Chapter 402: Spiritual Sword vs Dream Dota League

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

On the internet of Heavenly State, the analysis report of the prospects of online games—

According to the latest “Year 2014 Third Season Heavenly State App Online Games Market Survey” data published by Easy Game Holdings, the overall scale of the year 2014 third season Heavenly State app online gaming market has reached 8.688 billion yuan. A company named Flying Dragon Network has risen up strongly by commissioning for Spiritual Sword, and it directly broke new grounds with regards to the four big Heavenly State app online gaming companies which are formed by Turkey Games, Easy Net Games, Soulang Carefree Game and Big Star Network.

Year 2014, third season, accompanied by the sudden emergence of Spiritual Sword, the market shares of a few large scale game manufacturers have also gradually shrunk, resulting in an inevitable situation of the decline of some of the manufacturers.

Facing the situation of the increasing difficulty of getting new users, various main gaming carriers launched new products, hoping to use this to attract new players. The competition between the manufacturers to gain new users is getting more and more intense, and in the process, Spiritual Sword strongly emerges, shocking all the various big companies.

Year 2014 game apps daily active users situation—

According to the average daily number of active users in the main game app of Heavenly State, the number of players online at the same time for “Spiritual Sword” have already exceeded 800,000, and it’s still rapidly increasing. At the same time, “Dream Dota League,” which had previously announced its upcoming open beta testing, has started to suffer from a decrease in popularity, and currently, it’s already losing out to the rapid rising of Spiritual Sword in terms of forum posts. According to the related data calculations, currently, “Dream Dota League’s” popularity is not even one-tenth of “Spiritual Sword’s”, and it’s still continually decreasing.

According to the predictions of statistical professionals from Easy Game Holdings, in the upcoming seasons, in face of the slow increase in the overall scale of the market and increase of players, the online percentage of “Spiritual Sword” will increase further and break a new record. The small-scale game app manufacturers might either need to undergo restructuring or face integration. The prospects are worrying. We believe that if this situation continues, there will be a situation of “Spiritual Sword” dominating the online gaming market in Heavenly State, and “Draconic Continent” as well as the upcoming “Dream Dota League” might face the danger of being taken over.

The following was commented by the editor—

“The online gaming market is like rowing a boat against the current—not to advance is to retreat. If someone doesn’t do something to stop ‘Spiritual Sword’, the local online gaming market will be completely monopolized. Of course, if the retailer, Flying Dragon Network, is willing to take over ‘Draconic Continent’ and ‘Dream Dota League’, perhaps these two games might have an opportunity to display their brilliance again(Smile).”

After closing the webpage, Shiroishi Kazuma smiled and said, “Looks like everything is going according to plan. This is quite good.”

Qian Youjin stood beside him and respectfully asked, “Mr. Shi, then what should we do next?”

“Continue to advertise, and at the same time, announce that our online game will be permanently free of charge so that all players will be able to have a superb game experience.” Shiroishi Kazuma insipidly said, “Free of charge, this is a method sure to increase popularity. This will definitely not go wrong. Also, create hype about the price of the equipments in the game. You don’t need me to teach you what to do, right?”

“OK, I got it.” Qian Youjin thought for a while, then he felt puzzled and asked, “Then how should we earn money from the game in the future?”

“That’s simple.” Shiroishi Kazuma took a small sip of tea. “Let the poor players serve the rich players, and after the popularity has really been increased, just sell some chargeable props.”

…

In the next few days, all the various media in Heavenly State focused their attention on the fierce battle between the two games!

Spiritual Sword vs Dream Dota League!

This time, both parties flooded the entire internet with their advertisements. Spiritual Sword had advertisements all around, and news regarding Dream Dota League was constantly emerging as well! It started to expand from the internet to the huge advertisement posters in the various internet cafes, then to TV stations, and even the toilets of the internet cafes, hotels and motels had such labels—conveniently wash and rinse, clean and relaxing. Play Dream Dota League, relax your entire mind!

These were only the tip of the iceberg. Next, in the various game categories on the various web portals on the internet, almost all of them contained the data reports after the open beta testing of Spiritual Sword, as well as various reviews, analysis, and introductions of the heroes in Dream Dota League.

On Sangle Tieba forum, the number of users following the Spiritual Sword official Tieba forum was already close to 800,000, and it was still increasing at an insane speed.

Meanwhile, the number of people in the official Tieba forum of Dream Dota League had increased like the speed of wildfire to 400,000, and apart from studying into the various skills of the heroes that were already announced, they were also making preparations for the official open beta testing.

And just when Dream Dota League was working hard to make preparations to increase the popularity for the upcoming open beta testing, Spiritual Sword’s official website made a super heavyweight announcement!

Flying Dragon Network announced that Spiritual Sword would be permanently free, allowing all players to have a superb gaming experience!

In fact, the content of this announcement was already entirely unimportant. Once could tell the complete meaning of this advertisement just from the topic.

Once this announcement was published, it was instantly forwarded by netizens onto Weibo. The power of the players was great, and with one passing to another and going around to spread the news, within a short half an hours’ time, it had already been forwarded 130,000 times, and there were a full 60,000 comments! Almost everyone was applauding for Flying Dragon Network!

The strength of free things was scary. This time, Tang Muxin and Liu Mingxin had deeply understood this. When an online game that already had more than one million players online at the same time announced that it would be permanently free of charge, how strong would that kind of power be!

Ever since this notice had been published, Spiritual Sword’s popularity instantly skyrocketed, arriving with the aura of strong gusts of wind blowing the leaves as it instantly swept through all other games!

The number of searches for the keyword “Spiritual Sword” on Sangle Search Engine had instantly reached the peak. There were topics regarding Spiritual Sword all over Turkey Software, and groups of players from various zones emerged all at once. The price of a weapon from Spiritual Sword on Jianbao Plaza was increased to the sky-high price of 100,000 yuan. And it was said that just after that weapon had been placed on the internet, there was a super die-hard fan who flew there in person to show his sincerity in purchasing it.

Very soon, news regarding this sky-high priced weapon was all over the place.

On Xinhai Weibo, all topics regarding Spiritual Sword had become hot topics of the entire website. There was even an exaggerated post on Weibo, saying that a piece of armor which could be said to rank in the first few places in the game had been obtained by a female player, and it was said that the price this female player paid was that she had to spend the night with the weapon’s owner…

In no time, Spiritual Sword had become a godly piece of work in the hearts of all the players, and there were even some people who went to the extent of not being able to eat if they didn’t play it.

On the forum, countless people showed photos of the great pieces of equipment they’d gotten, instantly attracting tens of thousands of people to take a look. The television entertainment channels also broadcasted about how this online game, Spiritual Sword, was so explosively popular that it was said that a child shouted Spiritual Sword’s slogan “For the Dawn of Victory!” even in school.

And at the same time, things were gloomy and worrying at Dream Dota League. The number of followers on its Tieba forum stopped at 55,000 people, and while the daily number of posts were already as high as 500,000 for Spiritual Sword, Dream Dota League’s was just a little more than 60,000…

…

Mingxin Network headquarters building. Tang Muxin, together with two lackeys and Ling Xiaoyi, gathered with Liu Mingxin in front of the computer, frowning deeply while looking at the low and gloomy statistics displayed on the screen.

“Young Master Liu, this time, the opponent has really caught us unprepared.” Tang Muxin said in a troubled voice. “It’s perfect in all aspects, and no flaws can be found. The quality of the game itself is indeed very good, and the advertising methods are very effective. The most vital aspect is that it’s permanently free. This suits the taste of a very large percentage of players!”

Tang Muxin was extremely worried about the current situation of Dream Dota League.

Had it been another person’s matter, she wouldn’t be concerned even if there were 10 million people online for this Spiritual Sword. But this time it was different. Spiritual Sword had affected the popularity of Dream Dota League, which had been created by Hong Dali. What it meant was very simple. If everyone went to play Spiritual Sword, who would still play Dream Dota League?

“Yes. Moreover, there is something that is also very important regarding Spiritual Sword. Their pieces of equipment are worth a lot of money.” Liu Mingxin sighed. “This game is already free of charge, and the props are also worth a lot of money. This will attract a great number of players that don’t want to spend money and instead want to earn money. It could be said that as long as this group of players increases, in the future there will definitely be more players willing to spend money!”

“En, yes, once the popularity increases, by then, they can earn big money from whatever they sell because the base of the players is there!” Tang Muxin was very worried as well.

In that case, it would be very difficult for Dream Dota League to deal with this. Because Dream Dota League was a competitive type of battling game, and it had an intrinsic deficiency in this aspect. The free of charge issue aside, the key to the problem was that it couldn’t attract those players that wanted to earn money through the game.

“My head hurts from thinking too much…” Tang Muxin rubbed her bright forehead and carefully pondered about Hong Dali’s previous methods of squandering. After thinking for a long while, she helplessly shook her head. “I don’t have any good ideas. In that case, let’s continue to increase the advertisement power and hope that there will be some effect. When the open beta testing starts and the players get to play this game, they’ll definitely like it!”

“En, at the moment, we can only do so.” Liu Mingxin touched his chin, then added, “If worse comes to worst, after the open beta testing, let’s hold a few competitions, then the popularity will increase by a certain amount.”

“Right!” Tang Muxin clapped. “That’s settled then! Let’s continue the advertisements. Oh right. Also, set the timing of the competition. If things go as normal, the open beta testing should start the day after tomorrow, right? Then hold the competition three days after the open beta testing, how’s that?”

“En, sure.”

“OK!” Tang Muxin instantly decided. “This period of time, let’s increase our advertisements, and at the same time, announce that the first Dream Dota League competition will be held on the fourth day of the open beta testing. By then, we can set the rewards higher. Let’s set the prize for the first place as one million! I believe many people will definitely be interested in it!”

“Yes, this can work.” Liu Mingxin nodded and smiled. “One million, this reward should not be a problem. It’s already enough to attract attention.”