I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 365 - 134: I See You Just Don’t Want to Improve at All!_1

Chapter 365: Chapter 134: I See You Just Don’t Want to Improve at All!_1

Ke Jin had a very simple task at hand.

Spend the extra 45 million in revenue.

First, he tried increasing the employee benefits.

He announced that the afternoon tea level would be raised again!

Instantly, cheers erupted from all the staff.

However, when settling accounts with Brother Tong Zi, it turned out that these mere tens of thousands of yuan in monthly expenses didn’t even make a dent.

This meant that spending money on things unrelated to the game had no effect.

Even spending on the people involved in making the game did nothing.

Then, Ke Jin began to contemplate optimizing "Eternity."

He called over Cheng Bage from the programming department.

Ke Jin, "Can ’Eternity’ be optimized further?"

Cheng Bage, "Oh, it certainly can! The most common feedback we’ve been getting from players lately is the frame drops during heavy action. It’s gotten so bad that it practically turns into an X-ray wall hack; whenever you start dropping frames en route, it means someone’s nearby. I think we could..."

Ke Jin, "Okay, I’ll allocate 30 million to you. Have it optimized within 5 days."

Cheng Bage, "Thi... this small amount?"

Ke Jin, "Too little? How about 40 million then?"

Cheng Bage, "No, it’s not that... Mr. Ke, optimizing won’t cost much. We just need to lock the maximum frame rate so everyone’s roughly within the same bracket, and allow for overclocking when there’s a lot of on-screen characters. Redoing this system, plus some other optimizations, will cost roughly... 2 million?"

Ke Jin waved his hand in irritation, approved the funds, and sent Cheng Bage away.

He was also cursing in his heart.

For goodness’ sake.

Why was ’Eternity’ from his past life so stubbornly against optimizing the frame drop issue when encountering other players?

Is locking a fixed frame rate really that hard?

Or was that guy from the pig farm secretly selling hardware on the side?

But things from his past life were now far removed from this one; it was pointless to dwell on them. Ke Jin was more worried about the present.

If only 2 million dealt with the current optimizations, what was he to do with the remaining 43 million?

Ke Jin felt that, given his usual bad luck,

if he didn’t get the revenue down below 20 million by the last day, he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully.

"Looking at it this way, spending money on optimization can indeed reduce revenue," he thought.

"But it just can’t consume a lot."

Glancing at the backend showing the remaining 43 million in revenue, Ke Jin started thinking up a new strategy.

Giving away free gaming peripherals to the players?

The money could be spent that way, but it would be too slow.

While a set of gaming peripherals may seem expensive to buy, the actual production cost isn’t high.

A cotton pillow with material and labor, and that’s for good quality, could cost as little as 10 yuan.

But they dare to sell it for one or two hundred yuan.

Markups of ten to twenty times are common.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be that classic saying, "Money from otakus is so easy to earn."

Moreover, Brother Tong Zi would definitely deduct the corresponding revenue based on the production price.

After all, free gifts come without a selling price.

If all 40 million were spent on peripherals, even using the classic three-item combo of a pillow + mug + fridge magnet, the cost of all these little items together probably wouldn’t exceed 10 yuan.

million sets...

Even counting those who had abandoned ’Eternity,’ there are only about 3 million active users monthly... they couldn’t even give them all away.

"How about turning them into virtual game gift packages?" Ke Jin thought for a moment, then immediately shook his head.

That wouldn’t work either.

To the players, virtual gift packages have value, but to the manufacturers, they’re worthless.

They’re just strings of code and data, available to issue in any quantity.

At best, they could only curb the growth of future revenue, but they wouldn’t serve to deplete the current revenue.

Moreover, even if Brother Tong Zi, teeth clenched and heart steeled, told him to just go for it, promising to shoulder the accountability towards System Nebula himself, charging gift packages at their original price to offset the revenue!

But Ke Jin had an agreement with Netcom as well.

Though the final say lay with the top player, the agreement clearly stated that nothing could be done to the detriment of both parties’ interests.

If he recklessly gave out so many virtual gift packages, it would severely disrupt the profits of ’Eternity.’

When a Supreme Skin could be given away for free, its actual virtual value would instantly drop to zero.

It’s simple logic, players would think, "If you gave away the Supreme Skin before, then why would I buy one? I’ll just wait for your next giveaway."

And tycoons who had spent real money to buy them would form an intense backlash.

At that point, forget about Netcom not seeking accountability,

such a move would seriously damage the gaming industry’s environment and break every peer’s rice bowl.

After all, the top player was no longer on the same small scale as it was two years ago.

Two years ago, even if the player "Buys it" for one yuan in the shop, the impact on the industry, though limited, was at least like stirring a huge cauldron with a toothpick.

Doing the same now would have a much greater impact.

"This won’t work; that won’t work either," Ke Jin scratched his head.

Good grief, I’m about to sprout an itch on my brain!

His gaze settled on the computer screen in front of him, his eyes vacant as he pondered for a solution.

But soon, Ke Jin spotted a piece of news in the trending searches.

It was about the national soccer team losing to a foreign high school team in a friendly match.

This wasn’t exactly news anymore.

What year is it anyway? Ke Jin’s inner peace was undisturbed.

But this trending topic inspired Ke Jin.

Tournaments!

"Hiss! How could I forget that?"

On Blue Star, there had never been any officially organized gaming leagues to speak of, at most some tycoon races were organized by the community.