Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

In the staged video, Captain Qin Yi follows the AEEIS's instructions to familiarize himself with the console and begin basic operations training.

In the game, Qiao Liang also followed AEEIS's instructions to familiarize himself with the game's operation mode and to fight in the basic levels.

In the beginning, Qiao Liang was worried that he might not be able to play the game with his handicap, but he didn't expect the game to be much easier to play than he thought!

Qiao Liang has also played some traditional RTS games, such as Star Ocean and Fantasy Battle, but the level was not high enough to play against people who were purely abused.

Because the traditional RTS game requires too high requirements for the player, not only do they have to fight on multiple fronts, but they also have to have a very high APM, and they have to grasp various tactical details very well.

When you encounter an opponent who is a little stronger than you, it's a one-sided abuse.

Qiao Liang wasn't originally a genius gamer, he was just a little smarter and more persistent and perseverant than the average person.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have suffered for so long when he was playing Turning Back.

But Mission and Choice, unlike other RTS games, didn't require one to give precise instructions to every unit at all, it was enough to give instructions to a certain entire unit.

And AEEIS constantly reinforces this concept as it is taught.

Simply put, in Star Ocean and Fantasy Warfare, players often require a high level of micro-maneuvers. For example, one of the most basic operations is "troop pulling", where a formation's remaining soldiers must be pulled away to avoid losses, deny the enemy experience, pull the enemy team's formation, and so on.

This operation can avoid losses, not give the enemy experience, and pull the enemy team's formation, etc. Whether the soldier is pulled well or not, it directly determines the player's team fighting ability, and the gap between the master and the rookie will be infinitely widened because of this operation.

Because of this traditional RTS game resources and units are too important, the need for careful planning, many times are heroes with five or six soldiers to fight with the opposite side, the impact of a dead soldier are very huge.

And in this constant collision of details, the gap between the resources of the two sides gradually opened up, the stronger side is gradually determined to win.

This approach is classic RTS gaming practice, and certainly can't be faulted, but one problem with it is that the barrier to entry is too high, and for those who can't do these actions, the game will be much less fun.

The game's mechanics simplify these actions, and even if you can't do them, it doesn't affect your experience of the game at all.

There are trade-offs, and what you'll get out of it is a much lower difficulty level and a much more ambitious environment, even if you don't have to do it.

The map is vast and the perspective is free, so players will have plenty of time to think about their next move after a few simple actions, as well as to watch the battlefield and check feedback from each unit.

The cinematic story imagery, the game's big scenes, and the extremely low difficulty of getting started all make Jo-Liang's first impression of the game a great one.

......

Also being new to the entire control system and also training from the simplest of battles, Qiao Liang felt very much a part of the generation.

He carefully considered it and thought that this might be due to the more clever arrangement of the entire plot.

In the plot of most RTS games, there were often multiple protagonists working together to drive the plot.

For example, in Fantasy Battle, different races had different heroes, and each hero would have a separate plot.

Throughout the game's plot, the player is required to constantly change their position, and may be manipulating Hero A against Hero B one minute, and then the next minute it's the complete opposite.

Of course, it's not that this traditional approach is bad; most successful games have their own set of pros and cons to their gameplay.

The advantage of this approach is that the game can accommodate a very large and diverse worldview background, as well as highlight the epic feel of the overall story.

The problem, however, is that the player is essentially playing the game from a God's point of view, with no sense of agency, and the emotional experience is rather divorced from that of the main character in the story most of the time.

The plot of Mission & Choice takes a different approach.

The plot focuses on Captain Qin Yi alone the entire time, and AEEIS doesn't make any noise at all; it just keeps prompting Qin Yi to perform a variety of actions with a good, unimpressive, emotionless electronic voice.

In this way, players will actually naturally substitute themselves into the character of Qin Yi.

This sense of substitution is reinforced by the fact that AEEIS will speak directly to the player during the game.

As the story progresses, the player's emotions follow Qin Yi's, even more so than in the movie.

One obvious place to look is the change in the players' emotions when the "anamorphic element" is added.

Before the addition of the realistic element, the player, like Qin Yi, was commanded by soldiers who were 100% obedient to orders, and the entire battle process went very smoothly.

The AEEIS A.I. will refine the instructions after the players give some simple ones, so the human army seems unstoppable, and the players' mindset naturally expands, just like Qin Yi's. But after the addition of the anamorphic element, the players' mindset will be unconsciously expanded.

But with the addition of the realistic element, the soldiers suddenly have a mind of their own, and often disobey orders and act in ways that make people angry.

The morale of the entire army collapses before the battle is even lost, and the players are left fleeing in disarray, with no sense of pride left.

At this point, AEEIS guides the player through the operation, providing some data analysis. After trying it and finding that it worked well, the player would naturally make the same choice as Qin Yi.

After the player makes a choice and completes this part of the game, Qin Yi in the plot image will make the same choice, further reinforcing the player's sense of agency.

In terms of experience, there is a subtle difference with traditional RTS games.

Most traditional RTS games give objectives first and then allow the player to act.

Often times the player directs the campaign and does not do what they want to do, but what the mission requires them to do.

But in Mission and Choice, through clever plotting, the vast majority of players will make choices similar to Qin Yi's. In this way, players will have a stronger sense of agency and will be more able to understand Qin Yi's situation and actions.

......

Unknowingly, time passed by minute by minute.

Qiao Liang was completely immersed in the game and couldn't stop!

The feel is somewhat similar to some of the best cinematic games from abroad.

This kind of game features a cinematic plot throughout, with fast pacing and many twists and turns throughout.

Mission and Choice does this by interspersing the movie and the game with each other in a relaxed manner.

Players play the game content for a while, and when they get tired, they go into the story and relax.

The plot plays the role of carrying on, throwing up a new question for the players, creating a sense of anticipation, and the players will go straight to the next stage of the game when they have had enough of watching the plot images, and so on and so forth.

In addition, the game's sense of substitution itself is extremely strong, and by the second half of the game, Qin Yi's anxiety, confusion, and despair can even directly infect the player in front of the computer, making the player also with such an impatient mood want to get through the game quickly.

Qiao Liang feels like his emotions are just so played out by Mission & Choice, it's simply an enhanced viewing experience!

While playing through the mid-credits scenario, Qiao Liang had roughly deduced that the game's plot images were mostly identical to the movie!

Despite being the exact same content, the game and the movie have their own advantages and disadvantages to the experience.

The advantage of the game is that the player can experience it themselves after each episode. The game is an interactive art where the player has far more freedom than the movie. If the players make decisions in the game of their own volition that are consistent with the decisions made by the protagonist in the movie, it exponentially strengthens the player's sense of agency and identification with the protagonist.

This sense of involvement is incomparable to that of a movie.

The advantage of movies is that the experience is better.

Compared to games, movies are more condensed, the entire emotional flow is compressed, and the cinema's big screen and sound, the viewing effect is definitely better than the player's computer and headphones by more than one level.

So, before, Jo Leung was wondering if he could refund the movie and use the game to whoring the movie for free, but after that he wouldn't think that way at all.

Because after playing the game, he instead wanted to go to the cinema even more!

With such awesome sets and special effects, and Lu Zhiyao's acting so good, how can this film just be watched on a small screen on your own computer? Big TV for nothing!

It's such a good film that you still have to go to the cinema.

And movies couldn't replace games, because games gave players a sense of involvement and agency that movies couldn't.

"Pei is such a chicken thief!"

"I can't believe you're making me two crops of money by this method!"

"But ...... this kind of chicken thief will hopefully come around more often in the future!"

Jorian's wallet got double the pleasure despite the double hit.

"Strange, it seems that the problem of the plot splitting that I was worried about didn't happen, huh?"

"How did you do it?"

More than half of the entire plot had already passed, and this was naturally no longer a secret, as Qiao Liang understood with a little thought.

To do this, the most crucial thing was the plot arrangement.

The plot of "Mission and Choice" could be described as Lu Zhiyao's monologue or Lu Zhiyao's rivalry with AEEIS, but no matter what, this arrangement was both a risk and an opportunity.

The risk is that all of the audience's attention is focused on Lu Zhiyao alone, and when his acting is superb, the audience is cool; when his acting pulls the crotch, then the whole movie is going to be dragged right down to the bottom.

Plus, the whole story is actually staged, with a natural progression between the various stages, but the stages are clearly divided.

Therefore, after such a plot is applied to the game, it can not only give players a strong sense of involvement and generation, but also allow the plot image to perfectly connect with the game content.

So, not only will players not feel cut up, but they will feel that the entire game's plot is very coherent!

"I can't believe you can do a plot like that?"

"My knowledge of the game has been turned upside down once again!"

After figuring this out, Qiao Liang was simply amazed at the game.

A simple game to movie, or a movie to game, couldn't do this kind of effect.

It had to be a project where the game and the movie were established together, taking into account both the expressions of the two different art vehicles, combining their shortcomings and strengths, and then through a deep understanding of the two arts, only then could the two be perfectly combined in a single plot!

And in order to do that, it's not really the ability, but the gumption that matters.

Qiao Liang believes that there are many people who can write such scripts that are suitable for both games and movies, but bosses who dare to use the same script for both games and movies, and invest heavily in both, should be few and far between in this world!

The plot continues to progress.

The game's plot is exactly the same as the movie, but the feeling is a bit more intense because the player is more contemporary and longer.

In the final stage of the story, Qin Yi gives a speech to boost the morale of the entire human race, and in the final battle, Qiao Liang suddenly finds that the soldiers who did not listen to the command before have suddenly changed, many of them are willing to sacrifice their own lives to defeat the Zerg, and the "Humanity Forever" communication is rapidly jumping on the screen .......

For some reason, Qiao Liang suddenly felt his eyes moisten.

Although he knew very well in his heart that this was just a game and all the soldiers in it were just fake programs, but somehow there was a feeling as if these soldiers really had a life in this moment.

Qiao Liang instantly understood Qin Yi's complex emotions as he watched them go on and on, sacrificing themselves to the insects, and when combined with Lu Zhiyao's wonderful performance, Qiao Liang's heart was filled with mixed emotions.

After seeing Qin Yi's betrayal, becoming the new insect leader, and flying into the cosmic sky with his eyes open, Qiao Liang was even more deeply shocked, and he didn't recover until the screen went black and the list of production staff appeared.

The entire flow of the game wasn't very long, as the movie itself was only a little over two hours long, with game levels interspersed between the scenarios, stretching the whole thing out to about six hours.

Of course this is the length of the most basic game difficulty, after the player can clear the level to experience higher difficulty, the game time will also increase accordingly.

It was now light outside and into the morning.

Qiao Liang was a little sleepy, but more than that, he was excited and euphoric!

Before beating the scenario, entering the game would automatically continue with the previous scenario, and only after the end of the scenario mode would the title screen and various new game modes appear.

There were quite a few of these game modes, but Qiao Liang wasn't in the mood for them right now, he only had one thought, to blow this game up right now, immediately!

Of course, Qiao Liang's old arms and legs couldn't take it anymore, so the first thing to do was to have breakfast and catch up on sleep.