RBCT Chapter 426 Anything Produced by Rabbit is Guaranteed to Be a Masterpiece
Chapter 426 Anything Produced by Rabbit is Guaranteed to Be a Masterpiece
April arrived in the blink of an eye.
Spring arrived suddenly in Shanghai. Just a few days ago, people were still wearing light down jackets, but now some are already wearing short sleeves.
Lu Ran stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the new office building of TuTu Technology, looking at the sycamore trees on both sides of the street below sprouting new buds, and was in a good mood.
"Mr. Lu, there are ten minutes left in the public beta countdown," Assistant Xiao Zhou reminded him from behind.
"Okay," Lu Ran replied, turning back to his desk.
The screen displays the Minecraft public beta pre-registration backend.
He had seen that number countless times, but every time he saw it, he still felt it was a bit outrageous.
52, 387, 642.
The number of reservations reached 52 million.
This number is unparalleled in the history of Chinese games.
The second-ranked game only had 18 million pre-registrations.
Tutu Technology tripled the record in an absurd way.
"Is the server ready?" Lu Ran asked.
Technical Director Zhang pushed up his glasses, his expression even calmer than Lu Ran's: "Don't worry, Mr. Lu, we've prepared for 1.5 times the highest concurrency. Even if 20 million people flood in at launch, we can handle it."
The reason why Lao Zhang was so confident was because the servers were frequently full in his previous games.
I've had to clean up the mess a lot afterward because of this.
Since then, Tutu Technology has never stopped investing in servers.
Lu Ran's original words were: "Players come to play games, not to fix servers. Every time a server crashes, the reputation drops. It's easy to fall, but hard to get it back up."
Therefore, the server costs alone for this public beta of Minecraft amounted to several million.
It wasn't that Lu Ran had too much money to burn, but rather that he was all too familiar with the characteristics of sandbox games.
What players will do in the game is something even God can't predict.
Some people will dig to the Earth's core, some will build computers, and some will replicate the entire Forbidden City.
These people might stay online for over ten hours straight, putting immense pressure on the server compared to traditional online games.
"What's the feedback from the beta testers?" Lu Ran asked again.
Although he had already read the internal testing report, he still wanted to hear Lao Zhang's (Old Zhang's) feelings as the front-line person in charge.
Mentioning this, Old Zhang's eyes lit up: "It's ridiculously good."
He opened a folder on his computer, which was full of screenshots of messages from beta testers.
"Player 'Steve vs. Creeper' said: 'I just wanted to give it a try, but before I knew it, it was dawn, and I had been mining all night. This game is addictive.'"
"Player 'Redstone Circuit Beginner' said: I spent three days in the game making an automatic vegetable harvester, even though my succulents are almost dead in real life, but that doesn't matter."
"Player 'Architect Xiaoming' went even further. He recreated his old house in the game, even making the swallows' nest under the eaves. He said his grandmother cried when she saw it because the old house had been demolished long ago."
As Old Zhang spoke, he shook his head: "President Lu, this game's stickiness is terrifying. During the closed beta, the average online time per player was six hours. The longest was 38 hours of continuous online time, and we had to forcefully kick him offline in the end."
Lu Ran listened without much expression on his face, but he already knew what was going on.
That's the magic of Minecraft.
On the surface, it's a pixel-style sandbox game with no fancy special effects, no complicated plot, and not even a clear objective.
But it is precisely this freedom that allows everyone to find their own fun in the game.
Those who enjoy adventure can go to the Nether, those who enjoy combat can challenge the Ender Dragon, those who enjoy building can construct houses, and those who enjoy research can study redstone circuits.
Some people can even spend an afternoon doing nothing but watching the sunrise and sunset in the game, listening to the background music and daydreaming.
This comprehensive coverage makes Minecraft virtually unrivaled.
If you don't like this pattern, there's that pattern.
If you get tired of survival, you can try creation.
If you've had enough of playing in single-player mode, you can play online.
Unlike other games that compete for users, Minecraft is expanding its user base.
Many people who never play games before have become hooked because of this game.
Parents don't even object to their children playing this game, because it can indeed develop creativity and spatial reasoning skills.
"By the way, Mr. Lu," Old Zhang suddenly remembered something, "the Chinese server-specific content we talked about before, we added two during the closed beta, and the response was excellent."
"One is the 'Ancient Chinese Architecture' module, which includes demonstrations and building tutorials of mortise and tenon structures. Many players use it to learn ancient architecture on their own; one college student even said he plans to write his graduation thesis on it."
"Another one is the 'Beautiful China' map, which brings China's famous scenic spots into the game in proportion. The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Guilin's landscape, Huangshan's welcoming pine... Players can travel in the game and even check in."
Lu Ran nodded.
These two items were specifically requested by him, not for making money, but to make the game more localized.
This decision proved to be correct, with the two modules achieving an 80% usage rate in internal testing.
Time ticked by, and the countdown reached zero.
May 20th, 10:00 AM.
The Dragon Kingdom server for Minecraft has officially launched its open beta.
Meanwhile, in the technology center of TuTu Technology, dozens of eyes were fixed on the monitoring screen.
The server load curve spiked dramatically the moment the server went live, like a straightened line, reaching a peak of 40%.
Then, the curve began to oscillate, but did not continue to rise.
Old Zhang stared at the line for more than ten seconds, and after confirming that it was stable, he let out a long breath: "It's stable."
A collective sigh of relief filled the office.
"The load is stable between 45% and 60%, the response time is normal, there is no lag, and no errors," the monitor reported a series of data, his voice filled with excitement.
Old Zhang turned to look at Lu Ran and grinned, "President Lu, it's done."
Lu Ran's face remained expressionless, but he picked up his phone and sent a message in the company group: "Everyone work overtime tonight, it's on me."
The group chat exploded instantly.
"Long live President Lu!"
"I want to eat hot pot!"
"Hot pot is nothing, I want Japanese food!"
"Japanese food is nothing, I want to eat a meal cooked by President Lu himself!"
The last one was posted by Tan Yu, but Lu Ran ignored it completely.
Less than an hour after the public beta launch, Minecraft topped the Weibo trending list.
It wasn't bought; it was found through a genuine search.
The hashtag #MinecraftOpenBeta# was followed by the word "Explosive," and its readership exceeded 500 million in two hours.
Major gaming media outlets rushed to report on it, with headlines that were increasingly exaggerated:
"On the first day of Minecraft's open beta, pre-registrations broke records, and the servers didn't even crash!"
"TuTu Technology releases another blockbuster game; sandbox games may become the new trend!"
"From 'Seven Heroes' Jianghu' to 'Minecraft,' why does Tutu Technology have such phenomenal success with every game?"
More than the media hype, what really concerned Lu Ran was the reaction of ordinary players.
Lin Xiaofeng, a college student, was a beta tester of Minecraft and one of the first to rush into the public beta server.
He chose survival mode and was born on a plain, with only a tree and a few sheep by his side.
Based on his experience gained from the closed beta, he first chopped down trees, then made a workbench, then a wooden pickaxe, and went mining.
The process was so smooth that it took less than half an hour to enter the Iron Age.
Then he started to struggle with the decision.
Should we continue mining for diamonds, or build a house first?
After thinking about it, he decided to build the house first.
During the previous closed beta, he lived in a cave dwelling, underground, without even windows.
For this public beta test, he wanted to seriously build a small wooden house.
They had just finished laying the foundation when they turned around and found a castle suddenly standing next to them.
Yes, in the ten or so minutes that he was laying the foundation, someone built a castle.
Lin Xiaofeng stood in front of his foundation, looked at the castle again, and remained silent for a long time.
Then he typed a line of text in the game's public chat:
"Brother, are you a human or a ghost?"
The other party quickly replied: "It's a person. They studied architecture and have fast typing speed."
Lin Xiaofeng remained silent for a while, then quietly expanded his foundation by one ring.
Since he couldn't compete on quality, he decided to compete on quantity. He wanted to build a house bigger than a castle, so big that the other party wouldn't be able to see how ugly his foundation was.
This indomitable spirit is particularly common in Minecraft.
Another beta tester, Wang Hao, is a redstone circuit enthusiast.
He created a simple redstone calculator during the closed beta, which could only perform addition and subtraction.
After the public beta, his goal is to create a program that can perform multiplication and division.
To understand carry logic, he spent three days searching for information online and two days experimenting in the game before finally managing to build the circuit.
Although it occupies an area the size of a football field, it does count.
When he posted his boast on the forum, the most upvoted comment was: "I don't even know how to use a redstone torch, and you've made a calculator. The difference between people is greater than the difference between people and Creepers."
What truly shocked the entire gaming community was a team called "National Architects".
This team started recreating the Forbidden City in the game during the closed beta, and the progress accelerated after the open beta.
They divided the Forbidden City into several areas, each managed by a small team, and then pieced them together.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was completed in less than a week.
When players first step into the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the game, the awe they feel is indescribable.
Although it's all built with blocks, the magnificent scale, precise proportions, and ubiquitous details make you feel like it's real.
Someone posted a screenshot on Weibo with the caption: "Exploring the Forbidden City in Minecraft is even more enjoyable than visiting the real Forbidden City, at least you don't have to squeeze in."
This Weibo post was reposted by the official account of the Palace Museum, with the caption: "Welcome to the real Palace Museum, no need to squeeze in."
When official sources use memes, it's the most lethal.
This repost immediately went viral and boosted the popularity of Minecraft to a new level.
Lu Ran was having lunch when she saw this trending topic.
He put down his chopsticks and sent a message to Lao Zhang: "Regarding the Palace Museum module, you can contact the Palace Museum to see if we can have an official collaboration."
Old Zhang replied instantly: "We're already in talks."
Lu Ran smiled.
These guys are getting better and better at executing their plans.
One week after the public beta test, the data came out.
The total number of registered users has exceeded 80 million, and the daily active users have remained stable at over 30 million.
What does this data mean?
This means that one in ten Chinese netizens has played Minecraft.
Even more alarming is the user retention rate.
The retention rate is 70% on the next day and 50% on the seventh day.
This number is phenomenal in the gaming industry; most games are lucky to have a 40% day-two retention rate.
Tutu Technology's reputation has truly taken off this week.
Some people said that Tutu Technology was lucky, while others said that Tutu Technology was opportunistic and only knew how to make small games.
Nobody talks about it anymore, because a game of Minecraft's scale can no longer be explained by luck or speculation.
There's a general consensus online about Rabbit Technology's games: anything produced by Rabbit is guaranteed to be high-quality.
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