Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Fourth Day of a Blockbuster

Chen Xiaopang was a loyal user of the WG game streaming area. He had a hobby: he loved picking up newcomers in the streaming area. He called it “discovering new forces,” but in reality, he was mostly chasing the thrill of finding a potential newcomer streamer and watching them grow from a potential rookie into a generation’s top-tier streamer.

With such a hobby, one naturally needed the vision to match it—coincidentally, Chen Xiaopang’s luck and vision were excellent. The newcomers he picked up all developed quite well, and two of them had recently surged into the Top 20 of the WG game streaming area’s monthly popularity charts.

Chen Xiaopang would also post his list of selected newcomers on Weibo and the WG forums to flaunt his exceptional vision. Relying on this vision and his past track record, he had become a blogger with a fair amount of traffic himself.

This afternoon, on a plain old weekday, Chen Xiaopang was bored out of his mind, so he simply started a stream himself to go pick up newcomers in the WG game streaming area.

After changing his stream title to “Excavating the Next Million-Sub Up-Loader,” he opened his broadcast.

Because of Chen Xiaopang’s past track record, the WG streaming platform also had a group of his loyal fans who quite enjoyed watching Chen Xiaopang’s reviews as he went around picking up newcomers.

Seeing Chen Xiaopang start his stream now, a group of available users immediately swarmed in.

“Yo, Xiaopang, you’re live?”

“Excavating new up-loaders again today? Haha, then the newcomer streamers starting this afternoon are in luck!”

“Pang-ge, let’s go, time to patrol the floor!”

Chen Xiaopang didn’t waste words. He knew his fans didn’t come to see the face of a fat otaku like himself, so without a second thought, he led his fans straight to the Newcomer Area.

The so-called Newcomer Area was a special section established by the WG streaming platform specifically for newcomers with fewer than 50 streaming hours, serving as a benefit for rookie streamers.

This area had its own separate leaderboard called the “WG Newcomer Chart.” Streamers made the list based on their cumulative streaming heat. Usually, those who could squeeze into the top ten of the monthly newcomer chart had a chance to become streamers with a certain level of popularity and were very likely to be recruited by streamer studios.

And to this day, streamers who had ranked in the top 20 of the historical WG Newcomer Chart had already become the main traffic drivers of the WG streaming platform—existences that the vast majority of the streamer community looked up to.

Chen Xiaopang’s floor patrol was focused on this Newcomer Area. However, his luck today wasn’t great. Since starting his stream, he had already visited four or five newcomer rooms, but they were all the kind where the title looked somewhat interesting, but once he clicked in, it was completely irrelevant.

Or the acting was too heavy, and there were even various re-heated leftovers who had registered with new aliases.

For example, in a room he just patrolled, it was obvious at a glance that the person had already signed with a streamer studio. Although they tried their best to act like a pure, natural newcomer, a veteran like Chen Xiaopang could see through it instantly—the quality of the streaming gear, the natural lighting effects on site, and even the streaming topic was a very forced “Rookie Newcomer Challenges 50 Rounds to Climb the Ladder.”

Chen Xiaopang couldn’t even be bothered to roast it. The streamer in that room clearly knew him; seeing him enter, they wanted to interact, but he directly led his fans and bolted.

Controlling his mouse to quickly exit the previous room, Chen Xiaopang was still grumbling: “The content of pure, natural newcomers nowadays is way too low. Just like that one just now, he even wanted to play me. Little does he know that your Brother Pang has a pair of fiery golden eyes and saw through him in a second!”

While grumbling, Chen Xiaopang was actually a bit dissatisfied in his heart.

Because he hadn’t found an outstanding newcomer, his own stream’s audience had actually bled out a bit, and the interaction in the bullet comments wasn’t high.

Just then, Chen Xiaopang saw a familiar fan post a bullet comment.

“Hahahaha, Pang-ge, let me tell you, there’s a streamer in the Newcomer Area unboxing the ‘2013 Latest Model Game Console’!”

Chen Xiaopang: ?

What the hell?

2013 latest model game console?

Chen Xiaopang froze for a moment, even subconsciously picking up his phone to check the current year—oh, it’s 2021, that’s right.

“…Fuck, it’s already the year 1202!”

Chen Xiaopang couldn’t help but roast, and then he got interested: “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go take a look. This new streamer has some ideas! Even if he’s playing me, I’ll take it!”

Opening the Newcomer Area, Chen Xiaopang flipped through and found a room on the last page titled “2013 Latest Model Game Console and Game Unboxing Review,” then clicked right in.

As soon as he entered the room, Chen Xiaopang posted a bullet comment: “Brother Pang is here to patrol the floor!”

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t anyone in this room right now, only a few scattered viewers who had clicked in out of boredom.

These bored viewers who had entered Pei Shu’s room were also fun-seekers from the WG streaming area, so they naturally knew Chen Xiaopang, who specialized in picking up newcomers.

“Yo, Pang-ge is here?”

“Hahaha, Pang-ge, you’ve come to the wrong place!”

“Hehe, don’t say that, floor above. I don’t think Pang-ge came to the wrong place. I just checked; the streamer’s cumulative streaming time hasn’t even exceeded 3 hours. A pure newcomer.”

Seeing the bullet comments from the fun-seekers in this room, Chen Xiaopang was curious: “Hey, the viewers in this room are a bit weird. What do you mean I came to the wrong place?”

Chen Xiaopang glanced at the strange comments and then focused his attention on the stream content.

In the broadcast frame, Pei Shu was wearing loose, casual loungewear. The filming angle had been adjusted so that only the part below the streamer’s neck was visible. Only when the streamer occasionally lowered his head could the lower half of his face be seen.

But just the sharp jawline on this lower half of the face, the slender neck, and the collarbone revealed by the loose collar subtly carried a hint of eye-catching sexiness.

The viewers in the room, looking at this small portion of the face and the tempting collarbone on the screen, immediately made strange slurping sounds.

“Siha-siha, my first word is hi, wifey!”

“Wifey, wifey, what’s our relationship? Why so formal? Quickly let hubby see the upper half of your face!”

“The screen seems a bit dirty. Wifey, let me help you lick it clean, hehehe.”

In the Daonan Road apartment, Pei Shu was installing the game console accessories and cables one by one. While installing, he was also introducing them: “Besides the overall improvement in image quality, Biake’s GM4 console adopts the same architecture as PC hosts, which facilitates game content production for console game developers. This also greatly enhances the GM4’s direct competitiveness in the console field…”

Pei Shu had almost never streamed before. Most of the time, he recorded unboxing videos by himself. Therefore, he was used to talking to himself and didn’t realize the interaction needs after viewers joined the stream, nor did he realize that in a short amount of time, viewers really had entered the room.

The viewers in the room had seen too many re-heated leftovers pretending to be new streamers; seeing someone like Pei Shu, they could tell at a glance his lack of proficiency with streaming.

“Prpr, licking wifey. Wifey really is an inexperienced new streamer.”

“Hahahaha, no way, why is everyone calling him ‘wifey’? I’m okay with a fresh and pure ‘hubby’!”

Chen Xiaopang noticed that since entering this room, his own stream’s audience traffic had stabilized, and the number of viewer interactions in the bullet comments had significantly increased. Looking at the camera angle settings and so on in this room, he was certain this was indeed a new streamer. The stream theme was quite interesting, so he planned to stay here for a while to see if this new streamer was good enough to be rated as a potential contestant by him.

After watching Pei Shu’s explanation for a while, Chen Xiaopang also began his commentary: “This streamer is quite interesting. Seeing him so methodically and seriously introducing the GM4—if I didn’t remember that this year is 2021, I’d think this really was the streamer’s first time unboxing the GM4… It sounds like the streamer has a very deep understanding of the hardware and game market prior to 2013. It seems the homework was done thoroughly. So, is he simulating the scene of unboxing the GM4 for the first time in 2013?”

“This topic choice is indeed quite interesting…”

While Chen Xiaopang was watching and commenting, some strange remarks suddenly appeared in the stream’s bullet comments.

“Hahahaha, that’s for sure. How could he not be familiar?”

“Pang-ge seems like he still doesn’t know whose room he entered.”

“It’s hard to imagine, right? Oh boy, I was stunned looking at that group calling him ‘wifey’ just now. I bet Teacher Bu Shu is also having his first time being called ‘wifey,’ right?”

“Well, definitely. The internet environment and culture back then were way too different from now. Who would’ve dared to say ‘wifey’ or ‘hubby’ so casually back then?”

Chen Xiaopang: ?

What does that mean?

Chen Xiaopang: “What’s wrong with this room?”

The scattered bullet comments in Pei Shu’s room finally caught Chen Xiaopang’s attention, making him sense that there seemed to be some secret in this room he didn’t know.

He knew the viewers in this room definitely weren’t listening to his own stream, so he posted a bullet comment directly on the room’s public screen to ask.

“Hahahaha, [Pang-ge confused.gif.] Pang-ge, when you entered the room, didn’t you look at the streamer’s ID?”

Streamer ID? What’s there to look at? The Newcomer Area is all newcomer streamers. Generally, no one pays attention to the streamer’s ID. They just click into a room randomly, and only after finding the streamer’s content interesting do they consider actually following them.

“Pang-ge, look closely. Is there a big ‘V’ next to the streamer ID in this room?”

Chen Xiaopang: !!!

“Sh*t?!”

Chen Xiaopang was shocked. What the hell? A Big V in the Newcomer Area?!

That shouldn’t be possible?!

Not only was Chen Xiaopang stunned, but the viewers in Chen Xiaopang’s own stream were also stunned.

“Quick, quick, quick, Pang-ge, look at the room ID!”

On Chen Xiaopang’s public screen, someone was frantically cueing in the bullet comments, and those who were too impatient to wait directly jumped from Chen Xiaopang’s stream to Pei Shu’s stream to personally confirm Pei Shu’s Big V certification.

“What’s the situation? Why is there a Big V user in the Newcomer Area? Current Big V accounts should have long passed the newcomer period, right? Did some powerful media outlet move in and get Big V certification directly? But the content in this stream is clearly not some media broadcast?”

Dizzy, Chen Xiaopang clicked on Pei Shu’s streamer avatar and then saw the four-character ID “Teacher Bu Shu.”

“Teacher Bu Shu?”

“This ID looks a bit familiar…” Chen Xiaopang had just grumbled a bit when he saw the 3-digit number of Pei Shu’s room. After a long while, he finally reacted: “Shit, shit, shit! Teacher Bu Shu?!”

The viewers who had jumped over from Chen Xiaopang’s stream were also stunned. Among them, those who remembered the ID “Teacher Bu Shu” started shouting frantically on the public screen—what kind of bizarre event was this?!

“Shit, Teacher Bu Shu who disappeared for 8 years?!”

At the same time, someone noticed that this room, which originally had very few viewers, began to see a massive influx of users.

“Teacher Bu Shu’s return?”

“Saw the WG platform recommendation. What’s up with this room? Why are there so few people?”

“Heard Teacher Bu Shu is back?? For real?”

“Saw the recommendation and clicked in randomly. Can someone give some background info? Who is Teacher Bu Shu???”

The viewers in Chen Xiaopang’s stream also noticed this scene. Someone switched out to the platform’s home page for a look and came back: “Shit, Pang-ge, you’ve struck gold picking up a newcomer this time. One of the top 5 carousel pages on the platform’s home page—a major platform-wide recommendation!”

A major platform-wide recommendation—this was a chart that Pang-ge himself had never made it onto, and even the two newcomers he picked up before who got famous hadn’t made it onto this recommendation slot, which carried the number one traffic heat push on the WG platform.

There were also people in Chen Xiaopang’s stream who didn’t know the ID “Teacher Bu Shu,” and they were very surprised by this commotion.

“Who is this Teacher Bu Shu? A newcomer air-dropping onto the carousel top push?”

Chen Xiaopang swallowed and said: “This was a top-tier traffic streamer on the WG platform 10 years ago, famous for reviewing game hardware and various games. 10 years ago, two classic plot-oriented puzzle games were produced under his lead. He was one of the WG Top Ten Personalities of the Year back then, a winner of the Rookie Award…”

Chen Xiaopang recited a string of Teacher Bu Shu’s credentials and finally said: “Eight years ago, Teacher Bu Shu suddenly stopped updating, and there was no news after that. Before the updates stopped…”

Chen Xiaopang remembered. Before the updates stopped, Teacher Bu Shu’s last preview was “Just bought the latest GM4, planning to do an unboxing review of the GM4.”

“Damn, tears of time. ‘2013 Latest Model Game Console and Game Unboxing Review’!!! Teacher Bu Shu didn’t flake. Teacher Bu Shu is back!!!”

Such a bullet comment floated across the room’s public screen, obviously from one of Teacher Bu Shu’s die-hard fans from back then.

Of course, that was indeed the case. Zheng Jiawei had been a game enthusiast since he was a child. Since people started doing game reviews on the internet, he often searched for and watched these reviews.

Among these reviews, Teacher Bu Shu’s perspective was authentic and his evaluations professional. Not only did he have a sufficient understanding of game hardware, but he also had his own unique insights in game experience and reviews. He could be said to be one of Zheng Jiawei’s favorite streamers.

Including the two games Teacher Bu Shu’s team made back then—they were also classics in Zheng Jiawei’s heart.

He had originally thought that after those two games, Teacher Bu Shu would lead his team to even greater heights. Instead, Teacher Bu Shu suddenly stopped updating and disappeared. Later, he heard through the grapevine that because Teacher Bu Shu, the lead person, had withdrawn, his original team also gradually fell apart until it disbanded.

This result had saddened Zheng Jiawei and the small circle of Teacher Bu Shu’s die-hard fans for a long time.

Eight years have passed. Now, even a die-hard fan like Zheng Jiawei had long stopped hoping for Teacher Bu Shu’s return, but at this very moment, Teacher Bu Shu actually came back!

The first stop of his return was to fulfill the promise from back then—the 2013 latest model game console and game unboxing review.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Zheng Jiawei’s eyes turned a bit red. In eight years, he was no longer that kid who would only watch Teacher Bu Shu’s reviews in front of a computer screen. After graduating, he had also stepped into the gaming industry relying on his love for games.

However, taking games as a simple hobby versus actually entering the gaming industry to make games—these are two completely different dimensions.

Zheng Jiawei used to think that for making games, the most important thing was being interesting and having depth. But after truly entering the gaming industry, complex data like DAU (Daily Active Users), MAU (Monthly Active Users), next-day retention, 3-day retention, 7-day retention, player top-up ratios, and monthly game revenue came crashing down on him.

What depth? What interesting?

These things had unknowingly been forgotten from Zheng Jiawei’s mind. He was more focused on current market trends, which game category was still a blue ocean market, at which stage of the game a top-up point should be opened, and how to reduce player churn…

The focus and expectation Pei Shu showed toward the GM4 console before his eyes, and the sentiment of Pei Shu fulfilling his promise to unbox the GM4, ignited Zheng Jiawei’s heart at this moment, making him feel as if he had found his original intention for making games again.

On the streaming screen, Pei Shu seemed to look up at the room just at this moment, and then discovered with surprise that quite a lot of viewers had entered the room.

The lower half of the face that was only vaguely visible on the screen smiled. Even with only half a face’s expression, one could feel his happiness.

Pei Shu said to the phone screen: “Sorry, I was unboxing just now and didn’t pay attention to the room. Just noticed there are already viewers. Hello everyone, I am Teacher Bu Shu.”

Perhaps because of the good mood from unboxing, the tail end of Pei Shu’s words slightly tilted upward, making one feel pleasant just by hearing it.

“I don’t know much about current streaming habits. Today I originally just wanted to give it a try, so I didn’t do any specialized debugging or research…”

Pei Shu shook the console accessories in his hand: “I’m streaming according to my old habit of recording videos. I don’t know if everyone can get used to it. If you find it boring, I’m sorry. Then I’ll continue first! I’m looking forward to the GM4’s performance!”

After saying that, Pei Shu lowered his head and focused on finishing the assembly of the accessories, then began to read the console’s instruction manual.

In the room, there were also many viewers who didn’t recognize the ID “Teacher Bu Shu” and had clicked in purely because of the platform recommendation.

“Wow, is this some fresh streaming genre? Time-travel style?”

“This streamer’s acting is superb. If I didn’t know it was 2021 now, I’d really think this was his first time unboxing a GM4!”

“Siha-siha, you’re all watching the streamer unbox; only I am seriously watching ‘wifey.’ Wuwu, wifey’s jawline is so good-looking. Wifey is so beautiful!”

Just as the popularity of Pei Shu’s room was gradually rising, in this afternoon where originally no big streamers were broadcasting, ten or so streamers at the current top-tier traffic level of the WG platform suddenly went online and started surprise broadcasts.

This was originally an unexpected surprise that many streamers would occasionally do. As it turned out, on this plain afternoon, this unexpected surprise appeared in over ten copies at once. Immediately, many people received notifications from the WG platform that streamers they followed had started broadcasting—the viewers who were originally in Pei Shu’s room, as well as those who originally saw the platform recommendation and thought it was interesting and wanted to click in, had their traffic rapidly divided among the ten or so top-tier streamers who suddenly started broadcasting in a short amount of time.

Not only in Pei Shu’s room, but the popularity in every room on the platform was being rapidly diverted in a short time.

In the official operations office area of the WG platform, the operations staff had just felt that the upward trend in the number of people in Pei Shu’s room was promising, and the viewer retention, conversion, and bullet comment interaction counts were all very good. Then this suddenly happened.

“Oh boy, it seems Teacher Bu Shu’s luck isn’t very good… A great opportunity, gone just like that.”

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