This situation has led to a sluggish market overall. Many players feel that playing these games is like playing on private servers—they lose interest after just two or three days. On major forums, you often see many hardcore players complaining: These days, it’s really hard to find an online game you can play for even a week...

Mason chose a reverse marketing model, where leveling up is especially difficult—reaching level 10 in a week is already impressive. This model, which many gaming media outlets didn’t think highly of beforehand, actually succeeded. According to professionals, this model gave players a sense of challenge and greatly stimulated their motivation to level up.

The second feature of this game is that the drop rate for equipment is very low.

In the past, mainstream domestic games all had one thing in common: players hardly needed to kill monsters for equipment drops. You could just mindlessly auto-path and level up to unlock gift packs and get everything. The level 10 gift pack gives you a green set, the level 20 pack gives you a blue set, the level 30 pack gives you a level 30 purple set. Just when you start to feel a bit awesome, you suddenly realize that at level 40, you simply can’t keep playing unless you pay...

In these kinds of games, you can kill a bunch of wild monsters and get tons of equipment, but none of it excites you—it’s either dismantled or sold to the shop. In this model, rational players know very well that top-tier equipment can only be obtained by spending big money on various treasure chests or gift packs, and can’t be dropped by any monster.

In such games, most players have no sense of anticipation and develop an aversion to leveling up and fighting monsters. When a player has nothing to look forward to, it’s naturally hard to develop any fondness for a game.

Mason once again went against the grain, launching this promotional slogan even before open beta: With a set of white gear, you’re a pro!

At the time, many players were puzzled. How could a set of white gear have anything to do with being a pro?

On the first day of open beta, people finally understood the meaning of this slogan. In Mason, there are no gift packs at all. When players log in, they only get a coarse cloth shirt—this piece of equipment has no attributes, it’s purely for modesty. At the start, all players are empty-handed and barefoot. What happens next depends entirely on luck.

Players were surprised to find that this wasn’t the kind of game where you kill a few monsters and get a pile of equipment. On the first day of open beta, many people played until midnight and still didn’t get a single piece of white gear. Some even thought the server was malfunctioning and went to the forums to complain. Others thought the game’s settings were too bizarre and angrily uninstalled the game.

But the next day, the complaining players quieted down, and those who had uninstalled reinstalled the game. Because they saw on the forums that some players were showing off their luck, and judging by the sheer number of those posts, it was clearly not just the game officials faking it.

In those posts, some players got a white weapon on the first day, struck a pose in the howling wind, and took a fancy screenshot. In other games, this would be a picture begging to be flamed. But in Mason, such pictures became synonymous with being awesome. Those players who had white weapons on the first day gave people the feeling of a newbie village drop of a legendary item in a novel.

Some players even posted for help: “Ever since I got two pieces of white gear, I’ve been surrounded by hundreds of people in town, and a few girls have even tried to chat me up... I’m so confused, guys, what should I do, what should I do?”

These posts sparked controversy. Some said they were ads, some said they were bragging, and others were full of envy and jealousy.

At first, the guys in 301 and 302 didn’t believe these posts, thinking they were just shills hyping up Mason on the forums—until a real-life event happened in the neighboring 302 dorm that completely changed everyone’s view of those posts, and of Mason itself.

This real-life event happened to Logan in the 302 dorm next door.

Logan had incredible luck and got a white weapon and a ring on the very first day of open beta.

At the time, Logan didn’t think he was anything special—compared to the online games he’d played before, this was nothing. That evening, he left his game character in the newbie village and went to the cafeteria for dinner. When he came back, he suddenly saw that his in-game mailbox had over a hundred messages. Many people were asking if he would sell his weapon and ring, and some were asking where exactly he got his equipment.

Even more exciting, a girl shyly asked him: “Big brother, can we be friends...?”

The next day, Logan and that girl were already hitting it off, inseparable.

This public display of affection was too much for the guys in both dorms, who all speculated that the girl was either a cross-dresser, Sister Feng’s cousin, or maybe even a foot-scratching uncle... No one expected that on the third day, the girl would actually initiate a video call with Logan. From the video, she looked pretty good, dressed sexy, with a flirty voice, very much like a livestreamer. The few guys watching were, shamefully, instantly aroused.

Mason hadn’t even opened the marriage system yet, but Logan and the girl were already calling each other husband and wife, all lovey-dovey every day.

Even though everyone said that female player was definitely a green tea, Logan didn’t care.

Because, for the first time in his life, he was being chased by a girl...