Chapter 428: A Treasure Hunt Story (Requesting subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

After Huanyu VR in China and Zeus overseas announced their related technologies,

various major game developers successively released patches for some of their older games.

For many players, this was a very fresh experience.

For example, in Red Dead Redemption, it originally took nearly two minutes to load before entering the game, and in multiplayer mode, it could take even longer, about three minutes.

Although there were corresponding VR themes to help players pass the time,

this waiting time was still very long.

However, after this update, many players were pleasantly surprised to find that online multiplayer mode only took about thirty seconds to load, while story mode was even faster, taking only about twelve seconds.

In addition, the Awakening Mode was here.

However, online player feedback on this new mode has not been very good so far.

The main reason is that previously, games from major developers, in consideration of player experience, rarely added special elements.

These elements might make some players feel excited, but they could also make others uncomfortable.

After all, every player has different habits and personalities.

Therefore, to make a game suitable for a wider range of players, the approach taken was usually moderate.

In this situation, using Awakening Mode actually had a counter-effect.

Of course, not all games were unsuitable.

For instance, many scenes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare were quite suitable.

Roach and Soap's snowy mountain climbing during their infiltration of the Tian Shan Mountains, Soap and Captain Price's white water rafting during their pursuit of Shepherd, and finally, Price's hotel battle during his pursuit of Makarov.

These scenes, in the cutscenes, Chen Xu had used fixed camera angles.

This meant players could only look in one direction, as considerations were made for players with a fear of heights.

After all, the new era VR's super high sense of immersion, combined with the game's story itself, could sometimes genuinely instill a sense of fear in players.

Some players enjoyed this kind of thrill, but others genuinely didn't want it.

One could understand this by looking at entertainment facilities like high-altitude glass walkways, discos, and roller coasters.

Some people loved this kind of thrilling excitement, while others wouldn't even touch them; let alone pay to play, they wouldn't play even if you paid them.

After enabling Awakening Mode, although it caused these players to lose some immersion, it prevented their emotions from becoming too agitated, allowing them to better experience the visual impact.

Similarly, major game developers also successively announced their new projects.

NetDragon launched Shadow Operations: Communications Interrupted; after all, while the previous title was criticized by many players, its sales were quite successful.

The birth of a sequel was naturally a matter of course, and its genre would, of course, still be open-world.

Overseas, Atrai, which has always been in lockstep with Zeus, did not, as usual, adapt a well-known IP this time.

Instead, they chose to create a new IP and had already announced some related project content.

It was also an open-world game, but in terms of theme, they chose a rather interesting direction: treasure hunting.

Unlike ordinary games where one collects treasures and defeats a Great Demon King, in the game background of Elemental World, announced by Atrai, players had already defeated the Great Demon King, but the world had also fallen apart in the aftermath of the battle.

In the game's setting, there were four different elements: ‘Earth, Water, Fire, Air’. The goal was to find four elemental swords by visiting ancient ruins and tombs to save the world.

In addition, various other game developers, both large and small, also launched their respective projects.

For a time, a huge wave of games seemed to be approaching, and players eagerly discussed these new projects announced by the major game developers.

But as the discussion continued, players quickly turned to the development of game genres.

The main reason was that almost all of these upcoming games were uniformly open-world.

Clearly, these game developers were influenced by Red Dead Redemption and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Open-world—it could be said that eight out of ten games had to bear these four words, as if without them, it wouldn't count as a game.

The reason for this was the inherent advantages of open-world design.

One of the most direct benefits of open-world design was that it prolonged players' game time.

It made the game content appear rich and offered great value for money.

Therefore, whether big or small game developers, whether FPS or ARPG, almost all were deeply obsessed with this open-world design philosophy.

………………

Chen Xu was also in a discussion.

However, his discussion partners were not ordinary designers, but Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin.

“Open-world will become the mainstream? Of course not,” Chen Xu said with a smile, shaking his head.

“Huh?” Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin looked at Chen Xu, awaiting his answer.

However, the one who answered next was Meng Zuo, who was standing nearby.

As a game designer, before joining Nebula Games, he had been responsible for several major titles at NetDragon, so he naturally had his own insights.

Meng Zuo explained, “Actually, many open-world games currently on the market are merely superficial; their maps are large but empty, and the level pacing design is completely chaotic. More often than not, they are just trying to ride a wave of popularity by leveraging the open-world concept.”

As his voice faded, Chen Xu nodded. “That’s right. Many current open-world games simply add numerous collection elements, repetitive gameplay, and strictly controlled numerical items. In essence, they are quite formulaic.”

“Previously, the open-world concept had just emerged, and players hadn't played too many games of this type, so they found it very interesting.”

“But in reality, last year's Chaotic Heroes by TengHua and Shadow Operations: The Wilderness by NetDragon, though they sold decently, player feedback afterward wasn't good. If this new batch of open-world games continues with this formulaic approach, I’m not optimistic,” Chen Xu said, shaking his head.

The Parallel World differed from his previous life in this regard.

Due to more advanced technology, game development cycles were shorter.

This led players to play more games in the same period, making the sense of déjà vu for similar games stronger.

“The open-world genre will become a major direction, but it definitely won’t be the mainstream. Moreover, linear games have inherent advantages.”

“Exquisite level design, not pursuing open-world but investing all resources and performance into art presentation, combined with the immersive VR narrative—the strong points of linear games are very obvious,” Chen Xu explained.

“Then, Mr. Chen, will our next game be open-world or linear?” Qin Yi, standing nearby, asked Chen Xu curiously.

“Other game developers are all making open-world games; we won’t join the fun this time.”

“For the new project, it will be an action-adventure game with a treasure hunt theme—a story about finding the legendary treasure of a great pirate.”

Chen Xu stretched lazily and smiled.

(End of Chapter) <>