Chapter 760: An instant hit!
Translator: Legge Editor: - -
"Take them away, take them away."
"Hey, manager, please cooperate with us a little."
Under the strong urging from the organizers, more than half of the booth babes of Plants vs. Zombies were withdrawn and only some girls with attires that could pass the regulations were left behind. The video game company's staff felt very down, but could not do anything about it since it was the official authorities who asked, so they could only do as they were told.
As a result, after those booth babes left, a majority of the people who had gathered at this unusually popular booth started leaving in an instant. Everyone was saying "how boring" as they walked away.
As for the game?
What sort of crappy game was that?!
Plants vs. Zombies? When have plants ever been able to fight zombies?!
There was hardly anyone who could understand the casualness of the game's name and felt that it wasn't very attractive. In addition, when the visitors saw the banners introducing it as a puzzle game, many of them lost their interest immediately. Since they had spent a lot of money to come to this expo, if they were to find something, they would rather look at those large-scale RPG games or MMO games made by the huge video game companies. Who would come here to play some puzzle games, especially a demo version of it? As a result, without the gimmick of the booth babes, the crowd naturally dispersed with only a few of them remaining behind.
Zhang Ye hated this greatly!
Little Wang, who had also lost her interest, remarked, "Director Zhang, let's go too."
Ha Qiqi turned and pointed to a booth. "That's the display booth for Fishing Master 2. Let's go and have a look?"
This was the game that their entire program team was playing in the office.
However, Zhang Ye said, "Go on ahead by yourselves. I want to walk around on my own."
Ha Qiqi looked at him and said, "Alright. We'll come look for you in a bit."
She walked off with Little Wang and the others.
Zhang Ye remained standing where he was. He was still thinking about the promotion of his game with a heavy heart. A promotional event filled with positive energy and booth babes was spoiled by the organizers just like that. Their attire has violated the regulations? Bullshit! For show! This is all for show! If they only did things for show every day, then over time the nation would be in crisis!
The crowd dwindled in numbers with many of the gamers going over to the surrounding booths. Gradually, the game booths nearby regained some popularity.
Zhang Ye heard some of the staff at the booth behind him saying things.
"Hmph, such dishonest methods!"
"It's a good thing that the organizers cleared up this mess in time."
"What plants and what zombies? They were just depending on their booth babes showing some skin to attract people, so how can their game be any good? If they have the time to plan that, they should be spending it on making the game instead!"
"That's right. Just look, everyone has left after the booth babes left, right?"
Those staff were talking loudly without reservation.
When he heard that, Zhang Ye got frustrated. He turned around and strolled over to that shooter game's booth and glanced at the screen of the demo. He grunted, "What lousy game is this?!"
When a female staff member heard that, her eyebrows twitched but she still greeted him with a smile. "Sir, you can try out the game first before giving your evaluation about it."
Zhang Ye glanced at the screen again and snorted, "What lousy UI is this!"
The female staff member's eyebrows twitched again as she forced a smile and said, "Although the UI is an extension of the design theory in a traditional shooter, our game's graphics are the industry's…"
Zhang Ye snorted again, "What lousy graphics are these!"
The female staff: "…"
Seeing the booth of his game still lacking visitors, Zhang Ye could not help but feel a sense of anger and injustice. So he decided to stand around longer at this shooter's booth, one moment walking to the #1 demo console to make some insulting remarks and the next moment strolling to the #3 demo console to say a few words of criticism.
The staff were driven mad by this!
Big Bro! How did we offend you?! What was all that about? Why did you trample on us the moment you got here?
Suddenly, Zhang Ye, having seemingly sensed or heard something, turned to look behind him. He frowned when he realized that his staff members had bumped into the staff of Central TV Department 1 and were in the middle of what looked to be an argument. Isn't that person the secretary of Central TV Department 1's deputy director, Jiang Yuan? Not knowing what was happening over there, Zhang Ye headed over immediately.
In front of him.
Dozens of the Central TV Department 1 staff were gathered at the booth. Some of them were playing games inside the booth, while the others stood there looking at the group consisting of Ha Qiqi, Wu Yi, and the others.
Jiang Yuan's secretary said, "You all had better pay attention to who's around you!"
Ha Qiqi retorted, "Why should we pay attention to that?"
Little Wang said angrily, "Today's a day off and we bought the tickets by ourselves, so why can't we go around as we like? Do we still have to get approval from the station?"
The secretary said angrily, "So you guys still remember the station? In the whole of Central TV, who doesn't know that you people have all been playing games during working hours! Those who don't know better might even think you all are working on the development of games!"
A veteran Central TV Department 1 staffer said, "Little Ha, your group is indeed in the wrong."
Another middle-aged staff member in the Central TV Department 1 group said with a grave tone, "Your program team has caused big trouble this time. Just because of a small issue, it has damaged our Department 1's reputation, yet you all are still not working diligently to make up for it, but instead playing games or watching movies during office hours every day. And now, you all did not greet us after seeing us here and just pretended not to see us? It's not that I want to tell you people off, but I can't bear to see things go on like this any longer."
Another person reprimanded them, "It's only because Director Jiang is taking his kid around the front that he did not see this. If he was here, he would definitely be angry at you all!"
It was clear that these fellows were determined to follow along in their leaders' footsteps.
Ha Qiqi, Little Wang, and the others got a little bit angry, but as they were still considered inexperienced at Department 1, there were certain things they could not say nor was it good for them to sass too much.
However, at this moment, unknown to them, Zhang Ye appeared right behind them.
"Whoa, who is telling stories to my people again?" Zhang Ye spoke without giving them any face at all, "Why don't you tell me a story as well?! I really enjoy listening to stories!"
Little Wang called out happily, "Director Zhang!"
The Voice's program team staff immediately straightened their backs as though they had gained a supporting pillar!
When the group of Central TV Department 1 staff saw Zhang Ye, they were startled a little!
Jiang Yuan's secretary said with a darkened expression, "Zhang Ye, what are saying? Your staff pretended like they did not know us and did not greet us when they saw us. What kind of behavior is that?!"
Zhang Ye looked at him and said, "Are you the country's President or the Secretary-General of the United Nations? We still have to greet you if we see you?"
The secretary was infuriated. "You…"
That old staff member said, "Little Zhang, how can you talk in that way?"
"This is how I always talk!" Zhang Ye had always spoken in a manner that did not give face to anyone, no matter their rank or qualifications.
The several Central TV Department 1 people also knew that Zhang Ye was a thorn in everyone's side; not even calling him a thorn was enough to describe him. This fellow had become the largest tumor in Central TV, so much less the several of them, even the executives of Central TV Department 1 could not do anything regarding this person. Just a court case alone was enough to them pay Zhang Ye's salary in obedience, which was even two times the amount he was supposed to receive. So the several of them definitely weren't going to be able to do anything to him. As a result, they walked away quickly after lecturing them for a bit and did not bother to reason further with Zhang Ye.
From a distance away, Jiang Yuan who was bringing his son around saw all that had happened. His heart turned cold. The freezing of Zhang Ye's career had already begun. Zhang! From this day forward, you can only watch helplessly as your popularity declines day by day. I want to see how much longer you can last like this! Let's see if you can still laugh in the future!
Little Qi said, "Dad, there's a Plants vs. Zombies booth over there. What an interesting title! I want to try out that game!"
Jiang Yuan's expression changed immediately, as he said with a kind expression, "Sure, sure."
The people of Central TV department 1 walked off.
Little Wang said to Zhang Ye, "Director Zhang, thank goodness you came over just in time, otherwise, we would surely have gotten bullied by that bunch of people! Just because we didn't greet them, they used that as a reason to give us a lecture? That's too unreasonable!"
A female editor said while gnashing her teeth, "Our program team has become a target for everyone now. Back then, when The Voice was still being broadcasted, who wasn't courteous whenever they saw us? Didn't they always give us a thumbs up whenever they saw us? But look at this now, they are slaughtering the donkey the moment it leaves the millstone! Anyone can come and trample all over on us!"
Ha Qiqi gave a grim smile and said, "As long as Director Zhang is around, who would dare to trample on us as they please? Just look at what happened. The moment Director Zhang got here, that bunch of people ran away!"
Little Wang clapped happily and said, "That's right, they only risked telling us off. When they saw Director Zhang, all of them ran off in fright!"
Zhang Ye said in amusement, "Am I that frightening?"
Wu Yi put it in a nice way, "Director Zhang is well known for his reputation!"
Everyone chimed in one after the other, but Zhang Ye's focus was not here. He was still thinking about the matter regarding his game. The reason he came by today was because of this business. In his current situation, it took a lot of effort to earn more popularity. After putting in so much effort, Zhang Ye definitely wanted to earn any popularity that the Plants vs. Zombies game could gain him. As a result, he had to ensure that this game could become an instant hit, otherwise he would actually let those people who were waiting to see him make a fool of himself get what they want.
What should he do?
The organizers had already left, so should he get those bikini booth babes to come back? Engage in a round of guerrilla warfare with the organizers? When the enemy advances, we retreat. When the enemy retreats, we pursue?
Good idea!
While this guy was fantasizing about what he could do, a voice suddenly came from the clamor not too far away!
"Old Yu, come quickly, come quickly!"
"What's the matter?"
"F**k, this game is too cool!"
"Plants? Zombies? What's with all of these?"
"You'll understand when you play it! Hurry up and start lining up! The line will soon be long!"
"Wah! Why are there so many people all of a sudden?"
"It's because this game is really fun!"
Zhang Ye was stunned and quickly turned to look. He saw that the Plants vs. Zombies booth that was still rather empty a moment ago was now packed with a sea of people again!
"Aiyo, this game is really the best!"
"I didn't think much of it when I saw the name earlier, but how did this game turn out to be so fun?"
"Yeah, I was also initially attracted to this booth because of the booth babes and thought this game was just going to depend on flashy showmanship to attract gamers. I didn't expect that I would get hooked on this game after I tried it out! This is definitely the best puzzle game I have ever played in my entire life! Besides, is this really considered as a small-scale game? This is the first time I've realized that puzzle games could actually be made into something like this! There is nothing about the innovative gameplay I can criticize!"
"It's really fun!"
"Brother up ahead, have you finished trying out the game yet? Can you please hurry up? A lot of us are still waiting over here!"
"Is it my turn yet? Is it my turn yet?"
Not only were the gamers who wanted to try out the game joining into the long line, there were also countless gamers who joined the long line after they were tempted to try it out from watching others who played. When it was empty, there was not a single person, but as the amount of people increased, the resulting chain reaction was also becoming more and more obvious! With the ruckus and shouting over here, the majority of those visitors who had left after watching the booth babes' performance were coming back once again!
Zhang Ye laughed as he saw this!
Indeed, quality goods need no advertising!
Like I said, for the most popular puzzle game of this bro's previous world, how could it not even cause a ripple in this world!?