pjbooks Chapter 51 Colleagues, Professional Certification, His Name
Chapter 51 Colleagues, Professional Certification, His Name
"Sister, I don't have an appointment." Cheng Wang said with a gentle smile, getting straight to the point:
"Can I submit my original character design for the Three Kingdoms Kill game here? I'd like to submit my design in person; could you please make a reservation for me?"
Youth is the best passport.
A high school boy can easily make a good first impression simply by being polite.
Game companies are not traditional service industries, and customers rarely visit in person. Most of the front desk staff are just going through the motions. As long as they are not too grumpy, any good-looking young person can be hired to fill the position. Therefore, the reception attitude is generally average, and there is no particularly polite or friendly attitude.
The receptionist was at most five years older than Cheng Wang, very young, still full of whims and lacking in social experience.
She looked up and quietly glanced at Cheng Wang.
He was a clean-cut, tall young man with a sunny and handsome smile.
The way he slung the laptop bag over his shoulder is also very suitable for his age. He holds the shoulder strap with the base of his thumb and forefinger, and his fingers are long and slender, which gives him the temperament of a young artist. However, he is not so flashy and superficial, but more composed and pleasing to the eye.
Despite being filled with resentment about the early morning work environment, what came out of her mouth was: "Okay, fill out this personal information form, and I'll contact the relevant person in charge for you."
She handed me paper and pen.
While Cheng Wang was filling out the form, the receptionist stared at his fingers holding the pen and asked a question out of curiosity.
"The competition can be submitted online, why don't you send it by email? Or you can print out three copies and mail them over."
"It's not very convenient to use the internet in the dorm usually, but since I have time today, it's more convenient to make a trip here."
"So that's how it is."
Cheng Wang rattled off a story, and his reasoning sounded plausible, so the receptionist didn't suspect anything.
"A student? A university dormitory? No wonder you look so young." She noticed the handwriting in the visitor identification section of the form, her tone even more surprised, yet also a little envious.
"Sigh, I really miss my school days. Little brother, are you a local? Which university did you attend?"
"No, I study in Shanghai." Cheng Wang's lips curled into a slight smile.
"Senior year of high school."
"Senior year of high school!?"
The receptionist was stunned, speechless for a moment, unsure how to respond.
The original design competition does attract many local college students, such as those from art colleges like Yuhang Academy of Fine Arts, which have outstanding art programs. Among them are some promising talents who have stood out in previous competitions and are highly regarded by the company, which wants to see if these young people can come up with more innovative ideas.
What the heck is a senior high school student?
It's still a long way from Chinese New Year, so there probably isn't a winter break yet, right?
Moreover, even if you study art for the college entrance exam and get a high score, what's the use of that joint exam style? It doesn't reflect your level at all, right?
She muttered to herself, took the registration form, glanced at Cheng Wang again, and dialed the front desk's landline.
"Yan-ge, there's an offline submission for the competition, could you come out and handle it... Oh, okay." She looked at Cheng Wang:
"Come with me to the small conference room."
"Okay."
Cheng Wang followed the receptionist into the back office area.
The interior of Bianfeng Network is laid out like a normal office building, with a narrow aisle in the middle and long tables on both sides. Each workstation has a computer, and the building is packed with people, most of whom are still sleepy.
That's just right!
The scene within his field of vision was almost identical to that of the outsourcing company he had worked for in his previous life.
Although the gaming industry hasn't really taken off yet, the debuff of long hours and overtime is draining energy even more than a succubus, and it's completely in line with the industry's ecosystem for the next decade.
This is the hell I must stay far away from after my rebirth!
Having roughly taken in the scene, Cheng Wang quickly looked away, not wanting to see any more.
The meeting room, located at the end of the corridor, was a small, square glass room with a round table, a projector, and sofas that had clearly never been used.
"Brother... Cheng, please wait a moment, someone will be here shortly."
Remembering that the other person was just a high school student, or even not a pure and innocent college student, the young receptionist restrained herself verbally, feeling a little embarrassed, and continued to ramble on about random things.
Cheng Wang pretended not to notice, gently placed his laptop bag down, and asked, "Sis, what's Yan Ge's full name? Would that help me find out which department he's in charge of?"
"Yan Mingchao, Head of Operations Center, manages the initial screening of online and offline submissions." The receptionist kindly reminded them.
"He's an original artist, very skilled, and doesn't like to chat much, so don't be scared by him later. Would you like some water? I'll get you a bottle of mineral water."
"Okay, thank you, sis."
"You are welcome."
He took the bottled water and waited patiently alone in the conference room.
A moment later.
The glass door behind the reception desk opened.
A tall, thin man with glasses, wearing a plain blue shirt, and exuding an engineering-like air walked in.
"Hi, are you here to submit an article? Just copy it to my USB drive."
As the receptionist described, Yan Mingchao is decisive and efficient, and concise in his words, typical of someone in a technical role.
Cheng Wang took the USB drive from him and opened the folder.
It appears to be a peripheral device specifically designed for temporary copying; it contains no extra files and is completely empty.
As he dragged the images and artwork files into the package, he found a starting point and began to talk.
"Brother Yan, the first round of checks for the competition shouldn't be about screening the quality of the entries, right? Could it be checking for any violations?"
"Yes, after the submission deadline, all works will be displayed on the company's official website homepage, so we must avoid including personal biases."
"By the way, isn't Brother Yan from the operations center? I thought there would be a dedicated review department to check this."
"We'll review everything ourselves before outsourcing it."
"It's outsourced, huh? No wonder. The review staff are probably slacking off quite a bit. Doesn't Bianfeng have its own review department? Why don't they do this?"
"It's different for leaders. If there's no performance involved, how can they possibly compete? Besides, you know how it looks on paper if it's outsourced."
Cheng Wang drew some conclusions from his previous conversations with the front desk and pushed the dialogue to continue.
Once he found something of interest, Yen Ming-chao relaxed and became more talkative.
Concept artists can receive bonuses based on the number of projects completed. While the base salary for a regular technical position is certainly lower than that of a supervisor, the result may not be so when the bulk of the bonus is factored in.
The salary structure for operations is mostly based on quarterly and departmental targets, with bonuses distributed uniformly, or not at all, failing to achieve the goal of rewarding the capable.
Writing proposals, promoting them, and creating retention and conversion reports are all tedious and complicated processes. We act as data workers, but the KPI calculation standards can only be based on a single, definitive result, leading to a high attrition rate.
Yan Mingchao's transfer from a technical position to the operations department, and even as a supervisor, is a nominal promotion. This confirms that he was not originally a junior concept artist, but rather held a mid-to-high-level position and possessed certain upward potential, ruling out the possibility of a demotion in disguise.
Based on his understanding of the industry, Cheng Wang basically guessed another possibility.
There's no available position above him, so he can't be directly promoted to supervisor and lead a team.
For some other reason, I am usually hindered in my work on projects. I have a voice, but I don't have enough influence.
As a technical professional, it is only natural to want enough space to demonstrate one's professional skills.
Having long suffered from obstacles other than content production, Yan Mingchao harbored resentment for a long time. Unable to make any improvements and with few good opportunities to change jobs, he had no choice but to transfer to the operations center as a supervisor, where the work content was relatively independent.
The gaming industry and legitimate internet companies are quite similar in some ways, with serious internal struggles and conflicts between departments, a point that Cheng Wang himself has experienced firsthand.
Original artwork, animation, special effects...
Many functional departments, although the project process is close and they should theoretically need to cooperate with each other, are still human interactions and cannot be as rigid as machines. The company assigns partners to colleagues they don't like, and some people simply leave a project to fend for itself and don't care what happens.
Yan Mingchao may be a natural at interpersonal relationships, focusing on the professional and technical fields, and his communication style is straightforward.
During this period, you might encounter some departments that you must contact that don't get along, and you might be deliberately obstructed or blocked.
Since he is directly responsible for the original artwork design, the coordination process may involve animation and modeling. You need to check the details of the original artwork with him to see how the content should be expressed.
If employees at the same level take the lead in criticizing, and they find some random reason, such as saying that Yan Mingchao's drawing habits are hard to understand and affect their work efficiency, even if Yan Mingchao's original supervisor knows that it is just a provocation, he will most likely try to appease the situation, make a show of it, and not solve the fundamental problem.
Over time, the frustrations accumulate, and naturally, one might think, "If I can't afford to mess with them, then I might as well avoid them!"
The cause and effect are clearly connected, making it relatively simple.
Although copying the files only takes a few seconds, they were all already on the USB drive.
But Cheng Wang, whether intentionally or unintentionally, would casually strike up conversations about topics related to the gaming industry and technology.
Yan Mingchao didn't think too deeply about it, treating it as a casual chat with a colleague, and didn't intentionally break the conversation.
"To be honest, I think that the review departments, whether outsourced or in-house, generally lack sufficient professional competence within the industry," Cheng Wang said, seemingly venting his frustrations.
"Many of them don't actually have an art background. They can't find jobs after graduating from university, and the pressure is too great. They are so eager to find work that they are lured into the auditing position because it doesn't have high educational requirements. The overtime and salary are completely unacceptable. The more they work, the more resentful they become, and they bring their feelings into their work."
Yan Mingchao nodded in agreement: "Yes, you're right. They're checking exactly according to the checklist. If there's even the slightest suspicion of violation or deviation from the initial project plan, they reject the entire project without considering our design ideas at all, and completely eliminate it."
"Sometimes, when changes are made midway through a project, and the content isn't shared with them in a timely manner, even if the revised parts are clearly better, they can't understand them and have no judgment whatsoever. The project manager (PM) has no idea that it's because we didn't coordinate with our subordinates. When they see the review report, they call us over and give us a severe scolding, resulting in meaningless rework to get it done."
It seems that Manager Yan's resentment is far from insignificant!
Cheng Wang was somewhat surprised that the other party had so many feelings of sympathy that he had been holding back.
"By the way, let me take a look at your manuscript."
After getting the USB drive back, the casual conversation proved useful.
Yan Mingchao raised his chin and held up Cheng Wang's laptop.
It was rare to find a colleague who shared similar interests and wasn't too old, and out of professional habit, he instinctively became interested.
Cheng Wang didn't hide anything, opened Xu Sheng's project file, and turned the computer around.
"Xu Sheng, what does '界' mean?"
"Now that we already have a Xu Sheng card, I think we can release more series of card packs in the future, such as God Zhao Yun, Warrior Zhuge Liang, etc. This way, popular characters can be sold multiple times and reused, like special editions or something."
"That's a good idea of yours. You're telling me this like that, aren't you afraid I'll use it?"
"The special edition is just a concept, nothing special, and it won't bring any direct benefits. Ultimately, it depends on the specific content released."
"Yes, yes!"
Yan Mingchao nodded approvingly and carefully examined Cheng Wang's work.
My eyes are on the computer screen.
The admiration in his eyes suddenly grew even stronger.
"Great! Such a mature commercial thick painting technique. The mechanism will be decided by the planning team, but I can guarantee that the original artwork will at least win an award in our company's internal competition. The image processing technique is very professional. The red and green contrast is comfortable and not glaring. The character design is distinct, and the thickness is done very well, making it very three-dimensional."
After speaking so much in one breath, Yan Mingchao still felt that he hadn't said enough, and his nostrils flared as he inhaled.
"I can't believe it, I really can't believe it. You're probably not that old, just graduated from university? Did you have a good mentor who guided you through many projects before, and now you've gone to a top-tier company? I feel your skill level is about the same as mine. Your drawing style is quite steady, much better than those inexperienced junior artists in the concept art group. Thinking about the works of the people under my command before, sigh, the more I think about it, the more upset I get."
"In previous years, not many top-notch illustrators came to our competition. Well-known artists in the industry were hired to create individual works, but they didn't care about the prize money. If I were still at Bianfeng in a few years, I might have to contact you again one day."
She really is outspoken!
Cheng Wang even suspected that the increasingly distressing thoughts he expressed might stem from his frequent complaints within his own original art team.
It's possible that Yan Mingchao's transfer to the operations center was due not only to external threats but also to some degree of internal problems.
That's what I was thinking.
On the surface, he simply smiled noncommittally, neither admitting nor denying it.
"Okay, no problem. I've received the manuscript. I'll send it out to you."
"Okay, then I'll trouble you, Brother Yan."
Yan Mingchao and Cheng Wang got up together and saw the guest to the office door.
Cheng Wang half-jokingly whispered, "Brother Yan, if I get the chance to submit my resume, could you help me talk to HR?"
"You don't need that. Besides, you just graduated and have great potential. You should aim high from the start. There's no need for you to come here."
His response was a sincere piece of advice from someone who had been through it all.
As I left the office area, the receptionist disappeared under the front desk counter, engrossed in scrolling through her phone.
She was extremely surprised to see Cheng Wang walk out.
"More than an hour? Weren't you supposed to submit your manuscript? Why did it take so long?"
"Yan Ge and I probably hit it off, so he asked me a few more questions about art."
"Don't be ridiculous, he doesn't have the time for that." The receptionist clearly didn't believe her, waving her hand with a smile.
"Alright, bye-bye, Xiao Cheng. Come again sometime!"
Cheng Wang waved goodbye politely.
As she watched him walk into the office building elevator, the receptionist treated it as a minor incident and didn't take it to heart. She then lay back down, resting her head on her arm and playing on her phone.
I've been following Green River Novels recently and have seen all the updates.
"The updates are so slow. Can't online novel writers write dozens of chapters every day? It's infuriating."
She muttered her complaints under her breath.
There was no other way; the front desk job was so boring that, in order to kill time, the front desk staff casually swiped to the Green River Forum page.
There's some new gossip I've been asked to write about these past few days, and I haven't even finished reading it yet. Since I just remembered it, I might as well finish reading it all at once.
I heard that the user who started the online fight has come out and apologized?
Let me see what's going on!
Suddenly, the light on the counter next to the phone dimmed and faded.
The receptionist suddenly realized that someone was quietly approaching. She had been so engrossed in slacking off that she hadn't noticed at all and had been caught red-handed.
No matter what, you have to be discreet about slacking off. Even if everyone knows this position is a sinecure, you can't be too unscrupulous. What if a high-ranking leader sees you? How will you save face?
She hurriedly turned her phone upside down, forced a professional smile, and was about to greet the visitor when she saw who it was. She immediately deflated like a punctured balloon and complained irritably.
"Brother Yan, are you kidding me?"
Yan Mingchao's eyes were strange, and he remained silent.
"What's wrong? Is something really wrong?"
"Yes, there is..."
"Brother Yan, you say it."
"That person who just submitted the article..."
"Yes."
"Um……"
"What happened?!"
The receptionist was a little flustered and rolled her eyes.
Yan Mingchao hesitated several times before clearing his throat and asking, "Um, what's his name?"