Ten Years Against the Current of Rebirth

at the same moment.

Far across the ocean in North America.

In the office building of the recommendation department of the Pineapple Company App Store, it is still lunch break time.

Nord, who is responsible for the demo and latest game recommendation columns, had just finished work and took the elevator with his colleague Myron to the cafeteria on the second floor to have lunch.

"Did you notice the games this week?" Myron chatted with Nord in the elevator when they were going downstairs. "My favorite Sword of Exotics has also launched their mobile version."

"I saw it." Nord nodded, but he was not very interested in this kind of mobile game developed purely based on his own client game IP. "What do you want to say?"

"Nothing." Myron shrugged, "I just wanted to ask if you would like to open an account and play online with me."

"Forget it." Nord shook his head, "The department plays games every day, aren't you tired of it yet?"

"You don't understand this." Myron shook his finger, always able to easily come up with some outrageous metaphors, "It's like your husband returning home has to hand over your inventory every day, but it doesn't

It doesn't mean that he loses his fighting spirit when he meets his lover."

Nord, who had been working with Myron in the recommendation department for more than half a month, probably gradually got used to this guy's style, so he complained skillfully: "So you want to ask me to meet your lover together? That sounds quite exciting."

"

When the elevator reached the second floor, the two of them continued chatting while queuing.

"Hey, Hilna." When Myron was lining up, a beautiful colleague followed him, so he immediately turned around and greeted the beautiful woman behind him, "Long time no see."

Sirna didn't raise her head, she just responded, her head still lowered, and she was playing a game on her mobile phone.

This made Myron curious: "What are you playing?"

"Stand your ground 2." Hilna said, took a plate from the side and said to the waiter in the cafeteria, "One steak and salad, and a cup of coffee, thank you."

"Oh~ I've tried this game before." Myron was very familiar with it, carrying the dinner plate and following Hilna, sitting at a table together, "It seems that it was also recommended in our latest game column today."

Nord followed and sat next to Myron. Hearing them mention this game, he couldn't help but add: "It is also a PC game changed to a mobile game, but this game is a very classic tower defense game, which is more suitable than Sword of the Exotic."

Changed to a mobile game, it ranks first in today’s latest game sales rankings.”

"Huh?" Hilna was obviously an experienced gamer. After finishing the game, she finally looked up and asked curiously, "Is there a mobile version of Sword of Exotics too?"

"Yes, Sword of Foreign Countries 2, you can search for it." Nord took a sip of coffee and then started to eat lunch, "Or look for it on the sales list of the latest games, you should be able to find it in the second position.

"

"To be honest." Myron couldn't help but say, "I don't think Sword of Exotic is inferior to the game Stand Your Ground at all, or there is no comparison at all between the two."

"You know, Sword of Foreign Countries has millions of players on the PC game, but Stand Your Ground only has more than 300,000 players."

"If the current mobile phone performance is not good enough, after this 3D third-person game was changed to a mobile game, many functions were cut off and a lot of image quality was sacrificed, otherwise it would definitely be able to hold on to its position."

Hearing this, the beautiful colleague Hilna sneered twice: "Even if the phone configuration is sufficient, the complicated skill settings of the Exotic Sword are enough to give you players a headache."

"There are dozens of keys on the keyboard for you to use, but there are none on your mobile phone."

"Just a few of the five basic skills have to be cut off, not to mention other advanced skills and finishing skills."

"Even if the entire screen is equipped with skill keys, I'm afraid there won't be enough space for so many function keys, right?"

Myron was speechless, and Nord nodded in agreement: "Indeed, otherwise the PC version of the game costs dozens of dollars, how could the mobile version only cost 9.9 dollars?"

"But Sirna, the same evaluation you put on the Sword of Foreign Countries is the same when you put it on Hold the Position."

"I have tried the beta version they sent before, and they almost just transplanted the content of the PC game directly to the mobile game without making any substantive changes at all."

"Although tower defense games are indeed naturally adapted to the form of mobile games, directly cramming in the content of PC games still makes the game too bloated."

"So what?" Hilna opened the App Store and took a look, with a smile on her lips. "After holding on to the recommended position, the sales increased by 9,000, while Sword of Foreign Countries only had 6,000. The difference is obvious."

Myron didn't like hearing this, and immediately retorted: "Look, the price of Stand Your Ground is only 4.9 US dollars, while the price of Sword of Foreign Countries is 9.9 US dollars. Although the sales volume is only 6,000, the sales

But it can be counted as 12,000 shares of holding the position, and it is really obvious who is stronger and who is weaker."

Nord, who was on the side, did not expect that he originally thought that Myron was trying to flirt with a girl, but in the end, the conversation turned into a debate among game fans.

The two of them were arguing while eating, chatting and talking about the recommended spot on the cover of next week's game category.

"Anyway, I will vote for Foreign Sword this week. His performance is fully qualified to be in such a recommendation position." Myron said without hesitation.

"You are using your power for personal gain!" Sirna, who was not in the recommendation department, heard this and was immediately furious. "I'm going to the supervision department to report you!"

"Ahem..." Nord, who was next to him, heard this and quickly tried to dissuade him, "No, no, no."

"If Stand Your Ground's sales can remain at the top of the list, his initial number of votes will be much higher. Myron's personal vote will actually have no effect."

The recommendation department is a department that specializes in arranging recommendation slots for major mobile games. If it is a recommendation slot with relatively ample space and a less important position, such as the latest game, which can play more than a dozen games a week, it will be easy to arrange it in the department.

.

But if it is a relatively important position, such as this week's recommendation on the homepage of the game category, or a daily recommendation that is directly pinned to the top of the user's favorites column, or the cover recommendation mentioned by the two, it is a very valuable recommendation position.

.

There are only a few recommended positions every week. Because each reviewer in the department has his or her own preferences, there are often disagreements.

Fortunately, sales volume and popularity speak for themselves, so most of the time, results speak for themselves.

But even so, Myron and Hilna were still arguing fiercely. Even when they were about to finish their meal, they both turned their heads in unison, stared at Nord, and asked in unison: "What do you think?"

Nord's scalp was numb when they stared at him, and he was speechless for a while. He flipped through the latest game sales list, then raised his eyebrows, and suddenly shared the screen of his mobile phone with the two of them, saying: "Actually, if you want me to say,

I’m quite optimistic about this game.”

"What is this?" Myron came up to take a look, and when he saw the sales increase of only 2,000 yuan, he couldn't help but sneered, "Are you sure this result can compare with the first two mobile games adapted from big IPs?"

"There is a high probability that it cannot be compared." Nord said honestly, "But I think this kind of mobile game is more suitable as a mobile game. The mobile game adapted from the PC game recommended by you two almost completely relies on the growth of PC game players.

Support is actually not a long-term solution in the long run.”

"Come on." Myron shook his head repeatedly, "There are millions of players of the Sword of Foreign Countries PC game. Is it possible that this small game can still sell this number?"

“Although the number of players in the PC version of Stand Your Ground is a bit smaller, tower defense mobile games can definitely attract a lot of new players.” Hillna also retorted, “If you don’t want to support either of us, just say so. There’s no need to pull a fight.

When the shield comes out, it looks like a mobile game produced by a small company, and the quality is not on the same level at all."

"I'm just saying that." Nord shrugged, thinking about how he was addicted to the game during the trial, and felt that he was overthinking it, "But even if this game can't be a big hit, it can at least make this company a hit.

Small companies can make a lot of money, I’m sure of that.”

…

And while three App Store colleagues were having lunch and debating the outcome of several games, similar scenes were happening all over the Americas.

In a fruit shop in Texas, the proprietress with dark blond hair was half-lying on a recliner, shaking her body, making the chair creak and creak.

There were no customers in the fruit shop at this time. The proprietress was holding her mobile phone and watching videos on YouTube software for relaxation and entertainment.

Suddenly, her account received a notification that the channel she followed had updated a new video.

When she clicked on it, she found that the person who updated the video was a blogger she had followed who focused on food channels.

The title of the video is [Cut off the watermelon with one knife! I actually cut out the dimensional wall between virtuality and reality with one knife!]

Boss lady: “???”

What kind of fancy title is this?

Out of curiosity, the proprietress clicked into the video, and the perspective of the picture changed, showing a watermelon quietly placed on the chopping board, located in the center of the entire screen.

The background is a very simple wooden board, and everything is a real scene in reality.

But the next second, before the food blogger showed up, a flash of knife flashed, and the picture in front of him suddenly switched to a cartoon style, and the watermelon in the picture split into two halves.

Then the screen switched again and returned to reality. The watermelon that was supposed to be placed quietly on the chopping board was cut into two pieces at some point, just like the cartoon-style picture that flashed across the screen just now.

Immediately afterwards, pineapples, bananas, grapes and other fruits appeared in turn. Each cut was accompanied by a switching effect between reality and illusion, which made the boss lady dizzy.

Especially with the crisp sound of chopping melons and vegetables, it immediately makes people feel like they are actually there.

And just as the landlady was following this rapid cutting rhythm, the cantaloupe in front of her eyes split into two halves, and then a black chocolate ball cake appeared on the screen.

Before the landlady could react, a sword flashed across her.

There was a loud sound of "peng!" and the screen paused.

The backgrounds of reality and fantasy quickly switch back and forth in a few seconds. At the same time, the cartoon version of "GAME OVER" and the words "GAME OVER" composed of various real fruits are synchronously switching back and forth between reality and virtuality.

The top of the screen slowly falls and always overlaps.

And at the last moment, it landed in the center of the screen, and the real background inside completely disappeared, leaving only the cartoon version of "GAME OVER" standing in the middle of the screen.

Then, the screen went dark and then lit up again, and the "Fruit Assassin" logo emerged from the darkness.

It only lasted less than half a minute. After the video reached this point, the food blogger finally appeared, clapped his hands in front of the audience, and began to introduce the inspiration and production process of this video to everyone with a smile.

It was only then that the landlady slowly came back to her senses, pulled out of the immersive state she had just been in, and exhaled a breath of filthy air.

When she heard the food blogger say that the scenes just now were actually the scenes of a real-life game called "Fruit Assassin", and that she could directly and neatly experience the pleasure of cutting fruits, the proprietress said

React completely.

Good guy!

It turned out to be an advertising video!

But immediately, the landlady turned a little scornful.

After all, I own a fruit shop, and I have to cut fruits every day.

Isn't it funny that she is now allowed to cut fruit on her mobile phone?

But when the food blogger showed the game in action in the video, the proprietress looked at the scene of a series of fruits being cut in one breath, and a hearty feeling suddenly emerged in her heart.

How can she usually cut fruits so neatly?

If cutting fruit in the real world could be so easy, she wouldn't have to hire extra employees to help her share the work.

Thinking of this, the boss lady felt a little moved. Following the blogger's instructions, she clicked the link below and jumped directly to the download page of the App Store.

After generously paying the price of US$2.99, the lady boss successfully downloaded the game Fruit Assassin and immediately entered the game.

Half an hour later.

"Hey! Hey hey!"

“I’m asking you if the watermelon here can be bought cut into half!”

"Stop playing that crappy game of yours, okay?!"

Being disturbed by the customers' urging, the landlady's fat fingers flicked and she accidentally cut the bomb.

Peng!

GAME OVER

The proprietress raised her fat face and looked at the thin man who asked the question with a gloomy look: "You'd better really know how to buy it, or I'll really cut off half of your head."

Damn it!

If she could just hold on for a few more seconds, she would be able to complete at least one more achievement and be one step closer to the free redeemable skin!

…

Situations like that of the fruit shop proprietress are happening all over the Americas.

In addition to the food blogger's video, at least a dozen or twenty other bloggers released advertising videos about Fruit Assassin at the same time, and the content was expressed in different forms.

The only similarity is that the content of the video mostly fits the type and style of the blogger's own channel, so that the viewers of the corresponding channel can watch the entire advertising video unknowingly without feeling any surprise, or even

Some people didn't realize this was an advertisement until the blogger came out to explain.

And all of this suddenly changed after the young man in the dormitory gave an order to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the other side of the ocean.

…

On the other side, when Li Zhibin, who was far away in his dormitory at Kyoto University in Kyoto, woke up the next day, he sleepily picked up his mobile phone and subconsciously checked the number of downloads of Fruit Assassin. When he saw the number 8982 displayed on it, he was immediately a little stunned.

Rubbed his eyes.

Then, while the other three roommates were still sleeping soundly, they heard Brother Bin, who was usually good at handicrafts, suddenly burst out with a loud "Fuck!"