them for official duties as required, they naturally began to feel a desire to experience computer games.
It was unavoidable. In some government units, everyone had their own methods of slacking off. As long as employees weren't directly serving the public, they could usually sneak in an hour or two of work, and then spend the rest of their time slacking.
In the past, these methods of slacking involved tea breaks, newspapers, or gatherings for casual chats. As long as they stayed within the unit, the leaders could only turn a blind eye. After all, leaders needed public support to carry out their work, and the company wasn't theirs, so there was no need to offend people. Completing the basic tasks was enough.
With the advent of computers, computer games naturally became the best tool for slacking. All that was missing was the final push.
And that final push was a game with very simple gameplay, one that even these middle-aged and elderly individuals could easily pick up.
And this game, without a doubt, was Lianliankan.
Lianliankan's gameplay is extremely straightforward: find two identical graphics and see if there's any obstruction between them that allows them to be connected.
As long as they can be connected, the two images can be eliminated, continuing until all images are cleared.
A very simple game, one that anyone with eyes could play.
So, when Lianliankan appeared on the computer market, the entire market was instantly ignited. This game became the favorite of all middle-aged and elderly computer users. Whenever they had free time, they would open the game and play a few rounds until the end of the workday.
And this situation naturally extended to mobile games.
After Lianliankan was launched on the oo mobile game center, the first to discover it were the younger generation.
Although Lianliankan was a super-game that attracted the middle-aged and elderly, its gameplay was quite good for young people as well. After all, in the QQ game hall of another world, Lianliankan had once been a top-tier game.
Therefore, the game quickly gained popularity among young people, with download numbers soaring. It soon became the most outstanding independent game on the platform, achieving a miraculous sales figure of over five hundred thousand downloads on its first day of release.
However, such miracles seemed to be confined within the oo mobile game center itself, with an influence that didn't extend beyond its own sphere and couldn't compare to the currently popular game centers.
After all, in the entire gaming circle recently, the discussions were all about game centers!
Initially, these discussions were very positive, enthusiastic, and cheerful.
This was because many players discovered that their favorite PC AAA titles were launching mobile versions, which delighted them immensely. Their biggest regret when playing games was the need to sit in front of a computer, confined to one spot, unable to move, which often conflicted with their real lives, work, studies, and even their parents.
If they could play on their mobile phones wherever they went, then everything would be fine.
Therefore, they were full of anticipation and goodwill for these prominent PC games that were entering the game centers. As soon as downloads were open, many rushed to the official website to find the installation package suitable for their mobile models.
Some wealthy individuals even purchased the latest flagship phones specifically as their gaming devices.
This led to extreme prosperity in the first few days after the game center's launch.
But soon, these enthusiastic players found themselves facing many issues they didn't know how to articulate.
One issue was that the installation package simply wouldn't install. More than half of the mobile users couldn't find the installation package for their phones online.
This wasn't an exaggeration. Although the Android package was available on many phone manufacturers' official websites, many users didn't know this. The advertisements were also unclear.
These ads would brag about the rich game lineup within the game center, but some ads, from beginning to end, failed to tell users to download from the respective phone manufacturers' official websites.
Others, while mentioning it, did so in a single line of text on the screen, or as a final sentence like "Please download from the official website," which could easily be missed.
Even for those who didn't miss it, many didn't know what an official website was. They would simply search for the game center online, and what they could find from that search was anyone's guess.
Of course, for young people, this was a minor hurdle that could be overcome by finding some information and guides online to locate the correct download path. However, for the middle-aged and elderly, they would usually try only once. Once the first attempt failed, they would simply give up, never to try again, as they couldn't bear such frustration.
But even for young people, after learning that they could download the installation package from the official website, new challenges awaited them: they discovered they didn't know how to install it.
The game center's installation package was a compressed file. To install it on a phone, one would first need to decompress it into a folder, then connect the phone via a data cable, place the folder into the phone's storage space, and then, using the phone's dial pad, enter #9344854 to access the internal modem mode. Then, they would find this folder, locate a file with a .jav extension, and click confirm. Only then would the phone begin to automatically install this functional platform.
Ahem, the above is actually just the installation method for Motorola's game center. For other brands, the installation methods would differ, as each brand's mobile phone system is different!
In fact, even for Motorola itself, due to specific adjustments in different phone systems, the aforementioned method only applied to most phones. Other phones required different, special methods, some even requiring specialized software on a computer to be flashed onto the phone.
Of course, these mobile phone manufacturers very thoughtfully compiled these installation methods into a collective file. After decompressing the compressed package, users would find this installation method collection file, locate their phone model and corresponding installation method, carefully study the process, and then install it on their phone!
It was incredibly simple, not exactly a "learn it by looking at it" situation; more like a "stare blankly until your eyes glaze over" experience.