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From family education to dating, any theme that can evoke collective emotions and memories has been increasingly explored by domestic independent game teams in recent years, made into various "Chinese-style XX" and put on Steam. The theme of online games is naturally no exception. The independent game "Chinese-style Online Games" was released by the one-man studio "648 Studio" and Wise Games.

Many readers should be familiar with "Chinese Online Games". This game is a vivid reproduction of the domestically produced web games with different skins. It stitches together some popular "stereotypes" and hot topics in the gaming circle. The game demo was released at the Steam New Product Festival last month and was once a hot topic on live streaming and video platforms.

On July 19, the game was officially released as scheduled. According to SteamDB data, the highest number of people online at the same time on Steam reached 12,301 after the game was launched. For an independent game developed by a single person and priced at 28 yuan, this data is actually quite good.

However, unlike the demo period last month, when everyone was generally just having fun and looking forward to the full release of the game, after the official version was launched, the product currently has a 70% positive review rate on Steam, while 30% negative reviews, of course, some players criticized some elements of the game itself.But what’s interesting is that GameLook also found that many players gave the game bad reviews on the surface, but the experience described in their bad reviews was fundamentally caused by the “web game” in “Chinese Online Games”.

Simply put, the reputation of an independent game that satirizes reskinned web games has been successfully lowered by the web games.

Players buy a standalone game and receive the web game

Unlike "Chinese Parents", where players start out living the beautiful life of ordinary people with cars, houses, and healthy children, "Chinese Online Games" turns back the time, and what we have to face at the beginning is a situation where after continuous blind dates, we finally find a suitable partner, but before getting married, we find out that the other party requires a dowry of 300,000 yuan. What players need to do is to grow from an office worker with a deposit of 60,000 yuan and some gold and silver jewelry to an ordinary person who can give a dowry of 300,000 yuan within 3 months.

After entering the main game of "Chinese Online Games", the product can be divided into two parts of simulation, namely the simulation of the daily life of office workers and the simulation of "online games". In the life part, the protagonist we players need to play in the game is a 34-year-old technical clerk in a factory with a basic salary of 6,000 yuan, and the company is about to lay off employees named "Wang Debiao".

As for the simulation of "online games", although it looks very simple overall (after all, it is a game developed by one person), the experience in "Chinese Online Games" can actually be regarded as the developer really making a classic skin-changing and server-rolling web game in the product.

I believe GameLook doesn't need to introduce too much about the classic gameplay of this skin-changing web game, which is that you can become stronger by spending money, chapter-based levels, and bottomless pit development. The interesting thing about the "Chinese Online Game" experience is that it presents all of this in an extremely simplified but at the same time exaggerated form.

For example, the classic design of 50% chance of strengthening, but never succeeding in strengthening; being killed by a monster in one hit before recharging, and the boss hitting me with one drop of blood after recharging. For example, various rankings encourage anxiety, and various passes, gift packs, and meaningless discounts encourage krypton gold. Even the "game support (GS)" used in many online games has been restored in the online game of "Chinese Online Games".

The reason why the stand-alone game purchased by players of "Chinese Online Games" becomes a web game when they receive it is because in the official version, according to players' evaluations and GameLook experience, the life simulation part of the official version of the game is actually similar to the Demo, with certain details but relatively rough overall, but the web game simulation part is directly increased.

In order to help players better experience the in-game web game, unlike the Demo version, the official version of the game also has a built-in modifier (GM mode). Players can modify game data with one click and experience the feeling of being a web game spender more refreshingly.

After receiving feedback from players, the official also plans to update and add the "rich second generation mode" in the latest game update plan within a month. Compared with the current ordinary people's start, players can spend money in the game unscrupulously and experience the happiness of "maintaining the server" without any psychological burden.

Too much restoration, virtual krypton gold will also be uneasy

As an independent game, it is inevitable that "Chinese Online Game" will be criticized by players for game bugs and other reasons at the beginning of its launch. Fortunately, since its launch on July 19, the developers have really paid attention to it. In just one weekend, in order to fix various bugs in the game, they have launched 12 major and minor version updates, which not only fixed the problems in the game but also added a lot of content that is convenient for players to experience.

After the game bugs were fixed one after another, players' negative reviews focused on the gameplay.

Some players obviously have different expectations for the game. Some Steam netizens believe that the general direction of the game is wrong. The focus is not on netizen simulation but life simulation. Although netizens are the biggest gimmick of this game, facing the goal of earning 300,000 yuan to marry a wife, the game does not provide much other flexibility and choices, so that the game has changed from a story-based game to a skin-changing online game.

"This game is a cracked version of an online game, and it is a low-quality cracked version of an online game."

"Although I don't know if the author can see it, I'm telling you the truth. Your updates are getting more and more messed up. The demo I played before gave me the feeling of a deconstruction of domestic online game culture and real life, performed in a rather absurd way. Most people's mentality when playing this game should be the same as playing a choice-oriented text game. Or let me put it more bluntly. You expand boring gameplay to boring things, and in the end you can only get boring feedback. Your focus should be on the parts other than this domestic online game, do you understand?"

Unlike players who expect more life simulation content, players who play for online game simulation think that some life plot settings in the game affect their virtual krypton gold experience.

For example, in the game, there is a special plot that will be triggered during the Qingming Festival. On the one hand, the player will be asked by his father to go to the grave together on that day. On the other hand, the in-game web visitor service will also hint in various ways that limited-time equipment will drop in the game that day. At this time, the player needs to choose between "filial piety" and "laughter".

Although the game is virtual, the emotions behind it are so resonant that some players with strong empathy or substitution abilities will inevitably bear a psychological burden when making choices.

"It's fun and I love playing. It's fun but not completely fun. I skip work to play games and sell my car and house to top up the money, which is a big psychological burden."

"No, don't I know that playing online games and spending money on them is stressful and guilt-inducing? Am I buying this crappy pixel online game of yours just to experience the real world and not be able to sell my car or house to spend money to ruin my family?"

However, as a Steam user commented, "This game allows you to experience the joy of krypton gold, not to let you experience 996 and 007. Houses, cars, and gold are stepping stones. If you can't let go of these, then this game is definitely not for you."

In the comment section of the game on Steam, you can actually see that many players are reminiscing about the past and expressing their feelings about the chaos that Chinese netizens have experienced in the past period of time as reflected in the game.

"This game is really good. After playing it for a week, I reflected on my life. I almost went bankrupt playing a famous mobile game (TianX). I worked day and night for it and threw all my salary into it just for a few transformation dolls. Now playing this game, I can only realize how stupid I was at that time."

What kind of bicycle do you want for 28 yuan?

For domestic independent games, GameLook has always set its own psychological expectations based on price, plus a little tolerance brought by the domestic label. Based on this criterion, for "Chinese Online Games", GameLook believes that the game is actually very clever, whether players find the game interesting or boring, the developers actually win.

Needless to say, the fun of it is 28 yuan, the price of a bowl of noodles in the restaurant downstairs of GameLook, in exchange for a few hours of happiness is actually very cost-effective at the moment. And if the players feel bored, it also shows that the game's tribute or satire on the skin-changing online game has achieved its effect.

And as a Steam player concluded, "I think the game is pretty good, with both happy and failed endings, and the game really illustrates that everything depends on human effort. When the ad starts, you can click the small X in the lower right corner to close the ad, or you can download the game and let things take their course without paying, or you can pay to a certain extent and have it all go like a dream, or you can lose your job because of the game. All kinds of life are reflected in the game."

In general, "Chinese Online Games" certainly has many shortcomings. For example, as some players have reported, in the online game simulation part, the in-game supporters are not diverse enough, and they only repeat the same few words of praise over and over again, which cannot bring enough emotional value to the players. However, the game does meet GameLook's expectations.

What's more, in GameLook's view, "Chinese Online Games" also serves to carry the common memories of a generation.

"This game is so good that I was sweating profusely while playing it. It feels like the creators really made an entire pay-to-win online game. Although I am a character in the game, I still don't dare to spend money. Maybe reality is too honest, hahaha. This is not a story about a pay-to-win boss, but a sad case of an ordinary worker being trapped by a money-making online game. If you play it with the idea of ​​experiencing the pleasure of a pay-to-win boss, you will probably be disappointed. But as a post-00s, this game allows me to glimpse a corner of the era that I missed."

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