Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

On the 24th, Wednesday…

 The design team had a meeting.

 Pei Qian did not attend the meeting as the design manuscripts were already decided and were being manufactured. As the boss, there was no need for him to continue paying attention to these minute details, and there was no way he could do that.

 Lu Mingliang had almost shouldered all the work during this time.

 Although Huang Sibo’s death—no—absence caused everyone to be a little lost, everyone originally had their respective roles; and there were not many changes made to the structure of the design team. Therefore, they got back on track very soon.

 Meanwhile, Lu Mingliang was gradually accustomed to his job scope as Chief Planner after working on the job for some time. Other than the fact that he was still used to doing things on his own and sometimes clung to the tasks instead of assigning them to others, he did not face any other problems.

 After being the Chief Planner for some time, Lu Mingliang found the job to be less challenging than what he had originally expected.

 The experience with Ocean Stronghold made this an extremely mature team. As long as Lu Mingliang ensured that the nodes of the job functioned properly, other members on the team would handle their parts proactively.

 Lu Mingliang was suddenly a little sentimental.

 Didn’t that mean that a lot of people were actually capable of doing the job? The only difference was that they were not given the opportunity to become the Chief Planner.

 When he used to handle all the odds and ends in his previous job, he was completely drained of energy every day and worked overtime like a dog. However, his abilities did not improve at all. That was because he did all the repetitive manual work.

 That made him apprehensive if he would be able to take on the role of a Chief Planner when he landed the job.

 However, after some time, he realized that it was not as challenging as he had expected! To think of it now, the chief planner position in his previous company demanded employees to compete using their seniority and experience. However, those were not essential qualities. It might only be a means to shortlist suitable employees.

 Maybe it was because of the way Boss Pei chose and assigned people their jobs? Lu Mingliang could not help but think about how talents were everywhere, but they were seldom recognized!

 A good leader should try his best to allow his employees to showcase their potential and creativity. Meanwhile, leaders who only knew how to take advantage of their employees would transform them into machines that were unable to think. That would cause their efficiency to decrease with time!

 As he thought about that, Lu Mingliang had a newfound respect for Boss Pei.

 Lu Mingliang cleared his throat and said, “There are two main agendas for today’s meeting. The first thing is that I will be leaving the office for two to three days to be the voice actor for Game Designer. Don’t ask me why. I want to know the reason, too…”

 Up until now, Lu Mingliang still had no idea why Pei Qian chose him to be the voice actor. No matter what considerations he might have, his decision could be in the hall of fame for the most eccentric human behaviors yet.

 However, since Boss Pei was the one who made the decision, it must be undoubtedly correct!

 The others were dumbfounded, too.

 What was that?

 In the middle stages of planning a game, the Chief Planner left to be the voice actor of the game?

 The air in the entire room turned still.

 Lu Mingliang continued saying, “The second thing is that I hope that all of you can spend some time reading the voice-overs and complete your respective tasks. You must ensure that you communicate with the expert Ruan Guangjian in a timely manner. If you face problems that you could not solve, feel free to give me a call.”

 Lu Mingliang gave some simple instructions for the upcoming tasks.

 There were not many lines for the voice-overs within the game. If everything went smoothly, three days would be ample for him to finish the work.

 Although he was only leaving for three days, time was precious; and Lu Mingliang was afraid that they would slack off or that they might face problems that they could not handle. Therefore, he reminded them multiple times.

 After he finished giving his instructions, the team started talking freely to discuss the details of the work. Because the design manuscript was very detailed, the few problems left hanging were quickly resolved.

 Lu Mingliang noticed that Lin Wan was holding a hardcopy script the entire time and was looking at the voice-overs of Game Designer.

 He was a little curious.

 Looking at the voice-overs… shouldn’t that be my job as the voice-actor?

 Lin Wan had been in Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. for about a month.

 In this month, she was in charge of some small functions just like the other employees. She had a good work attitude and was a responsible employee. However, because the work assigned to her was not very challenging, she did not have much presence within the team.

 Lin Wan was flipping through the voice-overs scripts for Game Designer again and again. Some pages were even a little tattered because of her continuous flipping.

 “I think… I think I might understand Boss Pei’s motive.” Lin Wan looked at Lu Mingliang.

 “Huh?” Lu Mingliang was stunned. “Are you referring to the motive for assigning me to do the voice-overs?”

 Lin Wan nodded her head and answered confidently, “That’s right.”

 “Quick, say it.” Lu Mingliang displayed high interests.

 He did not understand why Boss Pei wanted him to do the voice-overs and was worried that he might drag the game down because of his inability to complete the task.

 Therefore, he was ultimately very apprehensive.

 Now that he heard what Lin Wan said, could it be that Boss Pei had some deeper motives?

 Lin Wan flipped through the script and switched on her analytical mode. “I must say that Boss Pei’s motives were buried very deeply. That was why we could not see it in the beginning. I can only vaguely figure out his motive after going through the voice-overs that Boss Pei had personally edited multiple times and combining it with the recent short video Boss Pei’s Daily Life.

 “I believe that Game Designer is similar to Boss Pei’s Daily Life. They both used dark humor to achieve an ironic effect! Look at these lines in the voice-overs. The voice-overs will influence players’ decisions from the very start. Each decision that it recommends seems to be the most suitable presently and is more profitable.

 “For example, when deciding between the value-added services and buy-to-play revenue models, the voice-over will mislead players’ into choosing value-added services. When deciding between low paywalls and high paywalls, the voice-over will mislead players’ into choosing high paywalls.

 “When choosing among numerous graphics styles, the voice-over will mislead players’ into choosing the cartoonish style that is currently the most popular…

“Each time, the recommendation seems reasonable. After all, games companies must ensure their profits. Most of the time, these recommended choices will be the more profitable option.

 “But what happens in the end?

 “If players followed exactly what the voice-overs said, their reputation will be tarnished; and they would be severely criticized by the players. Ultimately, they will lose everything that they had! At that time, the voice-overs will ridicule you for having a nose of wax and being indecisive as a boss. It will mock you for listening to everything that it said.

 “Do you think that the voice-overs are responsible for this outcome? No. They merely recommended the wrong suggestion. You, who are unable to distinguish the choices, are the first person who should be held responsible for the failure!

 “The addition of voice-overs magnified this failure by multiple times! That makes players feel uncomfortable and realistic.

 “That is because it is the naked truth. It is also an irony!

 “Why are there so many confusing and disliked games in the world? The reason is very simple. Those bosses went down the same psychological route!

 “The voice-overs were like the demon in their hearts that was called ‘greed’. A step at a time, it misleads them into the wrong path. In the end, they would fall into the abyss!”

 Lu Mingliang nodded his head violently as he heard what Lin Wan said.

 It made a lot of sense!

 “But… why will players still fail even if they do not follow what the voice-overs said? Is that also trying to showcase irony?” A designer raised his hand and asked.