Plants vs Zombies Online was Li Mu's magical revamp of Plants vs Zombies. While keeping everything from the original Plants vs Zombies, he made the game into an online game. Although it was an online game, Li Mu didn't develop it in the direction of a traditional MMORPG, but instead made it into a social game.
The gameplay was similar to Happy Farm, as well as Paradise Town, which was later released overseas. Friends could steal from each other, or help each other out. Moreover, in Plants vs Zombies Online, there was a lot more room for friends to help each other than in Paradise Town. In Paradise Town, friends could help each other out on the farm, help each other with quests, and trade with each other. In Plants vs Zombies Online, friends could not only do what they did in Paradise Town, but most importantly, they could also help their friends defend against zombies, and even challenge levels with their teammates!
Li Mu firmly believed that the depth and interaction between friends in Plants vs Zombies Online was more than one level higher than in Paradise Town. This game would definitely be more social than Paradise Town.
More importantly, history had proven that Plants vs Zombies was far more fun to play than Happy Farm. This was because Plants vs Zombies had always been the most fun tower defense game in Li Mu's mind. In his previous life, when the game was released, it immediately took the world by storm, becoming a truly phenomenal game. If Happy Farm was compared to Legend of Mir 2, then Plants vs Zombies was comparable to World of Warcraft.
Therefore, Li Mu had absolute confidence that once Plants vs Zombies Online was released, it would immediately make the entire world fall in love with it, and become a phenomenal game.
The reason why Li Mu didn't release Plants vs Zombies Online was because he needed to wait for the various data centers to take shape before he could provide enough bandwidth for the game's global operations. However, when the game was ready for a global release, Li Mu once again hid it at the bottom of the box. The reason why he didn't release it was because he wanted to use it during the SARS outbreak to divert the attention of the world's citizens.
As someone who had been reborn, Li Mu knew how bad the media's coverage of Hua Xia was in his previous life. In his previous life, the damage that SARS had done to Hua Xia's international image was far beyond what many people could imagine. This time, Li Mu couldn't allow the media to use this opportunity to smear Hua Xia's international image. Therefore, his plan was, Aren't the media trying to brainwash the citizens? Fine, I'll use an even more brainwashing game to make it impossible for the media to brainwash me!
Think about it, if the media were to tell a person whose alarm clock was set at three in the morning, "Hey, there's an outbreak of an infectious disease on the other side of the world. It's very scary, and you can get infected at any time. The culprit is a certain country." What kind of response would that person give? I'm willing to give up my sleep just to steal vegetables, and you're telling me what's happening on the other side of the world? Why the f * ck would I care?
Kong Lingyu and Fang Xudong quickly understood Li Mu's intentions. Every country's government liked to divert the attention of their citizens. Take America for example. When the domestic unemployment rate was high, the economic situation was grim, and the subprime mortgage crisis was happening, the government would do something overseas, telling the citizens that they were defending world peace in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then they would tell them, "Look, Hua Xia is on the other side of the world, and the smog is getting worse. How bad is it?" "Look, the reporter in front randomly picked a car on the street, touched it with his hand, and there's a thick layer of dust!"
The citizens were confused by this information, and it was easy for them to forget what they were originally paying attention to, and shift their attention from the world around them to overseas. This was the standard operation of diverting attention. It was like the jamming bombs released by a fighter jet when it was locked on by a missile. The chaff that was thrown all over the sky would interfere with the missile's focus, allowing the main body of the fighter jet to escape from the threat of the missile.
From a country's government to a celebrity who had an affair, everyone knew how to divert attention. Li Mu was the same.
What Li Mu wanted was to push this game in front of every single user, and get them addicted to it in a short period of time. Once they were addicted, other than the daily necessities of eating, drinking, and working, they would spend the rest of their time focused on the game. They wouldn't have the energy to pay attention to what was happening overseas. By the time they recovered from their addiction, the SARS epidemic might have already been brought under control.
Moreover, there was another point that was somewhat metaphysical but also very reasonable. Games could make people feel relaxed and happy. When people were in a good mood, they would also become more optimistic. Under the premise that they were in a good mood and optimistic, the possibility of instilling conspiracy theories and threats into them would be greatly reduced, and they might even be rejected by others.
In order to ensure that Plants vs Zombies Online could achieve the effect he wanted, Li Mu asked Fang Xudong many times if it was possible to ensure that Plants vs Zombies Online could run stably around the world once it was released. Fang Xudong gave Li Mu a very clear answer:
"Li Zong, our data processing center is already starting to take shape. It's a piece of cake to handle the data requirements of this game. Moreover, the bandwidth and servers of our YY, YYNET, and YY gaming halls are all independent, and each has a certain amount of redundancy. If Plants vs Zombies Online has too many users, we can immediately use the redundancy bandwidth of other products. In short, we can guarantee that the game will be released and run stably!"
With that, Li Mu was completely relieved. "This game is very important, so all departments must work closely together. We can't let anything go wrong with the game. This is our second game that has taken the world by storm, and it's a popular game that has at least three years of lifespan. If we manage this game to its peak, Makino Technology will be able to get listed on NASDAQ!"
Li Mu's ambition left the others in disbelief. Plants vs Zombies Online was indeed a very good game. It could be said that it had pioneered a whole new gaming model, and had tightly integrated the game with YY and friends. However, the game wasn't a true MMORPG. Its core was that it was free to play. In this day and age where most games relied on credits to make a profit, the profit margin of Plants vs Zombies Online was very hard to imagine.
To Li Mu, he was very clear about the future development of the game. The games that would really make money would gradually be those free to play online games. Free to play games could greatly lower the barrier to entry. First, they could bring in a large number of users with no barrier to entry, then use the game itself to increase the stickiness of these free players. Once the stickiness of the free players was established, they could then use some additional products in the game as well as the corresponding operations to attract the users to pay for the game.
Although King of Glory and League of Legends were both free to play games, the daily profit from selling skins was over a hundred million. This was the development plan Li Mu had for Plants vs Zombies Online. Therefore, in Li Mu's magical revamp of Plants vs Zombies Online, apart from being able to play the game for free, in the online mode, they could also purchase items to speed up the growth of their plants.
Other than that, Li Mu had also introduced a variety of skins for decoration purposes in the game. For example, the users could decorate their own villas, or use their backyards to grow plants. There were many different types of skins for plants with different effects. Even the most common peashooter had more than thirty different skins and dressing modes. These skins were like a YY show, completely up to the users to choose from.
Li Mu believed that through the careful management of Plants vs Zombies Online, as well as continuous upgrades and innovations, he would be able to inject a strong and long lasting vitality into the game, bringing the overall Makino Technology to another level.
… …
March 20th.
The overseas users all received a pop-up notification from YY.
In this pop-up, YY uploaded the SARS special page in various languages. It also published all the accurate and proven information, allowing the overseas users to receive a very important piece of information:
Although the current situation of SARS was rather serious, it was not as distorted as reported by their own country's media. YY had already published the latest and most detailed information about the development of the epidemic. The users could use this data to objectively think and make judgments.
Moreover, the Hua Xia government was currently placing great importance on the SARS epidemic. They were doing their best to contain the spread of SARS in Hua Xia, and were looking for a way to completely eliminate it. Therefore, the overseas people did not need to resent and hate Hua Xia. They should put aside all their prejudices and look forward to the epidemic being completely vanquished.
On this special page, Li Mu recorded a short video. In the video, he sat in his office and spoke to the camera in English, "I hope that the YY users and the people around the world can look at the epidemic in Asia in the right light. In Asia, the governments of Hua Xia and the neighboring countries are actively dealing with the epidemic, and are doing their best to prevent the harm that the epidemic may bring to the people.
"At the same time, I also believe that in the face of a disease, the people of the world should stand on the same front. After all, no disease is an enemy that a country or a people can face alone, but an enemy that all of humanity must face together.
"In the long river of history, humans have discovered antibiotics, found a way to transplant organs, and finally defeated smallpox. These are victories that belong to the people of the world, and the people of the world are enjoying the fruits of these victories.
"Now, there are still many diseases in front of mankind waiting for the joint efforts of all mankind to overcome, whether it is cancer, AIDS, or other diseases that are still tormenting mankind and taking away human health and lives. Of course, this includes the SARS that is currently happening in Asia. Medical workers all over the world are working hard to overcome SARS. Let us look forward to them winning this war in the near future."
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