Chapter 76 - Copy or Not to Copy? (1/2)
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.