Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Even an IGN editor directly stated this.

"What players want to hear is: What makes this game so fun? Why is it so popular? Why isn't it fun? Not a monkey in a video shouting that this game is absolutely fun and guaranteeing it with his own integrity."

"What kind of integrity can you offer as collateral? A monkey's banana?"

Chapter 391 Changes in Form

To be honest, these attacks from mainstream American media are not entirely without a market among ordinary players.

Players certainly support the bloggers, but in terms of professionalism, although many bloggers' videos are actually no worse than IGN's, many players actually took IGN's statement to heart.

Many European and American gamers have expressed their skepticism about Spark's "Top 100 Reviews" plan.

Many players also went to Xinghuo's official media to request that Xinghuo reinstate media reviews.

This incident caused quite a stir, especially with extensive coverage from traditional media outlets like IGN, which made it seem as if Spark's removal of media reviews would be a major regression for human society.

Completely ignoring the fact that there are no media reviews on Steam and Epic, they just unleashed a barrage of attacks on Spark.

However, these outputs and blows occurred this morning.

The situation began to reverse after someone published a review of "Star River Paradise".

This person is the former editor-in-chief of IGN.

Roy.

As the first of the top 100 reviewers, he published a review report on "Galaxy Paradise" on the Spark platform and on his own Twitter account.

Many people, even before reading the report, already found the whole thing quite amusing simply because of Roy's identity.

Didn't IGN say that Spark's evaluation system was unprofessional?

As the former editor-in-chief of IGN, and during IGN's most glorious period, do you think his articles are professional? Moreover, Roy is not just a figurehead; in terms of content, he truly achieves relatively professional expression.

On his own Twitter account, he also mentioned that the top 100 reviews included not only ordinary gamers, but also media and professionals.

He did indeed use his tweets to raise the profile of the Top 100 rankings.

"Hello everyone, today we're going to review Galaxy Paradise from Xinghuo."

"Spark is a name familiar to everyone, but before today, I rarely examined a game they released so seriously."

"As everyone knows, I don't do online game reviews until recently, when I tried out 'Galaxy Paradise'."

"This game changed my perception of free-to-play online games."

"I really like games with a strong art style, regardless of the genre."

"As for this game, Galaxy Paradise, I was deeply attracted to it the moment I entered the game. Many people say that Galaxy Paradise has a good art style, but they can't explain why."

"It's actually very simple, because from the very beginning, Spark has been working backward from the entire worldview."

"Spark's art style is not a perfunctory post-apocalyptic art style, but a serious reflection on the world after the fact."

"In a way, Galaxy Paradise is also an apocalyptic game, where the old world rules are broken and new rules are being established."

"As the aliens' technology became more advanced, the artificially created world also became more refined and fragile. With the aliens' departure, the entire world began to crumble, followed by a terrible Great Depression, just like Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy."

"I really like this concept; it's absurd yet realistic."

"Spark has clearly put a lot of effort into polishing this game. The monsters in the game are all unique, not only in appearance but also in behavior."

"The game's world is not just a large world; it has rich content, equipment systems, and crafting systems. Although it may seem a bit complicated and not very beginner-friendly, it becomes very simple once you understand the basics."

"In addition, the game's monster-killing mechanism is also very interesting, featuring an exploration experience system where players gain a lot of exploration experience the first time they kill a monster."

"After it can be repeatedly obtained, the experience will become less and less."

"The existence of this system itself is also a way for Starfire to encourage players to explore the world."

"The game's rich content is not limited to these."

"As a platform, Spark has cleverly built the world. The game developers don't force you to see everything. Just like some games I've played before, there's no quest guide, so there's no next step."

"On the contrary, once the main quest is completed, players have a lot of freedom in Galaxy Paradise. When you accidentally discover something interesting, the sense of accomplishment and happiness you gain will increase exponentially."

"For example, I once fought an eight-legged spider-like mechanical monster in a giant pit. I knocked off one of its legs, and its movement speed really slowed down, which allowed me to escape."

"Also, in some parts of the city, I found some newspapers and books from the Paradise era, from which I learned a lot of interesting settings."

The most brilliant part of Roy's article is that at the end, he also provided a standard IGN template score for the game.

Roy's personal rating.

Rating: 9.5/10 Amazing

Excellent visuals

+Diverse gameplay

+Free to play

+The background music and ambient sound effects are just right.

+A compelling story

- Certain materials have a low drop rate and require a long farming period.

After this article was published, it not only received a lot of likes on the Spark platform, but also had a great impact online.

Many people compare this review to IGN's review, and compared to this, IGN's 6 out of 10 score seems like a joke—neither objective nor truthful.

As a result, IGN headquarters also published several articles stating that their review did not deny the excellence of Galaxy Park, but only believed that Galaxy Park still has more room for growth.

However, these comments mean nothing to the players.

~~~

IGN office.

Os is facing unprecedented challenges.

As IGN's COO, he has enjoyed the de facto decision-making power of the company for the past few years.

The real owner of IGN practically handed over all of IGN's management to him.

In fact, he has done quite well in recent years, especially in the three years after partnering with Spark. Thanks to Spark's stable advertising revenue, IGN's revenue has been very good.

This is why IGN's owner was willing to hand over IGN to Oss for management.

But now, with the continued fermentation of "Star River Paradise" and the collapse of "Marvel Alliance", a series of chain reactions have begun to take shape.

The most fatal blow was not the doubts players had about IGN after the resurgence of Star Trek, but rather the withdrawal of funds from GGP after the collapse of Marvel Alliance.

Chapter 392 What? Apologies also require queuing!?

Do you remember how Emmett initially brought all the major media outlets together?

Yes, the money they used did not come directly from SE, but from funds provided by the GGP Foundation, which also provided a considerable amount of funding.

It was only with military funding that these media outlets were able to unite.

However, as Marvel's reputation collapsed and its sales plummeted, the GGP Game Foundation was the first to defect. They are a foundation, the main body of capital.

They were also the most indifferent people. When they discovered that the reputation of "Marvel Alliance" was on the verge of collapse, they immediately found an excuse to stop providing the remaining marketing and distribution costs to SE.

Then, the first day's sales commission was immediately started.

At the time, Square Enix's Marvel Avengers hadn't completely collapsed, so it didn't cause a big reaction.

However, as Marvel Avengers has fallen into dire straits in the past two days, GGP's funds have naturally begun to withdraw like a tidal wave. As a result of the chain reaction, SE is naturally unable to fulfill its promise to release funds to the media for publicity.

For SE, the reason they agreed to such a large amount of marketing expenses was because the money was paid by GGP. Now that GGP is no longer paying, they naturally cannot pay for it.

This was a devastating blow to IGN and a host of other media outlets that were suppressing Spark.

It's like fighting a war, and suddenly someone says they're not going to pay the military funds anymore. Is that even acceptable?!

"SE's advertising payment settlement will be moved to next week, Oss. We can't keep fighting with Spark anymore; we have to make a change..."

As SE stopped settling its advertising fees, IGN immediately began to react negatively.

How arrogant Aus was when he shouted that he would repay Spark tenfold, is now how pathetic he is.

If someone else had said that, Os would have argued back.

But now, the person standing in front of him saying those words is the owner of IGN.

"Yes, boss, but I'm worried that Spark won't let us return to their system so easily..."

In front of IGN employees, Os can bang on the table and insist on suppressing Spark's decision, but in front of his boss, he can only emphasize that under the current circumstances, even if he wanted to reinstate it, Spark might not agree.

IGN's boss was clearly dissatisfied with Os's response.

“That’s your problem, Os. Within three days, we need to re-establish contact with Spark and get the normal publicity fees from them.”

"This...this is simply unrealistic, boss..."

"Then I'll find someone realistic."

After saying that, the IGN boss left, leaving Oss alone in a daze.

~~~

A day later, Oss boarded a plane bound for China.

Despite any reluctance, things have come to this point, and the matter is settled.

IGN failed to prove that it could make Spark pay ten times more; instead, Spark proved that IGN's reviews had little impact on Spark.

In fact, according to Oss's thinking, going to the Spark Negotiations at this time was not the worst decision.

Because if you try to negotiate at this point, even if you manage to reach an agreement, the outcome will certainly not be what IGN needs. Moreover, this de facto surrender to the enemy would make Oss feel extremely humiliated.

However, as he arrived at the Xinghuo Building...

This humiliation suddenly turned into inexplicable tension.

“Bob! You, what are you doing here? And... Rayson....”

Here, Os saw many familiar faces: GameSpot, Metacritic, Game Informer, Polygon, Kotaku...

Every reputable figure from European and American gaming media outlets was present on the first floor of the Spark Building.

Everyone looked at each other, feeling a bit awkward.

Now Os understood why his boss was so nervous. Damn it, these colleagues really have no sportsmanship. Didn't they agree just a couple of days ago to put pressure on Xinghuo to the end?

Why is everyone reporting to Xinghuo?!

The others looked at Os with embarrassment. That's how it is often; we only realize the value of something after we've lost it.

Although the evaluation fees provided by Spark were not much, they amounted to over a million US dollars a year. Moreover, Spark was no longer just a single manufacturer at this point.

There's also the Chinese game developer behind the Spark platform.

When Huaxia Games first attempted to go global, they collaborated not only with Xinghuo, but also with many other Chinese manufacturers.

But now all those collaborations are gone, plus the miscellaneous promotional expenses that Spark incurs when launching new games.

That adds up to a considerable annual revenue.

Unlike traditional media, gaming media is a small subcategory, so these revenues are not a small amount of money for them.

For investors, initially they followed IGN in hopes of maximizing profits, but now that they've realized those profits are no longer attainable, they're turning their attention back to Spark.

It may seem shameless, but when this behavior is applied to businesses, it becomes perfectly acceptable.

"Sir, you wish to see General Manager Lin? Do you have an appointment? If not, please write down the reason for your visit and your phone number, and we will contact you when General Manager Lin is available... This may take some time."

At first, Os didn't react.

He followed the receptionist at Xinghuo and started filling out the reservation form. After he finished, the receptionist gave him a number with the number 23 written on it, and only then did he realize what it meant.

"Bullshit! Is the person I'm supposed to see the President of the United States? Why do I have to wait for an appointment?!"

"Spark is an insult!"

Os tried to put pressure on the receptionist by expressing his anger, but unfortunately, the receptionist at Xinghuo had seen it all and ignored Os completely.

Not only that, the receptionist also pointed to the people sitting in the lounge drinking coffee.

“Mr. Os, you may leave if you do not wish to make an appointment, or you may go for a coffee.”