Chapter 245 Game Culture

Standing at Blizzard's headquarters is a bronze orc statue, which Adhan says used a crane to carry in order to install it. There is a sign below the statues of WwW, QunabEN, and coM, which reads "Playfulness First".

"This wolf-riding orc statue is our iconic symbol of Blizzard, and every employee in the company receives a miniature version of the souvenir after accumulating a certain number of years of service."

Following in the footsteps of Adhan, Lin Mingyang first stepped into the headquarters of Blizzard, and the result did not disappoint Lin Mingyang. Blizzard's headquarters are magical places, with a one-story building that complements the company's culture and its own gaming technology, and the houses are filled with statues, murals, and creative drawings just like one might imagine a game making place. Even the headquarters contains a theater, a museum, a library, and a gym.

In the foyer of Blizzard's headquarters, a row of hanging computers allows visitors to log in to World of Warcraft at any time.

When he walked here, Adhan deliberately stopped, "I wonder if Mr. has been exposed to the online game "World of Warcraft"? ”

Lin Mingyang shook his head regretfully: "When this game was launched, I had just entered Hollywood, and at that time I had to take classes and act, and I really didn't have much time to play games, although my passion for games has not diminished with age, but now I am more exposed to single-player games, whether in terms of picture quality or playability, I think single-player games are far more than online games... Then again, while I haven't played World of Warcraft, I've been looking forward to Diablo 3 that your company is working on for a long time. ”

As a game lover, Lin Mingyang is actually out of his own selfishness, in fact, he also knows that the games produced by Blizzard, in addition to their high quality, are characterized by their amazing time-consuming. It is estimated that when the first Warcraft movie is completed, it is still unknown whether "Diablo 3" can be successfully launched.

Adhan apparently thought it was a distant problem, so he brought the topic back to the present: "World of Warcraft was developed on the basis of the previous three generations of single-player games, and I think it won't be difficult for him to understand this game in depth... I mean, the movie version of Warcraft would ideally be set in a World of Warcraft game, with the conflict between the tribes and alliances on the continent of Azeroth. ”

"It doesn't matter," Lin Mingyang smiled at Adhan, "I know that Blizzard has put a lot of effort into the background of the Warcraft game, and there are many wonderful plots in it that can even be directly used in the movie, so this time my idea is that the plot is based on the framework provided by Blizzard, and I am only responsible for adapting it into a movie script."

His answer made Adhan secretly relieved in his heart, Adhan knew that Lin Mingyang's name for the Oscar Best Screenwriter was very loud, and what he was most worried about was that Lin Mingyang was self-righteous and finally changed the plot of Warcraft beyond recognition. With Lin Mingyang's sincere promise, Adhan suddenly felt that the prospect of this cooperation had become brighter.

Putting down the biggest stone in his heart, Adhan felt more relaxed, and the smile on his face became brighter and brighter, and he began to take Lin Mingyang around the first floor of the headquarters. The first stop is naturally Blizzard's Game Museum, at the entrance, a life-size dwarf statue attracted Lin Mingyang's attention, this is the same high-level sculpture as the orc at the door, and it is not the kind of props that are used as decorations at will.

In the eyes of others, this is a beautiful statue, but Lin Mingyang can see that Blizzard attaches great importance to its own game culture, and the collections in the museum have strengthened his judgment. The museum houses some of the early World of Warcraft conceptual paintings, as well as original paintings of Blizzard's WOW, and although Adhan didn't tell Lin who painted them, it's certain that they were all made by Blizzard employees.

These World of Warcraft artworks alone are worth $1.5 million, and they have a full-time employee who is responsible for archiving and keeping all the new original artwork that will be completed one after another. Compared with an established film company like MGM, Blizzard can only be regarded as a newborn, but in terms of corporate cultural inheritance, Blizzard's approach is enough to put many companies that think they have a long history to shame.

Of course, in addition to these commemorative works, Adhan also specially introduced two collections to Lin Mingyang, one of which was a gift from the U.S. military in Afghanistan to Blizzard. Blizzard once helped the U.S. military stationed in the Afghan capital to link to WOW, and these things are the U.S. military's return gift to Blizzard, and the certificate and American flag in the upper left corner prove the weight of this return gift.

"This military hat and this mug were gifts from a veteran player of the U.S. military, and the flag once flew over the U.S. military base in Kandahar"

Lin Mingyang was obviously not very interested in the gift from the United States, but pointed to another collection next to him and asked, "Then what's going on with this box of StarCraft game CDs?" ”

Framed with the disc Lin Mingyang said was also a certificate issued by NASA, which reminded him of the special product for Chinese astronauts that often appeared in domestic title advertisements in later generations.

Adhan's answer and Lin Mingyang's guess are basically the opposite, this is not Blizzard's sponsorship of NASA's title advertisement, but an American astronaut's personal belongings, it is said that the astronaut was training to be homesick, he would kill a game of interstellar with his son who was far away before going to bed, and this game disc was once taken by him to space, so it is particularly memorable.

After visiting the museum, Adhan took Lin Mingyang back to the hall, he pointed to a huge electronic screen hanging in the air and said: "This is the global situation map of WOW, and the density of light spots on the map is directly proportional to the number of active players."

Lin Mingyang looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, he saw a huge electronic map, which was mottled with light, and the most dense area was actually the eastern coastal region of China, followed by North America and Europe, which surprised Lin Mingyang.

When Lin Mingyang looked up at the game data, Adhan lost no time in saying: "The number of global users of World of Warcraft has exceeded $20 per movie ticket, and gamers alone can contribute $200 million to the box office revenue of the movie adaptation, and if it is a 3D or IMAX movie, the revenue will be even more considerable." ”

Lin Mingyang shrugged noncommittally: "The Harry Potter novel has nearly 50 million readers around the world, and according to your calculations, each Harry Potter movie should have grossed more than $1 billion, but in fact it is not... I'm sure that die-hard Warcraft players will definitely pay to get into the movie, but some players may watch the movie through other channels, such as the most convenient Internet. ”

Lin Mingyang said this a little like pouring cold water, but Adhan was not discouraged.

Sir, you must have thought of other ways to attract the audience? ”

Adhan asked this question, which inevitably carried a bit of a school test, and Lin Mingyang naturally couldn't show his cowardice at this time.

"When I watched Mr. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, I had the idea to make a fantasy movie of the same genre. There are many other classic fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings, but those novels are either too old to resonate with people, or the ideas are too fanciful to be realized through movies... Come to think of it, on the contrary, some excellent games have provided more sources of material for movie changes, and as a classic work in fantasy games, Warcraft has naturally become my first choice. ”

"So Sir had the idea of working with us a long time ago?" Adhan said with some emotion: "Actually, a few years ago, we also had a movie with the theme of Warcraft, but in the end we couldn't make the trip, if you can come to us at that time, maybe now we should be discussing the issue of sequel shooting."

Lin Mingyang shook his head: "In fact, the game of Warcraft will be adapted into a movie, and it may not be able to be compared to the current one a few years ago."

"Oh?" Adhan looked at Lin Mingyang with a curious expression.

"It takes a lot of money to shoot such a film, and at that time, neither I nor the overall investment environment in Hollywood could support the filming of this film."

Adhan smiled, he thought that Lin Mingyang was exaggerating when he said this, Hollywood was able to invest in making a masterpiece like "Titanic" at the end of the 90s, and then which of the so-called blockbusters that appeared was not piled up with money.

Of course, he won't say this directly, but just asked from the side: How much is Mr. going to invest in this film? ”

Lin Mingyang stretched out his palm.

Adhan frowned, ten thousand dollars? ”

"500 million"

Lin Mingyang's answer made Adhan gasp, if he would know Lin Mingyang in normal times, this was a joke, but the expression on Lin Mingyang's face at this time was extremely serious, so he couldn't help but believe it.

"Are you sure a film really costs that much money?"

Looking at Adhan, who was still not confident, Lin Mingyang patted him on the shoulder, "Mr. James Cameron is making a new film, MGM is also one of the investors, I can reveal a little inside information to you, the cost of that film will not be lower than the figure I just gave... I'm telling you now, it's hard to have an intuitive feeling, and when you watch that film, you will feel that 500 million dollars is actually not enough to make Warcraft into that film."

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