Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Qin Guan bewilderedly clicked on each one to take a look…

A few minutes later, Qin Guan, who would usually spend half an hour playing mobile games before getting out of bed, suddenly sat straight up and cursed out loud, "What the hell!"

A day had passed, and the VR game recommendation video released by Qin Guan had spread through the enthusiastic efforts of netizens across various chat groups, game forums, and discussion boards, causing quite a stir among domestic players.

Previously, when Yang Qiu had used alternate accounts to create a buzz for the game, he had also shared the three promotional videos shot in real locations on the official website. However, the visuals in the videos were just a bit too "cinematic," making it difficult to believe that such game scenes could be produced with 21st-century technology. As a result, it was quickly labeled as a "deceptive game that only had impressive CG in marketing" by many domestic gamers and didn't receive a good reception.

Of course, it wasn't entirely the gamers' fault for being skeptical. Such situations were all too common. There were instances of mismatched content between what was advertised and the end product, CG animations that seemed disconnected from the gameplay, and the use of movie stills and CG in promotions.

Many deceived players into downloading games that turned out to be either bootleg imitations of renowned games or just web games. Unscrupulous game developers in China certainly didn't hold back.

Some more conscientious game developers even became victims of these unscrupulous counterparts who shamelessly used their work as raw material. Not only copying CG, but also "borrowing" character models, scenes, and costume designs. Even if their own productions lacked integrity and their models were a thousand times less refined, being capable of deceiving players into paying was a testament to their skill.

It wasn't until Qin Guan, a gaming content creator that never spent loads on games, started playing and released in-game recordings that people who previously criticized Yang Qiu's alternate accounts suddenly had a revelation.

The bunch of them hurriedly visited the official website… only to find out that it was too late. All 300 slots for the closed beta had already been filled.

Some were willing to patiently wait for the development team to release new slots, but others were more impatient and began flooding the official website's message board with higher offers to buy closed beta accounts…

At first glance, this seemed like a positive turn of events. It seemed like "OtherWorld" was gaining traction compared to the fact that only three people had logged in during the initial closed beta.

Qin Guan, as the first content creator to release a gameplay video of "OtherWorld," was also experiencing a surge in popularity. He didn't just surpass 100,000 subscribers overnight but was even on track to reach 200,000.

However, anything that was on the internet… was never limited to a single perspective. While Qin Guan's video spread like wildfire among the gaming community and his ID, Vanilla Pudding, became increasingly recognized by players, dissenting opinions also emerged.

First, a well-known streamer in the gaming community called into question the authenticity of Qin Guan's twenty-minute video, suspecting it to be fabricated, gimmicky, and employing deceptive marketing tactics.

It called into question the content creator, Vanilla Pudding, had colluded with the game developers and stolen footage from a popular foreign film, using dubbing, editing, and post-production techniques to craft a misleading video.

The reasons for the streamers' skepticism were quite valid—anyone that had played VR games worldwide knew how far the development had come; creating even a small-scale scene that doesn't look obviously fake required extensive efforts from established companies and their dedicated research and development teams.

Now, here was an obscure production team on the national and international stage, releasing a mediocre game without even a proper publishing license, yet dared to claim that their game possessed groundbreaking black technology that surpassed the top game publishers of the world. This wasn't just a scam of the century; it's the epitome of all scams!

With a prominent influencer stepping up to confront the situation, others naturally followed suit. As soon as Qin Guan opened the live streaming app, he saw several videos on the homepage that were ridiculing and mocking him…

"What the hell is this?" Qin Guan angrily shut the app and turned to Weibo.

Comments and private messages aside, there were thousands of mentions (@Vanilla Pudding).

Trembling, Qin Guan clicked on some of the mentions and found many were directing him to a lengthy Weibo post.

Qin Guan took a deep breath, then clicked on the post.

After reading for just two minutes, he slumped back onto his bed with a "thump."

The Weibo post was brilliantly written, analyzing the marketing technique of "OtherWorld" and drawing similarities to manipulative tactics employed by Luckin Coffee. It made for a very convincing read:

[T/L Note: A Chinese company chain claiming to challenge the dominance of Starbucks, rising meteorically and having an IPO on Nasdaq before a scandal revealed that the company had fabricated sales figures, i.e massive fraud]

Firstly, massive pre-launch hype for a large-scale VR game was artificially generated by employing low-cost tricks and deception.

Secondly, they planned to take the game and the company representing the groundbreaking VR technology to an international financial hub, such as London, New York, or Singapore, for an initial public offering.

Then, while maintaining the game's popularity in the second largest economy, China, along with the allure of the revolutionary VR technology, they would lure global investors with grand promises and stories, exploiting the Western world for their own gain…

Toward the end of the lengthy post, the writer seemingly disagreed with the criticism directed at the content creator, Vanilla Pudding, believing him to be merely an insignificant pawn in this elaborate scheme and frowning upon Vanilla Pudding's opportunistic behavior in aiding the bigger bad.

The writer then encouraged others to boycott the deceitful development team behind "OtherWorld" and urged them to refuse to contribute further attention to this fraudulent game…

This lengthy Weibo post was published at 10 p.m. the previous night, and when Qin Guan saw it after 11 hours, it had already been re-shared over ten thousand times, with several thousand comments.

There were also numerous comments on the Weibo post as well as private messages insulting him.

Qin Guan had never experienced such humiliation in his life, and his entire body trembled from the anger. "What the f*ck is this? See for yourselves when the game is launched! Why the hell are you all rushing to criticize me without even waiting for a couple of days?!"

While still dazed at the flurry of online insults, Qin Guan received a call from a younger bro that had previously farmed gold with him in a certain game.

"Brother Qin, I saw your text in the group chat yesterday and used this month's living expenses to purchase helmets for the few of we brothers in the studio. You know how hard our life is. Nowadays, most studios make money through botting and using scripted cheats. We, who honestly grind for gold manually, can barely make ends meet… You wouldn't deceive me, right?"

Qin Guan suppressed his grievances and said, "Xiao Zhou, even if others don't, you should know me, right?

"All these outsiders are spouting bull and making things up. There's no connection between the development team of 'OtherWorld' and me. It's all completely fabricated… This game has truly high-quality content, and it will definitely become popular in the future. People like us have it hard when it comes to making money, and even if I had to deceive someone, it wouldn't be you, right?"

After comforting this skilled younger bro, Qin Guan still had lingering frustration when he received another call from a different studio.

"Vanilla Bro, you're really heartless! How could you not help rope in us brothers when you got involved with such a boss capable of making a fortune by exploiting foreigners?"

"You have the cake, and us brothers can still enjoy the crumbs. Just make an introduction, okay—" 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑒𝑙．𝑐𝘰𝘮

"You really don't have to buy that helmet! Better hurry up and request a refund!" Qin Guan shouted angrily and hung up.

On the other end, the studio boss, who wanted to be part of something big, scoffed, then instructed his subordinates to contact players on the official site's forum who were looking to buy closed beta slots.

He wanted to quickly sell off the helmets while there were still fools willing to buy them…