Chapter 94: A Flood of Pay-to-Win Games

Soon, more and more players noticed the game "Lifeline," and comments about it started to appear on the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.

"A text adventure game? Wow, I thought Alex Parker was stuck in making pay-to-win games, but now he's back to making single-player games?"

"After making pay-to-win games, he made a poker game, and now he's making a text adventure game. When it comes to being versatile, Alex Parker is unbeatable!"

"Geez, 'Thunderbolt Poker' just came out a week ago! His productivity is off the charts!"

"One yuan is so cheap. I'll buy it first and see."

"A real clearance sale! Everything for one yuan! You won't get ripped off for a yuan, you won't get fooled for a yuan, and you can't buy anything with a yuan because you're broke!"

"Whoa, the person above! That was quite a shift in tone. For a second, I thought you were Alex Parker's marketing guy!"

"Has anyone tried it? Is it fun?"

"I played it a bit. It's very interesting! I won't spoil it, but the immersion is very strong."

"How many people like me Googled '150 rads'?"

"The story is really good. Did Alex write it himself? I didn't know he was so good at writing stories!"

"Come on, it's just a text adventure game. What's so addictive about it? Have you never seen a good game before? Anyway, gotta go, Taylor's calling me."

"Any guides? Has anyone achieved the perfect ending?"

...

Quickly, the download numbers for "Lifeline" began to soar!

The hype for "Thunderbolt Poker" was still rising, with over a hundred thousand daily logins, all of whom saw "Lifeline."

"Lifeline" maintained a high rating of around four and a half stars, which attracted more players to download it.

Moreover, "Lifeline" was very affordable, priced at just one yuan, practically free.

Many players started promoting it on social media platforms like X, and "150 rads" even became a trending search term.

Soon, the 24-hour sales data for "Lifeline" was in: 39,874!

This figure was more than double the 24-hour sales of "Plants vs. Zombies" and just slightly lower than "Sanctuary Defender."

Of course, the high sales were mainly due to the low price. "Lifeline" was sold at one yuan, ten times cheaper than those two games. In terms of revenue, "Lifeline" might only generate three to four hundred thousand yuan a month, still far less than "Plants vs. Zombies."

Additionally, the long-term profitability and spread of this text adventure game would be much lower, as this genre is relatively niche.

But that didn't matter. For Alex, "Lifeline" was primarily a test of the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform's promotional capabilities. So far, it seemed that the platform's promotion power was comparable to a mid-level recommendation spot in the official app store.

At least, the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform was off to a good start. In a competitive environment, gaining so many users in just over a week was nothing short of miraculous.

...

Lin Chaoxu also hadn't expected that just one homepage recommendation could be turned into such a big deal by Alex Parker.

He initially thought Alex would use the recommendation to promote "I Am MT," which would just increase his net profit by over ten million, not causing too much damage to Dynasty Entertainment.

However, with the release of "Thunderbolt Poker," Lin Chaoxu immediately realized that Alex Parker was not a small-minded designer; his ambition was much bigger than anyone had imagined!

In less than a year, this young designer had released four different types of games, and all of them sold well!

Especially with the emergence of the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, Alex Parker's intentions became very clear.

But it was too late now. The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform had already garnered a loyal user base.

Now, Alex had both money and users. The only thing missing was a key product.

Games like "I Am MT," while profitable, lacked good reviews. "Plants vs. Zombies" was ultimately a single-player casual game. In the eyes of many players and industry insiders, Alex was not yet considered a top-tier designer.

This wave would take a few more months to settle, and many players and designers were eagerly awaiting Alex Parker's next move.

What would he do next?

Would he continue to make pay-to-win games? Keep expanding his user base? Or perhaps develop other types of games?

No one knew what Alex Parker was planning.

...

Within two months, the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform's user base steadily grew.

"Thunderbolt Poker" stabilized with a cumulative user base of nine million, maintaining a daily active user count of over 2.7 million, becoming the main driver for expanding the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.

The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, while not yet able to challenge Dynasty Entertainment or Divine Fantasy Gaming, had already become a notable gaming channel.

"I Am MT" continued to operate steadily. Although its monthly revenue had declined, Alex still earned nearly ten million yuan in net income each month.

During this time, the gaming industry also saw some changes.

Several card-based games appeared on the official app market and major channels. These games had various themes, including martial arts, fantasy, and anime, some based on original IP, others adapted from popular novels and anime, but they all had one thing in common: their gameplay was heavily based on "I Am MT."

From combat systems to VIP charging systems and various guides, they all borrowed from "I Am MT." Even if there were some changes, they were superficial and didn't alter the core mechanics.

These designers hadn't fully understood the profitability model of "I Am MT" and were afraid that any changes to key settings might cause the game to fail.

Even Dynasty Entertainment released a game called "Demon Slayers," adapted from a popular online novel, but its core gameplay was very similar to "I Am MT."

This was inevitable. The characteristics of "I Am MT," from its combat display to its gameplay system and profitability model, were too unique. No matter how these imitation games tried to disguise themselves, players who had played "I Am MT" could easily spot the similarities.

To make them completely unrecognizable would mean changing the entire game type and profitability model, making imitation meaningless.

These games appeared one after another within two to three weeks, each trying to be the first to avoid missing the opportunity.

Soon, players were up in arms.

One pay-to-win game wasn't enough; now you're flooding us with them? Is there no end to this? Why do you all keep copying Alex Parker's tricks? Can't you learn something better?