What happened to the "blood lion Incident" many years ago?

This is a very bad game. Blood lion is the typical first choice of domestic game failure examples. I advise you not to waste time.

Detailed comments

The following reposts (the original text is "Five Years of Domestic Games" published by Zhu Jiayin, a famous game editor, on September 20, 2000):

As long as you are an old player, you should remember that moment-1April 27, 997.

At the beginning of 1997, major domestic game media published color advertisements of blood lion. The cover is a China soldier in camouflage. Here are some inflammatory words and some static pictures.

I can absolutely guarantee that the blood of most players in China is excited by this game. Take me for example. At that time, in my mind, blood lion was definitely beyond Command &；; Conquer "game (as advertised), in which all the fighting units are in true proportion, and soldiers can respond to your orders in different dialects. What is more exciting is that this game is about China's resistance to foreign invasion.

But when I got the game, my excitement suddenly turned into disappointment What kind of game was it? In the game, houses are out of proportion to other objects; What 3D model is not good? What is often seen is that cans become cans, that is, two cans are stacked together ... The soldiers' movements are even less, and the pixel-level movements make the soldiers' movements super slow ... The two countries are at war, the soldiers take a leisurely walk, and some are baptized by the enemy at close range. There is no strength to fight back, and there is no basic defense AI. The control technology is also very poor, far from reality, the soldiers' attack route has no trajectory, and the soldiers have no so-called intelligent state scheme. For example, soldiers are ordered to go somewhere, and usually 50% don't listen to orders; Ordering a group of soldiers to attack enemy soldiers, some are diametrically opposed, some just stand there dreaming, some sleep on the ground, some throw grenades in situ, and some are very diligent in doing warm-up exercises in situ ... Only one soldier throws grenades at close range ... When you command a tank to attack an object (such as an enemy tank), its own tank is "smart" when attacking barracks and ordering soldiers to a certain place, often.

WU GANG, the marketing manager of Fire Civilization, once wrote an article, which began with the following words: "Over the years, I was deeply impressed by two things: several Hubei college students pooled their money to buy a set of blood lion at the premiere. When leaving, the salesman who knew he was guilty repeatedly told the student that if there was any problem, he must call and we will help you solve it. But until today, those students have not called or written. I know they're really hurt. Yes, the sudden blow made them feel strongly cheated. I realized that we had lost them, which was our greatest sorrow.

"The other thing is that I have read such a letter. After the failure of blood lion, a person clearly wrote down that he would not return it, even though he was angry. He said it was even a contribution to China's software industry. However, he may not buy domestic games again in the future. He said he was sorry. "

…………

Blood lion's games have dealt a great blow to the domestic game industry. Blood lion has hurt most consumers who support domestic games. What is more sad than paying sincere feelings for incomplete products? In the eyes of these people, they are just puppets, manipulated at will. Since then, the relationship between domestic game manufacturers and gamers has become subtle, and players have begun to distrust the production team and even boycott the domestic game production team. Contradictions arise from this.

I often think that if Shang Yang's "blood lion" can be better, just a little bit, to the point where people can afford it, then the domestic game market will probably not be like this. But fantasy is fantasy after all and reality is reality after all. The failure of blood lion is a blow to the whole game industry in China. Many people think that Shang Yang is impetuous, but I believe that besides impetuous, Shang Yang will certainly have other difficulties.

However, objectively speaking, I think Shang Yang's marketing department is the best in the domestic game industry. Blood lion is a disgrace to programmers, but a monument to marketers. Or the above assumption, if this game is a little better, Shang Yang can definitely establish his position in the game industry in China with this game. But now, the name Shang Yang is just a memory of the game industry.

WU GANG tells the truth: blood lion and the story behind the fire civilization

2002-02-20 15:57: 10

Blood lion has always been a game I can't figure out. There is no denying that this is a bad game with poor quality. However, even this game created an amazing order volume of more than 40,000 sets before its launch. After deducting the products returned by players, the sales volume in blood lion has reached1.8000 sets, which is a very remarkable figure at present. However, in the uproar at that time, these achievements were even more hateful. At the same time, the name "blood lion" has not been forgotten with the passage of time. When countless players mention domestic games, everyone will always think of the harm that blood lion has brought to them.

At the beginning of this year, a game editor called several friends to chat on QQ. I was deeply impressed by a gentleman at that time. His views on the game market and the game itself are so unique. After getting to know this gentleman through friends, several names that I gradually forgot came to mind, such as blood lion, Shang Yang and WU GANG. ...

Later, I forgot how I made an agreement with WU GANG. One Saturday afternoon, a pot of green tea on the first floor of Yanshan Hotel opened my relationship with WU GANG.

Our conversation started with the software he wrote in high school. ...

Y: I saw on your personal website 1 1rain.yeah.net that you wrote a software in high school, so did you come into contact with computers very early? At the same time, is it like everyone else? It also started with games.

Wu: It was a long time ago that I came into contact with computers. I started with games, but to be honest, I have a general feeling about games and feel very different. It was the first time in senior one, because playing games often occupied the school computer, and was ridiculed by senior three students as "game head". After being stimulated, he took the right path. To tell the truth, I didn't like games very much at that time, but I still liked software development. Since that year, the reason why I wrote software is very simple. I like to do one thing wholeheartedly. Then, at the age of 18, I won the Excellent New Product Award of China Software Industry Association for my own BoyWindows. It's the software you saw on my profile. This set of products has been selling well and has been on the sales list of federal tools for many years.

Y: Hehe, it will be very convenient for future development to compile a software. In view of this convenience? But why did you give up your technical status to work in the market? After all, we didn't see you take part in the development work in blood lion or Fire Civilization.

Wu: Actually, when it came to convenience at that time, the most direct convenience was that I could participate in the competition on behalf of the school without taking an exam. Besides, I can occupy the school computer. I had nothing to do during that time, so I went to various companies to play. At that time, I met the CEOs of many companies. After that, two companies were established to develop software, but in the end they always lacked understanding of society. After the second failure, I swore, "I quit."

Y: Oh, that's it? Just now you said that you often go to various companies to play, so why did you choose Shang Yang instead of other companies? Because as far as I know, Shang Yang was not very famous at that time.

Wu: Actually, entering is a very accidental opportunity. It can be traced back to my second business failure. I'm free, and I have some money left in my pocket. I wander around and often go to my friend's company to chat. A friend of mine went to Shangyang Company, a system integration company. During a visit, I decided to stay there. The general manager asked me to choose between two positions: programmer and marketer. Because of my ignorance and enthusiasm for the market, I finally chose to work in the marketing department.

Y: According to your introduction just now, Shang Yang seems to be an application software company at first? I was not interested in playing games, so why did you decide to make blood lion that surprised the whole world? Are you involved in this matter?

Wu: During my one year in the marketing department, my work was excellent. At that time, the company intended to set up a subsidiary to make multimedia electronic publications. According to our previous experience, I am more suitable for this need. In the process of market research, I found that electronic publications are not an ideal investment point, but entertainment software has great business opportunities, so I began to suggest that the head office set up a game software company. At first, we didn't consider making any products, but several contents caught our attention: at that time, a book "China can say no" was popular, and the Diaoyu Islands incident between China and Japan caused a heated discussion. According to these tips, we named the game "blood lion: Defending China", with the theme of China people's resistance to imperialist aggression.

Y: blood lion came out like this, which was both unexpected and unexpected. In the social background at that time, did the news of making this game arouse the enthusiasm of players at once?

Wu: Hehe, my plan was applauded as soon as it was announced. As I said before, I don't like games very much, so it is inevitable that the game making is too simple. Before the development, I said to my production team, "Playing games is very simple. How did he ... "Then he made a written pledge to produce successful products within five months.

Y: In this case, did the development of blood lion encounter great difficulties, because as far as I know, it seems that blood lion rebounded twice later.

Wu: Yes, later, after my producer really participated in the development, he said to me, "WU GANG, game manufacturing is not as simple as we thought?" Only then did I realize the seriousness of the problem. I decided to stop this product because I didn't invest much, but it was too late, because the advertisement in blood lion had been done, and a large number of dealers had already collected the deposit from the players, so when they heard that they were going to stop this product, they could not accept it. A company said, "blood lion has to do it now and do whatever it takes." At this time, my main program suddenly left, and his position was taken over by a new program. The time he took over is limited, so it is inevitable that there will be so many bugs in blood lion. It can be said that "blood lion" is a product made by us.

Y: We all know the result of blood lion. Many people think that the only success of blood lion is its previous advertisements. At that time, the overwhelming bombing made many players remember him. So what do you think of this?

Wu: That's a bit untrue. Now many people think that blood lion was bombed, but it wasn't. You can count them carefully if you are interested. I published two covers, a black-and-white advertising page and four color pages in the first issue of Popular Software, and that's all. As for the current gun draft, there is no one at all. After the listing of blood lion, popular software was criticized by many players. In fact, they are innocent, because they didn't publish any articles boasting about blood lion, only published listing announcements and company interviews, and the rest were paid advertisements. Many people think that my marketing operation is successful, but I don't think so. I was the general manager of the company, not the marketing manager. I am responsible for matching marketing operation with development. The market rash advance that does not conform to the actual situation is a complete failure of marketing work, and the formation of contrast has caused the wounds that China players can't heal for several years.

Y: So what do you think is the success of blood lion?

Wu: blood lion is a failure. She didn't succeed, but there were some lessons to be learned.

1. Schedule selection: At that time, China was catching up with the upsurge of C&C, and Red Alert could not enter China. At that time, domestic players had a product cut. I went to blood lion at this time, and naturally seized this opportunity.

2. Theme selection: There were many accidents at that time, such as the Diaoyu Islands incident between China and Japan, and the glorious four gentlemen incident in Tianjin. , greatly inspired the patriotic enthusiasm of the players.

3. Grasp the market: At that time, the marketing expenses were 6.5438+0.8 million yuan. I chose a centralized strategy, not a large-scale advertising, but to make the market strong and stylish, so I concentrated my money and put it on one media. In addition, blood lion's real-time positioning strategy is also ideal, and the players' expectations are very good. However, due to the rising expectations, many false rumors have been born. Before the listing of blood lion, many players and even the media gave praise and inner expectation to blood lion, which intensified the market's enthusiasm for blood lion to some extent.

4. Pay attention to channel construction: At that time, gamers had no concept of channel at all. In order to do this channel well, I set up a simple distribution system. On the first floor, I chose four dealers with different identities and channel capabilities. They have agent wholesalers, and agent wholesalers have retailers. On each floor, we have a detailed dealer sales guide manual, including answers to frequently asked questions, publicity methods, and even what customers will say when they ask for a return. In addition, in order to ensure a stable price system, we will reduce the shipment to 70% of the order. So on the first day of listing, nearly 20 thousand sets on the market were swept away and sold to users.

Y: I also went to Haidian Cinema when blood lion was first released. The situation is really tricky. Many players bought this game, but later when some players started to scold this game, did you feel at ease?

Wu: (Obviously WU GANG misunderstood me) Huh? I'm relieved when people scold me, okay?

Y: No, I mean, did you start to take remedial measures later? Did you think of anything at that time?

Wu: You used the wrong words. It should be expected. After the game went on the market, I knew what I was facing. A week after it went on the market, I posted a message informing all players that I could return it. There was one thing at that time, that is, when blood lion was engraved, it was originally engraved in a CD factory in Hangzhou, but a part of 1056 was engraved, and the machine broke down, so we had to rush to Tianjin to engrave it overnight. 1056 was intercepted by the dealer and was not printed. This is an unprecedented and shocking "CD" in the eyes of some players. Later, after the player was returned, I looked at these bare disks with white front and back, and secretly vowed in my heart that one day Shang Yang would get up again, and I must make these 1056 disks very valuable. Actually, when I was in Fire Civilization, the first batch of 65,438+0,056 blood lion players traded their old blood lion discs for Fire Civilization to recycle these blood lion discs. There should be about one or two hundred such discs on the market now. You can go and have a look. If you want to get rich, you should leave quickly. )

Y: In a general production group or company, if blood lion is commonly encountered, it seems that everyone will be fired in the end. So has Shang Yang ever encountered this situation?

Wu: No, I was thinking about how to get Shang Yang to put up the flag again, but everyone agreed with me and didn't want to suffer such a result, so everyone stayed. And began to carry out a lot of training and new technology accumulation for employees.

Y: So it seemed that everyone's heart was still there? Do you remember what impressed you deeply after the release of blood lion?

Wu: I remember these two things deeply. One night, a message came from my pager, which said, "WU GANG, we believe you will succeed." . Another thing is that after the release of blood lion, the chairman's family invited me to dinner with my girlfriend. I guess this is the last dinner, and I'm fully prepared. As a result, I didn't expect him to mention anything about the product at the dinner table. To tell you the truth, I was particularly uncomfortable.

Y: I once read in the newspaper that a player said, "Although blood lion can return, I will not return for the development of domestic games." Do you know this thing?

Wu: Oh, I know the player you are talking about. All customers who have had contact with Shangyang Company have detailed records, even if they just make a phone call. He used to be a very supportive player. Before blood lion went public, we wrote several letters in which he constantly encouraged us. Blood lion failed. He wrote another letter saying that he would not return the goods, but he would not support us like this again. Later did not write (speaking of which, WU GANG shook his head with regret. If players are lucky enough to see this paragraph, please forgive WU GANG! )

Y: When blood lion was in the post-production, the advertisement for Fire Civilization was already played, saying that it was 40% completed. Then, after the failure of blood lion, some players also expressed some doubts about the quality of Civilization of Fire. Do you feel any pressure at this time?

Wu: Yes, it may be this pressure that made the later fire civilization go to many extremes. Actually, I'm more like a gambler. I was too anxious to recover my lost trust and reputation after blood lion's failure. For me, it was not just product development at that time. I have neglected the objective laws of many things. Although the game is an alternative industry, it still has to follow basic business principles.

Yu: When it comes to players' dissatisfaction with fire civilization, it is actually more precisely that players are dissatisfied with the long loading time of the game. Many players complain that Fire Civilization should not cooperate with Intel to optimize PIII instructions, and the game can't run at all. What's your opinion?

Wu: The player can't understand this question. After the failure of blood lion, everyone in Shang Yang hopes to make an impressive game, but we can't ignore the issues of development cycle and funds, because the technical mistakes in blood lion made me go from ignoring technology to the other extreme of attaching great importance to technology. In addition, from the investment point of view, I put a lot of money into an advanced technology, hoping that after a product is developed, I can continue to use the developed technology to make a second, third or even fourth product. I think this can share the investment risk of new technologies and enhance the future market competitiveness. When estimating the project income, it is the trough of domestic games and the burden of blood lion. According to my experience, I think it is almost impossible to get back the cost from the retail market, and it is impossible to create a sales myth like the bleeding lion. So, I put my target customers on international manufacturers and OEMs, and almost gave up the retail market. I think what the outside world sees is one-sided. We didn't do 3D, and we didn't cooperate with Intel. After two years of summary, the achievements of "fire civilization" can be attributed to several reasons in my opinion today:

1. The product target definition is too high, which exceeds the height that the company personnel can reach. A lot of money is spent on training personnel and trying new technologies. For example, when the company started the "Fire Civilization" project, almost no artist could use 3DSMAX software, and almost no programmer had the 3D development experience of RealTime. My advice to other companies is that it is risky for a company to invest in new technologies. There must be members inside to provide training and incentives for other technicians, and those who master new technologies must maintain a certain proportion within the team.

2. The development team didn't adapt to the change of development cycle. In the early development process of "Fire Civilization", in order to seize time, according to the development definition, art and programs started simultaneously, which caused a lot of work waste due to technical uncertainty. The development team of more than 30 people repeatedly adjusted, which made the members' emotions reach the bottom. My advice to other companies is that full technical exploration is risky. In order to solve the problem that the company's product development cycle is too long, which leads to the backwardness of personnel technology due to time, a refined R&D team should be established within the company to continuously explore new technologies and form an effective training mechanism within the company. These are what domestic companies lack most.

The biggest problem is management. My management is immature, and the company has a competent project development manager to manage the development team of more than 30 people, so the project cannot be effectively coordinated. My advice to other companies is: pay attention to the experience of project managers!

The budget is out of control. There is no strong project budget system in the development of new technology projects. In the development cycle of nearly 30 months, the development has repeatedly failed, which makes the development cost accumulate higher and higher. Although the revenue has created a record of more than 3 million (including INTEL supporting nearly 80,000 US dollars, AMD supporting 30,000 US dollars, and the OEM market got 80,000-90,000 sets of orders because we are one of the few 3D products supporting PentiumIII), it didn't help. My advice to other companies is that as a business activity, establishing a project development budget system will be the key to success, which is not contradictory to trying to make a perfect game, and it will be the benchmark of the whole project.

5. Poor communication with investors is also the reason for the failure of Civilization of Fire and even Shang Yang. This responsibility lies mainly with me. I think there will be many game developers who have the same problem as me. My suggestion: the purpose of investors must be efficiency, and the purpose of developers or managers is different. Managers should keep their promises to give investors due returns, and developers should also keep their promises to make expected products. Investors or others can't be expected to understand what they are doing. Everything is normal under the commitment of both parties.

Let's just say that none of the above problems exist. If the above problems can get my necessary attention, even if Civilization of Fire is not a good game, Shang Yang will become an excellent game development company sooner or later. I just look at the reasons for the failure of Fire Civilization from the perspective of my general manager in the company, hoping to help all those who are keen on game development.

Y: Many players, including many critics, are puzzled as to why Shang Yang used moments instead of backfires he bought when he made "Fire Civilization". Why?

Wu: Actually, it is not accurate to say that the acquisition of backfire, because when I was preparing to acquire backfire, the development team of the company's "Fire Civilization" suffered another most serious development failure, which led to major changes in the company's personnel. After this change, we are a little concerned about ourselves. The investor's opinion is to sort out the interior, so after the down payment, the purchase backfire is put on hold. Later, due to the lack of market experience of backfire, it was almost impossible to complete the products of fire civilization at that time, because as the first two companies to contact 3D technology, they took completely different technical routes and product types. The 3D RPG game developed by Shang Yang is a 3D shooting game developed by Tempering Company. Judging from the pure workload, the game that Shang Yang wants to develop is simply a fantasy. At this time, the leader withdrew from the game circle, and the technical route of the instant development team was similar to that of Shang Yang, so Shang Yang's developers and instant merged to form the development team of Fire Civilization. It can be said that in project management, due to the excellent ability of Liu Gang, the person in charge at that time, and the crazy efforts of others in the group, products that could not be marketed at all were born.

Y: crazy efforts! So I think there must be many things that left a deep impression on you during this period, right? Can you talk about it?

Wu: In the process of fire civilization, there are too many things worth remembering. After all, I have spent nearly three years of my youth for her, and it is this hard and repeated life that has benefited me a lot. If what impressed me most was the five seconds in the launching ceremony. On the day of the launch, we held an event in the best disco square in Beijing. At the beginning, it showed the opening CG of Civilization of Fire. At that time, in order to cooperate, all the lights under the stage went out. After the release of CG, when the lights slowly lit up, the audience applauded. At that time, I was surprised to find that Liu Gang, Liu Ye and Li Bo were all sitting in the front row with tears in their eyes. At that time, for me, it was five seconds later, and it was also five seconds after three years.

Y: five seconds? Does this mean that you left Shang Yang soon?

Wu: After the release of Civilization of Fire, I left the company and my own company because I was really tired. In fact, now it seems that I am also very confused. I was 24 years old that year. I hope to leave the game industry temporarily and can't wait to solve my own problems. I hope to learn from industries with many talents, make new friends and come back one day. When I saw the news of Shang Yang's withdrawal from the game industry on Sina half a year later, I really couldn't restrain my sadness. I even thought about buying back the brand of Shang Yang game. You know, for many players, Shang Yang's brand is equal to blood lion, but for me, Shang Yang is my youth, and blood lion's brand is still welded on her. I may never get a chance to save her again.

Y: Do you have anything to say about the players in China now?

Wu: There is nothing to say, only regret and deep regret.

Y: So, after all these years in Shang Yang, what are your regrets?

Wu: It's no use regretting. If you really want to say something, it's a pity that you didn't seize the opportunity again and again and regretted your youth and ignorance.

Y: Last question, will you return to the game industry?

Wu: Wait for the opportunity.

Summary language

As time goes by, Shang Yang is gradually forgotten in the memory of players, and blood lion is gradually forgotten by players with the pace of history.

I often don't understand some things, such as why a masterpiece like Bird's Gate sells only a third-rate product in China, while blood lion sells so well after such a failure. Perhaps this is a very accidental situation, but there is his inevitable relationship in this accident. This relationship, perhaps forever can only rely on their own slowly groping.

Because this is also the rule of the game.