Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 17: The Stubborn NetDragon

Gary's vague premonition soon came true.

The NetDragon meeting went very unsmoothly.

As soon as he suggested apologizing to Lincoln to seek forgiveness, it immediately sparked intense opposition from the senior executives present.

The boss was so angry that his face turned livid.

Before the boss could speak, the R&D Department Director was furious.

"If a college student can do it, it means that the technology is not really unattainable. It's likely that our thinking has fallen into a trap and temporarily taken the wrong path! As long as we adjust our direction, we may also achieve technological breakthroughs in a very short time! There's no need to buy someone else's authorization, as that will only make us beholden to them!"

"Even if we take a step back, as everyone knows, the most difficult part of a new technology is always the first step. As long as there are successful cases, the difficulty of replicating them will be greatly reduced! Going our own way and holding the technology patent in our hands is the wisest choice!"

The Chief Programmer chimed in to support: "Nowadays, the development cycle of major games is counted in years. Being behind by one or two months in new technology will not have a significant impact on our game production."

The Chief Planner also interjected, "That's right, and while waiting for technological innovation, we can do the preparatory work in advance, which won't cause any delays."

Art Director: The R&D, Chief Programmer, and Planner are right.

Seeing that so many senior executives opposed reconciliation and their arguments made sense, the boss hesitated.

The Chief Planner spoke up again: "We cannot be frightened by temporary technical gaps, and technology is not the whole of a game.

Even though it's the era of virtual games now, there were still companies making keyboard and mouse controlled computer games and console games, and their profit-making abilities were not bad."

It's just that those companies had no strength to enter the top industry fields. He thought about it but decided not to say this point out loud.

"Even if his technology is temporarily ahead, it doesn't mean he can affect our advantage in the game. NetDragon's reputation built over the years is not easily shaken, especially since all he's made is a meaningless walking simulator!"

The boss raised his own question, "So, does he have any possibility of creating a large-scale virtual game that threatens our position?"

The old boss who founded NetDragon had already stepped down, and this new one, after receiving a comprehensive elite education, only played a few of the best-selling games on the market with the mentality of understanding the product when he came to NetDragon to take over his father's legacy.

To him, a game is just a product, and the details of producing a product don't require a boss like him to personally research. So when faced with such a problem, he needs his subordinates to provide professional opinions.

However, his inner pride still made him unwilling to admit defeat just like that.

How could a poor, powerless, and even ungraduated college student warrant him admitting defeat!

The Chief Planner immediately replied: "Even if we don't talk about a single college student daring to make a large-scale game, making a large-scale game is not for everyone! It requires an experienced, mature team to achieve!

However, the talents capable of making large-scale virtual games are basically scarce, as long as the boss communicates well and prevents him from recruiting enough people, then he would be a toothless tiger."

The young boss nodded in satisfaction: "That wouldn't be difficult, I'll contact Flying Fox and Wild Island to remind them to keep an eye on their people and not let him recruit even one! Without support, I'd like to see what he can do on his own!"

"President Zhao, should we also contact the Bluebird Alliance? Although the Bluebird Alliance doesn't have top-level companies, there are still people with experience in making large-scale VR games."

The Bluebird Alliance is an alliance of small and medium-sized game studios, initially formed to keep warm together and make it more convenient for coordinating new game releases and resisting pressure from large corporations.

Among them, there are a large number of producers still making computer games and console games. Virtual game production is not many, but there are also some people who have left large game companies.

"Yes, it's necessary." The boss nodded slightly, "He's challenging the entire industry, so it's only right that he should face a boycott from the entire industry."

"The meeting will end here for now, I'll go make phone calls to contact them, everyone go do your own thing, the meeting is adjourned."

Gary sat in his seat, watching this group of people's performance, and for a moment, he couldn't quite distinguish.

Did these supervisors genuinely feel that Lincoln wasn't a major threat?

Or were they resisting Lincoln's new technology, fearing that it would undermine their position in the company and stable lives?

Especially for the R&D Department Director, when did copying top-notch technology become so easy?

20,000 researchers, that's just a number in the plan. When will they ever recruit enough people? Not to mention that most of these people are researching how to improve the hardware performance of devices: to increase capacity, faster reading speeds, lower latency, higher display resolutions, faster processing speeds...

Can these people really just switch gears, put down their work, and turn to research in another direction, achieving technological breakthroughs in just one or two months?

He doesn't understand technology, but he has strong doubts.

But since the big boss has decided, and most of the high-level executives have cast their votes in favor, what right does he, a public relations department supervisor, have to object?

In the end, he can only leave the meeting room with a silent sigh, feeling the need to make some headhunter friends in advance.

At the same time, there are some voices gradually growing louder.

In a small live streaming room with just over a thousand viewers, Camille Victoria is wholeheartedly focused on her live stream, unconcerned with anything else.

She hadn't even been interested in Lincoln's news before.

But today, while she was live streaming, suddenly all the audience members were frantically brushing his name.

There were also phrases like "virtual reality," "great," and "finally waited for this day."

Camille Victoria then opens Spiritual Rhinoceros based on the information given by the live-streamer community and watches the video Lincoln posted.

She couldn't help but cry halfway through the video, and the more she cried, the sadder she became, unable to stop.

The viewers tried to comfort her non-stop.

That's because Camille Victoria has a special label: disabled person.

She is a one-legged female anchor.

And her most popular work isn't her gameplay or live streaming clips, but a very magical vlog.

One day, she went to play an escape room with friends, and, wearing pants, no one could tell the difference.

However, in a pitch black hallway, she had her prosthetic leg pulled off by a staff member playing an NPC...

The two of them screamed simultaneously.

The girl cried and crawled on the ground towards the NPC, yelling, "My leg! My leg! Give me back my leg!"

And the staff member's screams were a thousand times worse than hers...

After putting on her prosthetic limb, she was still stuttering and apologizing to the others.

When this video first came out, it instantly went viral, and she experienced the feeling of overnight fame.

But this heat came quickly, and it faded just as fast.

Due to the limitations of her prosthetic limb, she found it difficult to engage in intense physical activity, let alone play VR games on an omnidirectional treadmill.

Now she finally sees a glimmer of hope.

But she isn't just crying for herself.

Because of her unique situation, she knows many disabled players who have lost a part of their physical abilities for various reasons. They face many inconveniences in life and even more challenges when playing games.

The thought of these people being able to use this equipment in the future, entering a completely realistic virtual environment, and experiencing the feeling of a fully-abled person again, makes her cry uncontrollably and even louder.

It's as if she wants to vent all the grievances and tears she's suppressed over the years in one go.