Nobug Platform has a real-time online player rankings that shows the actual number of online players for each game on the platform.

Ranked first is "Don’t Go Home: Marbles Storm," occasionally exceeding one million players.

Second place is "Cultivation Fantasy."

Although the number of concurrent players can reach over 500,000 during peak hours around eight or nine in the evening.

But everyone who knows the truth would find this number laughable. To have 100,000 players actually playing "Cultivation Fantasy" out of those 500,000 is already quite good.

The remaining 400,000 are just running the game’s process in the background while playing other games!

The third, fourth, and fifth ranked games are "Space-Time Reconnaissance," "Star Emperor," and "Global Evolution," respectively.

Among these, "Space-Time Reconnaissance" has rapidly climbed the ranks compared to last month, with its online player numbers increasing significantly.

This is thanks to its cheat-free environment; as the world’s first FPS online game claiming "100% cheat-free," "Space-Time Reconnaissance" has attracted many FPS game enthusiasts.

Although after playing, most people find themselves puzzled by the quirky game features like bullet bending and bullet time, it doesn’t affect normal gameplay.

The other two games have seen varying degrees of player loss, especially "Star Emperor."

Once a hugely successful game that shattered stereotypes about fighting games, "Star Emperor" has been struggling since the release of the 60-series graphics cards.

The Other-Transformation Freedom Technique was just a brief revival, maintaining the game for a while, and the fact that it managed to survive through a round of updates was beyond Chen Ba’s expectations.

With the sudden arrival of 70-series graphics cards and the release of the Dream Building 7 Engine, the game’s decline was inevitable.

There was no helping it—as a game from the 30-series graphics card era utilizing the Dream Building 5 Engine, it was a great compliment to still be praised by players for its "outstanding graphics and effects."

Remember the graphics card crisis of the past? It shocked everyone when released, but two years later, it faded into obscurity.

Games that focused on graphics and effects indeed couldn’t last long; they couldn’t maintain popularity like "Fantasy Westward Journey," which remained popular for two or three decades.

"From a different perspective, ’Star Emperor’ has been pretty decent."

Huang Qing commented, "Games from the same era have mostly chilled out now, but ’Star Emperor,’ thanks to the GAL League’s popularity, is still a relatively mainstream game."

"Exactly!"

"Divine Grace Continent was also quite popular back then, but now, the individual version is hardly sold. Only the professional and personalized custom versions have buyers."

Yang Dong explained, "Back in the day, ’Divine Grace Continent’ was criticized for its crude graphics, and now it’s even more embarrassing, so no one’s playing the ordinary version anymore."

Game development is too fast!

Take mobile games for example; in earlier days, mobile game graphics were generally simpler, primarily adopting a Q-version cartoon style, lacking detail in lighting and textures.

But now, outstanding mobile games can rival many PC games in lighting and texture details.

Ray tracing?

The mobile platform uses it now too!

Due to the rapid development of the game industry, games from earlier years are being phased out by players. It’s not that there’s a problem with the gameplay mechanism, but rather that the graphics look too dated and painful to view.

The Tianba Community has a question thread that attracted over fifty thousand votes and replies.

The question is simple.

The poster uploaded two game screenshots, one from "Cold Window Study Simulator" and one from "Global Evolution" with 4K extreme rendering, and asked: Which of the following games is made by Ba?

Over 72% of players chose "Global Evolution," while only 13% opted for "Both."

When the correct answer was revealed, other players expressed disbelief: they couldn’t believe these two games were created by the same person!

The two game screenshots felt like they spanned across a century, seeming like games from entirely different eras, yet they were both from the same creator.

This sense of incongruity is a bit like someone telling you "Snake" and "Red Dead Redemption" are from the same game developer, equally absurd.

"The graphics are becoming more realistic!"

Chen Ba sighed, "In the past, even though game developers tried their best to enhance immersion and integration, the game graphics weren’t realistic enough."

"It’s different now. It’s hard to distinguish reality from virtuality on a computer screen, and playing VR games might truly blur the line between real and virtual."

"You’re exaggerating too much."

Yang Dong shook his head, "No matter how you look at it, the boundary between virtual and reality is clear, so it’s still distinguishable."

"But the game’s graphics are becoming more detailed and exquisite, and that is true; the Dream Building 7 Engine is extremely strong in this regard..."

The Tianba Studio’s Tianba Engine has now been updated to version 4.0.

But the strength of the Tianba Engine isn’t in game graphics and texture details, but rather its ease-of-use and automation, so there’s still a considerable gap with the Dream Building Engine in this aspect.

"So let’s practice!"

Chen Ba thought that since the Dream Building 7 Engine was so powerful, it could be used as a reference.

Not because having a great engine means dismissing or disdaining other engines.

In the company of three, one can always learn from someone.

There’s no need to deliberately belittle the good aspects, what should be admitted should be admitted, and what should be learned should be learned humbly.

The new game will be developed using the Dream Building 7 Engine, focusing on game graphics!

This was the decision Chen Ba made after hearing Yang Dong’s report and reflecting for a moment.

"Is the new game a horror game?"

Recalling what Ba had once said, Yang Dong mused, "I agree with the scheme in principle, but would using the Dream Building 7 Engine for a horror game..."

What exactly are you planning?

Using the Dream Building 7 Engine for a horror game, you’re not worried about scaring people to death, are you? Do you know how realistic the graphics can be when the Dream Building 7 is unleashed?

"It’s pretty good, don’t you think?"

Chen Ba said calmly, "Horror games inherently pursue immersion and integration; the more realistic the graphics and richer the details, the more enjoyable the game will be."

Whether it will be enjoyable is unknown, but it will certainly be frightening!

After all, gaming graphics determine the scare factor of a horror game. Would you prefer the pixelated, mosaic-like Zhenzi, or the 8K extreme lighting and color Zhenzi?

"A horror game is heavily dependent on the storyline, isn’t it?"

Having been a silent listener, Huang Qing couldn’t help asking, "What are your plans for the storyline?"

"Planning to customize a script!"

"Who to specifically customize for, and how to customize, we’ll talk about later," Chen Ba waved his hand and said. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Cultivation Fantasy" is only in public beta, and there are still a lot of issues unresolved. The script customization for a new game will definitely be scheduled after the New Year.

At this point, Chen Ba suddenly became curious about something.

As a conscientious MMO, after nearly half a month of public beta, how much recharge revenue does "Cultivation Fantasy" actually make? Can it support eight servers?

"The revenue stream is pretty average."

Yang Dong smiled bitterly and said, "Because of our conscientious operation, and not wanting to drive away players, the game’s pay-to-win extent is very low, and zero-cost players don’t have a much worse experience than heavy payers, so not many people spend money."

This was not unexpected.

After all, it was Chen Ba himself who set the plan of conscientious operation for the first half year, so it’s normal that there are not many people spending and the revenue is low.

But how low is it really?

"Put it this way, the game is currently running at a loss! With hundreds of thousands of players soaking in the game every day, the cost of maintaining servers is higher than the revenue stream from player charges."

At this, Yang Dong was quite helpless: "If we want to maintain it for half a year, the cost would be quite substantial, and even then there’s no guarantee of recouping the initial investment."

"So I suggest opening up new sources of income, at least to ensure the game isn’t running at a loss."

New sources of income?

Chen Ba was in full agreement with Yang Dong’s suggestion. While "Cultivation Fantasy" operates conscientiously, no matter how conscientious, it can’t be a losing business!

Therefore, expanding new income sources is imperative. But from what angle should we start?

Launch new pay-to-win activities?

This isn’t good; it could scare players away by appearing greedy. The game is still in its early public beta "fattening" stage, so we can’t afford to scare away the players.

If not taking money directly from players’ pockets, then we have to find another way to make money from elsewhere.

"Why not just put up ads then!"

Seeing Ba in deep thought and silent for a long time, Yang Dong suggested, "Didn’t ’Don’t Leave After School’ rely on ads to make money hand over fist? Adding some ads shouldn’t be much of a problem for us."

"No, no, no, not ads."

"The environment of ’Cultivation Fantasy’ and ’Don’t Leave After School’ isn’t the same, so we can’t use the same plan."

Chen Ba shook his head, and suddenly something seemed to flash in his mind as he muttered thoughtfully, "What do you think about starting from merit?"

"Merit?!"

Yang Dong and Huang Qing glanced at each other, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes. Yang Dong was the first to ask, "Are you planning to sell merit?"

Isn’t this inappropriate?

Merit being the core system of "Cultivation Fantasy," if it can be bought with money, then the game would completely lose its flavor and essence.

Yang Dong was puzzled; Ba just said we have to operate conscientiously and retain players without scaring them away. Why would he now turn around and start selling merit?

"You’re mistaken!"

Chen Ba explained, "It’s not about selling merit in the store. What I mean is to find a way to make money through the channels of acquiring merit."

"Cultivation Fantasy" is an amazing game with its magic being that players don’t usually play this game; instead, they go play other games.

Why is that?

Because playing other games not only brings joy but also rewards merit points conveniently, killing two birds with one stone!

This is also why competitors are generally not opposed to or hostile toward "Cultivation Fantasy."

Why would you be hostile towards it?

"Cultivation Fantasy" doesn’t steal your players; it even encourages players to play your games. It’s so noble and selfless that it’s hard to dislike, let alone be hostile towards it.

Chen Ba decided to start from this direction.

With the hundreds of thousands of players in "Cultivation Fantasy," especially the high proportion of merit players, they are his bargaining chips.

As everyone knows, the players follow the merit!

Since they follow merit, then with some minor maneuvers to guide them to play a certain game, isn’t it quite easy?

After all, while farming merit, if playing game A for an hour nets 5 points but playing game B for an hour nets 20 points, why wouldn’t I play game B?

Let’s extend this further!

When players find out they can get merit points normally playing game A, but even going all out and treating cheats like dogs in game B nets them zero merit points, which game do you think they will choose?

"Protection fee?"

Huang Qing immediately grasped the idea, his eyes lighting up as he said, "Using merit to divert the hundreds of thousands of players in ’Cultivation Fantasy’ and earn money from competitors?"

"Protection fee, why use such a harsh term?"

Chen Ba said speechlessly, "We’re legitimate people. What kind of protection fee? This is called a white list, do you understand?"

"Ah, right, right, the white list!"

Huang Qing grinned and said, "So how do you plan to operate this white list?"

"Does it need operating?"

Chen Ba turned to look at him, feeling that Huang Qing is wasting his years asking such a naive question.

With over 500,000 concurrent players and millions of active players, this is a vast resource!

With such leverage, what kind of operation is needed? Just knock on the door and ask: Brother Pig/Goose, do you want players?

Who would refuse such a bounty of players?

If someone can truly refuse, then Chen Ba respects them as a real man. As for himself, he admits he couldn’t refuse such an offer.

If the other party agrees, then it’s simple!

The other party gets players, Chen Ba gets money, and players get both merit and joy. A win-win-win situation forms, creating a world where nobody gets hurt.

As for whether the players will be diverted to that game and how effective the diversion will be?

There’s no need to worry!

Never underestimate the players of "Cultivation Fantasy" and their obsession with merit. They’ll do anything to become immortals...