Chapter 297: Warcraft New Version (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 297: Warcraft New Version (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Inside Hero Entertainment's office, Zhou Qi's expression was incredibly complex.

During the period when Warcraft was continuously gaining popularity, there was basically no other game making noise on the PC platform.

Initially, Warcraft experienced a balance crisis, just as he had predicted, and he was overjoyed.

But then, Chen Xu's live streaming demonstration completely left him crestfallen. After all, he had considered countless possibilities, but he had never imagined a scenario where the designer himself would step up and even defeat pro gamers.

He had originally thought that Human Wars had lost, utterly defeated.

But now, he strangely found that Human Wars, which had seen its activity plummet to freezing point, had recently rebounded.

Through data investigation and forum discussions, he arrived at a somewhat disheartening truth: the reason these players returned to Human Wars wasn't because they found Human Wars particularly charming. It was purely because they felt they were too clumsy to play a slightly hardcore RTS game like Warcraft.

They preferred Human Wars, where everyone could mindlessly mass produce units and then finish the game in one go, which was more comfortable, stress-relieving, and offered a sense of participation.

At this moment, Zhou Qi felt a bit broken. What did this mean? Did they think Warcraft was too deep, and Human Wars was brainless and required no skill?

He remembered a time when Human Wars was the most technically representative and balanced RTS game in the genre. Now it had been relegated to a so-called 'casual entertainment' game, rather than a competitive one?

This sense of contrast made Zhou Qi uncomfortable. But at the same time, he felt a little relieved. He had lost, but not completely.

At least for the casual players, he still had hope. If all else failed, he would drastically reform Human Wars. As long as he could capture the casual player market, he might still be able to make a comeback!

Thinking this, Zhou Qi felt his passion ignite once more. Just as he was filled with grand visions for the future, his phone on the desk chimed with a notification.

'The account you follow has a new update!'

A new update? He had only been following one person recently: Chen Xu!

A new post? Could it be a new version of Warcraft?

He immediately picked up his phone and opened the official Weibo account, then Zhou Qi froze. It was as he had expected. Chen Xu's simple official Weibo post announced the content of the latest version. But why was this update so strange?

New gameplay maps, and a self-created Map Editor? What was this?

………………

Many players, like Zhou Qi, were confused and bewildered.

"New version? What's updated?"

"Uh, a few maps. They don't look like Versus maps. 'Defend the Sword Pass,' 'Calamity of the Western World' – what are these?"

"And a Map Editor, what's that for?"

"I'm a bit confused!"

"Could it be new campaign storylines? But that's not right, what's with this Three Kingdoms background? Isn't Warcraft Western fantasy?"

"And there are Egyptian Pyramids!"

"What's the Map Editor for? Is it for us players to make our own Versus maps? Like ones with 100 gold mines?"

"Don't talk nonsense, didn't they update two CG animations?"

"As high-quality as ever! But here's the problem, Mr. Chen, you're a game company, not an animation company!"

With the launch of the new version, many players eagerly opened the update notes, ready to see what this version had in store. But after reading it, many players were a bit bewildered. Because this new version was completely different from what they had imagined.

Two CG animations, five maps that didn't look like campaign storylines or Versus maps. And a Map Editor whose purpose was unknown. Driven by curiosity, many players opened these maps to figure them out.

……………………

As a loyal player who bought the Collector's Edition with his private stash of money, Zhang Yi also updated Warcraft to the new version immediately.

However, unlike the period when the game first came out, he had recently gone back to farming decorations in Monster Hunter: World with Wang Han, Song Ren, and other friends. The main reason was that none of them were particularly good at RTS games. They always ended up in a frantic mess, couldn't beat others, and their Ladder scores for new accounts were all 500 points, still hovering between 400-600 points now.

Although they occasionally played Friendly Matches and AI Matches together, they were becoming less and less interested.

This time, Warcraft's update piqued his interest a little. New maps with different gameplay? Could it be campaign storylines?

With this thought, Zhang Yi clicked on the map named 'Defend the Sword Pass.' It had various modes. Matching with Random Players. Playing solo. Or playing with friends.

After a moment's thought, he directly chose multiplayer matchmaking. Soon, he entered the game. A grand piece of music played in the game, but it wasn't Warcraft's background music; it was a BGM from Sanguosha. This left him a bit taken aback.

Then, the buildings on the map and the other unit models made him a little bewildered. Why were they all Three Kingdoms models?

"Defend Zhuge Liang, does it end if Zhuge Liang dies?"

"Choose a hero, does this mean no unit building, just controlling one hero?"

"It's a bit like an RPG!"

"I want to play Zilong, brothers, can I play Zhao Yun?"

"Damn it, speak properly! Be a Real Man, okay? And look, there's no Zhao Yun here, they're all Greenhorn Recruits. When there are no generals in Shu, Liao Hua serves as the vanguard – this is the Late Shu Han Dynasty!"

"Holy cow, these heroes are awesome! Over 100 attack at level one?"

"Equipment has levels, can it be upgraded? How do I upgrade it?"

"A purple Intelligence Fan dropped, holy cow, over 200 attack, aren't I invincible now!? Wait! Where's my equipment! What the heck is this bird? Why did it pick up my equipment? Who's so ill-mannered!"

"Holy cow, why is this BOSS so powerful! Zhuge Liang died just like that?!"

A group of new players played for about ten minutes, bewildered, but it was clear that no one had figured out how this defense map was played. With the first big BOSS of the tenth wave of attack, none of the players on the field could put up a fight, directly leading to Zhuge Liang's demise, single-handedly unable to cope.

But none of the players felt frustrated; instead, they were incredibly curious, feeling like a new world had opened up to them. After exiting this Random Player match, Zhang Yi quickly pulled out his phone to call his friends.

"Old Song! Stop farming decorations, you've farmed for over 800 hours and only got 1 besides the guaranteed one from the story, what the heck are you farming! Come quickly to Warcraft, the new version is out, there's a new game mode! It's super fun!"

(End of Chapter) <>