Take Emperor Dynasty Entertainment for example, Emperor Dynasty gaming platform had tens of millions of active users a month, and times would reach more than two million concurrent active users.
If these players wanted to play a game by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, they’d have to log into Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, and naturally would see the other games promoted on the platform.
There were many players who only played games by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, rarely hesitating when buying games or in-app purchases.
Chen Mo did have players like these, but the number was just too low. Most of the players wouldn’t care about Chen Mo’s next game, and it would be even more unlikely for them to buy or play a game because it was ‘Chen Mo’s work’.
Deep down, Chen Mo knew that he couldn’t just make games, and would eventually have to work on his own distribution channels. In fact Chen Mo would eventually have to make his own gaming platform to gather all his games.
Moreover, many games require a huge player base to be able to profit.
Chen Mo currently had two goals in mind, developing ‘Thunderbolt gaming platform’, notifying those who own the Thunderbolt game pass about said platform, and get players from other platforms to join this platform.
Just like blizzard.net, Tencent’s TGP, and Wechat games from his previous life. Gathering all their players in once place to be able to better promote their games and allow the different communities to mingle.
However, it wasn’t enough for Chen Mo to make the Thunderbolt gaming platform as the platform would only have Flappy Bird, Plants vs Zombies, and I Am MT. It was too plain no matter how you looked at it.
Of course Chen Mo could make deals with other companies to get them to put their games onto Thunderbolt gaming platform in order to bulk up the game library.
But Chen Mo didn’t favour those games, and the companies didn’t favour Chen Mo’s new platform either. No amount of discussion could amount to anything.
By releasing two games at once, he would be able to boost the games he would have in the library, as well as increase his playerbase.
Chen Mo opened the design document, writing down the title: “Thunderbolt Tabletop”.
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What games in China had the largest player base?
Cardgames? RPGs? Shooter games?
Nope.
Tabletop games were the most popular.
In his previous life, Tencent Tabletop had more than a shocking two hundred and forty million users, one in five of them were playing tabletop games.
Chen Mo wanted to make tabletop games so he could utilize the promotional spot from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment as well as the inherent quality of tabletop games to draw in more players to Thunderbolt game pass, setting the foundation to future works.
Chen Mo had planned this from the start, and would be the best use of the promotional spot from the previous bet.
However, Chen Mo hadn’t made his mind on how to tackle tabletop games.
There were too many tabletop games, such as Dou Dizhu, mahjong, chinese chess, and Go. These were all under tabletop games. But wanting to do all of them wasn’t realistic nor was it ideal, so he had to pick and choose.
This world did have tabletop games. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Fantasy Gaming Platform both had their own tabletop games featuring a good amount of players.
Chen Mo was thinking about how to differentiate himself, otherwise he would have no chance in making a dent in the tabletop playerbase of these two companies.
Chen Mo looked over the tabletop games on the market in the past few days as market research.
Popular games in his previous life such as Dou Dizhu or Mahjong were quite popular in this world as well, and were essentially identical in playstyle. Chen Mo could make improvements in the user interface or in the rules, but these would only be improvements and wouldn’t be enough to take players off the other platforms.
It must be obviously different from the other tabletop games.
Even though they are all tabletop games, they all have very different playstyles. Dou Dizhu and Mahjong are examples of games that are popular regardless of age, with huge playerbases. Games like Chinese chess or Go would also have a decent amount of players, but would have no chance at making money. Games similar to bridge would have even less players.
If Chen Mo wanted to make tabletop games while drawing in players to his platform, Dou Dizhu and Mahjong would both be essential.
However, from Chen Mo’s research, other companies that focused on tabletop games did Dou Dizhu and Mahjong as well. They even included regional rules, such as using Jokers in Dou Dizhu, or Blood Mahjong.
Chen Mo thought of three improvements so far, first would be assistance provided to newer players such as tutorials, daily quests, special quests, and daily credits. Many of the other games didn’t touch this point or did them horrible, so Chen Mo could spend some time to improve this.
Second would be tournaments. There were very few tournaments for tabletop games in this world, and were mostly public lobbies. Chen Mo felt that tournaments would be a nice gimmick.
Third was an equipment shop and VIP systems. There were only but a few games using a credit system. Improvements could include emojis, profile pictures, clothes, or even use credits to exchange for real life gifts.
However, these were far from enough.
The new player system might make it easier to acquire players and slightly increase player retention, store and VIP system might improve the revenue by a bit, and a tournament mode would be a differentiating point, separating itself from the other games on the market.
For tabletop games, these weren’t enough to switch a large number of players over.
Therefore in order to break the loyalty the players have towards their old platform, Chen Mo needed to find something big, something that the other tabletop games didn’t have.
Chen Mo started searching for games in the previous world that weren’t present in this one.
Dou Dizhu? Sheng ji? Golden Flower? Seven Joker Five Two Three?…
There weren’t many differentiating points, the more popular ones were overdone, and the less popular ones had a small player base, failing to achieve the original objective of growing a playerbase.
Chen Mo was depressed. Why did the two worlds have to be so similar in tabletop games?
No way, I’ll keep searching, there must be something!
Hong Kong style Mahjong? Szechuan Mahjong? International Mahjong?
No!
Chen Mo felt funny, he felt that there must be something that was present in his previous world but not in this one.
What was it?