Chapter 88 - Rating for Thunderbolt Tabletop

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

The contents of Thunderbolt Tabletop were now complete. It contained three different games, Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, and Thunderbolt Poker (Texas hold ’em)

Thunderbolt Tabletop was on both Pc and mobile as well, and would contain all three games. However, players could choose to install or uninstall the games they didn’t play.

Moreover, Chen Mo had added all the existing games to the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, and after this update, the players who wanted to continue playing Plants vs Zombies or I Am MT were required to log into the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.

Of course, Chen Mo gave out a bunch of free runes to the players as compensation.

Afterwards, Chen Mo contacted Xu Xiaojun, representative of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s advertising department regarding promoting Thunderbolt Tabletop.

—

Headquarters of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.

Xu Xiaojun passed the phone used for testing to Lin Chaoxu, “Mr Lin, this is the game Chen Mo wanted to advertise on our platform.”

Lin Chaoxu grabbed the phone and scowled, “Tabletop?”

Xu Xiaojun nodded, “Yep, if it’s alright without, we’ll start promoting it on the promotional spot on the front page at the start of next week.”

Lin Chaoxu replied after a few moments of thinking, “No problem, go ahead. We Emperor Dynasty Entertainment can’t break our promise. You can leave the phone here for now, I want to look into the game further.”

“Alright.” Xu Xiaojun said before leaving the office.

Lin Chaoxu had a lot on his plate, and only managed to free up some time to test out Thunderbolt Tabletop after an hour.

Even though Chen Mo was just a C-grade videogame designer, Lin Chaoxu still felt that he was worth paying attention to after being seen as a potential threat.

–Ten minutes later.–

Lin Chaoxu was deep in thought after experience most Thunderbolt Tabletop had to offer.

Afterwards, Lin Chaoxu made a call, “Hello? Wu Zhao? Could you make your way to my office, I have something to discuss.”

Wu Zhao arrived at Lin Chaoxu’s office after half an hour.

Wu Zhao was in his thirties, dressed casually, had long hair, and looked like a carefree freelancer.

Wu Zhao was the one responsible for Emperor Dynasty Tabletop who also happened to be an A-grade videogame designer. Emperor Dynasty Tabletop had games such as poker, Mahjong, and other regional tabletop games, all of which required his final approval.

Wu Zhao asked, “Is there something you need Mr Lin?”

Wu Zhao was a bit nervous as Emperor Dynasty Tabletop wasn’t a particularly important subject in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. It also wasn’t very profitable, so Lin Chaoxu would rarely even get him to meet in his office.

Lin Chaoxu handed the phone to Wu Zhao, “Try this game out, and tell me your opinions of it.

Wu Zhao grabbed the phone, asking, “Thunderbolt Tabletop?”

Although he didn’t understand the meaning behind this, Wu Zhao tapped the icon to launch the game.

First was using Thunderbolt game pass to log in, and then reaching the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform after logging in. The platform had six games so far, Flappy Bird, Plants vs Zombies, I Am MT, Happy Dou Dizhu, Happy Mahjong, and Thunderbolt Poker.

The first three games were greyed out and required downloading to play. The last three games were already downloaded.

Wu Zhao tapped on Happy Dou Dizhu and started playing.

Although entering the game required an extra step, the UI for Thunderbolt Gaming Platform was clean and easy to operate. Although it was a bit of a pain, it was still acceptable.

The game had no other players, but there were a few bots in the lowest level lobby so they could still play the game.

Following orders, Wu Zhao played two hands and concluded that the game was the same as his own Dou Dizhu and had no differentiating factor.

However, Thunderbolt Tabletop had significantly improved the guidance in game, some of which Wu Zhao felt was overly simple and a waste. The more experience players would be very familiar with the rules were also forced into the tutorial.

Moreover, this game provided the players with many Happy Beans, such as being able to go bankrupt three times a day, or special jobs, all of which provided the player with the in-game currency.

The VIP system as well as the store was more rich as well, including emojis or actions that required purchasing. The in game chat and interactions were also quite well done.

Afterwards, Wu Zhao went onto Happy Mahjong.

The playstyle was largely similar to other mahjong games, other more popular alternative playstyles such as Blood Mahjong was also added. It was similar to Happy Dou Dizhu, as Happy mahjong also had really good new player introductions and experience. It was obviously much more polished than other tabletop games.

Lastly, Wu Zhao opened Thunderbolt Poker.

He was shocked that it was a type that he had never seen before.

Wu Zhao could be considered as someone who was really into tabletop games as well as being a tabletop game video game designer. He had looked into countless tabletop games inside and outside of China, even if he hadn’t looked into it in depth, he would’ve seen it before.

However, he had never seen anything resembling Thunderbolt Poker.

The playstyle felt similar to Five-card stud and Golden Flower, but it was also clearly different.

The tutorials were also really well done, and the explanation was also clearly explained every single step of the way, the different hands were also quite easy to remember.

Wu Zhao had understood how the game works after playing for five minutes, but as there were no other players, just bots, Wu Zhao hadn’t discovered what would make it so fun.

Wu Zhao felt that it was just a decent tabletop game, and couldn’t compare to classic games such as Dou Dizhu or Mahjong.

Wu Zhao said after playing the three games, “Mr Lin, are these the tabletop games made by Thunderbolt Entertainment?”

Lin Chaoxu replied, “Don’t worry about who did it for now, let’s talk about what you think about this.”

Wu Zhao nodded, “Sure, I’ll quickly go over my thoughts.

“You understand how the tabletop games industry is in China, there are many users, and it’s not that profitable. Big players like us or Fantasy Gaming Platform focused on making tabletop games because we had the large user base in mind in order to try and convert them to fans of our platform.

“Therefore, people would usually default to making tabletop games to expand their player base. It is not the best idea to try and turn a profit using tabletop games.

“The intent of growing the player base is clear from this game. Dou Dizhu and Mahjong made no changes to the rules, but the new player guide as well as daily benefits were clearly revamped and polished. This is probably an attempt at trying to gain players from other tabletop platforms who aren’t brand loyal.

“For us, there are a bunch of players who aren’t willing to spend money, they could have dozens or hundreds of beans, playing daily just to get the daily benefits and play a few games. These are probably the ones who will change platforms.

“But I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. First, tabletop games require a set amount of users to gain momentum. The more new players there are, the more there is to experience, the more fun the players will have. Emperor Dynasty Tabletop currently holds the biggest player base, so it would be difficult to make a big dent in us in the short run.

Second, although there are quite a few of the aforementioned players that are likely to switch platforms, it isn’t enough for us to worry about. Our loyal fans are the active users, the people who have tons of beans saved up, and are especially brand loyal and are unlikely to change platforms.

“That’s why I think that this game isn’t a problem for us for now.”