Chapter 244 - Meeting Blizzard for the First Time

From the hands of Blizzard, a luxurious game production family, as a game that has been popular around the world for many years, the charm of Warcraft can be said to be unstoppable. When this game masterpiece is going to be made into a movie, will it be able to create a world of Warcraft in the movie world?

Eckles doesn't know for sure. However, its grandiose historical background is no less than that of The Lord of the Rings, as well as the complicated racial conflicts and wars involved...these elements are enough to serve as the script of a good magic movie.

"How much money do you think it would probably take to make such a this movie?"

After listening to Lin Ming Yang's intentions, Ecks frowned and took the brunt of asking such a question.

"I have no idea!" Lin Ming Yang shrugged regretfully, "But that would definitely be a considerable amount!"

Ecks stood up, looking out the window with both hands crossed, "What I'm most worried about is hearing such an answer from you..." Ecks turned around violently, bracing his hands on his desk, staring at Lin Ming Yang, and said, word for word, "Even you don't know how much the movie is going to cost, that only means it's a horrible bottomless pit!"

Lin Ming Yang replied after a moment's hesitation, "I think it should be that the investment in this movie will be comparable to the production cost of Avatar..."

Ecks shook his head, "Even if it's 500 million dollars, that's not something we can afford right now!"

He put the problem on the table, so Lin Ming Yang had to step back, "The funds don't need to come in one step, we can put money into it in stages."

Regarding the filming of this movie, Ecks' worries didn't stop there.

"Very early on Blizzard had announced its intention to adapt the game into a movie, but it had never been put into action because this movie will most likely be the one that decides the future of game adaptation movies. This one is really going to be a tough one. If it doesn't win both word of mouth and box office, it will be a failure. Because Blizzard has too many diehards. The expectations are too high. If you succeed, this movie will be a milestone like Lord of the Rings. But if it fails, I don't think anyone will dare to start another movie with a famous game or even any game for the next three years. So that means your choice is either heaven or hell!"

Lin Ming Yang smiled in disbelief, "Regarding the plot of the movie, I will do as much as possible with reference to the original story of the game, so that the controversy over the plot can be minimized, and as long as the movie is able to achieve the same production effect as Avatar, with the foundation of the Warcraft game, the movie's desire to be successful will be a very easy thing to do! "

Ecks was obviously Lin Mingyang said some heart, after seeing the beautiful and realistic "Avatar", if the same technology is used to shoot the Warcraft electricity, the effect of the movie is naturally unquestionable.

"What about Blizzard's attitude?"

"That's exactly what I'm concerned about!" Lin Ming Yang put away his legs resting on the desk, his body stretched a long lazy waist, "I'm going to go over and talk to them in the next few days, being able to establish a long term cooperative relationship will be very beneficial to MGM's future development!"

Ecks had been working with Lin Ming Yang for such a long time, the tacit understanding between the two parties no longer needed more words to mention. Lin Mingyang had only slightly revealed his thoughts on the future, and Eckles had already guessed his intentions.

"Could it be that this subject matter you're planning to film into a series?"

Lin Ming Yang bristled, "From the current form, The Lord of the Rings made a trilogy, and Harry Potter even had as many as seven episodes, with a game setting as huge as Warcraft, it's definitely not enough to make just one episode...the audience won't want it, and I'm sure that Blizzard won't agree to it either!"

"So anxious to hook up with Blizzard, the prospect of game-to-movie adaptations is that favorable to you?"

"It's an inevitable trend!" Lin Mingyang spun around in his office chair, then sat up straight, "Why are comics being adapted into movies now, because the generation that grew up reading comics as children is the mainstream group of movie consumers at this time. The rise of comic book movies is actually a market need...the same is true for games adapted into movies...the new generation, comics are not the deepest memories of their childhood, instead, they are replaced by all kinds of computer games, and these people will be the force behind the future of movie consumption...and I, I'm just a small step ahead of the others! "

----

Generally speaking, the drama of a company is always closely linked to the name of the founder of that company; when mentioning Microsoft, Bill Gates immediately comes to mind, while when mentioning Facebook, the names of Mark Zuckerberg and Ming Yang Lin are often on people's lips. Blizzard's reputation in the gaming world no one knows, but the mention of Blizzard, the first reaction of everyone associated with Blizzard's many game products, such as Interstellar, Warcraft and Diablo, for the Blizzard founder, it seems to be habitually ignored by the people.

In the global gaming circle, people who do not know the experience of Blizzard entrepreneurs is quite a lot, an important reason is that Blizzard has always been reluctant to use the media to hype their own. 1998, as one of the main founders of the company Alan Ade Khan resigned from the post of president, and changed to the chairman of the board of directors of the company, Mike Mo Waimi to take over the presidency. Retreating from the front line, as a consultant, Alan Adelkhan hoped he would have enough time to get back into game design.

Rather comically, the news of Alan Adelkhan's resignation had no repercussions among gamers, much less diminish their favorable impression of Blizzard, and a simple reason for this is that outside of Blizzard employees, no one really knows who Alan Adelkhan is or what he does.

The joy gained from the game development process is enough for the Blizzard entrepreneurs to avoid any temptation from the outside world, and this passion to dedicate themselves to the cause makes them work in silence, even keeping their contact with the outside world closed to a large extent. In Blizzard, from the boss to the staff to keep a low profile, the company's door is rarely open to the outside world, Blizzard people's whole energy is focused on their own business.

Before the official meeting, Lin Mingyang's homework on Blizzard gave him a better understanding of this globally dominant game company. While visiting Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California, Lin Mingyang coincidentally met Blizzard's Chairman of the Board, Alan Adelkhan, in the parking lot.

At that time, Lin Mingyang's eyes were attracted by a signboard with peculiar content in the parking lot, and it was Alan Adelkhan who first saw him and then took the initiative to come over and greet him.

"Mr. Felix?"

Hearing someone call his name next to him, Lin Ming Yang had to avert his gaze from the sign that read "Leave the parking space to the winner", he took off his sunglasses, and then saw a middle-aged man wearing a black t-shirt.

At first, Lin Mingyang didn't know the other person's identity, he hesitated for a moment, then took off his sunglasses, "May I ask who you are..."

"I'm Alan Ad Khan, and this time I'm the one who extended the invitation to you!"

Lin Ming Yang's movements as he was hanging his sunglasses on his collar paused for a moment because of the other party's reply, he hadn't expected this unimpressive looking guy to actually be the founder of Blizzard, so surprise was written all over his face at this moment.

"I've been playing Warcraft since I was a kid, and the funny thing is that the designer of this game is standing in front of me, and I actually don't have any reaction... Mr. Ad Khan, I'm really very sorry, it's a pleasure to meet you, or rather I'm very excited right now!"

Ad Khan smiled slightly, he certainly wouldn't refuse Lin Ming Yang's friendly handshake, "I've always only seen you in movies and newspapers, the truth is that my mood right now is just as full of excitement as yours."

Lin Ming Yang smiled and nodded, "It will be my honor!"

"Then let's talk in detail in the office?" Ad Khan was well aware of Lin Ming Yang's intentions, but parking the car was obviously not an appropriate place to talk.

Lin Ming Yang waved his hand, "We can put things about this cooperation aside for now, it's a rare visit to Blizzard Corporation's company, could Mr. Ad Khan take me on a tour to satisfy a little bit of my personal... curiosity without involving commercial secrets!"

Ad Khan slapped his head and said with an apologetic face, "Even if you didn't ask for it, I should have taken you around to have a look first... It's me who was too eager, because knowing that we're going to have a cooperation with you, the whole company is very excited, and we have quite a lot of your fans here, and if it wasn't during the working hours, I'm sure they'd be lined up to come out and show you their welcome! "

This time it was Lin Ming Yang's turn to be a bit embarrassed, "MGM pursues an open corporate culture, there's always a lot of newspaper news about us, Mr. Ad Khan must have some knowledge of it, on the contrary, Blizzard is very mysterious to me, and you guys are very low key in front of the media... If I can, I'd like to feel the corporate culture of Blizzard, that's why I want to feel it! Blizzard's corporate culture, that must be closely related to your game products, which will be beneficial to the cooperation between us."

Ad Khan agreed with Lin Ming Yang's point of view, because of his own reasons, his overall impression of entertainment figures like Lin Ming Yang who often appeared in the newspaper news were very flamboyant. Lin Mingyang came this time, not straight to the point of negotiating with him, but first made a request for a visit, which made Ad Khan's impression of being with such a big Hollywood hot star greatly changed, the smile on his face and became more and more sincere.

He began to enthusiastically act as a guide, and the first thing Lin Mingyang asked about was the signboard in the parking lot just now.

"With nearly 1200 employees at the Blizzard headquarters, parking becomes a big problem. Even though there are 2 people dedicated to parking. But the competition for those parking spaces close to the company is still very fierce, so we came up with this method, where everyone decides the next day's parking space belongs to them after work through a sentence of a head-to-head game."

Lin Ming Yang curiously asked, "What about the loser the next day?"

Ad Khan shrugged, "They only have to take someone else's car or walk to work!"

"What a great idea...I'd like to implement this method at MGM as well, but if I allow every employee to load the game on their own computer, our president, Mr. Eckles, would probably kill me!"