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Chapter 124: Did Mr. Chen cast a spell?
Alex stood firm as a rock, waiting to see how to direct the online conversation, looking for a breakthrough. He had a clear vision of the relevant data for Dark Souls.
However, many game industry designers who had followed Nebula Games, without access to relevant data and relying solely on online player reviews and the game's superficial content, felt a wave of regret.
"As expected, although Alex is a sensation in the indie game world, this is his first time venturing into large-scale game development, so he still has some doubts!"
"That doesn't mean no. There is no problem with the artistic design, and the combat system is also quite good. As for the plot, it is still not clear, but judging by the worldview, it should not be that bad. The main problem is the numerical value."
"Yes, I think so too. The graphics and art of Dark Souls are of high quality, but the difficulty seems too high!"
"It's not just that! It's mainly about the level design and the detailed experience. There is no minimap in the game and the difficulty cannot be adjusted. Alex is being too stubborn this time."
"The player rating for Dark Souls has dropped to 8.3 points. Compared to Alex's previous games, it's a huge difference!" "Yes, this is considered to have improved Alex's record for the lowest rating, right?"
"Alex has suffered a Waterloo this time. Not to mention the serious damage, with the scale of publicity and the cost of production of Dark Souls, it must have been quite painful, right?"
"Not necessarily. The main problems with Dark Souls right now are the difficulty and the detail. Alex will work to reduce the difficulty appropriately and offer different difficulty levels. It's hard to say."
"But we were one step behind."
"I guess many game developers from the same era now regret it. They thought Dark Souls had a lot of publicity and were worried that their games would be affected, but now Dark Souls has failed."
Many industry designers are interested in Dark Souls. Nebula Games has produced several hits, but mostly low-budget productions. As Nebula Games' first major title, Dark Souls attracted a lot of attention. But now, it is clearly plagued by controversy. It might even fail to meet expectations.
This has worried some game developers and designers. Previously, major virtual reality titles from major developers like Aether Games and NetDragon had clearly announced release dates for early and mid-December. It will undoubtedly be a tough battle.
While Nebula Games is not a major developer, its previous successes as an indie mini-game and the buzz around Dark Souls have led many developers and designers to avoid the game. After all, no one knows for sure what the game is like. If it's high quality, wouldn't that be a disaster?
However, Dark Souls' performance generates caution among some designers and developers. Eagle Entertainment, a developer specializing in action role-playing games (ARPGs), has its lead designer and director, David Lee, closely following Dark Souls. His new ARPG, Dawn of the Soul, will be released soon.
Unlike other developers who have specifically avoided Dark Souls, they announced the release date well in advance, just two weeks after Dark Souls' launch. However, there are still internal disagreements about whether to delay the release date.
If Dark Souls turns out to be truly exceptional, it could become a supporting character for another ARPG, which would affect subsequent sales.
But the situation should be clearer now. David Lee personally bought Dark Souls and thoroughly tested it. He was completely shocked. Like the online players who complained about the game's difficulty, David Lee left the game in shame after experiencing the brutality of Gundyr and the Crystal Lizards.
He only had one question: was the game's difficulty really flawed? Had Alex really not made a mistake with the numerical values when he developed it? For an ARPG, even an action-oriented one, the difficulty was ridiculously high.
Especially after reading online information about the game and discovering that the later stages were full of malicious traps, and that the initial content was just an appetizer, David Lee felt a sudden sense of bewilderment.
With the design of Dark Souls, David Lee could intuit Alex's intention: to make it a hardcore ARPG. This led David Lee to believe that Dark Souls would be a niche title, with little chance of achieving significant popularity.
According to a recent online player review, it seems that is the right direction. There is not much to say. At first, I was worried that Dark Souls would become a huge hit and I had my doubts. But now the time, place, and audience are right. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity!
Shortly after David Lee made his decision, Dawn of the Soul began its large-scale promotion. Not only Eagle Entertainment; many other games that originally planned to launch during this period, but had temporarily avoided the spotlight due to the overwhelming hype around Dark Souls, also began pre-launch promotions.
After all, two huge hurdles are coming up in December. Although they are virtual reality platforms, they will undoubtedly have a significant impact on PC platforms. And judging by the current player response to Dark Souls, it is clearly a dog in wolf's clothing.
The early promotions sounded impressive, but the real action vanished. By the time the game is released, its reputation is likely to be even worse.
And within Nebula Games, Alex and John talked about the continued popularity and operation of Dark Souls. Jane and Lisa, who had been closely monitoring the game's data, discovered something that excited them.
Dark Souls' ratings and reputation seemed to be improving little by little. While many angry players were still giving it low scores and complaining about its difficulty in the forums, Jane and Lisa were excited to discover, through Nebula's backend data, that many of the players who had previously given it low scores had not abandoned it immediately, but had continued playing.
The longest session lasted more than 12 hours.
Most of these players had also revised their previous low scores. Even in the official community forums, these players had come forward, changing their previous attitude and praising Dark Souls.
This change of attitude made them happy and a little confused. 'Players, what's wrong? Did Alex cast a spell on you?'