Chapter 82 - Interview

“That’s because they discovered their passion for the game. They felt the sincerity I was trying to communicate through the game, which is why they are so willing to pay for in-app purchases in order to support me. I hope I can make more, better games in the future. Therefore, I will never forget the love given to me from the fans and I will not be complacent with this for a single moment. I will make more better games in the future to repay all the love from the fans.”

Wen Lingwei read out Chen Mo’s interview inside the experience store.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing this,” exclaimed Su Jinyu.

Jia Peng said, “Manager, aren’t the fans going to kill you for this?”

Wen Lingwei said, “Maybe you should come to the university for a few days until it cools off.

“What’s wrong? Isn’t it quite well written? Just take a look, every single word they released represents my true feelings towards the fans,” said Chen Mo.

“Manager, aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning if you continue talking like that?” asked Su Jinyu.

“Manager, do you have a lightning rod for this building?” asked Jia Peng.

“Alright, that’s enough guys. I have an interview today, don’t scare the interviewee away,” said Chen Mo.

Jia Peng asked, “Interview? You’re hiring?”

Chen Mo nodded, “Yep, I might still need to hire a story writer and a numbers person. Otherwise, it’s going to be difficult to make larger games. Goldfish and I won’t be able to do everything by overselves.”

“Tsk, does that mean there’s going to be another cute girl soon?” questioned Wen Lingwei.

“Really?” Jia Peng’s interest was piqued.

“What are you guys thinking about? It’s a guy,” explained Chen Mo.

Wen Lingwei said, “A guy? What’s the point of hiring a guy? Get him out of here.”

Chen Mo was speechless, “Do you guys plan to turn my experience store into a women only place?”

Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes, “Don’t tell me that wasn’t what you were planning.”

“…Whatever, I’m calling it quits. The interviewee should be here soon, ” said Chen Mo.

Not long after, Zheng Hongxi arrived.

He looked quite young. He was tall and skinny, and looked like the quiet, polite type. Chen Mo shook his hand and brought him to the meeting room.

“Yep, I’ve changed my mind, his handsome guy isn’t half bad,” said Wen Lingwei to Su Jinyu.

“Can you get yourself together? It still depends if he matches the requirements of the manager right?” said Su Jinyu.

—Inside the meeting room.—

Chen Mo poured Zheng Hongxi a glass of water, “This isn’t some large company, so the interview will be more like a chat, don’t be nervous.”

Zheng Hongxi nodded, “Yeah, I’m not nervous. But I’m kinda surprised, you’re much younger than I thought.”

Chen Mo laughed, “It’s been a year or so since I graduated from university.”

Zheng Hongxi replied, “Then you’ve graduated a year before I did. It hasn’t even been a year since I graduated.”

Chen Mo had already looked over Zheng Hongxi’s resume.

Zheng Hongxi, twenty-four years old. Recently graduated from a certain university from Magic City in languages. Worked in a media company after he graduated and quit because he didn’t like the job. Wants to switch careers, but still haven’t fully made up their mind.

Chen Mo briefly looked over his previous work as well. Most of them were short stories. Other than western fantasy, he had dealt with Wuxia, Xianxia as well as eastern fantasy.

Although they weren’t particularly outstanding, the writing as well as the story logics were good enough. Most importantly no matter what themes they were, there wasn’t anything completely out of line which Chen Mo was particularly satisfied with.

Chen Mo asked, “Have you planned which career path you are going for?”

Zheng Hongxi said, “I haven’t fully thought it through. I personally don’t like the interpersonal relationships in traditional workplaces. I’ve thought about writing webnovels full time, but it’s still too unstable to commit, it would give my family more pressure too.”

“Have you thought about making games?” asked Chen Mo.

“I’ve thought about it, but from what I can tell, Chinese games don’t put too much effort into the story, whereas my interest is in the story.”

Chen Mo nodded, “Alright. So I’ve prepared a test, so just answer these however you like.”

As Chen Mo finished his sentence, he took out a set of questions he printed out beforehand.

Zheng Hongxi had a look. There were just five questions.

The first was designing the story and two jobs for an MMORPG Wuxia game, explaining the features of the jobs.

Second was to give the names and descriptions of five Three Kingdoms equipment, from common to rare equipment.

The third question was based on the World of Azeroth, asking for a brief description of the relationship between Draenor and Azeroth.

The fourth question was to pick a small event from the World of Azeroth and briefly outline a quest line for it.

The fifth was to write a complete quest line, including the dialogue between the NPC and the player. The synopsis of the quest is as followed: “Fordring wants you to find him Taelan’s hammer.” Design the characters according to the settings of World of Azeroth. Changes can be made if the characters were remastered as well.

Chen Mo said, “Don’t worry, take your time. One hour should be more than enough.”

Zheng Hongxi nodded, “Yep, that’s enough.”

“Let me know when you’re done,” said Chen Mo as he left the meeting room.

As Chen Mo walked out, everyone was whispering, “How did it go, manager.”

Chen Mo said, “Feels alright. I gave him a few questions to test his skills. If there isn’t anything major from that it should be OK.”

Su Jinyu asked, “Hmm? What kind of questions.”

“Do you guys want to do it too? I’m afraid that you guys won’t be able to take it,” replied Chen Mo.

Wen Lingwei said, “Goldfish is a monster in school, you’re underestimating her.”

“Alright, you can try it too if you like. Just do whichever ones you’re interested in.”

As Chen Mo finished, he brought up the questions on Su Jinyu’s computer.

Upon reading the questions, everyone silently walked away before attempting it.

Su Jinyu looked at Chen Mo with a surprised look on her face, “What is this, manager. Aren’t these too hard? You might be able to make up some stuff for the first two questions, but what are the ones after?”

“Of course you find it hard, you don’t usually pay attention to these things anyways. Alright, now everyone go home, clearly you guys aren’t suited for the role of a writer.”

“Can we have a moment of silence for the story bro,” said Wen Lingwei.

Su Jinyu said, “We don’t have to be that negative, what if he managed to answer them?”

The questions Chen Mo decided on were actually on the easy side as he only planned to test some basic qualities of a writer.

Equipment names, equipment descriptions, world setting, jobs, quest line, quest dialogue were all in the job description of a writer.

As a writer, a big part of it is to package the game well, allowing the player to feel that the world they are playing in is a complete world. It should at the very least not leave a bad taste, affecting the quality of the gameplay.

More advanced writing skills would include tying in the setting of the world with the scenes to make the setting and the gameplay as one cohesive entity, possibly even driving players to feel certain emotions through special missions.

Chen Mo only asked the first point of Zheng Hongxi for now, the latter points can be learnt at a later point.