Compared to the Internet winter, gaming companies have been much less affected.

The vast majority of game development companies are not listed, and their survival does not depend on the capital market, but mainly on the support of players' real money.

So the Internet winter is a good thing for them to a certain extent, and it only takes $50,000 to advertise on Internet channels to achieve the effect of $100,000.

For these game developers, the current collapse in the Nasdaq is a small thing compared to the 1983 Great Depression in the U.S. gaming industry.

You must know that the game industry crash caused by Atari caused the industry-wide game revenue to plummet from $3.2 billion to $100 million, and it took only two years.

Therefore, the cold winter of the Internet did not affect the 2000 E3 exhibition in full swing.

Moreover, this is regarded as the first E3 exhibition after the arrival of the 21st century, and the organizers attach great importance to it.

After returning to Los Angeles last year, attendance is expected to exceed 100,000.

"This is my first time at E3 and my first time speaking at E3 on behalf of Flamingos.

Flamingo doesn't seem to be that mainstream since its inception, and our games are distributed directly online, without going through the promotional channels of traditional game publishers.

After its release, I relied on the word-of-mouth of players to promote it, and later I founded Riot Games to provide a platform for video gamers to communicate. Zhou Xin said.

Zhou Xin, as the founder and chairman of Flamingo, announced their upcoming new game at E3.

Zhou Xin is not as well-known in the game industry as he is in the Internet industry, but his identity and experience determine that everyone wants to hear what he will say and what kind of work he will bring to the industry.

With the quality of the games produced by Flamingo in the past, everyone is looking forward to it.

Another reason is that the number of video games published through Riot Games is increasing, and Riot Games' built-in rating system is becoming more credible.

Nowadays, when gamers see an introduction to a game in a game magazine or game media, and have a heartwarming idea, they will go to Riot Games to see if there are any ratings and reviews for the game.

Read the reviews before deciding whether you want to buy or not.

Riot's status and influence in the minds of players has determined that more and more game developers want to work with Riot Games.

Riot Games has been in talks with console makers like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega for several rounds.

Console manufacturers want to get their console games into Riot's rating system through captchas.

When players buy a cartridge from Nintendo, they will receive a verification code, which they can enter into Riot Games to rate and write a review for the game, and the game's purchase badge will appear on the player's profile.

That's a good thing for Riot Games, but Riot Games wants to be able to take a cut based on the price of the game, because I'm not a sales channel, so the percentage can be reduced, originally if it was released through my game channel, I would have taken 30%, but now I'm only taking 15%.

Naturally, console manufacturers are reluctant to agree, and I will be charged 15% by you just by borrowing your rating system, which is too expensive, and we are only willing to cooperate at the price of $50,000 per game.

The two sides have been at a stalemate over the way they are charged.

Originally, E3 would not be open to the public until 2017, and before that, in order to apply for admission to E3, you would need to prove a professional relationship with the video game industry.

For example, you need to prove that you are a game developer or editor of game media, or a game publisher, etc.

Since Riot Games sponsored E3 last year, Riot Games has requested 15,000 general admission tickets from the show's organizers, which have been distributed to regular players through various forum events.

This activity has achieved very good results in the player base, which has greatly improved user stickiness and user activity.

Affected by this, Yahoo Games and Microsoft have sponsored E3 this year, and they have also applied for general admission tickets to the exhibition party and distributed them to their users through the event.

Microsoft even claimed to announce the concept art and expected official release time of XBox at this E3 exhibition.

"The game that Flamingo brought this time is also a tower defense game, but it is completely different from previous tower defense games.

This game is a PVP tower defense game, which has a large number of unique and innovative elements added to the traditional tower defense. ”

After Zhou Xin finished speaking, a promotional CG of Genting Game began to be played on the big screen behind him.

When Zhou Xin held a press conference at E3, Riot Games also began to warm up the game of Genting.

As a channel mastered by Zhou Xin, Riot Games pushed this game to every user's eyes almost immediately.

Yes, what Zhou Xin launched is auto-chess, LOL's auto-chess.

Under the current network conditions, it is difficult to guarantee a 5v5 gaming experience.

In the mid-90s of the 20th century, Ameriken's network was still the first generation of broadband networks, that is, DSL and cable modems.

This technology is faster than traditional dial-up Internet access, but it is only a few hundred k/s. It was not until the late 90s and early 21st century that broadband networks were gradually transformed, and the coverage continued to expand, and the speed increased to Mbps/s.

As for fibre broadband got after 2005.

Zhou Xin simply imagined that in 5v5 games, there are often 1 or more people dropped, and he gave up this idea.

Compared with MOBI games, which require more network requirements and require multiple people to work together, the game mode of auto chess will have much lower network requirements.

Auto chess can be traced back to Dota Auto Chess, but in terms of subsequent operations, Dota Auto Chess is far inferior to Riot's Genting Game.

The development of the two has little to do with the quality of the game itself, and the resources invested in the operation behind it directly determine that the popularity of Genting Game has always been very high, and there are small innovations in each season.

Dota, on the other hand, gradually lost its voice.

Zhou Xin completely communicated the mechanics of Genting Game from S1 to S5 in his memory with the planning team of Flamingo, and the effect was very close to Zhou Xin's memory.

Genting Game is also a preparation for the follow-up League of Legends, and when the network conditions are mature and the popularity of Genting gradually decreases, you can launch League of Legends.

"Genting Game is an 8-player tower defense game, and the battle chess game may be more appropriate.

But unlike single-player warboard games, we don't have a single-player mode, we only have player versus.

What you need to do is survive to the end of the 8 players.

We will make different styles of boards and heroes, players need to pay to buy boards and heroes, and the boards and heroes will not affect the fairness of the game itself.

Players need to climb the ladder constantly, and each time the top four players will add points and the bottom four players will lose points.

Finally, at the end of each year, we invite the top 128 players in the ladder to San Francisco for an offline tournament to determine the final champion.

The final winner will receive a board made of pure gold.

At the same time, at the end of each season, we will launch the Champion Board, and 50% of the sales revenue of all Champion Boards will be used as the prize pool.

These 128 players will split the prize pool equally according to their final rankings. ”

Zhou Xin talked about the ladder ranking from the game mechanics to the ladder ranking on the stage, and from the ladder ranking to the e-sports competition.

The media and friends in the audience feel that Zhou Xin is talking about something very new, but is this really feasible?

They weren't sure.

"The biggest surprise at E3 Millennium

This is the first time I have participated in the E3 exhibition, and it is also the first time that the Sohu Game Channel has almost all the staff to participate in the video game event. I've never heard of what E3 is before I became an editor.

It wasn't until I visited E3 this time that I realized that there are so many game developers around the world, so many media can stay alive by rating video games, and so many players are chasing their favorite video games like a pilgrimage.

It was also when I actually participated in E3 that I realized that games are more than just games, and why it can be hailed as the ninth art.

There were countless moments that stood out to me at E3 this time. Whether it's Hideo Kojima's participation in the E3 exhibition with the promotional film for "Metal Gear Solid 2", the gorgeous opening, the cinematic storyboard, the soundtrack like a Hollywood blockbuster, the weather and lighting that change the tide of battle, and Kojima's best humor, this promotional video surprises me every minute.

Or is it that "Three Kingdoms" made its debut at the E3 exhibition as a Chinese game manufacturer, and it received an IGN 8.0 rating as soon as it appeared.

"Three Kingdoms" is an RTS game, in RPG as the mainstream, the success of games such as Fairy Sword and Jin Yong's Legend of the Heroes has made manufacturers eat the sweetness of martial arts games, and similar games are surging. RTS games have been hit catastrophically by Blood Lion, and few game developers have dared to venture into the space again.

And the development team of "Three Kingdoms" first launched "Iron Storm" - a sci-fi style RTS. With this development experience, they have made persistent efforts to develop an excellent work such as "Three Kingdoms", which has been widely recognized by the international game industry.

The author hopes to see more and more faces of Chinese games on E3 in the future.

Or maybe Ricky Martin's lead dancer and Yu Suzuki signing autographs one by one at the Sega booth. I was also impressed by the climbing competition area at the entrance of the SEGA booth.

Or did Microsoft bring the prototype of Xbox to the E3 exhibition site, and sent a voice from the Internet giants to Sony, Nintendo and Sega, the three major neon console manufacturers, and Bill Gates, who has resigned as chairman of Microsoft, has come to stand up for Xbox.

But the most memorable moment for me was the demo session in front of the Flamingo Games booth.

I believe that everyone has received the first-line information from Sohu Games, and it is difficult to see how fun it is from the intelligence alone.

After Zhou Xin finished the press conference of "Genting Game" on behalf of Flamingo, there were only 8 computers on the booth outside Flamingo at the beginning, and a total of 8 players could try the game.

The most unacceptable thing about Flamingo is that only 8 players can try it out at a time, only the first place can continue to play, and the next 7 players need to give up their positions to the people behind them.

In addition to the 8 computers, there is also a huge screen, on which is a simplified version of the score leaderboard, which is the ladder mentioned by Zhou Xin.

You can keep looping through the queue, and your name and score in the top 100 will be hung on the ladder leaderboard at the back.

The top 100 can get a verification code, and after the game is officially launched, you can get an out-of-print board skin through the verification code.

The game itself is very fun, whether it is the bond mechanic, the mechanism that can be combined and upgraded with three chess pieces, and the mechanism of PvP battles, it is very, very interesting.

As a game editor who specializes in game reviews, this is arguably the most fun game I've ever played.

Unfortunately, I was eliminated in the first round, and by the time I tried to line up again, the flamingo booth was full of people, and then it got bigger and bigger, and the line grew to over a thousand people.

The platoon may not be able to play for a day, and then the flamingo projects the real-time gameplay of the live player experience on a large screen at the door. As a result, the entire booth was crowded, even more crowded than the day Yuzu Suzuki signed autographs at the Sega entrance.

There's only one way you want to be in the top 1,000, and that's to win as many times as you can. But it's too hard, Genting Game is a bit similar to Mahjong, where three one-star games can be upgraded to one two-star game. Three two-star units can be upgraded to one three-star unit.

At the same time, different units need different gold coins to buy, ranging from 1 gold coin to 5 gold coins, and every time a player on the scene combines a three-star 5 gold game, the whole audience will cheer and scream.

It also has an equipment mechanic, and different basic equipment has different synthesis routes, which leads to the whole game having both game and luck components, although Zhou Xin said that this is a tower defense PVP game. But in essence, it's very different from the previous tower defense games. For first-time players, the luck component is the main component.

So if you want to get as many points as possible, you have to queue up for at least two rounds, which means that you should be as familiar with the rules as possible the first time and rely on luck to be the first a few times. Then the second time it's your turn to master the rules, and it's easier to get on a winning streak after mastering the rules.

Because I had a lot of booths to cover, I didn't have time to queue up at the Flamingo booth all the time, so I had the opportunity to interview the top 3 players in the top 100 during the E3 show, including the No. 1 player.

Without exception, they queued up for at least two rounds or more, and the top-ranked player took turns lining up with his friends in front of the Flamingo booth throughout E3.

Later, due to the outcry from the players, the number of one-time experience participants increased from 8 to 16.

Game of Genting was undoubtedly the biggest surprise of the E3 show, and it's hard to look at the game with your previous experience. Like Zhou Xin's past works, it is full of innovative elements.

The general innovative element means that players are not easy to accept at the beginning, and they need time to accept, word-of-mouth fermentation and media publicity.

As if it skips all of these processes, the game is packed with innovative designs that players don't have time to pick up, and the barrier to entry is so low that it takes just a few minutes to realize the fun.

It has a completely different mechanic for obtaining coins, a bond mechanic, a pawn upgrade mechanic, a draft mechanic, a mechanic interspersed with PVE in PVP, and even an equipment synthesis mechanic.

These are mechanics that I've never seen in any other game before, and Genting Game blends them together as if they were meant to be designed that way.

The most amazing thing is that the mechanics that sound so cumbersome and full of innovation are so easy to pick up and play in the real world, with little to no difficulty. Zhou Xin and Flamingo have developed new products in the fields they are good at. I'm already looking forward to the official release of Genting Game.

The only regrettable thing is that there is currently no agent for "Genting Game" in China, and domestic players can only apply for Ameriken's Riot Games account if they want to play, which may have relatively high network latency. ”

The above is an official report posted by Sohu editors in Sohu's game forum.

Because there are a large number of official accounts in Riot Games' forums, these official accounts will post some official news from game developers, and they will also take the initiative to engage in some forum activities. Other game forums have followed suit, and Sohu has even created a dedicated news team for the game.

The reports of the Sohu game news team will be synchronized to the Sohu game channel and Sohu game forum at the same time.

All the players who have experienced the game of Genting have given unanimous praise, and other players have also been amazed after experiencing it.

"How do you evaluate the new game "Genting Game" brought by Flamingo Games at this E3 exhibition?"

As E3 is in full swing, a large number of news from the front line of the game has been reported by the game media, and these reports are inseparable from the game "Genting Game".

Coupled with Riot Games' official campaign, after photos of the long queue for the live "Genting Game" trial were posted on the forum, players were curious about what kind of magic this game really has.

There is not much mystery to be seen from the mechanics and promotional videos alone.

And the answers given by a large number of front-line personnel participating in the E3 exhibition on quora:

"Newman's pitch at the game launch event didn't ignite the enthusiasm of the players at all. Unlike Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies, which are very interesting at a glance, Newman's new game "Genting Game" is difficult to tell from the trailer or the introduction what kind of game it is.

Even at the Genting Games press conference, my colleagues and I listened to it and decided that the game didn't deserve so much attention from Newman. You know, this is the first time Newman has held a press conference for a game, and Newman has a lot of expectations for it, and we have a lot of expectations for it because of Newman.

Looking at the whole press conference, we felt that it did not meet our expectations, and compared with the promotional video of "Metal Slug 2", the promotional video of "Genting Game" seems to be a bit boring, or there is no explosion.

Including Newman, who talked about a lot of game mechanics and ranked mechanics that are not so easy to understand at the press conference. Even the follow-up esports content, which is lacking in highlights for an industry veteran like me.

It wasn't until after the press conference that we were open to the public, and we could go directly to experience Genting Game because we were media, and after experiencing it, my colleagues and I were shocked that it was another typical Newman-style game.

The game mechanics are completely different from the past, and the game threshold is easy to master and difficult, and there are a lot of unique and interesting game designs. The actual experience is completely different from listening to the press conference, probably because Newman spoke so badly.

Purely from the game itself, we in-house agree to give it a score of 9 or even higher.

It's hard to imagine that more than 20 years after the development of the video game industry to this day, there are still games full of innovation. ”

That's the answer from IGN's editor-in-chief, and his answer is representative of the attitude of the gaming press.

In fact, the game media did not like Zhou Xin very much, because the emergence of Riot Games and its rating system deprived the game professional media of a large part of its power, and even its credibility was seriously affected.

The gaming press gave a high score to a game that wasn't fun, and this score was grossly inconsistent with Riot's player ratings, which led players to question the magazine's credibility.

After many such things, the magazine will be subconsciously labeled as untrustworthy. This also makes game magazines less inclined to force just the meal.

That is to say, for a bad game, if the game developer gives money and it is difficult to refuse, then they will not score it, only talk about the advantages, and ignore the shortcomings.

In the Riot Games forum, videos of the game's best games are posted on the forum for players to download and watch.

The flood of positive reviews whetted players' appetites, and then the download link was opened in Riot Games.

Flamingos are also taking advantage of the current cheap Internet advertising fees to promote marketing on related websites. You can see ads everywhere, and then click to jump to the official website, but you just can't play.

I can only see a string of instructions: It will be officially launched at 9 a.m. North American time on May 15. A set of hunger marketing combinations is punched down, which belongs to the players' expectations are full.

This set of gameplay requires a very high quality of the game itself, and if you fill up the expectations, that means that your game needs to be able to exceed the expectations of the players.

The reason why the blood lion has a bad reputation is not because they have pulled their expectations too much, and the things they finally made not to mention exceed the expectations of the players, and even the bottom line of the players has not been reached.

"Newman, Americon has more than 200,000 downloads, and the Europa region has more than 300,000 downloads.

That's more than we expected, and we need to start alternatives and increase network bandwidth.

It's so popular, if our charging method players don't agree, then the more users we have, the more we lose. Johnson was helpless.

The Americon area is okay, there will be income no matter what, after all, the electronic payment in the Ameriken area is relatively mature.

However, in the Europa region, the bill on electronic payments has not yet been approved.

It will take at least half a year from the approval of the bill to the perfection of electronic payment channels.

In other words, in the past six months, they have not made any money from players in the Europa region, and they have posted servers and broadband resources for European players to play.

I would have liked to write 8k today.

(End of chapter)