Chapter 76 - Copy or Not to Copy?

Tang Dagang said “Alright, I’ll provide more detail. Obviously I Am MT is an original series, but by itself, it doesn’t generate enough hype to bring players into the game. Moreover, the lifetime of the series is limited, and cannot fully convey the setting of the world.

“Therefore, Chen Mo released ‘World of Azeroth’ as a supplement for the animation, in order to give the mobile game something to latch onto, as well as giving everyone an easier time of understanding some content within the animations.

“As for me saying that Chen Mo has more plans for it, the reasoning behind that is simple. It’s because I think that he already had plans for his next moves when he was taking the bet! If he took the bet out of impulse, why would he be so cool headed after welling? This obviously means that he already planned something out from the start, and all he wanted was the promotional spot. Qiu Bin obviously walked straight into his trap!

“Since Chen Mo’s desires are so strong, his plans are entirely obvious. The world of Azeroth is expansive and complete, even down to the last rune. This obviously means that Chen Mo wants to turn this world into a massive game.

“And there’s no way it would attract that many players on initial release, which is why he’s trying to hype it up early, and work towards representing the world step by step, until when he thinks the players’ interest in the world peaks while having sufficient capabilities, he’ll release the game in mention!”

Yan Zhenyuan nodded, “Yep, makes sense.”

Qin Xiao who had their eyes on their phone the entire time said, “So? What do you have in mind?”

Tang Dagang was a bit hysterical, and completely missed the sarcasm in Qin Xiao’s eyes, “So I think that it’s good news for us! Chen Mo’s only a C-grade videogame designer now, and there’s no way for him to create a massive game like that. Therefore, we must send someone…”

Qin Xiao waved his hand, “Alright, we’re all allies here, you don’t need to hide it. You want to copy Azeroth right?”

Tang Dagang felt attacked by that sentence, replying after a few moments with a nod, “Yes.”

Qin Xiao got his feet off the table, starting at Tang Dagang, “Let me ask you this: How can we copy? The entire world of Azeroth was made by Chen Mo. We are a large company, if we really do pull something like that, and based on the current intellectual property rights, we’d be paying huge sums in lawsuits!”

Tang Dagang tried to fight back, “Of course i know that, but we don’t have to make a carbon copy. We’ll just change some bits and it should be fine.”

Qiu Xiao replied, “How can we change some bits? The playstyle of games can be copied like that, but how can we do that for an entire fantasy world and its story? In this day and age, fans get super aggressive if the stories are in any way slightly similar, and previously there was a well known author who nearly went bankrupt from a lawsuit. What’s the difference between you copying the world and then copying a book? Do you think lawyers and judges are stupid?”

Tang Dagang refused to back down, “We have so many writers in Emperor Dynasty, with so many designers who excel in screenwriting, making some modifications in the world can’t be impossible right?”

Qiu Xiao was speechless, “How much do we need to change? If we don’t change enough, it’ll be easy to tell, then what’s the point? Aren’t we digging our own graves? If we changed a lot, aren’t we just writing from scratch? If we’re putting that effort in, why should we copy others? Can’t we just write a western fantasy world from scratch?”

Tang Dagang was shocked, trying hard to find a rebuttal.

Qin Xiao continued, “Moreover, don’t we all know the potential of western fantasy within China? Hmm? There was this game released last year using the overseas IP called ‘Heavenly Ring’, and ended up a complete failure which still hasn’t cooled off yet. Have you guys forgotten that already?”

Tang Dagang said, “Alright, even if we exclude the idea of western fantasy, there are many mechanics that we can reference from the world of Azeroth, such as running back to the corpse, using runes to teleport, pop-up achievements, and so on.”

Qiu Xiao rolled his eyes and hit the table as he couldn’t take it anymore, “Can you use your brain before making suggestions like these?

“First, your design suggestions are all exclusive to western fantasy worlds, if it’s not a western fantasy world, do these mechanics make sense?

“Second, even if we tacked these on, then what? Can we make a massive game just based on these mechanics?”

Tang Dagang was completely overwhelmed by these questions. Still unwilling to back down, he replied after a few moments of thinking, “But, if this thing has no future, why would Chen Mo spend so much effort…”

Qiu Xiao said, “That’s Chen Mo. Chen Mo has the entire design of Azeroth thought out, the intellectual property belongs to him. What do we have? Hmm? To us, the world of Azeroth seems really good, but we can’t use that.

“How about this, if you can give me a world idea that is comparable to Azeroth, I’ll make a VR for it right now. Do you have one?”

Tang Dagang argued, “We… We can base it on the World of Azeroth and make modifications!”

Qin Xiao predicted the question, “Can something that has been modified be the same as the original? Do you think that after modifications, it’ll be better than Heavenly Ring?”

Tang Dagang was speechless.

After noticing that Tang Dagang had nothing to add, Yan Zhenyuan decided to mediate the situation, “Alright, we all have our own views, and sometimes we get a bit too excited, let’s not take any of this personally.”

Tang Dagang had nothing to say. He wouldn’t dare take it personally, Qin Xiao was an S-grade videogame designer afterall, someone who his own boss would give special exceptions to, how dare he have anything else in mind?

However, Tang Dagang was still unsatisfied, why can’t they copy? Why could they copy I Am MT, but not Azeroth? One’s a game, and the other is just a large scale show!

Yan Zhenyuan looked at Qiu Jiang who had been quiet this whole time, “What do you think?”

Qiu Jiang glanched back, “Are you pretending? You can only copy the playstyle, but not the story, Qiu Xiao had made that abundantly clear. Is there anyone who still doesn’t understand that?

“Chen Mo is indeed able to make a bunch of significant characters, but there’s no way the characters he has now will be able to support a large scale game. From what I can tell, he’s still saving the good stuff. Everything he has released so far is either too dangerous to copy or completely useless.”

Yan Zhenyuan felt helpless. He thought that Qiu Jiang would say something to mediate the situation, but what she said was more blunt than Qin Xiao.

Yang Zhenyuan let out another sigh, “I think… It can’t be that simple right? Tang Dagang, you’re a A-grade video game designer. If you’re really interested in your idea, you should make a PC game. And if it has potential, request to make a VR game with Mr. Lin.”

Tang Dagang happily nodded, “Alright, I’ll make sure to do a good job!”

Yan Zhenyuan said, “We can’t budget too much financially and in terms of resources, so just make it as per RPGs[1].”

Tang Dagang nodded, “Sure, no problem!”

Yan Zhenyuan looked at the others, “Does anyone else have any other ideas?”

The other video game designers voiced their opinions, but were unable to reach anything decisive.

At the end, they weren’t able to reach a unanimous decision, but many of the designers agreed with Qiu Xiao that the world of Azeroth was a good idea, but nothing can be used.

However, just in case, Yan Zhenyuan didn’t exclude any possibility, assigning Tang Dagang as head to make a game that mimics the world of Azeroth just to test the waters.

If it turns out well, a VR game might be considered.

Qin Xiao couldn’t help but mutter, “Waste of time.”

TL note: [1] Role-playing games