Chapter 198: This Game is So Bad It's Unbelievable…
"What on earth did I just play…"
Lin Wan closed the laptop screen and fell into deep thought.
The game called Blood War Anthem completely redefined the bottom line of what she thought a game could be.
She never imagined such a garbage game could actually exist in this world???
Even though it had supposedly been "updated and improved" with a new version, those changes were only in gameplay and design tweaks.
No matter how you changed it, at its core Blood War Anthem was still a browser game—and from the very moment she entered, she was bombarded with countless reasons to quit immediately.
The graphics were abysmal, still dripping with the aesthetic style of the last century. Characters were dressed in fragmented, pattern-covered armor completely lacking in design sense, plastered with gaudy and vulgar golden effects, and carrying oversized, rainbow-colored wings on their backs.
The maps were chaotic, especially the main city. Crowds of players were crammed together, each wearing clashing, garish equipment, with ridiculously long labels floating over their heads—ID, guild name, titles, and more—turning the whole screen into an incomprehensible mess.
The game did thoughtfully provide a "hide other players" function, and turning it on did make it easier to find yourself.
But the moment you used it, the game's true face was exposed: empty, barren, with its crude, unimpressive environments laid bare.
The music and sound effects reeked of the previous decade. Not exactly unbearable, but jarringly out of place.
And the most crucial flaw: it was a web-based game.
That meant almost all of its assets had to be downloaded from the internet.
Every time you entered a new map or new area, a little loading bar popped up on screen, "Loading resources."
During this time, all characters turned into black stick-figure placeholders, and the map itself took a while to load.
In areas where frequent transitions were needed, this became infuriating beyond belief.
As for gameplay—old, tired, monotonous. Kill monsters, level up, run fetch quests. Calling it "outdated" was almost too generous.
After barely forcing herself through five minutes of this, Lin Wan had only one impression of the quality of this game:
LOW!
Even if they paid her to play this game, she wouldn't want to.
Lin Wan started regretting things.
She had trusted President Pei too much. She hadn't thought carefully before accepting this task.
She had vaguely heard some things about Shangyang Games, and she knew they had one failed project.
But she never imagined it would be this bad!
In her mind, a "failed project" should mean something just a few levels below Tianhuo Studio's Bullet Hole.
But when she actually saw the Blood War Anthem, she realized that this wasn't "a few levels down." This was a whole decade behind!
Playing it felt like she had been transported back ten years.
After trying it out, apart from sheer disgust, she also felt deep doubt and confusion about President Pei's decision.
Why on earth… would President Pei acquire such a game company?
From any perspective, the company only had one inevitable outcome: elimination by the market.
This company should have gone bankrupt already, and the designers behind this game should have looked for new jobs. If no company would take them, they'd be better off switching careers altogether.
Just judging from this game, its lead executive designer shouldn't even be in the industry!
And yet, President Pei not only acquired this company—he reportedly even promoted a newcomer personally, and gave suggestions for improvement.
What Lin Wan was seeing now was already the "improved" version.
But clearly, it was still galaxies away from being a genuinely profitable game.
For a moment, Lin Wan felt hesitant. She really didn't want to go.
Wouldn't it be so much better to just stay at Tenda Games and develop Turn Back Before It's Too Late?
With President Pei overseeing things, any game would most likely be showered with praise and explode in sales. When that happened, as a member of the production team, Lin Wan would naturally feel genuine pride and accomplishment.
But now, moving over to Shangyang Games to work on Blood War Anthem? That was a completely different script!
Whether the game could even be developed smoothly was questionable—and even if it somehow got released, it would almost certainly end up despised by mainstream players.
With a game like this, Lin Wan wouldn't even dare admit to her friends and classmates that she was part of its development.
And yet, since this was President Pei's arrangement, she couldn't help but wonder if there was some deeper meaning behind it.
After all, when he gave her this assignment, President Pei had shown such high expectations—calling her a "bridge of communication" and a "conveyor of spirit."
If she backed down just because things looked grim on the surface, perhaps she would never truly grasp President Pei's real intentions…
And maybe hidden within this ordeal was the key to becoming stronger.
After thinking it over for a long time, Lin Wan finally made her decision.
Her workstation at Tenda was still reserved—she could always go back whenever she wanted. For now, taking this opportunity to challenge herself at Shangyang Games might not be such a bad chance after all.
. . . .
Shangyang Games.
Conference room.
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin nervously snuck glances at Lin Wan, who was sitting on the other side of the table.
Lin Wan, newly arrived at Shangyang Games, sat with her little notebook open, striking the pose of a humble learner.
But to everyone else, the sight of her jotting things down nonstop only increased the pressure.
As for this leader parachuted in from Tenda, everyone's hearts were uneasy and filled with apprehension.
The main issue was—they couldn't guess what President Pei was thinking.
Did President Pei trust Shangyang Games, or not?
If he didn't trust them, why let Shangyang handle the design of the new game, promote Ye Zhizhou to lead executive designer from within the original team, and keep the company's structure essentially unchanged?
But if he did trust them, then why parachute someone in at such a critical moment, right before development of the new game?
According to President Pei, Lin Wan's position was "Development Director," basically the equivalent of a producer.
But if you thought about it carefully, the role didn't seem to involve much actual management. It felt more like supervision.
Currently, Shangyang Games could be seen as having three key figures:
Ye Zhizhou, responsible for creative direction and overall planning, Wang Xiaobin, responsible for balance, numbers, and execution, and Lin Wan, who now held veto power over any major decision.
Originally, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin handled all the planning and simply reported directly to President Pei.
But now, with Lin Wan inserted in between, things have changed.
Some even privately speculated that maybe Ye Zhizhou had failed to turn things around despite being in charge for so long, and thus lost President Pei's trust—so President Pei brought in someone from Tenda?
As a result, a shadow of uncertainty now hung over the whole company.
At first, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin had planned to hand all responsibilities over to Lin Wan. But unexpectedly, Lin Wan refused to take over.
When she spoke to the group, her remarks were short and vague, merely a few comforting words to ease everyone's nerves—before quietly sitting back to listen.
So the meeting proceeded as usual, with Ye Zhizhou presenting the detailed design for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition.
Lin Wan sat there taking notes.
Her notebook is filled with question marks.
What is this?
And… what on earth is that?
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