Chapter 1098: Boss Pei’s Plans Always Caught Others Off-Guard!

At first, Pei Qian did not pay much attention to this problem.

It was inevitable.

As MOBA games, it was very easy for the designers’ inspiration to overlap together. What’s more, they had used golden elements. They would be more similar in the first place. It was normal to have some sense of deja vu.

It was not plagiarism because it was slightly similar in appearance.

Finger Games was a big company. It should still care about its reputation.

However, Pei Qian flipped through the netizens’ comments about this skin and suddenly realized that something was amiss.

Obviously, netizens also felt that the black-gold theme champion skin looked similar to GOG’s Coin-Scattering Hedgehog Modest.

Some netizens had the same view as Pei Qian. They felt that this was purely a coincidence.

However, many netizens had different views.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence!”

“Take a closer look at this picture. I photoshopped the Coin-Scattering Hedgehog into the champion skin of this black-gold theme, and found nothing out of place. In fact, it looked inexplicably harmonious!”

“How do you explain this?”

The netizen posted a picture.

The IOI heroes in the original champion’s skin had different poses. Some were standing, some were half-squatting, and they were lined up horizontally. They looked quite handsome.

However, this netizen had a huge Modest behind them!

What’s more, Modest had been specially exaggerated. His already burly figure had been magnified further. IOI’s heroes only reached his waist.

Modest’s broad arms, thick arms, and golden light effects that spread out like wings completely occupied the upper half of the image. It was like an angel descending into the world, enveloping the five IOI heroes below in its golden light.

The difficulty level of this photoshop was not high. That was because Modest had taken it from a high precision original art and added some golden special effects.

However, the final outcome did not seem out of place. It was as if these six heroes were one and the five heroes below were Modest’s underlings…

Soon, this picture caused a heated discussion among netizens.

“Holy sh*t, it doesn’t feel out of place! It’s so appropriate!”

“Even though Modest’s original arts don’t have any sense of technology, the champion skins of these five heroes are inexplicably compatible with Modest…”

“When I saw this picture, I suddenly realized a problem. These five heroes are not only similar to Modest in terms of golden special effects, they are similar in many places!”

“There are also many types of golden light special effects. Some are more inclined towards gold coins, some are more inclined towards iridescent light, and some are like water ripples… The golden light special effects used by Modest and this champion skin are more similar to gold coins. The style is uniform.”

“What’s more, the five heroes in this series of skins give people a sense of arrogance. This is very similar to Modest’s character. Look at the way these people stand. They look so arrogant. They are practically carved from Modest…”

“I have some news! I have a friend who knows the staff of FV Club. It’s said that this skin is to pay respect to Boss Pei!”

“You have to know that FV Team was only a second-tier team in the beginning. Why should they be able to win the world championship? They relied on Boss Pei to burn money to provide them with strong logistics support, and then sent a data analyst to provide data support for them! Therefore, the two themes of this champion skin are ‘golden’ and ‘data’, respectively, to commemorate Boss Pei!”

“There’s actually such a thing? That makes sense. After all, Modest was designed with Boss Pei as the prototype. It was also to pay respect to Boss Pei. Naturally, the design would be a little bumpy…”

“I think you might be thinking too complicatedly. The original artist of Finger Games must have been lazy and wanted to use the golden element. He also saw that Modest’s golden element was very outstanding, so he ‘borrowed’ it!”

“That’s not right. You’re looking down on the professionalism of Finger Games’ original artists! I think that should be the case. Modest’s original artworks were Big Boss Ruan’s works. They were outstanding to begin with. Modest was too famous as GOG’s representative hero. His image was too deeply ingrained in the hearts of people. Finger Games’ original artists saw too much. They subconsciously used Modest’s art style when they wanted to create some original arts with golden elements…”

The players had different opinions and could not tell which of these rumors were true and which were fake.

However, the gamers would gradually come to a consensus.

Indeed!

The more he looked at the picture, the more similar it looked.

Everyone had their own opinions as for why they were similar. No one could convince anyone. Some people thought that Finger Games’ original artist was deliberately borrowing from them. Some people also thought that Finger Games’ original artist was an unintentional mistake, a collision in creativity.

However, one thing would not change no matter how they discussed it: this skin was completely tied to Modest’s image!

The influence of this picture was too wide and deep. Many players felt that something was missing when they saw the initial animation of the five heroes of Black Gold Technology.

What was missing?

Obviously, they were missing Modest, who was standing behind them and shielding them with his broad arms!

Once they accepted this setting, the champion skin of this Black Gold Technology could no longer exist independently. Instead, it was firmly tied to Modest.

The reason for this situation was not only because they looked alike, but also because of the story behind the champion’s skin.

It could be said that without Boss Pei (Modest) ‘s generous spending and data support, FV Team would not have won the championship. Naturally, there would not have been this black-gold theme champion skin.

Thus, the many elements inside and outside the game tied the image of the champion’s skin to the image of Modest.

What was even scarier was that the gamers were still digging and explaining more…

…

Long Yu Corporation.

Eric flipped through the comments online, feeling furious and shocked.

“What is going on!”

“How did this happen?!”

“We were the ones who posted the champion skins. Why are they all discussing GOG, Modest, and Tengda?”

He had seen Zhao Xuming’s publicity plan and did not feel that there was any problem at all. He felt that even if Boss Pei wanted to fight back, he had to wait until it was summer.

However, he did not expect the originally foolproof champion skin to cause such a mess!

This turn was too fast. Eric had been focused on other things previously and was not mentally prepared. He almost lost his back.

Everyone else in the conference room lowered their heads, not daring to breathe.

The current situation was terrible.

After Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation released the skin of the Black Gold Technology champion, everyone was discussing Tengda and GOG’s Modest!

There were almost no netizens discussing the skin itself!

What was even scarier was that the gamers were very imaginative. They dug and pointed out many other meanings.

Modest represented Boss Pei. He was the one who had created this champion skin of Black Gold Technology. The golden color represented the huge amount of data that Tengda had spent lavishly and the technology represented Boss Pei. This skin represented Boss Pei forming a team to conquer IOI and leaving a deep mark in IOI’s honor palace forever…

After a few months, people recalled the scene of FV killing everyone as Tengda and Boss Pei’s representative team in the IOI global finals.

In fact, Finger Games had already expected that they would be whipped again when they made the champion skin for FV Team.

However, he did not expect that the whipping would be so violent and not about morals!

Eric took a deep breath and looked at Zhao Xuming.

Zhao Xuming shrunk his head.

Why are you looking at me? What has this got to do with me?

Indeed, I was the one who made the publicity plan.

However, I only made a very normal and reasonable publicity plan based on the champion’s skin! Wasn’t the skin itself the problem this time?

You should settle scores with the designer!

Zhao Xuming felt that he had to immediately throw the blame on himself seeing Eric’s unfriendly expression.

“This must be Boss Pei’s plot!”

“Boss Pei is really a good plan. This is obviously a plan that was made since FV Team won the championship. It’s only revealed today!”

“Everyone, think carefully. What is the current state of the domestic MOBA game market?”

“Actually, the incremental market is about to be divided up. MOBA games are already very famous. Players of other types of games have basically been converted.”

“Therefore, the war between GOG and IOI has gradually turned into a stock market. That is, to fight for each other’s players!”

“That’s easier said than done.”

“MOBA games themselves have a high learning cost. It would be very uncomfortable to play another game after familiarizing with one game. At this time, we need to find a lousy point!”

“This lousy setting can be a very recognizable hero. It can also be a story that gamers will take delight in talking about.”

“And Boss Pei combined these two points!”

“After FV Team won the championship, Boss Pei knew that we were going to make FV Team the champion skin, so he must have instructed FV Team to make a series of skins similar to Modest’s style.”

“At the same time, in order to eliminate our suspicions, the members of FV Team deliberately did not mention Modest when mentioning their needs. However, in the subsequent communication, they requested our artist to repeatedly modify the plan and guide it bit by bit to Modest’s style.”

“That’s why the final product is so similar to Modest!”

“Boss Pei’s goal is so vicious!”

“FV Team is his team. In a very short period of time, he pushed FV Team from a domestic second-tier team to the world champion and snatched the first championship in IOI’s global finals. This is a rather memorable honor for Boss Pei.”

“But he obviously wants more than that.”

“The reason why he created such a set of champion skins was to firmly combine this set of champion skins with Modest’s image. In the future, when IOI players see the champion skins, they would naturally think of Modest, and then think of GOG and Tengda Corporation!”

“This is a breaking point. It will subtly make IOI players recognize, accept GOG, and gradually eat away at our group of players…”

“This is all Boss Pei’s plot. It has nothing to do with my skin promotional plan!”

Everyone nodded and looked enlightened after hearing Zhao Xuming.

Boss Pei was indeed vicious!

So this plot had been planned since FV Team won the championship?

Now, it seemed like Boss Pei’s plan was indeed seamless. Not only did he deceive everyone in Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation, but he also deceived the players.

It was only when the champion’s skin officially began to be advertised and the boat was already in the river that the dagger was revealed. A single sword to kill!

It was too late for Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation to regret now.

Even if they were to re-create the champion’s skin now, it would be useless. Their situation might even be worse.

The players would still link this champion skin with Modest. What’s more, if they were to redo it, it would be equivalent to Boss Pei winning once again. They would be able to watch Finger Games become a laughing stock twice.

Therefore, even though this set of champion skins was obviously digging at the foot of IOI’s wall and was obviously benefitting Tengda, they could not withdraw it and could only bite the bullet and continue selling!

That was unbearable.

Eric closed his eyes and sighed silently.

Zhao Xuming was right. This incident had nothing to do with him. It was not the publicity plan, but the skin itself.

He could not push the blame to the designers of the champion’s skins. After all, they had only done their job seriously.

Eric and Zhao Xuming had been fighting Boss Pei all this time, but they had not seen Boss Pei’s move. What’s more, what about the designers who were far away and had never interacted with Boss Pei and were only in charge of designing skins?

No one could be blamed for this. Boss Pei was too cunning!

Eric leaned back in his chair and said nothing for a long time.

He had been ambitious when he became the person-in-charge of IOI’s China region again. He had thought that he had found Tengda’s lifeline and could easily defeat Boss Pei.

However, he only felt helpless now.

There seemed to be no hope even if he persevered.

What should he do?