Chapter 849: Chapter 808: Can This Money be Converted into Cash?_1
On Wednesday night, the presale volume of “Chang’an” broke through 8 million copies worldwide.
Up to now, the growth of the order has begun to slow down significantly.
The fervent game fans and martial arts fans have all placed their orders, while the remaining players are relatively rational, preferring to wait to buy the game when it was formally released.
Nevertheless, this figure has already broken the global presale record, leading to media excitement and hype.
However, the serious media has not made an issue out of this because it’s more of a non-competitive victory-
Even though casual games sometimes have presales, those casual gamer on the regional sales chart didn’t have presales. They rely on an “outstanding” reputation to attract never-ending buying players, and finally reached implausible sales through long tail effect.
...
Several months ago, Lincoln had purchased and tried to play games for the purpose of “studying the competition,” which provides an idea of how excellent this long tail effect is…
Another phenomenon is that after the purchases by the passionate players have been completed, a small number of negative voices started to emerge-
Some casual players complained about the price.
In the past, Cloud Dream’s competitors were VR giants. When comparing the $500 price to their seven to eight hundred, it was naturally very excellent.
What’s more, this is a groundbreaking virtual reality game with an unparalleled experience. It made the players who bought the game exclaim that it was great value for the money.
But now, Cloud Dream’s competitors are not VR giants, they’ve become themselves – there’s no other game company worldwide that’s qualified to compete with Cloud Dream.
Not only has the gaming industry admitted this, but the players have also recognized this point a long time ago.
Additionally, in order to expand the user base as much as possible, Lincoln has been continually reducing the price of the game and even made the game itself free with in-game purchases. This further lowers many players’ psychological expectations.
Many users were not originally players and their first game was “Wind Journey,” “Light Encounter,” “Paradise,” “My World,” and other casual games.
Among these games, the most expensive one is “My World” for 200 dollars. In their mind, there’s no concept of “a blockbuster should be priced at seven to eight hundred dollars.”
Just so happens that “Chang’an” seems to be quite “casual” as well, which is very different from previous games like “Assassin’s League”, “Speed Chase”, and “Battlefield” where there are guns firing all over the place.
So, they also became interested and wanted to give it a go.
But upon seeing the price, gasp! It’s more than double than “My World.”
This is a bit… out of budget.
“Why not also make it in the form of in-game purchases? Make the game itself free, then purchase things like martial arts methods?”
“The city is so large, this price can be justified. But buying it really hurts the wallet.”
“Can the price be lower for a student like me?”
“Is there any family discount? Something like in tourist areas where children shorter than 1.2 meters have free admission?”
— Because of the existence of the amusement park, Jurassic Park, and ecological protection zone, indeed many families consider the virtual world a place to take their children.
…
Just when these casual gamers’ opinions started to increase but hadn’t yet reached scale, the Ancient Architecture Recording and Protection Foundation made an appearance and responded to Cloud Dream’s previous donation announcement.
The way they responded was with a three-minute documentary on ancient architecture preservation.
The name of the short film was “Disappearing Buildings”.
The short film used very intuitive comparison to show the audience the rapid decay process of ancient buildings in just three to five years.
It used the last half-minute to review the most recent operation by the Foundation: the recording and maintenance of Shanxi Dongxia Lv Village Moon Palace.
The Foundation then publicized a table, recording the several donations that Cloud Dream had made to the Foundation in the last six months, as well as hundreds of ancient architecture investigations. After solving the initial funding issue, eager ancient architecture experts acted immediately. Not even the cold winter could stop them.
Because they were worried that in the two to three months of delay, a few lesser-known ancient buildings would collapse in the wind and snow.
Qin Xiuyuan, an ancient architecture postgraduate and part-timer at the [Virtual City Building Department] who was one of the first to devote himself to the construction of Virtual Chang’an, published an in-depth article—
“The funds provided by Cloud Dream to the Foundation for the preservation of ancient architecture should indeed not be bluntly included in the cost of game development, but the birth of “Chang’an” has really benefited from this.
Of course, the cause of recording and preserving ancient architecture also benefits in the same way: the conditions for investigation and research have greatly improved.
For instance, during previous investigations, we would always choose the cheapest seating and stay in the most affordable hotels, splitting every cent into two to spend, as professors often had to raise sponsorship funds themselves, and in some instances researchers even used their own savings to continue the research.
Now, we no longer have to experience such hardship, as Cloud Dream supports these actions, enabling researchers to truly concentrate on investigation, documentation, and preservation.
Rather than being hampered by financial constraints, continually postponing investigations until when they can finally happen, the ancient buildings have already collapsed, leaving only remnants of the structure.
If in the future, our children can not only see ancient structures in the virtual world that look exactly like they do in reality, but also personally visit these locations and touch these buildings that have stood on earth for hundreds of years, feeling their history and changes, we really need to thank Cloud Dream.
Last year, these words may have been premature, but this year, they can be said without reservation.
Because both Cloud Dream and Lincoln deserve this praise.
This is not just because Cloud Dream’s investment in the preservation of ancient architecture is growing — to date, on a nationwide scale, Cloud Dream’s investment is still dwarfed by the country’s fiscal input.
However, Cloud Dream, to a certain degree, has saved the cultivation of talent in the field of ancient architecture.
The maintenance of ancient architecture indeed requires money, but it needs professional talent even more. Before Lincoln’s involvement, this niche field was gradually dying out year after year. The environment for professors to carry out research continued to degrade, while the number of undergraduate and graduate students enrolling in this field was shrinking annually.
If this trend continued, it would have inevitably led to a generational gap in talent. When that time comes, even if you have the money, there would be no resources for maintenance.
But according to my mentor, this year’s enrollment for ancient architecture specialization has significantly improved compared to previous years. Not only is my mentor’s quota filled, but almost all professors acquainted with my mentor also have filled quotas.
If nothing unexpected happens, starting next year, we will have even more professionals in this field, dedicated to the preservation of ancient architecture.
Allowing these ancient structures, which have weathered hundreds, even thousands of years, to continue to exist on this land for a long, long time.”
This lengthy article quickly garnered numerous shares from graduate and undergraduate students of ancient architecture.
The students then relayed this information to their mentors, resulting in a number of professors – who traditionally seldom engage in internet hot topics – in the field of ancient architecture speaking up about the impact Cloud Dream has had on their discipline—
Not only contributing to the Foundation and increasing the number of students, but also the lesser-known “Foundation Exclusive Ancient Architecture World”, which is continuously accumulating more and more ancient structures. Not limited to Chang’an or Luoyang, or even the Tang Dynasty, all discovered and documented ancient structures are being moved into the virtual world one by one.
In the future, all of Huaxia’s ancient structures could potentially be moved into this world, transforming it into a unique “Ancient Architecture Museum”!
…
After seeing these news, netizens from Daxia were aware for the first time that Cloud Dream was doing such a major task behind the scenes!
“Translation: What does philanthropist mean?!”
“Translation: What does social responsibility mean?!”
“No more words, I’m buying up! I’ll buy one for myself and send one to a friend!”
“Retweet to enter the draw, randomly giving away 1000 copies of ‘Chang’an’!”
…
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Daxia players praised Cloud Dream for investing real cash and effort into public welfare and saving ancient architecture.
But players overseas had mixed feelings…
“We buy a game and end up supporting Daxia’s public welfare?”
“What does preserving Daxia’s ancient architecture have to do with us?”
“Can this portion of the money be refunded?”