Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 320: 318: Why Am I Such a Big Hot Search?

To thank the players for buying Mirage, greatly helping the development of Cloud Dream.

But since the cries of protest are not too loud at the moment, there’s no hurry. He can wait a bit, and distribute them at a more appropriate time.

On the other hand, Gary, seeing the overwhelming congratulatory messages from the media and the heated discussion on [Mirage 2.0], decided to delay the launch of his plan.

He needed a certain base of heat to hype up the topic. If he only relied on spending money, it would be hard to generate a real industry-wide discussion.

But the current popularity was too high, it was all praise, if he came out waving the “anti-monopoly” topic, there would not be enough attention from netizens to consider it seriously.

So he patiently waited for the opportunity to come.

But the enthusiasm of the players far exceeded his expectations, and the media kept adding fuel to the fire.

After congratulating Mirage for breaking the hundred million sales, they started to discuss the second-generation Mirage, discussing its performance, and praising Lincoln.

Some people, based on the generous discount measures given by Lincoln, compared the discount measures given to old players by NetDragon, Flying Fox, and Wild Island when updating — quite often, they don’t have them at all.

They came to an obvious conclusion — it’s a complete knockout!

There’s simply no room for comparison.

This further solidified Lincoln’s positive reputation as a “conscientious manufacturer,” “player-oriented,” “not a leek-cutting operation,” and so on.

Through another round of media flattery and comparisons, players have fewer complaints about Lincoln launching a new device so quickly.

Lincoln was always watching these contents.

Although he knew very well that many media outlets are turncoats.

When you are in the limelight, they don’t mind praising you to the skies, as long as praising you brings traffic. They could say even the most cringey words without any psychological barrier.

But when you encounter difficulties and are disliked by netizens, they don’t mind berating you fiercely. By then, they probably won’t remember their past friendship with you.

Lincoln understood this very well, but it didn’t prevent him from happily browsing these flattering contents.

Who doesn’t like hearing someone singing their praises?

*

On the other side, Gary was having a hard time.

He waited until noon to finally feel that the time was right.

— Not perfect, but if he waited any longer, the opportunity would be missed.

He dialled a number that had long been stored in his mobile phone, a number he vowed he would never call again in his life: [Spiritual Rhinoceros Advertising Department].

“Hello? NetDragon, Gary. I made a reservation yesterday. What’s the status of the ad spot now?”

“Available.”

The woman on the other side had a familiar voice, but Gary decided to act as if he didn’t recognize her and went on in a business-like tone, “Two hours. Our staff will send you the details. If necessary, I will extend the time, or I may not need to.”

“Okay, we will cooperate with you.” The woman’s voice carried a faint smile.

It’s not that she’s unprofessional, it’s just that she heard “2 hours” and couldn’t help but think of the last time.

That man bought a 6-hour ad spot for hot searches, but it only showed for 10 minutes before being debunked and the order was cancelled right away.

Now, “2 hours,” “possible extension,” obviously he had learned from his previous mistakes.

By the time Gary hung up the phone, his fingers were clenched around his mobile.

— He had heard the implicit smile, and it brought back unpleasant memories.

The only good news was that because Cloud Dream always launched new equipment on Saturdays, and anyone could tell that Mirage was bound to break the hundred million sales, countless media would congratulate it at the earliest. It was destined to top the hot searches.

So the hot search header ad space that is usually highly contested had been left untouched for the whole day.

That’s why he could wait as long as he wanted until he felt the timing was right to call to place an order, without delaying things.

It also made his plan of “buying short first, then extending if needed” possible, avoiding being fleeced again.

The Spiritual Rhinoceros Advertising Department is very efficient at collecting fees and getting work done.

Soon, the #Mirage 2.0# on the Hot Searches top headline was replaced by an explosive #Cloud Dream monopoly#, dropping it to the second place on the hot search.

Mavis and countless netizens noticed this hot search and opened it to check it out.

But Mavis was faster. After quickly reading the post, she even took a screenshot to show Lincoln.

So Lincoln was quite interested in reading on:

‘The prosperity of monopoly is a false illusion.

Cloud Dream’s first-generation virtual reality game console – Mirage, officially broke the hundred million sales today, marking the breaking of a hundred million Daxia game players.

Both media and players feel jubilant, as if the gaming industry has entered an unprecedented boom, a time of great opportunities, great development, and great hope is coming.

But that’s an illusion.

If people could be more rational and temporarily exclude Cloud Dream.

Then it would be easy to find that apart from Cloud Dream, the number of gamers has hardly increased at all.

Not only has it not increased, but it is also rapidly shrinking.

As long as we look at the dismal sales of the main VR equipment of NetDragon, Flying Fox, and Wild Island, the former industry leaders, you can get a glimpse of the overall industry development dilemma.

If the former leaders are so unbearable, what about the once mediocre and even bottom game companies?

Are they facing even more difficult predicaments?

In this way, behind the vigorous development of Cloud Dream is a big depression and downfall of the game and the entire industry.

Why did this happen?

There’s only one explanation: Cloud Dream’s absolute technological monopoly has broken the healthy trend of sustainable development in the industry, draining all lifeblood from the entire industry to garnish its own glory.

But this is merely the adornment of flowers and the addition of fuel to the fire.

Lincoln is good, he has a conscience, he is kind to players, always remembering to do well by them…

But, is this really the truth?

Is there really a capitalist who can resist the temptation of wealth appreciation and multiple increases in benefit?

If so, there must be greater interests attracting him!

History has proved this countless times.

If one day, besides Cloud Dream, all game companies, all game developers have to give up, either join Cloud Dream or leave the game industry.

Allowing Cloud Dream, in a substantive sense, to monopolize the gaming industry entirely.

Then, can Lincoln and Cloud Dream still maintain their current good image?

Or will they tear off this mask, revealing another face beneath it?”

Gary looked at the post on the hot searches, nodding approvingly in his heart.

Indeed, he’s an old pen in the industry, a good hand at leading the rhythm.

If this post wasn’t something he paid for, he would have thought the person who wrote this post was genuinely concerned about the development of the industry.

Unfortunately, he clearly remembers the words the person said over the phone, “Sure, sure, as long as you’re satisfied, remember to find me if there are similar tasks in the future, guaranteed worth the price.”

Of course, even if he looks down on him, he needs to keep his contact information.

He is indeed a talent, and with his dozens of pseudonyms changing around, he is not well-known, and it’s hard to find him without an introduction.

If it wasn’t for his multiple pseudonyms, it would be really hard to find someone to write this post.

On the other side, Lincoln had also finished reading the post.

Naturally, he had no sense of tension, he was just a little confused: why is someone so impatient after just over three months?

And who exactly is this “Donghua” who wrote the post?

The netizens were also quick, and they quickly finished reading the post.

Some people were indeed led by the rhythm of the whole article, and thinking along the logic given by the post, it seemed to make a lot of sense?

Some people were much more rational, immediately realizing that the manuscript deliberately ignored many things:

For example, the expanded player group of Cloud Dream will eventually feed back to the industry.

And why should Cloud Dream be excluded? Are the players of virtual reality games not considered players?

Are they not consuming or not playing games?

Other carriers’ sales have shrunk?

Sorry, only VR equipment is noticeably shrinking!

Computers and mobile phones can’t even be counted. Home game consoles, handheld consoles, and arcade machines, these have been shrinking for hundreds of years, do you still need to mention them now?

And the key point: should we believe a conspiracy theorist who doesn’t reveal his true identity?

Or should we trust the person who has always stood in the center of public opinion, although he has a bad temper and is a bit petty, but every time he does something, he genuinely takes the players into account?

Both sides of the players picked up their keyboards to agree or vent their anger in the comments section.

But when they typed out a long or short comment and hit the send button, they all failed.

System prompt: “The Spiritual Rhinoceros post you are commenting on does not exist.”

The next moment, the page refreshed.

The post was gone directly.

Looking back at the hot searches headlines: #Mirage 2.0# returned to the first place from the second.

The original first place has disappeared.

The term #Cloud Dream Monopoly# just stayed in the hot search headlines for less than three minutes.

Not suppressed for popularity, and not demoted, it just disappeared so abruptly.

It’s gone.

Gary was originally guarding the comment section, constantly refreshing the page, waiting for the comments to appear.

The water army was poised for action, but in order to not be too obvious, they didn’t comment for the first time, but planned to wait for a few minutes before releasing them after the natural comments appeared.

But as Gary refreshed the page again, a “Page not found” appeared.

Then it automatically redirected to the homepage.

He immediately realized something was wrong and checked the hot search ranking.

But obviously, if the post is gone, the hot search can’t stay in place either.

This abrupt change was completely beyond Gary’s expectation.

“Where’s the hot search?”

I spent so much money, where’s the hot search I just bought?

Last time I bought the top hot search, it lasted for 10 minutes before it was taken down, this time it’s even worse, it’s gone in less than 3 minutes??

Are you fucking trying to break records here with me??!