After chatting about various topics and having lunch, Grace walked arm in arm with Simon in the exaggeratedly large mountain manor.
It actually felt like first love.
Inexplicably guilty.
My daughter also happens to be in a relationship.
However, who cares so much.
"So, do you really don't need to work in the afternoon?"
"There were some arrangements originally, but they were canceled at the last minute."
"For me."
"Are you touched?"
"That's not good?"
"There's nothing wrong with it. The Westeros system is an increasingly larger machine. One of the goals I hope to achieve is that this machine can run on its own for a long time even if I completely leave it. Otherwise, in a few years, Even if I split myself into several parts, I still wouldn’t be able to keep busy.”
“…”
"What's wrong?"
Grace turned her head slightly and glanced at the little man beside her, with a smile on her lips: "I'm wondering, if this machine no longer needs your control at all, will you feel at a loss?"
"Of course not," Simon understood what Grace meant and smiled: "I am the owner of this machine, not the operator who is worried about losing his job, so the more automated the machine, the better. If one day this machine It's completely out of my control, and I can't tolerate it. I even have the power to tear it apart and sell it for scrap metal."
Power never comes out of thin air.
Simon's current source of power is the huge business machine of the Westeros system. The more the Westeros system expands, the greater Simon's power becomes.
As for the issue of control over this business machine, Simon is a person who is very good at delegating authority. However, decentralization is only a temporary delegation of power, not a permanent relinquishment of power.
Maybe the head of a country will be sidelined, but the possibility of Simon encountering such a situation is very low. Because the leaders of most countries in this world are at least nominally elected and are ordered by the people, but Simon is the real owner of the Westeros system that supports his source of power.
The bosses of other large companies leave the company to the management. Since a mature corporate team cannot be replaced overnight or replaced in a short period of time, it may be occupied by doves and the magpie's nest will often be severely damaged if they want to regain power.
Simon had no such scruples.
On the one hand, Simon's family background is deep enough that no management of any Westeros system subsidiary has the strength to challenge him, and he is not afraid of the damage of one or two companies. On the other hand, the most indispensable thing in the Westeros system is the talent reserve, including senior professional managers who can act independently. Therefore, no one below Simon can not be replaced.
Unconsciously, I reached the end of the manor lawn. Outside the neat dwarf pine fence, which was about one person tall, was a steep slope surrounded by shrubs and iron nets. Behind me was the bright afternoon sunshine.
Unable to move on, Grace did not turn around, and sat down on the lawn. Feeling the softness of the green grass in the sun, she lay down comfortably.
Simon sat down next to Grace, reached over with one hand, and was held down by the woman. There was no retraction or unnecessary movement.
Grace turned around and rested her head on the man's lap. She continued to hold one of the man's big hands, looked up and asked softly, "When will you leave?"
Simon raised his left wrist and looked at his watch: "We'll be back in Los Angeles at five o'clock. We still have three hours."
"enough."
"Is it so easy to be satisfied?"
"Is it okay not to be satisfied?"
"Can't."
"Ha," Grace reached out and touched Simon's handsome face, feeling the light stubble on her palm, and said, "I really can't understand you."
"That's good. It is said that mystery is the most attractive quality in women."
"Very skillful."
"Yes," Simon's voice suddenly sounded faint: "It's been tens of thousands of years."
Grace's light blue eyes, which are common among Nordic people, flashed: "Huh?"
"Did I say anything?"
Grace said firmly: "You said it, it's been tens of thousands of years."
"You heard wrong."
"No."
"Well, I'm actually trying to be mysterious. You know, if a little boy wants to deceive his eldest sister, he has to use some tricks."
The woman was reluctant: "Then, make up a story for me."
Simon hesitated for a moment and then said slowly: "A long time ago, it was still a completely primitive time. There was no country, no nation, and even a complete language system had not yet appeared. There was a primitive man who was hungry and went to the next door. On a rainy day, he secretly went to fish in a lake outside the cave. Unfortunately, he fell into the water. By chance, a bolt of lightning struck, and the voltage of hundreds of millions of volts instantly caused changes in the primitive man's body. From then on, he never changed again. Old, always looking like a young man, he began to wander the world like a ghost. He witnessed the integration of tribes, the formation of the country, countless primitive and cruel cold weapon wars, and the preaching of Jesus. Witnessed the birth of Buddha, the whip of God of the Mongols, the advent of the Age of Discovery, and two world-destroying world wars. In order to prevent his immortality from being discovered, he would do it every ten to For twenty years, or at most thirty years, he will use the power he has accumulated in the world to find a substitute, change his name, surname, and even appearance, and start his life again. This time, his name is Simon Westeros. "
After Grace listened carefully to the man's narration, her light blue eyes blinked for a while, and finally she smiled: "It's a very good story."
"Believe it or not?"
"Do not believe."
Simon smiled and asked: "Why?"
Grace reached out and touched Simon's face gently, and said: "If you were really an ancient human who lived for tens of thousands of years, you would not let yourself be known to the world as you are now, but you would try your best to Hide yourself.”
"You are wrong about this. In fact, there was a time when my name was Alexander III. I once led my own army and penetrated the entire Europe."
“…”
"Later, because I was interested in physics, I temporarily found myself the identity of Isaac Newton. You must know what happened next. When I wanted to escape, I could only let someone who was interested in alchemy He was replaced by a fool, and he never made any achievements in his later years."
“…”
"In more modern times, I felt that mankind had been ignorant for too long, so I made the steam engine. From then on, human civilization began to explode exponentially. At that time, my name was James Watt."
“…”
Simon reached out and held the woman's face, and his tone became faint again, with a hint of remoteness and vicissitudes: "Little girl, do you want to know who I was before Simon Westeros?"
Grace's light blue eyes blinked rapidly, as if she was struggling to protect her collapsing outlook on life.
After a moment, feeling the familiar and gentle smile on the man's face, Grace forced herself to relax and said nonchalantly: "Will you kill me?"
"Why should I kill you?"
"I know your secret."
"It was just a script I came up with on the spur of the moment. You asked for it yourself."
“…”
"Speaking of which, this is an idea that I had a long time ago, but there are some joints that I have never figured out. That one may cause religious disputes. Now, my thinking suddenly becomes smoother, and I can completely bypass this point. "
“…”
"I plan to spend $100,000 to shoot this movie. I'll start it when I get back. It can be done in a month or two, just in time to participate in next year's Sundance Film Festival. Bob complained last time that Sundance has not been available in recent years. A good movie has appeared. This time, let them experience the charm of movies again. With 100,000 US dollars, they can shoot a top-notch science fiction movie. I have already thought of the movie title, "This Man is from Earth", what do you think?"
"Simon, I promise I will never tell your secret."
"God, do you really believe it?"
“…”
"It seems I need to help you wake up," Simon said, picking up the woman's light body, getting up and walking towards the villa, while warning: "Remember, this is just a story."
"Um."
"Well, I suddenly discovered that I still have the potential to be a magician. Maybe I can take advantage of the situation to create a religion. It will definitely have a better future than the scammers in Scientology. You will be the first believer."
“…”
"Give everything you have to me."
"Um."
"Stupid Earthlings."
"Ah, it hurts."
"Be patient, I have to wake you up before leaving today. If I had known better, I wouldn't have told you any ghost stories."
"Is that really a story?"
"certainly."
"But… "
"Fool."
"Don't say that about me, you little boy."
"Now, I'll give you a quota. You can choose one of the girls under your name to participate in this movie. Forget it, let's just choose Qusi Gauff, lest a group of goblins start fighting. Qu Si's image is just right. Take the time to let She takes a few acting classes.”
"Can I come and act?"
"Did you play the role of a twenty-year-old student girl?"
"I can play the teacher."
"Stop making trouble and be your agent."
At around five o'clock, after appeasing Grace's random thoughts, Simon left his estate in Portola Valley, met up with Girl A who had gone to Girl C's place to spend the night last night, and boarded the Boeing 767 back to Los Angeles.
In the afternoon, I was supposed to attend a meeting about Ygritte’s online game business. The core of it was “Happy Farm” which has been a hit for more than half a year. Later, I felt that it didn't matter if I participated in this kind of meeting or not, so I simply let Alison take my place and stole half a day with Grace at the Portola Valley Manor.
After the plane took off, Girl A handed Simon the minutes of the afternoon meeting and an overview of the operations of "Happy Farm".
After launching this social network casual game based on Flash technology in the first half of the year, it experienced an initial exponential explosion for more than half a year, and the user growth curve of "Farm" began to slow down.
Even so, within seven months of its launch, the total number of players of "Farm" worldwide has reached an astonishing 53 million, easily exceeding the game operations team's expectations of achieving 50 million players within the first two years. At this stage, the number of global Internet users, whose growth rate has also exceeded expectations in the first half of the year, has reached 200 million.
Therefore, the number of players of "Farm" is equivalent to a quarter of the world's Internet users. The level of activity may vary, but one out of every four netizens who are exposed to the Internet activates the game "Farm". This kind of The proportions are still horrific.
The EA and Facebook teams responsible for developing and operating this game are already considering applying for a Guinness record for this game. However, they have not yet taken action because the number of players of "Farm Farm" continues to rise. Some media in the industry even predict that the total number of players of "Farm" may double again in the next two years, breaking the unprecedented 100 million mark.
Because of the popularity of this game, EA and Facebook have set up a team of hundreds of people over the past six months to be responsible for the operation of this game.
Because of the careful care of the two major technology and entertainment giants, this time "Happy Farm" has obviously broken away from the leisure nature of the past, but has shouldered more missions and significance in the early days of the development of the Internet. Such a game has been tried to be included in many universities. The phenomenon-level online games in the MBA case have much to learn and learn from in all aspects, including development and operation.
A large part of the teams of the two companies are also quietly capturing and sorting out operating models and key data that can provide reference for the future in the game operation process.
In order to make way for "Happy Farm", although Yigrit Company opened up Flash technology and IE game platform, in the past six months, casual games similar to "Happy Farm" have basically been suppressed, and some obvious imitators have also been suppressed. Prosecution.
Even within EA, "Happy Ranch", which has a similar model to "Happy Ranch", has been put on hold for the time being after its development.
Because "Happy Farm" is still on the rise, as long as its gameplay is constantly updated, its popularity will not decline for the time being. Therefore, there is no need for "Happy Ranch" to be the icing on the cake. The team plans to launch "Happy Farm" from 12 to 18 depending on the situation. Choose the right time to launch "Happy Ranch" during the month.
Relying on the linkage of the two games, the vitality of "Happy Farm" can be extended to the greatest extent.
For the outside world, what many people are most concerned about is undoubtedly how profitable "Farm" is.
Neither company has given very clear figures for this, but they are just estimates from some industry media. Even if they are quite underestimated, they are enough to make too many game manufacturers and even other parties jealous.
Simon naturally has the most detailed data in his hands.
In the very beginning, in just the first week of its opening, "Happy Farm" earned US$2.61 million in prop sales revenue, and the number of users at that time was less than 7 million.
Now, the total number of game users has reached more than seven times the original number. Because payment channels are not smooth in many overseas areas and the payment rate will inevitably decrease as users increase, the single-week revenue does not show the same multiple increase. However, the game has just passed. The weekly revenue still reached US$13.91 million.
Taken together, from the launch on March 25 to the latest revenue statistics cycle on October 20, in 7 months, "Happy Farm" relied on its huge player base to earn a huge revenue of 196 million US dollars.
An online game that cost less than US$1 million to develop has made US$196 million in half a year. Such huge profits would make even Latin American drug lords jealous.
Moreover, drug trafficking is sinful, but gaming is legal.
Stimulated by the success of "Farm Farm", in the past six months, hundreds of new game companies, large and small, have sprung up in North America alone. Although most of them are studios of only two or three people, there are also many capital giants involved. .
Of course, many people also understand that the success of "Farm Farm" is not only due to the game itself that luckily caters to the needs of players, but also because of the unremitting support of Ygrit Company. However, who can be sure that he will not be the next lucky one? What's more, even if only one-tenth or even one percent of the success of "Farm" is considered a peak for many people.
Although the interests of "Happy Farm" are absolutely inviolable, in the past six months, Igret Company has indeed intentionally or unintentionally supported a number of successful cases that reached the pinnacle of life through the development of Flas***.
Not only that, the popularity of "Happy Farm" around the world has also made the Flash technology launched by Yigrit quickly become the industry standard with absolute advantages. As a result, Yigrit's related software has become a hot seller, continuously bringing benefits to the company. Make big money.