Chapter 623: Mr. Chen, Do You Know How I've Lived All These Years?! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)
The popularity of Detroit: Become Human continued.
Meanwhile, major game developers, including some who, after Chen Xu launched Detroit: Become Human, had only made grand promises of limited scale, also successively released their new games supporting mind-materialization technology.
In terms of quality, although most could only be described as decent and not particularly outstanding, they still sold well.
This was quite normal, as there were still relatively few games that supported this emerging technology. For players, there weren't many choices. Although Detroit: Become Human was exceptionally good, players couldn't just play one game and nothing else.
Therefore, the overall market was still very large, and this performance prompted other developers to accelerate their preparations for games in this area.
However, compared to other developers,
Chen Xu was looking at a finished promotional CG for World of Warcraft.
Unlike before, most of World of Warcraft's art assets were actually already under secret development. Chen Xu and his team already had experience with a related game system from Nebula World.
For Chen Xu, Warcraft was not just about content and gameplay, but also about subsequent operations. After all, this was a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, and Chen Xu couldn't possibly release everything like Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm all at once upon launch.
Instead, he had to arrange it incrementally, based on the current progress of players in the game. For example, if players had thoroughly explored the current version's content, and there was nothing left to play or grind in either PVP or PVE, it would be impossible to delay the next version for a year or two. Similarly, it would be impossible to launch a new version directly before players had fully explored the current one.
So, this aspect was quite important.
Next was the promotion, which adopted the easter egg linkage from Nebula World. This time, it was much more mysterious than before, but after all, the player base was enormous. According to Chen Xu's estimates, at the current pace, it wouldn't be long before players would discover the truth behind the easter egg.
At least, it would certainly be faster than the game's development speed. So, the promotion aspect still needed to be done thoroughly, following a comprehensive promotional model from initial warm-up to official game launch.
Furthermore, to help players better understand World of Warcraft's background and related content, CG was naturally indispensable. Games may be delayed, but CG comes first; this was also an old tradition of Nebula Games. And the shock Warcraft originally brought to players wasn't just how fun the RTS gameplay was or how grand the story was.
The most direct impression was the exquisite CG content. Now, this could be considered staying true to its original intention.
………………
Inside the VR gaming pod, Song Ren was browsing recently released games, hoping to find some interesting new ones. After playing Detroit: Become Human, he had truly been experiencing a game drought lately. While Detroit: Become Human was good, after completing it, he personally lacked the motivation for a second playthrough to unlock different storylines. He mostly watched edited videos by other UP hosts to learn about alternative story paths.
As for some new brainwave-tech games recently released, he felt two of them were decent, but after the novelty wore off, he felt they were just okay. Just as he was about to continue searching for other games, his real-world phone suddenly rang.
Stepping out of the gaming pod, he glanced at the caller ID: Zhang Yi was calling.
"Old Zhang, what's up?" Song Ren answered the phone with some curiosity.
"It's out! Old Song, it's finally out! Arthas and Illidan, the Warcraft sequel!" Zhang Yi's excited voice came from the other end of the line.
"Damn it, what did you say!?" Hearing Zhang Yi's voice, Song Ren froze for a moment, then quickly hung up and opened Chen Xu's official Weibo account.
Old Zhang? Could Old Zhang be more important than Warcraft?
Right now, he only wanted to confirm one thing.
Upon entering the official Weibo, he saw that Chen Xu's account had just posted a message five minutes ago.
But it already had over 300,000 likes and nearly 50,000 shares.
The message was a simple sentence: 'Log in to Nebula World to unlock the Azeroth promotional video.'
Attached to this official Weibo post was also a video. Clearly, the promotional video was divided into a VR version and a standard version. He didn't click on the video, but those four characters, 'Azeroth,' seemed to be filled with magic.
Innumerable memories immediately flooded back. The feud between Prince Kael'thas and Arthas, beginning with their feelings for Jaina, then Arthas transforming into a Death Knight to lead the Scourge invasion. Arthas, misunderstood by his mentor and lover, eventually pursued power and was corrupted to become a minion of the Lich King. Jaina sided with outsiders, claiming that Orcs' lives mattered, helping Rexxar cause her biological father's death. Hellscream, in Ashenvale, plunged Gorehowl into the chest of the Big-Butt Mannoroth, severing the Orcs' Blood Curse. Illidan, imprisoned for ten thousand years, still deeply in love with his sister-in-law.
Although many years had passed, these stories and characters remained deeply etched in memory.
"Damn it! This... it's real!?"
Song Ren couldn't hold back his inner shock and excitement. He was just too thrilled! And it wasn't just Song Ren; at this very moment, all players who had experienced Warcraft—both domestically and internationally—were engulfed in excitement and euphoria.
The simple four characters 'Azeroth' were enough to make countless players cheer excitedly. The hero system and the artifact system directly subverted the entire RTS genre at the time. Players learned that RTS could be played this way. Players learned that RTS could have such a rich storyline. This unprecedented RTS game achieved incredible success in the PC gaming market of that era.
For most ordinary players, Warcraft's rich storyline was also unforgettable. Arthas's story after becoming the Lich King, the relationship between the Alliance and Horde, Illidan's whereabouts...
Within Warcraft's RPG maps, the third-party stories written by players were countless. Even now, many players still play Warcraft's RPG maps.
But precisely because of this, years of accumulated time have kept Warcraft a dream in the hearts of countless players. Now, that dream is finally coming true.
Below the official Weibo post, countless excited player comments flooded in.
'Mr. Chen, do you know how many years I've waited?'
'From junior high to high school, almost graduating from college, and I finally waited for it!'
'Six years! Mr. Chen, do you know how I've lived all these years?'
'Arthas, Illidan, I finally waited for you!'
'I knew a big move was coming! That parchment map in Nebula World, it's the map of Azeroth!'
'Nebula World has corresponding games for all sorts of scenes, but only one game was missing: Warcraft. And now, it's finally here!'
After quickly scanning the comments left by equally excited players in the comment section, Song Ren immediately re-entered the VR gaming pod and opened Nebula World, ready to see what the VR version of the promotional video was like.
Although an attachment was available on the official Weibo, he wanted to save his 'first time' for the most precious video.
(End of Chapter)
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