172: Severe punishment

“However, since you violated company regulations, you must be punished,” Qian Ziyong said.

Upon hearing Qian Ziyong’s words, the employees’ hearts skipped a beat.

It wouldn’t be a very severe punishment, would it?

Please don’t deduct our salaries!

Some companies deduct salaries at the slightest provocation, which is completely excessive.

Qian Ziyong said, “I’ve decided that because your overtime work disrupted the company’s normal order…”

“Therefore, from now until this day next month, you will have no work to do!”

“For this entire month, you cannot write any proposals, nor can you develop any games!”

“All you can do is rest at the company and chat with your colleagues.”

“Ah!” All the employees were dumbfounded!

What kind of punishment is this?

They didn’t understand the meaning of this punishment!

Which company punishes its employees like this?

“Boss, you can’t do this. The company will spend a lot of money in a month. If we waste a month like this, the company will lose a lot of money!”

“No, Boss, punishing us for three or five days is enough. A month is too long!”

“I find this hard to accept. Isn’t this a bit inappropriate?”

“Boss, the company just started. This will make the company go bankrupt!”

“…”

The employees all objected.

If the company doesn’t make money, where will their salaries come from?

Could everyone just watch the company go bankrupt?

Absolutely not!

Many people were laid off by other companies and had struggled to find good jobs.

They had only been working at this company for a few days, and they certainly didn’t want to get two months’ salary only for the company to go bankrupt!

Moreover, not working for a month was simply too long.

Even annual leave isn’t taken like this!

Qian Ziyong felt that he seemed to have aroused public anger.

And indeed, it was a bit inappropriate.

Fortunately, Qian Ziyong’s mind worked quickly, and he came up with an excellent explanation.

“Ahem…”

“Besides punishing you, it’s also for the sake of our company, and to allow you to create even better games,” Qian Ziyong argued forcefully.

Everyone was puzzled.

Bi Chengwang asked, “What’s the connection between making better games and resting for a month?”

Ju Yewei had been watching Qian Ziyong.

With his after-tax monthly salary of a million, he needed to demonstrate his worth.

As the saying goes, “Eat the king’s bounty, share the king’s worries.”

How could he just eat and not work?

Qian Ziyong slapped his head and said, “Of course there’s a connection!”

“What do you think is the most important thing for making a good game?”

Qian Ziyong’s question stumped everyone.

What is most important for a good game?

Someone raised their hand and said, “Graphics!”

Another person said, “Game playability!”

Zhao Caiyi said, “The feeling of exhilaration.”

A young employee spoke boldly, “I think it’s addiction. Only by making customers fall in love with the game, wanting to play it even when they’re not, is it a truly good game.”

Qian Ziyong shook his head, “None of those!”

“What you’re talking about are the specific contents of the game.”

“But I think there’s something even more important than these.”

Everyone sat upright and listened attentively.

Ju Yewei also stared at Qian Ziyong.

He had made games his entire life, from early games with poor graphics to later large-scale 3A games.

It could be said that he was born for games!

He believed that many things were important for a good game; it needed to be comprehensive to create a classic masterpiece.

Graphics, music, combat feel, exhilaration, anticipation, and so on, all had to be perfected.

It was for this reason that every game was a painstaking masterpiece by its creators.

Every game Ju Yewei had made over the years considered every aspect of the game.

He considered many things and did even more, so he had to work overtime every day, sometimes even until midnight.

But with every game released, there were always many areas that weren’t done perfectly.

Qian Ziyong was an amateur.

He had never made a game before, so how could he know what was truly important for a good game?

However, although Qian Ziyong wasn’t very good at games, he was definitely an absolute genius in business.

Perhaps his ideas would give him great inspiration.

Ju Yewei also listened very carefully.

Qian Ziyong said solemnly, “I think the most important thing for a game is creativity!”

“Just two words: creativity!”

“As for other aspects, they are secondary. If they can be done well, that’s great, but if not, then not, it’s no big deal.”

How could Qian Ziyong understand games? He just said whatever came to mind.

Upon hearing “creativity,” Ju Yewei frowned and fell into thought.

At first, he didn’t take it seriously.

But on closer inspection, he felt there was some truth to it.

The deeper he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

However, how does creativity come about?

Creativity, like inspiration, is indeed very important.

But if there’s no inspiration, should they just stop making games?

If there’s no inspiration indefinitely, wouldn’t they just not do anything indefinitely?

Creativity is a manifestation of inspiration.

Sometimes when inspiration strikes, good ideas emerge.

But people need to eat. If they keep waiting for creativity, they might starve to death.

Bi Chengwang stood up and said, “Boss, waiting for creativity is really too slow. There might not be any good ideas for several months.”

“However, we can draw inspiration from others’ creativity.”

“It cannot be denied that copying is also a skill. As long as you copy well, you can still copy good ideas.”

“And directly copying others’ ready-made templates makes game development much faster. Other companies all do it this way.”

All the employees nodded.

Most of them had worked at other game companies, and this was the correct way to make games.

Qian Ziyong frowned and said firmly, “Absolutely no copying!”

“That’s making excuses for one’s own incompetence.”

“I don’t know how other game companies operate, but our Maha Game Company must be absolutely original.”

“If I see shadows of other games in my own games…”

“Then is it a game we made ourselves, or a child born to someone else?”

“I, Qian Ziyong, have only one creed in life: either don’t do it, or if you do it, do it best!”

Qian Ziyong raised his arm, vowing to never plagiarize other games and to make games top-notch.

Hearing this, everyone was deeply moved.

So this was the Boss’s ideal!

They had always thought that all company bosses were the same, prioritizing making money as the company’s primary objective.

Whether a game was fun or not didn’t matter, whether a game was criticized or not didn’t matter.

What mattered was whether the game could make money!

But Qian Ziyong seemed to genuinely want to make a real game!

Which game producer hadn’t had dreams when they were young?

But the premise of having dreams was to be well-fed.

What was the use of dreams if you couldn’t even eat enough?

On the path of pursuing their dreams, repeatedly beaten black and blue, they had already forgotten their original intentions.

Seeing the employees’ enthusiastic gazes, Qian Ziyong knew he had successfully swayed them.

He, of course, knew that sticking to one’s dreams was difficult.

Dreams were expensive, and he, Qian Ziyong, was determined to lose money; what he loved most was paying for dreams.