allonlinenovel Chapter 217 Reward Yourself by Writing Your Own Praise
Chapter 217 Reward Yourself by Writing Your Own Praise
The next morning, Lu Ran was woken up by a phone call from Zhou Mingzhe.
"Weibo has added games again." On the other end of the phone, Zhou Mingzhe's voice sounded very calm, almost unnaturally calm.
Lu Ran opened his eyes and glanced at the time—7:30 in the morning.
"How many models?"
"Five," Zhou Mingzhe said. "Adding to the previous five, Weibo Games Center now has a total of ten mini-games."
Lu Ran yawned and sat up in bed: "Okay, I got it."
"That's it?" Zhou Mingzhe was taken aback. "Aren't you in a hurry?"
"What's the rush?" Lu Ran rubbed his eyes. "Our game center is launching the day after tomorrow. Let's go see what cards our opponents are playing today."
After hanging up the phone, Lu Ran lay on the bed for a while before getting up, stretching, and opening Weibo.
The third trending topic was #WeiboGamesCenterAddsFiveMoreGames#, and clicking on it revealed a jubilant comment section:
"Holy crap, is Weibo trying to become a gaming platform?"
"I've tried all five new games, and the 'Hopscotch' game is really fun!"
"Puzzle Master is also good, but it's a bit hard on the eyes."
"Weibo's move is commendable; there are more and more mini-games now."
Indeed, whether it's Weibo or their TUTU, as the number of games increases, the ultimate beneficiaries are the player community.
Many customers may not be that fond of a game; they simply enjoy playing games.
Lu Ran flipped through the pages one by one, a slow smile curving his lips.
Then he went into the game center and tried out all five new games one by one.
Hopscotch: Control a character to hop across a grid; landing on special squares triggers effects. The gameplay is simple, but the level design is mediocre, with repetitive levels starting from the third.
"Puzzle Master": A jigsaw puzzle game where the images are landscape photos uploaded by Weibo users. The concept is good, but the puzzle pieces are too small, making it difficult to play on a mobile screen.
Breakout: A classic Breakout game with no innovation and no special effects.
"Memory Match": A card-matching game where the cards are based on Weibo emojis. I played two rounds, and the card backs were exactly the same; I had to memorize them completely.
Fruit Ninja: The name sounds familiar, but the gameplay is completely different—instead of swiping your finger across the screen to slice fruit, you tap the fruit to make it disappear. The controls feel clunky, and there's noticeable lag.
Lu Ran played all five games in less than twenty minutes.
Then he put down his phone, looked at the ceiling, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"This is just filling space," he muttered. "I can already tell that Weibo has run out of ideas."
None of these five games are competitive.
Hopscotch is not as good as his 4399 Curry's similar game, Super Mario Flash; the version of Fruit Ninja in his previous life couldn't even pass the App Store's review. If it were the kind of swipe-to-slice-fruit effect from his previous life, Lu Ran would have given it a second thought.
Most importantly—all of these games are single-player.
There are no friend rankings, no achievement system, no points redemption, and no social elements whatsoever.
Weibo Games Center displays ten games, like isolated islands on that page.
Perhaps because it's a newly launched app, there hasn't been a friend system yet.
Or perhaps Weibo's unique mechanism makes it difficult to implement a friend system in games.
After all, a single Weibo celebrity account can easily have millions of followers.
Renting such a large server for such a small game is clearly not profitable.
The player finished playing, closed the app, and left.
We can't retain our employees.
In comparison, TUTU has an absolute advantage in terms of cost due to having fewer friends.
"Brother Zhou," Lu Ran called Zhou Mingzhe back, "Have you tried those five new games on Weibo?"
"I tried it," Zhou Mingzhe said. "Hopscotch was alright, the others were so-so."
"Is this acceptable?"
"It can't compare to ours, but it's passable compared to other games on the market," Zhou Mingzhe retorted. "Are you trying to get me to praise you?"
Lu Ran laughed: "Haha, you caught me. Notify the tech department that the game center will launch tomorrow as planned. Also..." He paused, "Have the operations team prepare for tomorrow's upcoming event."
"What activity?"
"Let's call it the 'Gaming Master Challenge'," Lu Ran said. "Starting tomorrow, within a week, users who complete designated achievements in the TUTU Game Center can redeem a limited-edition rabbit skin. I'll send you the detailed achievement list in a bit."
Zhou Mingzhe was silent for two seconds: "You're really a sly old fox."
"Shut up," Lu Ran laughed. "How dare you talk to your boss like that? You're being fined 800 yuan."
...
Nine o'clock in the morning, in the office of Tutu Technology.
When Lu Ran arrived, he found that everyone in the technical department was already there, all looking energetic and completely unaffected by Weibo's new game.
"President Lu!" Zou Xin was the first to rush over, "Have you seen those five new games on Weibo?"
"I saw it, so what?"
"It's awful!" Zou Xin's expression was exaggerated, like an explorer who had discovered a new continent. "That 'Fruit Ninja' game, you actually have to click! Click to cut fruit! What kind of brain circuit is that?"
The bespectacled intern next to him chimed in, "And that Breakout game, it doesn't even have any special effects, it's not as good as the version I played in middle school."
"Memory Match is even more outrageous," another girl raised her hand. "The pictures on the back of the cards are exactly the same, so it relies entirely on memory. You get sleepy while playing it."
Lu Ran couldn't help but laugh as he listened to the group of young people chattering away.
They've gotten used to fine food and now look down on the dregs.
"Alright, alright, stop complaining." He raised his hand to quiet the crowd. "They have ten games, after all, while we only have thirty. What's there to be proud of?"
Everyone was stunned for a moment.
Then the bespectacled intern said timidly, "Mr. Lu, thirty models is twenty more than ten..."
"I know," Lu Ran said seriously, "but it's Weibo, a big company, so we have to be humble."
Zhou Mingzhe peeked out from behind the screen and pushed up his glasses: "Your expression doesn't look like you're being modest."
Lu Ran ignored him, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up a marker.
"The game center launches tomorrow, and the operations team will coordinate the events. Let me go over the process again—"
He wrote a few keywords on the whiteboard:
[Go live at 9 AM] [Promote activities at 10 AM] [Monitor throughout the day] [Review in the evening]
"At 9:00 AM sharp, the Game Center will open on time. All TUTU users will see the entry on the homepage."
At 10:00 AM sharp, the operations team released an announcement for the "Game Master Challenge" event in the official community. The points leaderboard, achievement leaderboard, and friend rankings will all be activated simultaneously.
"Monitor server load 24/7, and immediately expand capacity if there are any problems. Don't try to save that little bit of money."
"At 8 PM, everyone stay for a meeting to review the day's data. Once we have the data from the first day, we'll see what the next steps are."
He put down his pen and glanced around: "Do you understand everything?"
"Understood!" everyone responded in unison.
Lu Ran nodded and added, "By the way, during the event, if anyone climbs to first place on the leaderboard, remember to post a message praising them in the community. We want to create an atmosphere where—'Playing games on TUTU can win you honor, make friends, and even win the rabbit skin.'"
The intern with glasses raised his hand: "Mr. Lu, what if I were to come in first?"
"You?" Lu Ran glanced at him. "If you come in first, I'll transfer you to the operations department, and as a reward, you'll write your own self-praise speech."
The crowd laughed.
The bespectacled intern sheepishly shrank back, muttering to himself:
"Then I'll have to control the rankings."
"How about we aim for second place first?"
...