Chapter 45 Attachment: Ten Years Game Journey

【rise】 1998 was a good start for China's game industry.This year, the Lianzhong chess and card game developed by Bao Yueqiao, Jian Jing, and Wang Jianhua was officially launched.In the history of China's online game development, Lianzhong's status cannot be underestimated, and it belongs to the originator of the mountain.It created two firsts: the Chinese company that proposed the concept of online games, and the online game company that received capital attention and was acquired.Because of Lianzhong, a wider group of netizens began to know and accept the unfamiliar concept of "online games".

In the same year, Fang Zhouzi, who returned from overseas, saw it in an Internet cafe in Dongguan. He happily told the boss that he participated in the development of this game.The first game written in Simplified Chinese was developed by Fang Zhouzi and others in January 1996 based on the MUD (multi-user level) game "New Oriental Story 2". After two months, it was developed in Chinese. The most popular online game in the network. Chinese MUD created the first batch of online game players before UO (full name "Ultima Online", Chinese translation "Network Genesis") entered China. Many spoken online languages ​​such as PK and MM are now familiar to the public. It is from such a MUD world. , and was quickly accepted and re-disseminated by the entire Chinese Internet at that time.

The original MUD developers and administrators of the product also encountered the "source code theft" incidents that occurred frequently in the online game industry. When the source code was found to be stolen and someone tried to use it for commercial operations, in October 1997, Fang Zhouzi announced , Conditionally let it enter the public domain: under the premise of non-commercial, anyone can use and rewrite it arbitrarily; no one has the right to monopolize the use, development, or commercialization.This is the "first case" of a copyright dispute in the online game industry.

Since then, online games have entered a period of rapid development in China. In 1999, Chen Tianqiao established Shanghai Shanda with 300,000 US dollars, and the wealth legend he created later began to sprout in this year. After "Online Genesis" came to China in 1999, it caused great repercussions in the online game industry.Prior to this, domestic online game players were more exposed to complex text MUDs, and the impact UO brought to online game fans was "epoch-making". "Online Genesis" (UO) has created a "new century" in which online games are so prosperous.This online game, developed by EA's Origin company in 1997, has aroused great repercussions in the online game industry with its graphical interface, rich role-playing experience, and excellent user interaction.

It is worth mentioning that at that time, the product was not really introduced into the Chinese market by the publisher, but a third-party decompilation simulation program of UO. Therefore, many people think that this is the original origin of the "private server" of online games. In the following year, a milestone event occurred in China's game industry. In July 2000, CLS launched the first real Chinese online graphics Mud game "King of Kings". Once this game was launched, it became the king of the market within two years. The developer of "King of Kings" is a doctoral couple from "Tsinghua University" in Taiwan.

The value of "King of Kings" is that it played an important role in shaping the business model of the entire online game: it clearly put forward the online game business model of "free client and service fee" generally adopted by online game companies later. The model chooses to sell differentiated services to complete the charging.At that time, professional media believed that this new operating model would eliminate the cloud of piracy and bring vitality to the game industry. At that time, the game field was a year in which talented people emerged from generation to generation. In September of the same year, Zhiguan’s traditional Three Kingdoms-themed online game "Three Kingdoms Online" was launched to compete with "King of Kings".

【develop】 At the end of 2000, the Korean online game "Dark Light" represented by Yuzhi Technology entered China.Although this product did not succeed in the market, it became the first Korean online game to enter China.By the first half of 2001, South Korea had launched more than 60 online game products. In China, after the previous rounds of product testing, the online game market has been opened, and the business model of online games has become clearer. It's almost an inevitability. When South Korean companies are vying for the Chinese game market, Taiwanese game companies have also begun to test the waters in the mainland.

In January 2001, Taiwan's Huayi launched "Stone Age". With bright colors, cute characters and humorous design, this game quickly caught up with others. "Stone Age" continues the graphic style of Chinese gamers in the era of home game consoles. It has accumulated 1 million users in just 11 months, allowing many gamers to come into contact with and get to know online games. Taiwanese game companies also Fully enter the mainland market. Different from mainland China, Gamania's "Paradise" was the first to open the market in Taiwan, and it also had 600,000 members in just eight months.However, because the absolute number of netizens in Taiwan is far smaller than that of the mainland, in the following years, when "Stone Age" is no longer popular, Gamania still relies on "Paradise" and the subsequent "Paradise 2" products to become Taiwan's online games. overlord.

News of new online game testing and listing one after another almost flooded the online game market in the second half of 2001.However, the second half of 2001 was different from the first half of 2001. During this period, some senior stand-alone game manufacturers began to join. Their experience in the operation of the stand-alone game market, coupled with their experience in operating online games that had been listed before, made Chinese online games Began to enter a stable and mature development. In 2001, the market size of China's online games was close to RMB 310 million. According to IDC's research, the market size of China's online games will reach RMB 910 million in 2002, an increase of 187.6% over 2001.

This year, two small episodes occurred in the industry, which changed the future pattern of online games. Because of the success of "King of Kings", Huacai has contacted a variety of online games, including "Paradise", "Heaven".However, in the trial play, the players invited by Huacai denied it.Then he was picked up by Chen Tianqiao.By 2002, this game allowed Shanda to occupy 60% of the online game market.Later, Chen Tianqiao visited Huacai and personally thanked them for giving it to him.And Huacai eventually declined. During the same period, Huayi’s "Stone Age" also chose to cooperate with NetEase to operate, and gave 12 of the servers to NetEase. The money was collected by Huayi himself, and the accounts were divided among NetEase according to the number of users.NetEase takes away more than 300,000 RMB per month.A year later, Huayi broke off the cooperation and decided to purchase servers and bandwidth to fully operate.This experience also strengthened Netease's online game determination, and acquired Tianxia. Netease launched its self-developed "Westward Journey" in November 2001, and invited Zhou Xingchi as the endorsement. Under the uproar in the industry, Ding Lei was quite firm. Netease, which has already been listed, will be turned to online games.And declared that this is an industry where "you can make a lot of money while lying down and sleeping".

Correspondingly, "Stone Age" began to decline in 2002 because of the same engine development and the same style of "Magic Baby" was launched. 【break out】 In the history of Chinese games, 2002 is destined to be an era that cannot be forgotten, and the success of Shanda is exactly this watershed.At the same time, Ninetowns and Netease are also stepping on the right pace to share the fruits. In 2002, the number of concurrent online users exceeded 500,000, making it the largest online game in the world.In the Chinese Internet industry that year, what happened around it is itself a legend. In July 2001, the grand introduction of Chen Tianqiao began operation two months later.At that time, it was not favored by the industry, and Chen Tianqiao and his team were faced with the dilemma of "every day they will die".But it was this product that became the first listed company in China's online game industry. In 2002, the number of users has reached 5 million. In 2003, SoftBank invested USD 40 million in Shanda. In 2004, Shanda was listed on Nasdaq.It took Chen Tianqiao three years to complete the triple jump.In the same year, Ninetowns conducted internal testing, and Netease introduced "Spirits".Since then, online games have entered an era of explosion. Under the induction of venture capital, this market has grown more rapidly. According to the public statistics of the year, by the first half of 2002, more than 10 new online games had been launched and tested in the Chinese market, and more than 20 institutions had invested in the operation of online games, and about 20 of them planned to enter.This year, the number of paid online game users in China was 3.5 million.In contrast, in 2001, the number of global online game users was 50 million, and the output value of the entire market exceeded US$6 billion. In 2003, things took a turn for the worse, with mixed results. Private servers and cheats have become two stubborn diseases that plague the development of the online game industry. Many game heavy hand management cheats, but because of this, their users have plummeted.In the end, the State Press and Publication Administration made it clear that cheating behaviors are illegal Internet publishing behaviors, and supported online game companies to govern cheating.At the same time, "The Peacock King", which has persisted for a year, is remembered by everyone as the first company to announce its failure and officially withdraw from operation.This year, SARS was rampant, and online games became the main way of entertainment at home. Also in 2003, online games were officially included in the national 863 plan. The State Press and Publication Administration required all Internet game publications to publish the full text of "Healthy Game Advice" in a prominent position on the screen before the game starts: Resist bad games and refuse piracy game. In May 2003, Tencent's first online game "Triumph" began internal testing.Since then, the online game journey of the portal websites has been mixed. Tencent and Netease have been singing all the way, and Sohu has also come from behind. In July, Jinshan "Swordsman Love Online" closed beta.This game brought a huge change to Jinshan, and also promoted its successful listing in the future. Although "Swordsman Love Online" is not the starting point of domestic online games, domestic online games have begun to compete with Korean online games. In 2003, the scale of China's online game market was 1.32 billion yuan, and in 2004 it was 2.47 billion yuan, an increase of 47.9% over 2003. According to industry statistics in 2004, the number of manufacturers in China's online game industry has reached more than 300, an increase of nearly 10 times compared to 2002. Due to the rapid development of the online game industry, corresponding regulatory measures must deal with the problems arising from the rapid development.The emergence of "Internet addicted teenagers" all over the country has made many parents turn pale when they listen to games.Pornography, gambling, violence, ignorance and superstition and other bad content have entered in large quantities, making online games full of mud and sand, and have always been the key targets of governance by relevant departments.A lot of public opinion began to appear about the negative impact of the game itself and the development process.By 2003 and 2004, the Ministry of Culture and other competent departments began to launch green online games, and calls for a game content classification system began to grow louder and louder. 【grow】 In 2004, Shanda and Ninetowns successively landed on NASDAQ in the United States. In April 2005, "World of Warcraft" began to be tested in mainland China, and soon this game became a golden egg of Ninetowns. "World of Warcraft" brought the attention of the global game industry to the ninth city. This extremely sophisticated work produced by a top gold medal production company can be regarded as a masterpiece of game art from a product point of view, subverting the market in one fell swoop. The user experience mode of traditional mainstream games has gained an excellent reputation among high-end online game user groups around the world.At the same time, because this product continues the world view of the same series of stand-alone games, the age group of users extends upwards to non-teenagers over the age of 25, so the events in the "World of Warcraft" game are enough to affect the wider Internet and even wider within the social sphere. In 2005, Shi Yuzhu's first online game "Journey" was launched. The new marketing model made this product profitable during the internal testing period.Subsequently, the giant company became a focus of attention in the industry.Subsequent giants have been controversial and news constantly. The original development team of "Zhengtu" was Shanda's "abandoned army" who failed to reach the passing line. Under Shi Yuzhu's fabrication, this game has breakthrough creative performance in user experience, function expansion, presentation methods, etc. , even no less than the impact that "World of Warcraft" brought to the entire industry. Shi Yuzhu participated in the planning of the entire product as a boss and with the enthusiasm of players, and changed many of the traditional elements of online game products. Many innovative designs of this product ensured its user experience and user stickiness , Therefore, it has also affected many other online game products.In addition to fine-tuning the product, Shi Yuzhu has also poured his grasp of the operation over the past ten years into the promotion of the product. His phrase "the trial market must not be fast, and the national market must not be slow" does not only refer to the brain Platinum also includes the whole process of "Zhengtu" from testing to operation and promotion. In the 2005 market, there was another game that attracted market attention. "Hot Blood Jianghu" was officially launched in China. This free game and item-based product has created a new trend in the industry.Since then, a large number of games have followed suit, and even some old games that are about to withdraw from the market have extended their lifespan because of this, and have become one of the most mainstream models at present. On August 23, 2005, under the leadership of the Press and Publication Administration, seven well-known online game manufacturers including Sina, Jinshan, and Shanda jointly issued the "Beijing Declaration" and signed the "Online Game Anti-addiction System" responsibility letter.Promote healthy game time and prevent users from indulging in online games.While the online game market looks forward to the improvement of policies, laws and regulations, it has also begun to take the initiative to move towards self-discipline. In September 2007, the General Administration of Press and Publication issued the "Notice on Launching the Real-Name Verification Work of the Online Game Anti-addiction System", and the anti-addiction system came into effect, and the responsibility of corporate citizenship began to constantly torture online game companies.Some angry parents publicly questioned Chen Tianqiao, Ding Lei and others at some industry summits. It was close to 2008, and during this time, online games reached a new peak. In July 2007, Perfect World landed on NASDAQ; in October, Kingsoft was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; in November, Fujian NetDragon was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In November, Giant Network was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.