Author | Mao Lina

Editor | Li Chunhui

In ancient times, there was a beauty who was angered, but now there are keyboards attacking paper people. It is said that "Love of Light and Night" is on the hot search list again, this time it is scolded by B game players.

On August 8, "Light and Night" announced the Chinese Valentine's Day limited event and card pool details. Players immediately expressed their opinions on Tencent Games and Polaris Studio ("Light and Night") in the comment area, Super Chat, etc. Development team) carried out a crusade, and under the attack of two major events, Ali Wine Bureau and the closing of the Olympic Games, Shengsheng "teared" a place on the hot search list.

On the evening of the 10th, the official account of "Light and Night" posted a message stating that it had received complaints from players and that the Chinese Valentine's Day event had been suspended. The comment section was not appreciative and was full of curses.

For love-oriented games, the importance of Chinese Valentine's Day is self-evident. From any angle, "Light and Night" is a disappointment for this year's Chinese Valentine's Day. Every Chinese Valentine's Day, not only straight men face big exams, but gay men also have to be very careful.

Let’s first take a look at how “Light and Night” overturned.

"Painted Traveler" has launched open beta first. Although the story text is rich enough, it also has N story lines and several parallel worlds. But for players who just want to have fun with paper figures in their spare time, a background setting with too much information is really putting the cart before the horse. What's more, the vertical illustrations of "Painted Traveler" are full of the look of 90s girl comics. Generation Z players are afraid that they won't be used to this old-fashioned taste.

"Light and Night" debuted late in this wave of B-games. After the public beta, the promotion was very vigorous, and it did attract a group of B-game players in a short period of time. If we talk about its innovation, Hard Candy Jun thinks the new character design is one.

After the great success of "Love and", domestic B-games are more or less imitating "Love and" in creating male protagonists. "Light and Night" created a "local dog" based on the conventional male protagonist. "Charlie Su, who has become a social topic by relying on the "local style of tyrants".

Shortly after "Local Dog" Cha Shao became popular, Charlie Sue's birthday was celebrated in the game, and limited-time activities and birthday cards were also very popular among players. "You put so much thought into the birthday cards, so I can really look forward to it on Chinese Valentine's Day." There are many players with this mentality, but it's a pity that they will be disappointed.

On August 8, the official Weibo of "Light and Night" announced the details of the Chinese Valentine's Day series of activities, including new dating plots, new limited-time activities and a new limited card pool. The problem lies in the new limited card pool.

The new card pool*** has five six-star cards, corresponding to the five male protagonists. Like other six-star cards, each card has two card faces before and after the breakthrough. The official Weibo also revealed that the limited card date plot will be in the form of a new voice date.

The problem lies in that these five limited cards are not newly drawn cards for the Chinese Valentine's Day as the players imagined, but are directly combined with the two opening pictures of the game into limited editions. Card.

As the first large-scale event after the public beta of the game, it is indeed a bit perfunctory to directly use the screen image as a limited card. Especially micro-Krypton and zero-Krypton players have been saving card drawing props for the Qixi Festival card pool a few weeks ago. "You have worked so hard to save for so long, but you fooled me with the opening screen picture. You have no intention."

This set of opening screen pictures was directly used as the card surface

Open So far, there are not many cards in "Light and Night", and the drop rate from the card pool is not high. Almost every player has saved a lot of compensation currency that is given when getting duplicate cards. This currency can be used To redeem cards. What makes players even more angry is that the limited card pool uses a new set of exchange currencies, and the compensation currency in players' hands cannot be used to exchange for this set of limited cards. "Just use old pictures to top up the card, but you can't use mental notes to exchange for cards. Do you think everyone's money is blown by the strong wind?"

After the event was released on Weibo, the comment area was immediately occupied by angry players. , requiring "Light and Night" to immediately modify the card surface and replace it with content "more in line with the Chinese Valentine's Day theme". Unable to withstand the pressure, "Light and Night" announced on the evening of the 10th that the limited card pool and dating plot would be suspended. The Chinese Valentine's Day limited activities will continue as usual, and a promise was made to distribute compensation props.

The event was stopped, but the players were not satisfied. "If you co-author it, you won't let me celebrate the Chinese Valentine's Day." "Can a B game without a Chinese Valentine's Day card still be considered a B game?" The comment section of "Light and Night" turned into a large-scale fans removal scene. The injured B-game players met to find new husbands who were more obedient in other games.

To be fair, the quality of the opening image of "Light and Night" is not low. But the importance of Chinese Valentine's Day in the hearts of B-game players is different. Cards with beautiful faces cannot be dismissed casually. Goose still doesn't understand women and doesn't understand women's sense of ritual.

Some players joked that "Light and Night" overturned, and "Painted Traveler" may become the biggest winner. Judging from the interactions and content in the comment area on Weibo, this is indeed the case.

"Painted Traveler", which has a first-mover advantage, is hampered by its grand world view and rich text. In addition, due to the story setting, although there are small ingenuities such as customizing card faces, from the perspective of painting style alone, "Painted Traveler" "The Traveler" was not as well received by the public as "Light and Night".

The Qixi Festival PV of "Love and" is in the style of the Republic of China. The five male protagonists put on the costumes of the Republic of China. The details are still exquisite, and the interaction between the male and female protagonists on the double card is not missing. Moreover, the heroine's clothing is carefully matched and she is no longer sullen. Even Mr. Hard Candy, a prostitute player who is not interested in the style of "Love and", wants to top up the Republic of China Card. It can be seen that there is a reason why "Love and" is still firmly ranked as the top one in the second country after many years of service.

"Undecided Event Book", where the female protagonist focuses on her career, has just undergone a mainline update recently, and the official Weibo has not yet released content related to Chinese Valentine's Day. "Bengsan", "Undecided" and "Genshin Impact" are all undergoing major version updates. It is understandable that MiHoYo is temporarily short of manpower and busy.

Other small and medium-sized B-game companies also attach great importance to Chinese Valentine's Day. "The Master is Too Busy" released a PV. Although it is still an ancient style, the two-player card is quite heart-pounding; the PV theme of "Half World Journey" It's a fireworks display. Thinking about last year's Chinese Valentine's Day, "Half World" had a driving plot with the male protagonist going to the bride's house and entering the bridal chamber. This year's Chinese Valentine's Day is worth looking forward to.

After looking through the top students’ homework, I returned to the previous question, what is the problem with "Light and Night"? manner.

In recent years, the national trend has risen, and players’ enthusiasm for Western Valentine’s Day has declined. As the Chinese Valentine’s Day, Qixi Festival can be said to be the most important festival in B games, and players’ desire to recharge in the game is also higher than other festivals. Be high.

The mainline update of "Light and Night", which has been online for less than two months, is not fast. Hard-working Weikrpton players can usher in the grassroots period one week after downloading the game. "It doesn't matter if the mainline update is slow, maybe the Chinese Valentine's Day event will be a big hit." Because of the anticipation of the Chinese Valentine's Day event, many players understand Goose's slow work.

However, the release of the PV feels perfunctory. Perhaps in the eyes of Northern Lights Studio, voice dating is a special type of gameplay in the B game market, and it is worthy of being used as a separate PV for promotion. . But this PV, which focuses on voice and card switching, has nothing to do with Qixi Festival itself. On the other hand, "Painted Traveler" and "Love and" are all new content produced based on the Chinese Valentine's Day theme, and the PVs are very "face-friendly" from the card to the soundtrack.

The absence of the heroine also made players angry. The Chinese Valentine's Day event has nothing to do with the main plot and is essentially a "meal replacement." There is no female protagonist in the card, how can the players fill her role? As one player commented, "The Chinese Valentine's Day card in "Light and Night" is not ugly, but I don't know what it has to do with Chinese Valentine's Day."

The main storyline that has been updated for a long time, the limited cards that are suspected to be temporary combinations, and the PV that is all pieced together by voice, combined together make it impossible to feel the sincerity of "Light and Night" for the Chinese Valentine's Day activities. The Chinese Valentine's Day, which was supposed to attract fans and money, became the Waterloo of Northern Lights Studio.

After "Love and" became popular, large and small manufacturers have entered the game one after another, but they have never been able to produce new hits, which makes people confused about what B-game players want.

The success of "Love and" back then was partly due to its first-mover advantage, but also due to its simple and straightforward gameplay. Although several male protagonists and female protagonists inexplicably developed deep feelings for each other not long after they met, isn't that what Shuangwen is like? There’s no reason, it’s just fun.

But the latecomers had to make additions, so they started to make fuss about the gameplay. For example, use the gameplay of a stand-alone game to make a mobile game.

And only by solving the problems that trouble the male protagonist can he have the opportunity to spend the rest of his life happily. This "independent women" argument has obviously influenced developers to a certain extent.

The most typical ones are "Undecided" and "The Painted Traveler". The former focuses on "career-oriented heroines", hoping to cater to the current trend of women pursuing careers. The latter focuses on "grand narrative", traveling through multiple worlds and multiple main lines, striving to give players a rich gaming experience. However, the improvements in the gameplay of the two failed to achieve a "big bang", especially "Painted Traveler" was overtaken by "Light and Night", which was released later and has simpler gameplay.

The logic of stand-alone games is completely different from that of mobile games. In stand-alone games, even romance needs to be combined with difficulty to attract players to load it over and over again in order to get different endings after clearing the level. In particular, there are so many hidden details in "Ming 2" that old players are still digging out new easter eggs.

Mobile games are different. Players use fragmented time to go online. The complicated gameplay hinders players from obtaining a good gaming experience. To be honest, no one wants to learn anything by playing mobile games, just to pass the time and get addicted. The shorter the love feedback path in the game, the happier the players will be.

For example, in "Painted Traveler", Mr. Hard Candy has already pushed three major chapters, but has not yet had a chance to progress further in the main plot with his favorite male protagonist. Although the cards I drew include many date meal replacements, it is a bit inconsistent to see the man who is indifferent to the heroine in the main story looking attentive in the dating plot.

People often write articles criticizing the heroine of the second game for having no character, but frankly speaking, the heroine of the second game is positioned as a tool. The meaning of her existence is to connect players and paper men. The less personal the heroine is, the easier it is for players to take on the role. "Love and Night" and "Light and Night" have done a good job in this regard. The heroine's character is not outstanding, and she is even a bit "dog", and she has a strong sense of substitution.

Sweetness is a must, but ambiguous or restricted plots are better. Two-player cards are essential. Players in B games are somewhat obsessed with collecting, and whether the cards are beautiful enough is even higher than the requirements for the plot. During special festivals, players hope to get a sense of "limited time" surprise. For example, for mobile games with a modern or Western fantasy background, if antique limited cards are released during traditional festivals such as Chinese Valentine's Day and Spring Festival, some players will exhaust the card pool. In the same way, ancient style B games make a set of modern cards for Christmas and New Year, and players will be happy to pay for them.

This is just like a real couple celebrating the holidays. A slight crotch-stretching performance in normal times can also be a big plus when making your girlfriend happy during festivals. Instead of messing with independent women and huge plots, it is better to plan holiday activities well and put more thought into planning card faces and limited interactions.

"I just want to have a happy holiday with him." What B-game players want is actually quite simple, don't think about it being complicated, and don't believe the critics.