503 Back to a Familiar Place

Pei Qian nodded. "Alright, Teacher He. Let's get started."

He An's expression lightened. "Yes, that's the attitude you should have if you want to learn. Today, we'll be talking about a few of the fundamental concepts associated with game design theory.

"This fundamental concept is 'accommodation'! 'Accommodation' means choosing different design genres, paths, and advertising methods for different groups of gamers.

"All in all, every single detail of the game has to match the target audience. A single mistake in detail could result in the game's sudden death. You cannot afford to be sloppy."

Pei Qian: "?"

A single mistake in detail could result in the game's sudden death? Why have all my games been so successful, then? Do you mean that I've perfectly nailed all the right answers?

The corners of Pei Qian's mouth twitched. For some reason, he felt like Teacher He was lashing at his corpse.

On the other hand, He An did not detect anything strange about 'Ma Yang's expression. He continued speaking. "Tengda's games are classic examples that are worthy of being taught in textbooks!

"The Lonely Desert Road was a game with low production value. It was advertised by UP Masters who dissed it.

"Game Designer was a game that broke the fourth wall. It was advertised using large-scale performance art.

"Be Quiet was a game with complicated rules that required a lot of patience. It was advertised using a large-scale ARG that involved many people. At the same time, the ARG filtered players and protected the game's environment.

He An's teaching materials were filled with content.

As he talked about each game, he went through details contained in the teaching materials and meticulously analyzed the games' characteristics. At the same time, he explained every step of each advertising method, deciphering how news of the game was spread at each point. Lastly, he described the excited reaction of the entire internet to each game.

Pei Qian was forced to relive all of his past failures.

He An was rubbing salt in his wounds…

Yet, Pei Qian had no other choice. This was one-on-one tutoring. If He An had been giving a speech on stage, Pei Qian could have gone to sleep or played phone games without anyone bothering about him.

However, since the two men were now face-to-face, He An would easily notice whenever Pei Qian got distracted.

What if that pissed Boss He off and caused him to leave without turning back?

Thus, Pei Qian had no choice but to listen intently to every detail and take it as he was learning from negative examples.

The entire plan took He An nearly two hours to go through. He analyzed everything about Pei Qian's 'past failures', from the games' genres and special gameplay to the advertising methods. At the same time, he lashed at every inch of Pei Qian's corpse.

At that point, Boss He stopped to sip his coffee. Seeing that this part of the teaching had come to a close, Pei Qian quickly raised his own questions.

"Teacher He, based on what you just said, can I say that as long as I get the advertising 'wrong', the entire project would fail?"

He An put his coffee cup down and nodded. "You can't say you would fail for sure, but your chances of failing would definitely be higher! It'll be just like how people who engage in false advertising get scorned. The same logic applies.

"However, our games market has not matured yet. Thus, games with paywalls that are produced in a slipshod manner and that peddle hostility prioritize cheating gamers into playing their games first. Their false advertising ends up increasing their income.

"Even if a small percentage of the people that they managed to rope in continue to play the game, it would be worth the sacrifice as long as they have high purchasing power.

"Still, for standalone games of higher quality, messing with false advertising would almost guarantee miserable failure."

Pei Qian's eyes lit up.

Miserable failure?

Boss He was very careful with words. The fact that he was describing things in that way showed that the consequences would be extremely dire!

Pei Qian could not help but rejoice inwardly. He was still learning something useful!

Struggle was still being developed. If he could apply the knowledge that he acquired into that game, wouldn't he be able to cause the games department to incur huge losses, just like he had always wanted?

…

At 5 PM…

He An kept his teaching materials. "Alright, that's all for today's class. I've finished what I wanted to teach. You can keep your copy of the notes. Review those successful plans when you get back. As time goes by, your standard would improve.

"As the saying goes, you can learn new things by revisiting the old."

Pei Qian: "…"

Do I still have to constantly revisit and relive my experience of being back-stabbed? Doesn't that sound overly cruel?!

Forget it. I'll take it that the teacher has instructed me to keep learning from a book of negative examples.

Pei Qian watched as He An packed up and prepared to leave. Then, he quickly asked, "Teacher He, I have another question. You talked about a few of Tengda's plans during this lesson. For the next lesson, are you going to continue to—?"

He An's expression darkened. "Boss Ma, your learning attitude is good, but you cannot keep picking and choosing what you want to learn! You have to trust that I will choose the most suitable material to teach you based on your characteristics and your standard.

"As for what exactly I'm going to teach you, you will find out when the time comes. You don't have to ask so many questions."

Pei Qian: "…alright."

After sending He An off, Pei Qian could not help but feel sorrowful.

He An wasn't planning to spend all the classes teaching Pei Qian the basic concepts and foundational knowledge of game design through all of Tengda's past games, was he?

That would be unbearable!

It was true that Pei Qian could do the opposite of what the teaching materials taught him and then learn from that experience. However, that would still be one additional step!

Why couldn't he learn about failure from the very beginning?

Pei Qian really wanted to hear about He An's experience in failing, but He An had the impression that teaching Pei Qian about that would only hurt him and not benefit him. Thus, He An insisted on keeping mum about it.

What was Pei Qian to do?

He pondered for a moment. Money… he only had several hundred thousand yuan left. He had to spend it all anyway. How about… hiring another teacher to teach him specifically about failures?

Then, Pei Qian would be able to gain experience from failures and learn lessons from successes.

Learning about both sides of the coin would be even better, right?

The System had given him similar advice before. Although Pei Qian would be given a lot of money, he had still been advised to take one course at a time.

Otherwise, he would be biting off more than he could chew. Taking so many courses would probably cause him to fail the System's examination in the end.

Yet, the System had not said that he would not be allowed to hire two teachers for the same subject, right?

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more reliable it seemed. He quickly called Assistant Xin and explained his new requests.

All in all, the operations would be the same as before. However, instead of looking for famous and successful game designers, Assistant Xin would just have to look for relatively famous and skillful game designers who had failed multiple times before.

If they had put everything into one project and lost before, that would be even better.

At the other end of the line, Assistant Xin did not ask any questions again. All she said was that designers like that would be harder to find than successful designers like He An and that she would need about two days or so.

After all, there were only so many designers like He An—who was experienced, famous, and successful—in the game industry. All Assistant Xin had to do was ask around.

However, to find a designer that was famous to a certain extent and had failed before… would be much more difficult.

Since Pei Qian was not in a hurry, he found two days acceptable.

Just as he packed up and prepared to leave, his cell phone rang. It was Zhang Yuan.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and guessed that DGE Esports Club had made progress, and so Zhang Yuan was looking to report the news to Pei Qian.

He heard Zhang Yuan's voice from through the phone. "Boss Pei, I want to give you an update. We've chosen a location for the club, hired a couple of players, and purchased some computers from ROF Computer-Installation. The computers have arrived, and they have high specifications. Boss Ma is very happy…"

Pei Qian was not at all interested in this. All of those things had been confirmed before, and so this was not much of an update.

He could not tell what the actual situation was like through the telephone conversation. Thus, he decided to make a trip down some time and walk around so that he could finally relax.

Pei Qian nonchalantly asked, "So where's the club located?"

"Oh, Boss Pei, we're all familiar with this location. We always go there."

Through the phone, Pei Qian could not see Zhang Yuan's expression. However, from the latter's tone, Pei Qian could guess that he was smiling. "It's at Ming Yun Villas."

Pei Qian: "?"

Ming Yun Villas?

Pei Qian immediately panicked once he heard the familiar name. There were so many villas in Jingzhou. Why did he have to choose that one?

Zhang Yuan proudly reported, "Boss Pei, I did everything according to your requests! You told me not to save on the location, to splurge as much as I can, and to choose a villa if I can help it.

"Thus, I browsed all the villas in Jingzhou. After looking around, I learned that Ming Yun Villas is the most expensive! "Ai, back then, when you chose Ming Yun Villas, the place was extremely deserted. Now, however… the situation is completely different.

"What's more, Ming Yun Villas will probably be Jingzhou City's new commercial district in the future. It's getting busier and busier already.

"I think the club cannot be in the city center because it'll be too busy and players would not be able to focus. However, the club cannot be in a deserted location with insufficient facilities either, or it would be too inconvenient.

"On top of that, I've worked in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Ming Yun Villas branch for a while, and I'm quite familiar with the surroundings.

"Thus, Ming Yun Villas seemed the most appropriate on the whole!

"What's more, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe can deliver our meals."

Pei Qian: "…"

You've made so much sense that I have nothing to say in response.

According to Zhang Yuan, Ming Yun Villas seemed like a pretty good location.

Although it would be connected to Ming Yun Private Kitchen, the Esports Club could not possibly collaborate with a restaurant to stab Pei Qian in the back, could it? It wouldn't make sense!

Furthermore, ever since Ming Yun Villas became famous, all of Ming Yun Villas became known as the gathering place of Jingzhou's rich and famous. Of course, the property prices skyrocketed. Renting a villa now was bound to cost a lot of money.

It did not seem like a bad thing to be able to spend that much.

Pei Qian nodded. "Hmm, alright. The villa is more expensive than average, but I think it would be well worth it!"

Zhang Yuan cleared his throat and sounded pleased with himself as he said, "Boss Pei, the best part is that it was not more expensive than other places. In fact, it was cheaper!

Pei Qian was stunned. "Huh? Why?"

Zhang Yuan continued speaking proudly. "After I chose Ming Yun Villas, I made a trip down and spoke to Branch Manager Lin Canrong and Manager Cui. I told them that you wanted to rent a villa to start an esports Club, Boss Pei.

"Manager Cui was over the moon, and he said that he had to support your business! Although the esports Club would not bring much value to Ming Yun Villas, they remembered the grace that you showed to them in the past!

"Still, all the houses in Ming Yun Villas had been sold. Thus, Manager Cui contacted the developers who had bought multiple houses there on our behalf and asked if anyone was willing to rent a villa to us.

"Boss Pei, guess what happened next?"

Pei Qian really wanted to say 'I don't want to!'

However, he gave in at last. The corners of his mouth twitched as he asked, "There happened to be someone I knew who was willing to rent a villa to us at a low price?"

"That's right!" Zhang Yuan sounded extremely excited. "Do you remember Boss Li of Fu Hui Investments? He was the one who saw your fighting spirit when you started Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and who finally acknowledged your wisdom."

Pei Qian: "…"

Can I forget him? That fellow has been sticking to me like glue!

Zhang Yuan continued speaking. "Boss Li had already invested in the area before Ming Yun Private Kitchen became famous. He opened a bar, a cafe, and other businesses. After that, he predicted that Ming Yun Private Kitchen would become famous, and so he bought three villas!

"One of the exquisitely-renovated villas had remained empty all this time. When he heard that Boss Pei wanted to rent one, Boss Li contributed it without a moment's hesitation. He said he could even waive the rent."

Pei Qian spat, "How could he?!"

Zhang Yuan quickly said, "That's right, Boss Pei. That's what I said, too. I knew you wouldn't take advantage of him, but Boss Li insisted. I kept arguing until… I agreed to pay a discounted rate.

"Manager Cui had already said that, since the club belonged to you, he would give it the same benefits as Ming Yun Private Kitchen. That means the villa's property management fees and cleaning fees would be permanently waived, and our utility bill would be perpetually halved. We will also get parking lots and a professional gardening team to maintain the garden…"

"It was hard to turn down, and so I agreed."

Pei Qian was silent.

A long time later, he said, "Give me the address. I'll go down tomorrow."