"So we don't stop them, we agree to their petition?" Leng Zhimeng asked.
"Agree!" Huang He nodded. "But the petition needs to be revised to clearly state that they are not allowed to sell items that alter game data through the blind box system!" Huang He said.
"But will that be effective?" Leng Zhimeng hesitated for a moment before saying, "This way, their goals won't be met, and they'll definitely try to continue doing this in the future!"
"So we'll divide and conquer!" Huang He pondered for a moment, then said, "You go draft another clause, stating that if they want to launch products that alter data, then the game itself must not charge any fees. It must offer a game experience with no pay-to-play consumption. Only such games will be allowed to sell game items that alter data."
"Additionally, all games must launch both free and pay-to-play versions, giving players a choice between these two different versions! The pay-to-play version must not feature any paid items that alter data. Both versions of the game must be updated and maintained simultaneously, and there must be no artificial interference that creates advantages or disadvantages between the two versions, leading to player diversion. Otherwise, severe action will be taken, with direct fines."
"Well, it's not mandatory to launch both versions. If a developer is willing, they can offer only the pay-to-play version, but no free version. However, a free version without a pay-to-play option is absolutely not allowed."
"Free-to-play games with no pay-to-play?" Leng Zhimeng was stunned. This sounded like a much more aggressive policy than charging for game items!
"Free-to-play games are bound to appear in the future. It's better to guide than to block. Instead of letting the market passively experience this situation, it's better for us to give it a push and control the entire landscape ourselves."
"Once free-to-play games emerge, they will definitely attract a large number of players, which is also an unavoidable trend in history. What we need to do is to boost free-to-play games while also preserving the market for pay-to-play games!" Huang He said slowly. "Let those who want to play free-to-play games enjoy them, and let players who desire a better gaming experience play pay-to-play games, achieving a balance between the two in the entire gaming industry!"
Drawing from his experience in his previous life, Huang He was well aware that the emergence of free-to-play games was an inevitable historical development. Even if he could forcibly prevent the emergence of free-to-play games on his own gaming platform, game developers could still promote free-to-play games without using his platform. And when free-to-play games launched, they would inevitably attract a large number of players who had money for internet access but not for subscription fees. The appearance of these players would inevitably destroy the dominant effect brought about by the gaming platform, and his hard-won platform monopoly would be completely ruined. This was absolutely unacceptable.
Previously, Huang He had been suppressing the emergence of free-to-play games, hoping to change the world and the future development of online games in China.
But the fact was that humans were driven by profit. These game developers had already spontaneously thought of the strategy of charging for in-game items. If he stopped them, they would leave him, which was unacceptable.
Thus, Boss Huang decided that since he couldn't block it, he might as well accelerate its development. In his previous life, from the first free-to-play game "Zhengtu" in 2005, to Zhengtu launching a top-up system to buy in-game currency for blind box draws in 2006, and then by 2010, game item malls simply appeared openly in various games. Except for "World of Warcraft" and "Fantasy Westward Journey," which were pay-to-play games, the entire market was completely dominated by free-to-play games, and pay-to-play games had no chance of survival.
This was a situation slowly shaped by the market, driven by human desires. All game companies were madly extracting money from players, and mobile games had reached a peak of monetization, truly a destructive path for China's entire gaming market.
So Boss Huang had a sudden idea: why not go all the way and directly delineate free-to-play games and pay-to-play games into two different camps, and then use the platform's advantage to create a superior gaming environment for pay-to-play games?
This would create a dynamic balance between pay-to-play games and free-to-play games, allowing both pay-to-play and free-to-play players to have their own gaming territories, unlike the situation in his previous life where everything was free-to-play, and it was impossible to find fair pay-to-play games.
Of course, Boss Huang himself was not sure if this artificially created dynamic balance could truly be maintained. However, with the monopoly power of the gaming platform, the possibility of achieving balance was still quite high.
At worst, it would just repeat the situation in his previous life where all pay-to-play games died out, and free-to-play games dominated the entire internet.
As for whether the emergence of free-to-play games would harm players, Huang He actually felt it wasn't entirely so. At least free-to-play games didn't have such a severe original sin.
Free-to-play games, in essence, allowed players who didn't have much money to experience games for free. However, these players had to serve as glorified props for the paying players.
This was equivalent to a transaction: you sell your dignity and gain the convenience of free-to-play games. This was fair.
Of course, there might be some players who didn't have much money but insisted on showing off, spending all their savings on games. However, this was built on the premise of free-to-play games being the only option, and players having no fair pay-to-play games to choose from.
Now, Boss Huang was actively using the gaming platform to create a situation where both types of games were on equal footing. The same game would have both a free version and a pay-to-play version. If you still chose the free version out of a desire for cheapness, then don't blame others for taking advantage of you; it would be your own fault!
This idea of co-existing free and pay-to-play versions was something Boss Huang had pondered for more than half a year, a method that seemed likely to save the future Chinese online gaming industry and make it less bloodthirsty. Whether it would succeed, only heaven knew.
Soon, Leng Zhimeng drafted the new clauses and sent them to all the game developers on the platform.
After reviewing the new rules, these developers collectively and very readily agreed.
They had originally made a tentative attempt to introduce the blind box mechanism into the game to test the bottom line of the gaming platform. Many developers didn't even consider selling items that altered data within the game; they merely had a vague idea.
Now that the gaming platform had helped them achieve this in one go, and even introduced free and pay-to-play versions, they were naturally very satisfied.
So, it was necessary to add a free version, but this only involved removing the pay-to-play restrictions and adding a blind box gacha machine and game mall functions, which wouldn't require much in terms of resources and could be easily accomplished.
Moreover, operating two versions simply meant maintaining two different server states. Half of the current servers could be converted into free servers.
And if the game developers rented servers from the gaming platform, it would be even simpler. The gaming platform's servers operated on a revenue-sharing model. An additional 30% would be drawn from all games as server maintenance costs. This meant they didn't need to pay any additional server fees; they only needed to request new server allocation from the gaming platform. The platform would automatically adjust server usage.
A few days later, the gaming platform also announced this news across its entire platform, stating that dual-version testing would be launched in the next few months, and players could freely choose the version they could accept.
At the same time, the gaming platform directly pointed out in its announcement that the free version would inevitably feature a large number of players with strong economic power who would dominate the game by purchasing in-game equipment.
If players could not tolerate this situation, they were advised not to choose the free version. The gaming platform guaranteed that the pay-to-play version would achieve the greatest fairness.
To Boss Huang's surprise, players not only showed no resistance to such a game announcement but were actually very happy. The official forums of the gaming platform were filled with discussions about the free version, with players enthusiastically wanting to try it out. Some players even posted on the forums saying they were ready to top up 100 yuan and then dominate the entire server.
Boss Huang miraculously discovered that all players across the entire gaming platform were singing praises, lauding the gaming platform for introducing such a good policy that allowed many financially strapped players to play games for free, calling it the best game policy in history.
Seeing these comments, Boss Huang was completely speechless. If the game players of 2021 had traveled back in time, they would have probably beaten the heads of the current players.
However, it didn't matter. Boss Huang had already made their choice. As for how the future of online games would develop, only time would tell.
And when the application and creation of free versions began, Boss Huang was surprised to find that most game developers did not dare to launch free versions. Only a mere five games applied for free versions, and these were all games whose player base had mostly dispersed and were struggling to survive.
This was also normal. After all, the pay-to-play model was very lucrative for most games. Who would be so foolish as to launch a free-to-play game? After all, no one could be sure that free-to-play games would definitely earn more than pay-to-play games. What if all free players were "leechers" who refused to buy paid items?
Of course, among them, there was also a new game that immediately applied for a free version. This game was called "Zhengtu," and its developer was Giant Network.
Shi Yuzhu, he has arrived!
[PS: Let's have a poll here. Do you think that after this new policy is introduced, the development of Chinese online games will continue the historical trend? Reply with 1 if you think so, and 2 if you don't. The future development of this plot will be decided based on your votes!]