Chapter 355 - 258: The Beginning of Esports

Chapter 355: Chapter 258: The Beginning of Esports

It had been a long time since Toto had felt this way while playing a game.

Even though Zog had thrashed her thirteen times in a row, she still couldn’t wait to start the next match.

She felt herself getting stronger with every match.

Besides, the game was far more complex than she had initially imagined.

She had previously thought it was just a game of hoarding resources to produce High Level units for a final showdown. Now, she was discovering that every unit had its own unique purpose.

For example, walls were completely useless for defense against large-scale armies.

However, they were often highly effective against small-scale skirmishes, rush attacks, and insidious back-dooring tactics.

She was sure there were many more interesting tactics in Red Alert waiting to be discovered.

It was so much fun.

Toto stared at the sand table, her eyes filled with excitement.

At that moment, however, her opponent was in a completely different state from the euphoric Toto.

Her opponent, Zog, was already drenched in sweat.

Zog’s claws, which he used to control his units, trembled slightly. Even though he was on a winning streak of over ten games, he felt he was on the verge of choking.

He clearly had over a hundred hours of experience, yet his tactical repertoire was already feeling stretched thin against Toto, who had played for no more than three hours.

’This Half-Elf is like a Saint Warrior; the same trick won’t work on her twice.’

’I still have a slight advantage in mechanical skill, but I estimate that in a few more games, I won’t be able to out-micro her either.’

’No way. A smart Red Dragon should know how to create his own graceful exit.’

After narrowly winning the fourteenth match, Zog announced, "Oh dear, it’s time for my meeting with Deepwater City. I can’t continue the playtest with you all. I hope everyone will fill out the surveys diligently to help the game develop in a better direction."

With that, he was ready to tuck tail and run.

As long as he didn’t play another game, he could maintain his magnificent 100% win rate against Toto.

"You truly live up to your reputation as the boss. Your understanding of the game is so profound! I feel like I could practice for a whole year and still not be a match for you," Toto said, laying on the flattery.

Zog was quite pleased. ’The little Half-Elf is pretty sharp after all.’

"I hope you’ll teach me again when you have the chance," Toto added.

’Okay, maybe not *that* sharp.’

The playtest ended, and the compiled data from several hundred surveys was handed over to Zog.

Generally, players don’t always know what they want, but they definitely know what they *don’t* want.

So the surveys focused mainly on tabulating the unacceptable aspects of the current version.

He would pick out the common issues that were easy to fix and address those.

"A lot of people are reporting that the story campaign is too difficult. They’re getting stuck even on easy mode."

’Not touching that.’

Zog had played through easy mode himself. As long as you thought a little more flexibly and didn’t insist on a head-on clash with the AI, it was very easy to beat.

’Any easier and it wouldn’t feel like a strategy game at all. If you could just amass an army and steamroll every level, it would just be boring.’

’No, wait. I could do this.’

’After a player fails the same level a few times in a row, the loading screen can display official tactical tips for beating it.’

"Some people also feel the tutorial is too bare-bones. There’s a lot of stuff it doesn’t teach you that comes up when you play against other people."

There was really no helping that. If he taught everything in the tutorial, it would take hours. Besides, Zog was confident that even with hours of training, players would still come up with strange, never-before-seen tactics in PvP.

Never underestimate player creativity.

...

After reviewing the most common feedback, he concluded that there were no major overall problems.

The gameplay and the "Human-Demon War" story background were both well-received.

However, many people mentioned that the game was exhausting. It was a lot of fun once you got the hang of it, but getting to that point was a struggle.

"Hmm..."

Indeed, Zog couldn’t deny it. That was the nature of the real-time strategy genre. Those who managed to get past the high barrier to entry loved it, but that barrier was incredibly high, unlike most games that were developed for casual fun.

’So how can I motivate players to cross that barrier?’

’I’ve got it. Since it’s a competitive game, I’ll give people a competitive platform and a tempting prize for the winner.’

The usual path for a competitive scene is for a game to get popular first. Then, as players develop a need to compete, tournaments are born, and the traffic from those tournaments feeds back into the game.

But as more and more game companies discovered the promotional power of tournaments, they started to proactively host them at the same time a game was released.

They might even lose money on the tournament itself, hoping that the hype it generates will drive the game’s popularity.

This approach wasn’t without its downsides. If developers focused too much on the competitive scene, all subsequent updates might be tailored to tournament play, which could be frustrating for Ordinary players.

After all, the environment for professional players is very different from that of the average player base.

’How to balance the two is a problem for the future development team to worry about.’

For now, Zog planned to organize a tournament for Red Alert with a hefty prize pool.

Ideally, other games could also ride the wave of popularity. There could be serious competitive events as well as casual ones just for fun.

’What should I call it?’

Zog thought for a moment, then wrote on a piece of paper.

Virtual Game Culture Festival, and the World Virtual Esports Championship.

—————————

"Leon! Your classmates are here for you."

Hearing his mother’s call, Leon immediately sprang up from his bed, grabbed a few random notebooks from his desk, stuffed them into his bag, and rushed out of his room.

"Coming!"

A few of his friends were waiting outside, also with their bags on.

"What are you doing standing out there? Come on in!" his mother called warmly to Leon’s classmates.

"It’s okay, ma’am, we’re in a hurry."

"In a hurry to do what?" his mother asked with a warm smile.

"To go play, of course..."