The fatal flaw of Westward Journey

"Boss Chen, 5173 has increased their rates."

"What do you mean, they've increased their rates?"

"It means they raised the promotional fee to 2 million yuan."

"2 million."

Chen Danian, the COO of Shanda, dropped his pen. "Well, they must think they're a major portal now."

"Boss Chen, it might be because we didn't agree to their promotions before..."

"What's the problem if we didn't agree? 5173 immediately asked for 1 million when they approached us. Aren't they trying to swindle us? Forget it, don't contact them again. Are we going to shut down Legend just because we don't cooperate with them?"

Chen Danian was furious about 5173's price increase.

Now, The Legend of Mir 2's concurrent players had exceeded 150,000, making it one of the hottest online games in the country. The reason they wanted to promote further was just to set new records. Since 5173 decided to raise their prices, Chen Tianqiao gave the order to terminate the cooperation.

"It's over; this is really bad."

"Jian Ge, why is it over?"

"Shanda won't cooperate."

"Huh..."

Chen Yu was surprised.

"We raised our prices. You see, with this increase, it's all gone."

"1 million! That's a whole million!"

"Chen Yu, why would we increase the price when there's nothing wrong with taking on this cooperation? Why the price increase?"

Zhang Jianming regretted bitterly. Without this increase, the 1 million would have been easily acquired. Now, not only did they not get it, but they had also managed to offend a big client.

"It's normal to raise the price. They're making so much money running Legend; 2 million isn't a big deal for them."

"My goodness, 2 million might not be a big deal for them, but it has to be their willingness to pay. Besides, there are some powerful companies who might not even be willing to pay 200,000, let alone 2 million."

"Haggling for prices is a common practice. I didn't expect Shanda to be so stingy."

Chen Yu was also speechless.

In theory, Chen Tianqiao wasn't that kind of person. The word on the street is that he's quite generous.

Could the rumors be wrong?

"Let's forget it; if they don't want to cooperate, we still have a partnership with NetEase."

Although WJO hadn't made much money for the time being, the big player behind it, NetEase, was a big contributor. As long as they promoted WJO a few more times, Chen Yu wouldn't lose the remaining 800,000.

"That's the only way."

Zhang Jianming nodded helplessly. "What's the next step for us?"

"Let's organize a guild battle."

Chen Yu initiated the third wave of their promotional plan.

However, to their disappointment, the third promotional plan, though executed well, didn't yield significant results.

"What's going on? The concurrent players are still at 30,000?"

"That's the data we received from Westward Journey."

"How is that possible? We conducted a major promotion, and the impact was good. Why is it still 30,000?"

"We can't figure it out either."

In the office, Chen Yu furrowed his brow.

In his plan, after the third wave of promotion, the concurrent players for WJO should have reached 50,000. Yet, there was no growth whatsoever.

"Let's try another wave."

Although WJO wasn't under Chen Yu's direct operation, it had an impact on future promotion costs. After some preparations, Chen Yu launched the fourth wave of promotion for the game.

"How many concurrent players?"

"30,000."

"No increase?"

"No."

"It's fine; we have other ways."

Although things seemed off, Chen Yu didn't give up and initiated the fifth wave of promotion for WJO.

"How many concurrent players?"

"30,000."

"Still no increase?"

"Not only did it not increase, but it also dropped by 2,000."

"Good Lord..."

Pressing his temple, Chen Yu felt a bit dizzy. Continuous five waves of promotion for WJO, and not only did the player count not increase, but it also dropped? What did this mean?

"Should we do another round of promotion?"

Zhang Jianming asked hesitantly.

"No need."

Chen Yu shook his head. "Another round won't help. This is a problem within Westward Journey itself."

"A problem with Westward Journey?"

"Yes."

Chen Yu sighed. "It's likely that Westward Journey has a fundamental flaw."

As he said this, Chen Yu remembered that in his previous life, WJO had undergone a major overhaul. Why was it reworked? Externally, it was because the operational data wasn't favorable, but the truth was that WJO had too many design flaws.

These flaws were not limited to frequent bugs but were even more fatally related to the imbalance of professions.

Though Chen Yu couldn't fully grasp all the intricacies, having only played Westward Journey Online II in his previous life and not Westward Journey Online, he combined this with his past memories and had a fairly good understanding.

"I told you so. Xie Zhang mentioned a few days ago that the professions in Westward Journey aren't balanced. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time."

"I should reason with them."

"Stop! What reason?"

Chen Yu stopped Zhang Jianming. "What can you say to them? Argue that it's not our fault for insufficient promotion but rather that their game is subpar?"

"That's true."

"What's true? If you were in my place, you'd end up in a heated argument with them."

"So, what do we do now? Were these promotion waves in vain?"

"It wasn't entirely in vain. We did get 200,000."

"But they promised 1 million."

"The problem is, you didn't help them reach 100,000 players online simultaneously."

"It's not our fault; it's their issue."

"You see, we're back to the same point."

Chen Yu chuckled wryly. "It's okay. Everyone has been working hard these days, especially Xie Zhang's group. They've gone so far as to level up in Westward Journey to promote better. Let's take a few days off and come back to study this problem."

"Alright."

Zhang Jianming sighed, feeling resigned.

"I should have cooperated with Legend from the beginning."

Sitting alone in his office, Chen Yu couldn't help but regret. Despite The Legend of Mir 2's numerous bugs, it didn't have fatal design flaws.

However, Chen Yu shook his head. Even if he had known how unresponsive Shengda had been to his initial efforts, he wouldn't have acted differently.

"Let's play Westward Journey for now."

His earlier suspicions needed to be confirmed through personal investigation. Chen Yu created an account and chose the Tang Dynasty Officials.

After playing for several hours, Chen Yu's suspicions were confirmed.

Westward Journey Online indeed had severely imbalanced professions.

For instance, the Tang Dynasty Officials he had just chosen—no one wanted to team up with him. Why? Because it was too slow to kill monsters, requiring one-by-one combat. Many players found it bothersome.

The most popular faction was "Dragon Palace", known for its quick leveling through group attacks. Yet, when it came to fighting bosses, it wasn't effective since it was, well, a mage. Might as well GG when faced with a boss.

There were more issues, such as incomplete skill trees and various mission bugs. Surprisingly, the game's graphics, despite being quite poor, received praise. At least the graphics weren't problematic, and it didn't disrupt gameplay.