The God's Games

Chapter 261 Chaos and Critique

Players soon noticed these strange reviews.

A game like <>, which had already proven its authenticity, wouldn't have exaggerated promotional claims even from professional trolls.

So why suddenly was there a slew of comments claiming <> was a fake holographic game?

This phenomenon piqued players' curiosity and drove them to investigate why such claims were being made.

It was then they discovered what had happened.

They found out that a certain company had recently released a holographic game claiming to offer a true game world.

The game was called <>.

Due to its poor game graphics, subpar game quality, and expensive game equipment, it had sparked player criticism.

Moreover, this game company had used <> popularity and promotional CG to advertise their own game, leading many players to mistakenly believe that <> would be similar with <>, thus causing confusion about <>.

Now it was clear what had happened: other game companies, seeing how hot <> was, had tried to cash in on the hype by making similar games.

However, they forgot that no matter how much they hype it up, they still need the ability to back it up.

The result was that they used a bunch of poorly made products to try and appease the users.

It could be said that in their pursuit of profit, they spared no unscrupulous means.

Upon hearing the news, Master PungPong quickly made a video explaining why there had been a series of negative reviews lately, and even spent his own money to purchase the game equipment for <>.

As soon as he entered the game, a look of bewilderment appeared on his face.

He honestly didn't know how to even begin to evaluate this game.

The bad graphic, the completely unintelligent NPCs—wandering around in the game, he felt like a fool being played for a joke.

Is this what they call a holographic game?

Is this supposed to be a "realistic" gaming experience?

Even if you're fooling people, at least put in a little effort!

Hanjun broadcasted the game footage in his video, and most of his audience consisted of players from <>.

Some of them followed him because he was the first one to release content about the game.

Even those who hadn't played <> could get plenty of information from Master PungPong's videos.

When the audience saw this footage, their first reaction was pure disbelief.

They couldn't imagine how a game of such low quality could dare to call itself a holographic game.

If you're trying to ride other game popularity, at least do it properly!

Thus, this certain company called Neo Games, became infamous overnight.

Netizens quickly spread the word about their low-quality holographic game, mocking them for their unscrupulous greed in pursuit of profit.

This type of game, which people found utterly shameful, triggered a flood of negative reviews online.

When the employees of Neo Games saw the flood of criticism, they immediately reported the situation to their boss.

However, the boss's first reaction wasn't guilt or even anger at the players for their mockery.

"But isn't this a good thing?" the boss said.

The employee was stunned for a moment, completely unable to grasp what the boss meant.

The boss continued, "Negative reviews also generate buzz. Aren't they buying our game out of curiosity just to see how bad it is? How are our sales so far?"

The employee awkwardly replied, "Since the launch, we've sold a thousand units of the equipment..."

This number couldn't compare to the popularity of <>, but considering they hadn't spent much time developing the game and the production costs were low, it wasn't bad at all.

They had managed to sell this much just by riding on the hype of <>.

The boss of Neo Games waved his hand dismissively and said, "Don't worry about it. Keep guiding netizens to link our game with <>. Ignore the bad reviews, and have the tech department delete them."

The employee couldn't help but sweat nervously.

Was the tech department really meant to handle such things?

However, since it was an order from the boss, he didn't dare object and reluctantly took the order to the tech team.

In this huge gaming company, the tech department consisted of fewer than ten people.

This small team was barely able to cobble together something that could be called a holographic game.

When they first heard the boss wanted them to create a holographic game, the tech department was dumbfounded.

They had seen the live streams of <>, and even the most advanced game companies couldn't pull off that level of visual quality.

Let alone a small, underfunded team like theirs.

But the boss gave them an ultimatum: either make the game or face layoffs with compensation.

Left with no choice, they braced themselves and got to work, and in the end, it was a just passable VR game.

To be more accurate, it was a terrible VR game.

They had originally thought that once the boss saw the final product, he would be extremely dissatisfied.

Little did they expect, the boss didn't say a word and immediately launched the game.

Not only that, but the marketing was very bold, claiming it was the second-most realistic holographic game after <>.

But the reality was clear to the employees. In the days following the game's launch, they didn't even dare go online, for fear of encountering overwhelmingly negative comments about the game.

When they finally heard back from the boss, they were completely dumbfounded.

"What? We've sold over a thousand units of the game equipment?"

"The boss actually wants us to hire fake reviewers to flood out the negative comments with positive ones?"

The employees in the tech department were in shock.

They couldn't believe that a game so contrary to their expectations had actually sold.