In the Internet age, who still makes traditional games?

May 31st.

The day before the scheduled update of "Project Frostfall."

A big day for Dreamforge.

Everyone temporarily stopped their work and opened the "Project Frostfall" account page on WeLight and P Station.

Xu Meng sat in the operations office, ceremoniously pressing the publish button herself.

Thus, the remastered "Project Frostfall" update trailer, through the veins of the internet, reached tens of thousands of players and netizens.

Normally, releasing a trailer the day before an update is quite absurd and unprofessional.

However, Dreamforge's production schedule was too tight. Even with the entire company working themselves to the bone, they only barely managed to complete the update preparations now.

— Even that doesn't include the multiplayer combat map [Dragon Palace].

That part still needs time to polish, and will take at least another week.

Fortunately, [Dragon Palace] is considered "surprise content," so a slight delay won't matter much.

But the in-game trailer really couldn't be delayed any longer.

The marketing team's continuous promotion with promotional materials initially shocked many casual netizens due to the unparalleled art scale in the ACG scene.

However, after an entire month of only releasing artwork and character illustrations without any in-game models, another problem arose—

The gaming community was already inclined to believe that Dreamforge was conducting a "character illustration scam," and that the actual models couldn't possibly achieve the same effect as the artwork.

And this kind of thing—absurd as it sounds—is a common practice in the ACG scene.

Not only are industry insiders accustomed to it, but even ACG players have grown used to it, at most scolding a few times before moving on.

It's not that they aren't angry, but they've just become accustomed to it.

Too much scolding is a waste of energy.

As a result, the popularity of "Project Frostfall" inevitably began to decline slowly.

Fortunately, it had previously broken through to a wider audience, and whether it was a "character illustration scam" or not hadn't been definitively determined. It was still much better than the previous half-dead state.

And today is the day to prove Dreamforge's strength to the entire internet, reclaim all the lost popularity, and win over more casual players!

… …

The fiercely competitive ACG content creators also entered "Project Frostfall" in advance to record footage.

This way, they can create comparison videos as soon as the game updates.

— For them, the popularity of the topic and the speed of making the video are more important than the fun of the game.

At this moment, the speed at which these new players discovered and clicked on the trailer update was even faster than the old players of "Project Frostfall"!

… …

Then there are the ACG players who have been following Dreamforge's movements.

The ACG scene is a community with a very high degree of intensity.

— That's right, it's [intensity], because the ACG scene is almost always at war.

Of course, there are cute and innocent people in the ACG scene who only play games and don't engage in arguments. And in terms of numbers, they are actually the majority.

But they are too normal and never argue with people online.

As a result, the ACG public opinion field is entirely occupied by company-sponsored trolls, instigators, and extremist players.

Now that Dreamforge is creating a new scale in the ACG scene, such a big event naturally requires fierce debate in the public opinion field!

What trailer?

It's clearly a new battlefield!

… …

The [Game Observation] editorial department, which first predicted Dreamforge's impending doom and triggered this series of events.

A senior editor nicknamed Fire Knife suddenly shouted:

"Dreamforge has released a trailer!"

"They actually released it?" A colleague a meter away was very surprised. "Are there any in-game graphics?"

"There should be!" Fire Knife replied, looking at the "Project Frostfall" text.

While speaking, the colleagues in the office also opened the "Project Frostfall" account page and saw the update—

[Old friends meet, just like the first time]

["Project Frostfall" Remastered, looking forward to seeing you again]

After that was a trailer lasting a full 4 minutes and 58 seconds.

These editors weren't in a hurry to watch the trailer, but instead teased Fire Knife:

"Old Fire, it looks like Dreamforge really has a chance to survive!"

"Haha, Old Fire, you're going to be the first person at [Game Observation] to have a failed prediction."

"From now on, [Game Observation] won't have an undefeated record."

"Apologize by dressing as a woman!"

"Who do you think is more nervous now, Old Fire or the editor-in-chief?"

"Of course, Dreamforge's boss is more nervous!"

… …

There wasn't a sense of impending doom in the editorial department; instead, it was very relaxed.

Although they kept saying things like "failed prediction" and "undefeated record," they all had smiles on their faces, almost writing their desire to see Fire Knife make a fool of himself on their faces.

As for the decline in the "prediction" value of [Game Observation], they didn't take it to heart much.

The reason is that the [Game Observation] editorial department is composed of a group of old players.

— Very old players.

Most of them started making game guides and uploading game videos as individuals in the era when the gaming industry wasn't as popular as it is now and was even regarded as a scourge by parents and social media.

Fire Knife was one of them.

When he started working in game media, there wasn't even mobile internet yet. Everyone wrote text guides in game magazines—at most adding a few pictures, which were too small to see clearly due to page limitations.

Many people may not realize that only 20 years have passed from the era of black-and-white screens with postage stamp-sized button phones to the mobile internet era full of smartphones.

Fire Knife, who came all the way from that era, a "living fossil" in the memory of old players, is still only in his early 40s, 20 years away from retirement.

But the development of the gaming scene has long been earth-shattering, and he inevitably became outdated.

Like many people in this office, he can no longer survive by fighting alone.

This is the reason for the birth of [Game Observation], a group of old people from the old era banding together to keep warm and striving to survive in the ever-changing new era.

Currently, they are doing well.

On the one hand, this is naturally inseparable from the process of history—the sudden prosperity of the cultural and entertainment industry.

But on the other hand, it is also inseparable from personal struggle—

These people have been in the gaming scene for many years, and each of them holds a lot of connections in their hands.

Together, they can almost reach all companies, all fields, and all circles in the gaming scene.

This is also why they can get internal information every time they report, and every prediction is accurately fulfilled.

Outsiders don't know, but everyone in the editorial department knows:

Sometimes, these sources of information are even the bosses of those failed game companies themselves.

The boss personally provides internal information, it would be strange if it wasn't accurate!

Because they are generally older, these old hands have extremely stable mentalities. Everyone seized the opportunity to ridicule Fire Knife before clicking on the trailer with satisfaction.

… …

There are also friendly businesses and competitors, the resigned Yang Hui and other former employees, passing onlookers…

Etc., etc.

Countless people clicked on this trailer at the first moment.

—

To everyone's surprise, the beginning of the trailer was actually an animated short film.

The first thing that appeared on the screen was a dressing room in a shopping mall.

Through the blue curtain, you could only see a pair of calves and a pair of shoes—veteran players could recognize who was behind the curtain based on this feature.

But before they could post barrage comments introducing it, with a "whoosh" sound, a jacket flew out from the curtain.

Then came a T-shirt, long pants, a bra…

One piece after another, flying out like a shower of flowers.

The barrage exploded instantly:

"? ? ?"

"! ! !"

"What the hell are you doing? ? !"

"Going for something so exciting right from the start? ?"

… …

The screen was instantly filled with question marks and exclamation points!