You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

Chapter 481 Liu Mengyuan Backstabs

After that rousing mobilization meeting, Lu Yu seemed to be completely ignited with an unprecedented passion for creation. To better capture the irony and extremes of the game "Krypton Gold Simulator: Lay Down Life," he implemented a unique new "lay down and enjoy" policy within the company.

The next day after the meeting, when everyone arrived at the office as planned, they found a brand new high-end game console on the desk, along with a small card with a game download link printed on it. Opening it, they found links to the official websites of several of China's most popular legendary mobile games.

Soon, Lu Yu walked out of the conference room with an unfathomable smile on his face. He looked around the office area and then said:
"Have you noticed that the biggest selling point of our new game is actually those 'over-the-top' paid experiences? For example, being forced to spend a fortune on a virtual wife, losing all your game saves if you're not careful, and having to spend thousands of gold to buy rare items, etc."

"To truly recreate this extreme experience, our written designs and imaginations alone are far from enough. We need players to personally feel and experience the despair of being forced to spend money, so that the design can be closer to reality!"

At this point, Lu Yu paused, then suddenly waved his hand, pointing to the console and game link card on the table: "So, I've prepared a 'lie down and enjoy' gift package for everyone! I hope that from today on, everyone can experience what it means to be 'exploited by money-loving game developers' after work!"

"To be specific, I've assigned each of you 3-5 of the most popular legendary mobile games in China. From today until the end of the project, you'll have to spend at least 4 hours a day downloading and experiencing these games, which are full of paywalls. During this time, all expenses you pay for game content and equipment will be fully reimbursed by the company!"

Hearing this, the whole audience was in an uproar. Soon, someone asked, "Mr. Lu, what do you mean? We even have to record the process of playing games and use it in the new work?"

"That's right!" Lu Yu nodded, his expression quite certain. "Each of us must firmly record all the bitterness and pain we experience in our hearts when playing these games. From being scammed by false advertisements to being forced to spend lavishly for long-desired equipment, no one is immune!"

"We need to record and organize all of these experiences and perfectly integrate them into the player experience of 'Krypton Gold Simulator: Lying Down Life'. I want players to empathize with the pain and oppression we once went through while experiencing our game! Let them experience the bottomless pit of money and the taste of being excessively demanded by developers!"

"Yes, our new game may be a bit exaggerated, but the spiritual core behind it still comes from the personal experiences of us poor developers! So starting today, everyone will personally face the exploitation and pressure from the developers of these famous legendary mobile games. Only in this way can we fully transplant the despair of being excessively extorted by developers into our new game!"

As Lu Yu spoke with powerful words, an unprecedented crazy atmosphere of "revolution plus krypton" instantly filled the entire company.

Someone immediately picked up their phone and started downloading various well-known legendary mobile games on their console. "I'll start with this one. I heard its payment experience is really abnormal!"

Others gathered around a console, discussing various "little-known facts about pay-to-win games." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the orange-colored, rare-edition weapons in this game are going to cost tens of thousands of dollars to buy. If you're not careful, you'll end up getting ripped off!"

Others have started writing down "memos" on paper, seemingly intending to record all the embarrassing moments and pain points they've experienced during their subsequent experiences with the Legend mobile game. "I must write down in detail the exact moment I was scammed out of money by the game, and the psychological changes that occurred at that moment."

Thus, an unprecedented "self-exploitation and experience" campaign ignited a frenzy within the gaming company. Everyone began to work tirelessly, tirelessly striving to establish a presence in these legendary mobile games, leveling up and completing missions, and spending lavishly on various equipment and items. Even in the company's corridors and pantries, one could occasionally hear the anguished cries of someone overwhelmed by the content of the mobile games.
For a moment, the entire company was filled with a despairing atmosphere of being exploited by developers. Lu Yu, sitting in the conference room, peered out through the camera and couldn't help but smile. That's right, the goal was to let everyone experience firsthand the feeling of being oppressed by capital, so that "Krypton Gold Simulator: Lying Down Life" could fully capture the "irony"!
With the crazy energy in the company right now, he was sure that this future game would become an unprecedented masterpiece of social satire!
……

Lu Yu's highly publicized "Experience Capitalist Exploitation Firsthand" campaign ignited a frenzy within the company. Everyone was swept up in this frenzy of self-exploitation, including Lu Yu's beloved, Vice President of Projects Liu Mengyuan.

As one of the project's co-directors, Liu Mengyuan naturally benefited from Lu Yu's "favor." On the first day of the exercise, she had barely sat down to work when Lu Yu, half-jokingly, pulled her over.

"Baby, you also have to learn to experience the pain of being oppressed by capital!" Lu Yu pulled Liu Mengyuan to his side with one hand, and with the other hand he quickly clicked and downloaded something on her game console.

"Lu Yu, what are you going to do?" Liu Mengyuan was caught off guard by his sudden pull, and looked at the various game icons that kept popping up on the screen in confusion.

"I'll download you some of the most popular legendary mobile games in China. I guarantee you'll be completely spoiled after playing them!" Lu Yu said seriously, as if carefully selecting something for her. "Yes, start with these! I heard their paid experience is quite abnormal. I guarantee you'll feel the bittersweet feeling of being exploited by the capitalists!"

"What? Do I have to play this kind of gambling game too?" Liu Mengyuan widened his eyes, as if he had not yet recovered from the news.

"Gambling game? Nonsense!" Lu Yu curled his lips and shook his head helplessly. "We're preparing for a top-tier paid experience for our new game! Only after experiencing the developer's crazy extortion firsthand can we make the krypton gold trap in the game convincing enough!"

As he spoke, Lu Yu put his arm around Liu Mengyuan's slender waist and kissed her cheek hard: "Besides, I'm a little selfish and want to show some love to our company's most hardworking little beauty employee!"

"You..." Liu Mengyuan blushed after being kissed by him, and subconsciously pushed his chest away. "You are such a bad guy, and you still want to take advantage of me!"

But soon, she put on a calm demeanor and gracefully picked up the game controller: "But you do have a point. If we want to provide players with the best krypton gold experience, we really should experience it ourselves. But you have to play with me, too. After all, you are the overall person in charge of this project!"

As she spoke, Liu Mengyuan opened one of the legendary mobile games and began to fumble around in it. Soon, her somewhat helpless voice was heard: "This game is too complicated, I don't understand how to play it at all! Lu Yu, come and teach me!"

Seeing this, Lu Yu quickly approached, put his arm around her shoulders, and held the remote control in the other hand, explaining the game to her in a serious manner: "Okay, I'll explain it to my dear in detail. First of all, there are many professions to choose from in this game, but let's start with the warrior to familiarize ourselves with it."

In this way, Lu Yu gradually guided Liu Mengyuan through these legendary mobile games, chatting and laughing. Soon, Liu Mengyuan was drawn into the games, diligently leveling up, defeating monsters, and collecting equipment. Whenever she encountered a difficult problem, Lu Yu would promptly offer advice and patiently help her solve it.

"Oh my, this boss is so hard to deal with! I can't defeat it with this set of equipment!"

"It's okay, it's okay, come on, I'll teach you a secret to high frame rate krypton gold"

"Lu Yu, I don't have enough game coins to buy orange weapons, but I heard you can buy them with cash!"

"What's the rush? I'll top up your account right now and make sure you're the first to experience being ripped off by the developer. Haha."

In this atmosphere of mingling and flirting, Liu Mengyuan gradually became deeply drawn to various legendary mobile games. Lu Yu, like someone who had finally found his soulmate, stayed by her side, offering her advice and sometimes making playful, sarcastic remarks when she spent money. The two of them remained inseparable, spending every day together, enjoying the various paid games and becoming passionately attached to each other.
Furthermore, during this process, Liu Mengyuan's perspective on the project, "氪金测试:卧平人生," subtly shifted. Her initial enthusiasm was gradually overwhelmed by the experience of being exploited by the developer; and those design ideas she once criticized as "too extreme" now seemed logical and reasonable.

Once, after Lu Yu used a backend tool to prankily delete all her in-game saves, Liu Mengyuan was furious! But soon, she smiled and said to Lu Yu, "It's okay. I now completely understand why we set up that 'desperate payment link' in our new game. To let players experience the feeling of being ruthlessly slaughtered by the developer, we should create enough despair!"
...After Liu Mengyuan was completely assimilated and deeply immersed in the movement of "firsthand experience of being exploited by capitalists," Lu Yu seemed to let go completely. To further fuel the buzz and attention for the game "氪金测试: 平平人生," he immediately launched a series of unprecedented "odd marketing" campaigns.

One weekend morning, all players who followed the game’s official channels received a shocking push message, along with a brand new promotional poster that was completely different from the previous ones.

The design style of the poster is unprecedentedly bold and exaggerated. Even the proportions and images of the characters in the picture have been changed.

The most striking feature is the poster's central image—a massive, ferocious monster head, laughing wildly toward the heavens, its mouth spewing a stream of gemstones and gold coins. Before this enormous mouth stands a naked, black-haired girl. Her petite body is crushed beneath the bills and coins spewing from the monster's mouth, her entire body treading on the treasure, her face a look of agony.

It's easy to see this as a metaphor for players being forced to spend a fortune in-game to upgrade their gear, ultimately becoming exploited. The terrifying monster's face likely represents the developer as a "capital predator."

In addition to these exaggerated elements, the poster's border is also decorated with dark-style patterns such as skulls and hooks, which complement the central pattern. At the bottom, there is a shocking slogan: "Exploiting you is our mission!"

After seeing this promotional poster, many players expressed shock. Even veteran players who had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the paid experience left comments after seeing such exaggeration: "I used to think the paid experience in the game was too much, but now it seems that even the official is promoting it like this, doesn't this mean that the level of exploitation in the game has worsened?"

"Isn't this marketing tactic too much? It's a deliberate attempt to completely shift the focus, making us focus on the money-making aspect instead of questioning the game's content itself."

"I wonder if the authorities are kidding us? They're packaging a blatantly paid game as a 'satire work'?"

In this way, this highly provocative promotional poster not only caused a huge uproar, but also completely ignited the heated discussion around the topic of whether the paid experience of "氪金测试: 平平生命" is too "dark" or whether it is worth paying for.

Amidst widespread controversy, the game's official representatives have yet to respond. Even pre-orders were quietly removed. The entire promotional campaign seemed designed to distract players from the game itself and focus on its "value proposition."

Faced with such exaggerated marketing tactics, many players were shocked. Many netizens exclaimed, "I came here to buy the game, how did it become a debate about values?" Many people even felt that the official marketing was intentional, as if to confuse the public and divert players' attention from the quality of the game itself.

"What kind of game are they selling? I think this is just hype."

"Anyway, I'm just going to wait and see what the game is like and not get scammed again."

Amidst the public's skepticism, Lu Yu seemed to completely ignore all voices, focusing on hyping and marketing the upcoming "Krypton Gold Simulator: Lying Down Life." In reality, this sensational marketing campaign was only the beginning.
……

Just as Lu Yu was raising the banner of marketing hype in the company higher and higher, many ordinary employees were already confused by his various weird practices.

Many people began to whisper privately: "What is Mr. Lu doing? He has completely led marketing astray. Is this really a good thing?"

"I don't understand it either. Is he trying to justify our new work or is he deliberately trying to discredit it?"

"Looking at this attitude, it's simply denying our hard work and reducing the game to a pure 'exploitation work'!"

Amidst the confusion, Liu Mengyuan seemed to suddenly come to his senses. He took the initiative to step forward and explain to everyone the profound meaning of Lu Yu's action.

"Everyone calm down and listen to me!" She looked around at everyone and said earnestly, "What Lu Yu did is not to deny our efforts, nor is it to belittle our game."

"On the contrary, he did this entirely out of a 'hidden' marketing strategy. We all know that the biggest selling point of a new game is the extreme irony and sense of exploitation that comes with paying for the game. And Lu Yu's exaggerated promotion is precisely to make players 'amazed' by this sense of exploitation before they even buy the game, thereby generating a strong interest in the game itself."

"Think about it, if they had simply promoted the game's excellent storyline and graphics from the start, wouldn't that have exposed our biggest selling point? Players wouldn't feel exploited the moment they downloaded the game, and instead would develop aesthetic fatigue with the game!"

"That's why Lu Yu used extreme, terrifying marketing tactics like 'monsters devouring players' during the promotional period to completely focus on the 'exploitative paywall' aspect of our game, giving players a preconceived notion of this. Only by making them crave this 'exploitative experience' can our new game sell like hotcakes and easily attract attention as soon as economists release it!"

"In short, Lu Yu is 'hiding' the marketing points of our game content, focusing only on the 'exploitation and payment' part. This way, once the game is released, it will create a huge contrast for players and a desire to 'debase themselves.' This will help us easily achieve impressive sales! Do you understand?"

In Liu Mengyuan's powerful words, all the initial worries and doubts seemed to dissipate at once. Everyone nodded, finally understanding Lu Yu's good intentions.

"I see, Mr. Lu is truly brilliant! This way, our hard work won't be exposed, and we'll actually give the players a 'surprise'!"

"That's right, I understand now! We need to work harder and secretly increase the stakes in the game so that once players are hooked, the pleasure of 'exploiting and paying' can be doubled!"

Under Liu Mengyuan's encouragement, the entire team seemed to have regained their fighting spirit, determined to seek common ground while reserving differences in the tide of Lu Yu's "exploitative marketing", and to make the game playable enough to build a good reputation for the upcoming blockbuster.

"We must secretly trip up Mr. Lu and put more effort into the game content so that players can have an unsatisfied experience when being 'exploited'!"

"I'll first think of some ways to improve the combat system so that players can't stop trying to build the ultimate equipment!"

"Okay! I'll make the plot more exciting, so players will have to spend a lot of money to solve the mystery!"

(End of this chapter)