Chapter 3

I only made what I felt was good.

For example, let’s say removing beautiful girl characters from a game would make it more successful. But even then, I’d still add them. Because I believe it’s good.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I forced my taste on everyone. If I seriously made a game purely based on my taste, I guarantee you, no one in this world except me would play it.

When it comes to personal taste, it’s always like this when taken to the extreme. It evolves into something only one person in the world would like.

For creators, finding a middle ground is crucial. To last long, you need to find something both you and others enjoy.

In my case, I compromised on things other than the game’s content. I maximized my abilities and chose a genre that sells well. Since I liked most genres anyway, it didn’t matter which one I picked.

In that case, doing some marketing streams wouldn’t hurt either. I was the type who didn’t care about anything except the game’s content.

But “can do” and “should do” are two different things.

Still, it only makes sense if people actually watch. If fewer than 10 people are watching, promoting the game won’t work.

Can I even stream well?

I don’t know. I know nothing about streaming.

My knowledge of streaming ended after watching a few MTube videos. It’s like being a gamer without a Steam account. Totally clueless. I should just shut up and stay quiet.

Well, trying didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Since the PC game market was already dead, I didn’t have anything I wanted to make right away. I had plenty of time.

First, if I were to stream, it would definitely be a gaming stream. That way, I could promote my game or not.

A gaming stream, huh?

Based on my limited experience watching MTube, the trend of gaming streams went like this: general games → League of Legends → Overwatch → PUBG → transitional phase → back to League of Legends.

Since VR games were booming, I couldn’t stream the above games, but I still grasped the trend.

Except for the early days, streams that played the most popular games always did well.

Once I figured that out, I knew what kind of stream I should do.

<Eternal World>.

The game that blew up the current VR market.

The genre? AOS Battle Royale Action Game?

Newer games tend to mix a lot of things, making it hard to describe them with just one genre.

I turned on MTube and checked the trending game videos.

As expected, most of them were <Eternal World> videos.

I went ahead and watched all the trending videos one by one.

Each video had different fun points, but they had one thing in common.

Popular streamers had high ranks.

Not all of them were in the top tier, but most were in the upper Diamond ranks. The top 1%. It seemed like maintaining this rank was necessary to make a living as a game streamer.

Alright. I immediately put on my VR device.

Since the VR device supported streaming, I didn’t need any additional equipment. Just a computer as a backup was enough.

There was also a dedicated streaming platform for VR devices. No wonder the gaming community I hadn’t visited in a while was dominated by streams. The accessibility of streaming had gone through the roof, and everyone was talking about it.

I typed the title using a virtual keyboard and pressed the start stream button.

[Newbie Climbing to Diamond]

I marveled at the devilish tactic of climbing ranks while streaming and started a ranked game.

I played games all day like that.

Watching my rank color change from silver to gold, I checked the number of viewers.

[0 viewers]

Hmm… It’s probably because I’m still in Gold.

Let’s aim for Diamond first.

*

Red Ocean.

A term used to describe a market so saturated with competitors that it’s overflowing.

And the current streaming world was the Red Ocean of Red Oceans.

The already saturated market became completely packed with the advent of VR devices.

The easiest way to feel this is to sort streams by the lowest number of viewers. You’ll be shocked.

Seeing thousands of streamers with 0 viewers talking to themselves in empty space made you wonder if this was even real.

Moreover, over half of these 0-viewer streamers were just casually streaming <Eternal World> solo queue.

In other words, <Eternal World> streaming was the Red Ocean within the Red Ocean of the streaming world, a field that newbies like me shouldn’t touch.

Of course, <Eternal World> streams were the most popular. The peak was high.

But in a Red Ocean, making the same choices as everyone else was suicidal.

No matter how fun it is, it only matters if people watch. But with <Eternal World> streams everywhere… unless you were in the absolute top tier, it was hard to grab attention.

Even the top-tier streamers were stuck at the bottom of the streaming world. If you wanted to survive, you had to think of ways to catch people’s attention.

Into this streaming world, a man in his mid-20s, Rozon, jumped in with big dreams.

In the current streaming world, growing on MTube was key to making it on your own. If you got picked by the algorithm, even an unknown MTube creator had a good chance of blowing up, assuming the video quality was decent.

At least compared to live streams.

Rozon was lucky.

He got off to a good start on MTube, which he absolutely had to grow.

A few months ago, a bug occurred in the most popular rhythm game at the time.

As soon as Rozon saw the bug, his eyes lit up.

When the views on his <Eternal World> videos were fluctuating between 10 and 50, an opportunity came.

Rozon quickly made a video fixing the bug.

Since he followed someone else’s video, it didn’t take long.

The result was a success.

He gained over 1,000 subscribers from that one video.

Rozon, who had met the monetization requirement of 1,000 subscribers…

After that, he consistently uploaded videos.

Popular RPGs, old-school PC games that were once popular, RPGs ported to VR, comprehensive games, <Eternal World>, and so on.

The results were not as good as expected.

Currently, Rozon has 1,900 subscribers. In over a year, he only gained 900 subscribers.

And I bet half of them were people who subscribed after watching his error-fixing videos.

What’s the problem? Rozon furrowed his brow and checked his recent videos.

[Recent trending RPG raid video], [Eternal World video], [Playing an old PC game after a long time], [Playing a comprehensive game with a real friend].

The views were 108, 1,623, 318, and 170, respectively.

The <Eternal World> video had the highest views. It was strange. He was told that as a Hako broadcaster, he shouldn’t play <Eternal World>, but he occasionally uploaded videos, and this one got the most views.

Well, the views for <Eternal World> weren’t always like that. Other game videos got at least 100 views, but <Eternal World> was all over the place. Sometimes it got less than 20 views.

It was clear that he should mainly upload other game videos. If he kept this up, he would surely get picked by the algorithm and blow up someday.

Even the big YouTubers now had a time when they only had 1,000 subscribers. They became big companies because they persevered.

Rozon had no doubt that he would be the same.

But that aside, after checking the views, he felt like playing <Eternal World>.

The recent <Eternal World> video was edited from a game he played two months ago. To upload a new video, he had to play the game.

Rozon put on his VR device and logged into <Eternal World>.

Platinum 2. That was Rozon’s current tier.

It was the second-highest among his friends, but it wasn’t the tier that matched his skill level.

Rozon felt his appropriate tier was high Diamond.

It was true that this was his highest tier, but that was because he was too busy to grind ranks. If he had the time, he could hit Diamond in no time.

The queue popped quickly.

<Eternal World> had six positions in total.

Scout, Guardian, Main Carry, Support, City Core, and Outer Solo.

Rozon was the Support among them.

A position that sticks by the Main Carry. It wasn’t a difficult position since all you had to do was help the Main Carry grow.

Rozon picked a dual-pistol character with the nickname “Red-Headed Orphan” from the characters in <Eternal World>.

Main Carry (2nd pick): Is that right?

The dual-pistol character, “Isahyang,” was mainly used as a Main Carry. It was extremely rare to use her as a Support.

So the Main Carry, who had to stick with the Support, reacted strongly, but Rozon typed “It’s fine, it’s fine” in chat and clicked his tongue.

There were a lot of people who didn’t know how to enjoy the game. Plus, “Isahyang” was perfectly fine as a Support. He was sure he would be the top damage dealer this game.

Guardian (3rd pick): Is this spot okay for the base?

<Eternal World> was all about capturing the enemy’s base first.

This base didn’t have a fixed location. The team’s Guardian chose the concept and location each game.

“Why is it near the city center?”

The Main Carry is weak early on. They had to avoid enemies as much as possible, so naturally, they used the middle of the city, the widest part of the map, as their main stage.

That’s why the base was usually set up in the middle of the city. That way, the Main Carry could visit frequently.

Do they not like my pick? I didn’t think they’d troll like this. I’ll report them after the game.

The game started.

Rozon roamed the middle of the city with the Main Carry.

They quickly cleared out crime circles with gunfire action. One of the strengths of the Support “Isahyang.” Since she’s usually used as a Main Carry, her early damage was good, so hunting speed was fast.

Rozon (Support): Should we head to the nearby gang office?

Don’t type in chat (Main Carry): You used too many turns.

Rozon (Support): Just follow me.

The locals were talkative.

Rozon took the Main Carry and entered the nearby gang office. It was a 4th-tier object out of 5 tiers.

It was a bit tough to come here without visiting the base first, but “Isahyang” was originally a Main Carry character. She could handle it.

Rozon unleashed another round of gunfire. The gangsters fell to the bullets.

After taking down the last gangster, Rozon took a deep breath and walked to the safe to get the key material.

That’s when it happened.

Thud.

A strange sound came from behind.

Rozon and the Main Carry turned their heads toward the sound.

A ninja was standing there.

An enemy Scout. Alone.

The Main Carry quickly raised his fists and charged. Rozon also snapped out of it and fired his gun. But his health and magic power were already drained from the fight. He couldn’t even handle one Scout, and Rozon fell.

After respawning at the base, Rozon left with a stiff expression to get other objects.

It was a bad start.