Chen Xu remained as steady as a rock, still observing and waiting for the right moment to steer the online players' discussion trend.
Because he could clearly see the relevant data for Dark Souls.
However, for many game designers in the gaming industry who had been closely watching Nebula Games,
those who couldn't access the game's internal data and could only judge Dark Souls' quality based on current online player reviews and the game's surface contentāwere sighing with emotion.
"No doubt Chen Xu went wild with success in the independent game scene, but since this is his first time developing a large-scale game, he clearly lost a bit of control!"
"Well, not exactly. The Art design has absolutely no issues, and the Combat System is quite outstanding. As for the story, it's unclear for now, but judging from the worldview, it probably won't be too bad. The main problem lies in the Numerical Design."
"Yeah, I agree. The graphics and Art quality of Dark Souls are actually quite high, but the difficulty seems way too high!"
"It's not just that! There are also issues with Level Design and detail experience. The game doesn't even have a mini-map, and the difficulty can't be adjusted. This time, Chen Xu was just too reckless."
"The player rating for Dark Souls has already dropped to 8.3. Compared to Chen Xu's previous games, it's a world apart!"
"Yeah, is this setting a new low for Chen Xu's ratings?"
"This time, Chen Xu has truly hit a Waterloo. Considering Dark Souls' promotional scale and production cost, it must be quite painfulāeven if it's not Major Damage."
"Actually, it's not necessarily over yet. The main issues with Dark Souls right now are difficulty and user experience. If Chen Xu later appropriately lowers the difficulty and adds selectable difficulty levels, who knows what might happen?"
"But he's already a step too late."
"I bet quite a few game developers now regret their decisions. They previously thought Dark Souls had massive promotional momentum and feared their own games would be overshadowed. But now, Dark Souls has flopped."
There were indeed many game designers in the industry paying attention to Dark Souls.
Previously, Nebula Games had released numerous hits, but those were mostly low-budget productions.
As Nebula Games' first blockbuster, Dark Souls naturally attracted countless eyes.
But right now, it was clearly surrounded by controversy.
It might even fail to meet expectations.
This sparked some hidden thoughts among certain game developers and designers.
Hawkwing Entertainment, a domestic game developer specializing in ARPG and ACT genres,
had its lead designer and head, Li Xiang, closely following Dark Souls.
Because the ARPG new work he led, Mind's Dawn, was about to launch soon.
Unlike other developers who deliberately avoided Dark Souls, they had already publicly announced their release dateājust two weeks after Dark Souls launched.
But internally, the company had some disagreementsāspecifically, whether they should delay the launch.
After all, if Dark Souls turned out to be truly exceptional, being another ARPG might relegate them to a supporting role, affecting subsequent sales.
But now, the situation seemed clearer.
Especially after Li Xiang personally purchased Dark Souls the moment it released and seriously tried it out.
After playing, he was completely stunned.
Just like the players complaining online about the game's difficulty, Li Xiang was tormented by Gundyr the Ash and the Crystal Lizard, then quietly exited the game.
He had only one thought: Could the difficulty really be correct?
Did Chen Xu make a mistake in the Numerical Design during development?
For an ARPG gameāeven one leaning toward actionāthe difficulty was simply too exaggerated.
Especially after he checked some online game materials and learned that later sections were filled with malicious traps, and the early game was merely an appetizer.
This instantly gave Li Xiang a sense of disorientation.
Li Xiang could somewhat understand Chen Xu's intention behind designing Dark Souls this way.
Namely, to create a hardcore ARPG.
This led Li Xiang to believe that Dark Souls would become a niche title with limited popularity.
And judging from current online player reviews, it seemed to be heading exactly in that direction.
In that case, there was nothing more to say. Originally, he had worried Dark Souls might become a popular Big Project, leaving him indecisive.
But now, with timing, circumstances, and human factors all aligned, not riding this wave would be a disservice to himself!
Soon after Li Xiang made his decision, Mind's Dawn launched a high-profile promotional campaign.
It wasn't just Hawkwing Entertainment. Many other games originally planning to release during this period but had held back due to Dark Souls' overwhelming promotional momentum also began their warm-up promotions.
After all, December had two massive monsters aheadāthough on the VR platform, they would undoubtedly impact the PC platform significantly.
Moreover, judging from Dark Souls' current player reputation, it was clearly a husky in wolf's clothing.
It looked fierce during early promotion, but once tested in real combat, it collapsed instantly.
By the time their games launched, its reputation would likely be even worse.
ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦
Inside Nebula Games,
Chen Xu was discussing the Macro strategy for Dark Souls' subsequent popularity with Zhang Yida.
Meanwhile, Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, who had been closely monitoring the game's data, discovered something exciting.
Namely, Dark Souls' player ratings and reputation seemed to be slowly turning around.
Although many angry players still gave low scores and constantly complained about the game's high difficulty on forums,
Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin excitedly discovered through Nebula Games' backend data
that many of those who initially gave low scores hadn't immediately abandoned the game but continued playing.
The longest-playing group had already exceeded 12 hours.
And most of these players had changed their previous low scores back to high ones.
Even on the official community forum, these players came forward, reversing their earlier opinions and now praising Dark Souls.
This dramatic shift in attitude left them thrilled yet slightly puzzled.
What happened to the players?
Did Mr. Chen cast a spell on them?
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