This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 318 - 205: An FPS Game Without Cheats

Live streaming and product selling, as well as ad placements, are all new trends and one of the main channels for various influencers to monetize their traffic.

Don’t underestimate these two channels.

No need to talk about ad placements; they’re usually about sneaking in some ads into videos, then placing product links in the comments section, which everyone has seen often.

The price for ads isn’t fixed!

Some companies pay readily, some are stingy, some pay according to fan count, and others according to video views and conversion rates.

Live streaming product selling is an advanced method and the primary channel for influencers to monetize their traffic; there’s no ’one of’, it’s the main one!

"Those big influencers, the ones with explosive popularity, feel like they’re just grabbing money during live streams, easily making hundreds of thousands in one go.

Piece of cake."

Yang Dong explained, "It’s hard to say exactly how much they can earn because the data on product selling and the slot fees are kept very secret, and are generally not disclosed to fans..."

If you see anything disclosed, it’s either fake or partially true to fool the fans.

No way!

How could this be made public?

If fans find out that the "poor kids" and "humble royal daughters" they’ve been following are just pretended, living in luxury cars and mansions in private, wouldn’t their persona crumble?

"Doesn’t Huang Qing know?"

Chen Ba was very curious. If Yang Dong, an outsider, couldn’t gather that information about influencers’ earnings, then Huang Qing surely could, right?

Being the general manager of an MCN company before joining Tianba Studio, Qing Bro knows the ins and outs better than anyone in the studio.

"He knows, but he signed a confidentiality agreement, so he generally can’t disclose any details, otherwise, he’d be held responsible."

"Bullshit confidentiality..."

Chen Ba scoffed, "In my opinion, the reason he doesn’t dare to disclose is probably that it involves some tax evasion; if he dares to speak out, he’d be hunted down."

Influencers don’t evade taxes? 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

That’s a joke! If there are actually a few influencers who pay their taxes honestly, Chen Ba doubts it. He thinks it’d be good if two or three out of a hundred influencers were honest.

"Forget it, if we don’t know, we don’t know."

Yang Dong sighed, "It’s actually not a big deal—after all, ’I Am a Big Influencer’ is a virtual network game, so earnings in the game won’t have much impact."

"You can’t say that..."

"We are simulating influencers. If even their incomes need to be guessed and figured out, the simulation would surely suffer greatly."

Chen Ba strongly opposed the idea of filling in income randomly. Since it’s a simulation, just do it for real.

If influencers and MCN are tight-lipped, and no useful details can be gleaned, why not switch the perspective and directly ask the companies that participated in the live selling?

"Hey! You’re right!"

Yang Dong suddenly realized, "How come I didn’t think of it? Those companies who’ve worked with influencers must know details about slot rates and contract commissions."

This is how the game should be made.

Just like in reality, how products are sold will be exactly replicated in the game, focusing on real restoration without mixing in any fictional content.

"By the way, tax evasion..."

As he said this, Chen Ba seemed to make a certain decision and gritted his teeth, "Let’s add it in too, let the players choose themselves."

Honestly, without this content, the game would lack a sense of reality by half, and the simulated influencers would seem very fake. After all, if you’re paying taxes honestly, can you still claim realism?

"This... This isn’t good, is it?"

Yang Dong raised his brows, "If we open this choice to the players, wouldn’t 99% of them take this path, leaving very few honest players?"

No need to think about it.

With the gamers’ vibes, if there’s a tax evasion option in the game, nearly everyone would choose it, completely ignoring the little law-abiding tips below.

This was Yang Dong’s worry...

Does the presence of this content in the game mean it might be condemned for "negative guidance" or even "being detrimental to social harmony," etc.?

"Don’t be so tense, it shouldn’t count! If it did, every P-studio player wouldn’t escape the law’s reach..."

Chen Ba was indifferent.

Though such content in the game sounds sensitive, compared to other games, you’d find out what’s the big deal?

In simulation-strategy games like ’Ice Age’ and the ’Civilization’ series, some of the statutes or ordinance contents appearing are of even higher sensitivity.

Compared to those, adding this mechanism playfully in ’I Am a Big Influencer’ is negligible.

"Makes sense, I was overthinking."

Yang Dong rubbed his brow, then said with a little trouble, "Right, Ba, there’s something else I need your help with."

"What is it?"

"Can you sort out the music library licenses? Our game can’t be without various upbeat BGM!"

Chen Ba: "..."

Hey, is this even something a person would say?

To make a game, directly buying the authorization for an entire music library? How much had Yang Dong had to drink to make such an outrageous demand?

"No, do you... do you know how expensive it is to buy the entire music library, like those that sell in bundles?"

Chen Ba was speechless, "Let me tell you this, currently if we sell our Tianba Studio, we probably still couldn’t afford complete music library rights."

"You’re really daring to make a demand; this request won’t be successful for anyone, it really isn’t something we can achieve..."

"Let’s just do this: support some popular music file formats, and let players upload and share while they play."