Let's start with Past Lives, a classic game of the sword.

Let's start with Past Lives, a classic game of the sword.

Speaking of the legend of the sword and the chivalrous man, it is destined to be an age-exposed game. As a domestic game classic, Xian Jian once faded out of the public's field of vision because of the scattered team, the outdated single-player game mode and the inability of the plot to surpass itself? It can be said that its golden age has passed, but there are still many experiences worth summing up in its glory. As a fairy sword powder for many years, I want to comb it.

Fairy sword's rising experience

1990 in the era of xianjian, many domestic games, including xianjian, encountered a lot of development bottlenecks. Lack of funds, talents and piracy are not enough to support the creation of a truly comparable overseas game? Masterpiece? .

How did the fairy sword win the hearts of the people at that time?

First, cultural identity.

1993 Daewoo Company is developing new works against the trend in the face of the weak martial arts RPG market. At a young age, Yao Zhuangxian and other 15 young people set up a fanatical studio (49 people in its heyday, then dissolved in 2002). After two years of hard work, The Legend of the Sword and the Chivalrous Man was finally successfully released on 1995, and then it quickly became popular across the Taiwan Strait.

Yao Zhuangxian and his xianjian development team found an opportunity to stand out in the cruel game market? China elements of martial arts RPG. Although gamers in China will be attracted by the high-quality pictures of overseas games and the refreshing excitement of the games, they are subject to cultural differences and have no feelings. Whether it is more than ten years ago or now, this part of the players who have higher requirements for emotion, game connotation and cultural inspiration can hardly be satisfied with CF-style slashing and endless repetition of DOTA. What they need is a homologous cultural impulse to test their inner strength.

The fairy sword caught this. In 2000 and 20001year, Daewoo Information Company entrusted Yao Zhuangxian and Zhang Yijun to set up Beijing Soft Star Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Soft Star Co., Ltd. in Chinese mainland, respectively, and made every effort to attack the mainland market. Since then, the Xianjian development team has been more determined to dig deep into elements from China culture and keep its own style. In 2003, when Soft Star released Legend of the Sword and the Chivalrous Man 3, it announced that it had successfully created the first China martial arts game with its own game world view. In fact, in the history of the game 1995, the first generation of the sword was sold to the Shanghai soft star "Legend of the Sword and the Chivalrous Man" in 2004? Golden decade, who questioned the publication of the article for ten years, was called Xianjian. Because the complete system of Xianjian series games perfectly reproduces the real touching story experience, Chinese game scenes and game soundtracks, and makes all these become the biggest selling point of Xianjian series games.

It is the above positioning of Xianjian that makes Xianjian developers have a clear direction on how to arrange the game plot; The developer of xianjian is very clever. The study found that people's emotional needs include love, friendship and affection. So the whole fairy sword is more like a ghost novel with game participation. In its shoddy turn-based game structure, what is injected one by one? Local? The story, so that the joys and sorrows that may be encountered in real life, are also staged in the world of xianjian.

Second, training? Human flesh UGC

As early as 1995, players of xianjian formed many organizations related to xianjian. In 2003, these scattered organizations set up a non-profit organization in Shanghai? Fairy sword alliance. Until today, this organization has been a distribution center for the die-hard loyalty of Xianjian. All kinds of talents and dead houses express their love for Xianjian in their own way through this platform. The users and fans of Xianjian are divided into two categories, one is just to buy and play games in the dead house, and some will directly participate in the promotion and research and development of games.

Who are the late users of the two types of players? The concept of human flesh. These talented players can take photos, take selfies and explain themselves. They can also write lyrics and sing for the soundtrack of Xianjian, and star players such as Nutcracker and Miss Tang Jiada (the lyricist of the theme song of Wuxian) also rise. It can be said that in the year when Xianjian failed to vigorously explore the mainland market, it was these star players who kept the exposure of Xianjian series with their own works.

At the company level, soft stars also cooperate well, promoting the stars of these players and putting their creations directly into the game. These players become part of the game. Soft Star also consciously strengthens the cultivation of high-value users among players, often supports them to organize cosplay, novel creation, forum construction and other activities, and uses these routine activities to enhance the experience of new players.

It is not the people who have the highest participation in these activities who have the deepest influence on Xianjian, but some post-70 s and post-80 s who are now in important positions. This group of people became attached to the fairy sword because of their age, and they have a deep fairy sword complex. It is likely to become a complex, and they are now the word-of-mouth communication force of Xianjian. A university teacher I know even advised his students to play xianjian and experience life.

Third, games with piracy.

The game industry in China gave birth to the game cracking industry in China, and those cracking forums also activated the download market in China. In fact, many cracks are initiated by some download tools and websites that provide download services. They pay technicians to crack a game, so that they can get amazing downloads and then get advertising revenue.

With the help of pirates, Xianjian quickly occupied the Chinese mainland market where good games were scarce in the middle and late 1990s and became the first love of many mainland players.

However, although piracy expanded the popularity of Xianjian, it also stole Daewoo's profits and ruined the entire game software industry.

Since it reached users later than piracy, how did Xianjian survive? Daewoo comes from Taiwan Province Province and has a strong anti-piracy awareness, but the means used to combat piracy can be well connected with the spirit of the Internet:

First of all, from selling CDs to selling genuine download rights. Because the pirated game industry has cultivated the habit of users downloading games, Soft Star simply complied with this habit and set up an independent electronic mall, which changed from selling CDs to selling genuine download rights, reduced the purchase cost of users, and even expanded the sellable things from software to services and even TV adaptation rights, realizing diversification.

Secondly, an anti-cracking system is designed. Before Xian Jian, other software companies generally used anti-copy systems to curb piracy and the free spread of players (Xian Jian did the same thing when the Legend of Xian Jian and Chivalrous Man was released on 200 1, but of course it could not cope with piracy that everyone on earth could not stop). Today, SoftStar supports users to install games on all machines. But what users buy is actually a startup account, and players with accounts can play this game on up to two computers. So the new copy and paste only increases the possibility of new transactions. This technology has successfully utilized the convenience of Internet and communication network. Consumers can pay online or by mobile phone, which makes the connection between suppliers and consumers seamless.

Third, actively cooperate with Chinese mainland to crack, sinicize and download websites (such as Ranger Star and Ranger Web), and provide them with the opportunity to distribute genuine accounts. This will not only bring the enemy back to our camp, but also increase the channels for downloading genuine products.

Finally, build a platform for rights protection. 20 1 1, NorthSoft Star cooperated with Baiyou, which is qualified to carry out telecom value-added services in Chinese mainland, and awarded Baiyou, who started as an online game, the exclusive agency right to tap the deep value of high-end users. Let the fairy sword promotion and rights protection have a reliable platform.

In these ways, Xian Jian gradually succeeded in squeezing his former benefactor? Pirates' living space, and survived. It is said that at 20 1 1, when the game came out to "Fairy Sword 5", it sold more than 2 million sets in the mainland and became the first brother in the domestic stand-alone game industry.