A major surprise was unveiled at the anniversary celebration, as NetEase’s top star once again “redefined” the game.

Beyond imagination—having accompanied players for eleven years, *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile continues to create legends to this day.

Over the years in the gaming industry, player preferences have shifted by the day, and gaming trends have come and gone in wave after wave. Amid the brutal market shake-up, developers have gradually come to understand the value of transitioning from "blockbusters" to "evergreen" titles. And when you look up, you’ll see that *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile, a long-standing fixture in the Top 10 best-seller charts, has been waiting at the top for quite some time.

The gaming industry is constantly racking its brains to figure out the secrets behind these long-standing hits, but to truly “unlock the secret,” it’s better to look for clues in the products themselves.

Take the 11th anniversary celebration of the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile game, for example. Anniversary celebrations have always been the events players anticipate most and are crucial to the game’s long-term viability. In response, the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile team has rolled out a dizzying array of new content: from the highly innovative turn-based treasure-hunting seasonal mode “Reincarnation Realm” to a range of major version updates. Through relentless innovation, they’ve ensured that players’ expectations for new content are fully met.

What particularly caught the attention of Tea House Jun was the brand-new “peer-to-peer trading” system they unveiled this time—which comes as no surprise, given that the reputation of “Fantasy Economics” is now widely known. Looking back at the history of the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile game, in addition to continuous innovation in game content, the developers have also demonstrated strong management skills by maintaining stable account and item values as a core foundation, thereby instilling a lasting sense of security and trust among players.

In my opinion, the first "peer-to-peer trading" themed server on the Light Enjoy server will be a key factor—it signals that this "pioneering product" of the game's economy is about to unleash another wave of revolution in the very domain it dominates.

01

The Economics of MMOs: How Much Potential Is Left?

First, let’s be clear: why is launching peer-to-peer trading so important? To understand this, we need to analyze it from the perspective of MMO gameplay—it essentially redefines the very foundation of the entire genre.

As is well known, social interaction is at the heart of MMOs. In the early 3D MMOs of the early 2000s, trading was one of the first forms of social behavior to emerge spontaneously among players—long before the introduction of mechanisms like the auction house, many players were already placing items from their inventories on the ground to barter with others, creating the most primitive form of a “street vendor” ecosystem.

The process of haggling over the value of items between buyers and sellers is inherently filled with the social enjoyment of "battling it out" with others. More importantly, it introduced the concept of economic circulation into video games for the first time—players’ active in-game output can create a secondary market, and the in-game economy has become linked to real-world value. This unprecedented shift has given the concept of “gaming fun” a more tangible dimension.

The Thriving Scene of Street Stalls in the Early Days of *Fantasy Westward Journey*

It can be said that the flywheel driven by economic circulation has underpinned the "fundamental logic" behind the sustained long-term engagement in MMOs over the years: the higher the circulation, the more it stimulates the overall activity of the community.

Building on this fundamental logic, it becomes clear that the launch of peer-to-peer trading in the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile game is indeed a significant innovation.

In addition to existing methods such as market stalls, peer-to-peer trading has introduced an entirely new way to conduct transactions, characterized by its exceptional convenience and efficiency—it eliminates the need for hours-long listing periods, allowing buyers and sellers to complete a transaction as soon as they reach an agreement. This further lowers the barrier to reselling rare gear and significantly improves its liquidity.

In exchange for this convenience, peer-to-peer transactions may incur certain transaction fees. However, in addition to their efficiency, peer-to-peer transactions also offer greater security—they require a certain level to unlock, and both buyers and sellers are subject to the same restrictions under a new "Reputation Points" system, with Reputation Points primarily earned through participation in various in-game activities.By establishing activity thresholds, it becomes easier to eliminate interference from black and gray markets within the MMO ecosystem, thereby further enhancing the value of genuine players’ rights and interests.

Clearly, peer-to-peer trading acts as a “catalyst” for the entire trading ecosystem, injecting substantial liquidity into it and driving the broader economy toward more efficient circulation. All genuine, active retail users will ultimately benefit from this new trading ecosystem.

It is particularly worth noting that the Qingxiangfu ecosystem naturally provides an ideal environment for peer-to-peer transactions—looking back, we cannot help but marvel at the project team’s foresight in launching Qingxiangfu last year.

On the one hand, we have already seen that the "low-effort, low-pay-to-win" concept at the heart of the "Light Enjoyment" servers has attracted a wave of new users since its launch—NetEase specifically noted in its 2025 annual financial report that *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile had set new records for player engagement and revenue through gameplay innovations.

Most of the users flocking to the Light Enjoy server are a new generation of MMO players. They are more active and numerous, which increases the overall trading volume on the server and creates a highly liquid trading environment.

On the other hand, the Light Enjoy server has previously significantly increased the amount of gold and items in gift packs as part of its efforts to reduce the need for in-game purchases. This effectively means that the developers are continuously injecting high-value resources into the market, ensuring players have enough “hard currency” to participate in and sustain the vast peer-to-peer trading network.

From the new trading mechanism and specific transaction rules to the newly introduced series of liquidity adjustments, it’s easy to see that the launch of peer-to-peer trading will completely transform the secondary market ecosystem of *Fantasy Mobile*. With its exceptional liquidity and convenience, it once again validates the underlying logic of “Fantasy Economics” and provides players with a broader scope of in-game experiences.

02

From “The Customer Is King” to “Eternal Dreams”

It’s truly remarkable how fiercely competitive the MMO market has become. What these games lack isn’t funding or budget, but rather fresh strategies to break through the competition. And the “open strategy” unveiled by *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile is clearly poised to redefine the economic system paradigm for mobile MMOs.

From an industry perspective, what lessons can we draw from this? Looking beyond the surface to the core of the matter, as a leading product that has been in operation for 11 years, what truly makes this project team admirable is not merely their ability to come up with excellent solutions, but their courage to make changes—in the long-term operation of a product where a single move can have far-reaching consequences, who possesses the strategic resolve to “upend the table”?

Any long-standing product that steps into the industry spotlight inevitably faces a heavier burden—scrutiny from users, public sentiment that can easily escalate, and external pressure—all of which can easily trap such products in a dilemma where “doing less means making fewer mistakes, and doing nothing means making no mistakes at all.” As a result, “conservatism” becomes the norm, while “innovation” is viewed as an anomaly.

As for the development team behind the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile game, their decision to make changes to the economic system—an area that is absolutely “sensitive” from an operations perspective—demonstrates not only “courage,” but also their complete confidence in their abilities.

On the one hand, the past decade or so has amply demonstrated that, if the MMO economic system is a “beast,” the Dream Mobile team has the ability to “tame its wild nature” over the long term. The MMO economic system is inherently intertwined with the complex dynamics of human behavior—on the supply side, there are “grinders” who trade time for rewards, and “speculators” who treat in-game items as investments;on the demand side, paying players have a natural inclination to “spend money on items,” yet an excessively distorted “Pay-to-Win” model spells the death knell for any game’s long-term viability; the balance point between these multiple demands is delicate and unstable. Not to mention the ever-present “black swan” factor of the black market. Yet *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile has walked steadily along this precarious tightrope for eleven years.

Moreover, looking back, *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile has undergone numerous changes to its core mechanics. Thanks to the team’s solid operational expertise, they have consistently managed to effectively mitigate the risks associated with such transitions and steadily inject new momentum into the game’s growth.

For example, the launch of the "Light & Enjoy" mode last year marked a momentous milestone in the development of *Fantasy Westward Journey* Mobile. By introducing a comprehensive set of streamlined gameplay features, it established a dual-track gaming ecosystem for the game—combining "Light & Enjoy" with "Classic" modes—and demonstrated to the entire industry a new direction for the potential of mobile MMOs.

The essence of the "Light Enjoyment" server’s success lies in its ability to address the collective demand among modern MMO players for “less grinding and lower pay-to-win.” The challenge in implementing this lies in how to meet these players’ needs without compromising the gaming experience for classic players.Given that the game’s classic core mechanics have already accumulated a solid foundation of depth that is difficult to shake, Dream Mobile chose to carve out new territory by reshaping its economic system. This approach satisfied the needs of both new and veteran players, ushering in a new era of “playing Dream Mobile for just a hundred yuan” and thereby igniting a second growth curve.

It’s clear to see the importance of a “user-first” approach—user needs serve as a true North Star and are key to keeping product innovation on track. And it’s evident that the Dream Mobile Game project team are “masters” at understanding player needs.

This peer-to-peer trading system essentially marks a comprehensive return to the core player demand for "greater liquidity and convenience" in MMOs. Rather than resorting to short-term, aggressive measures to boost trading volume in exchange for immediate gains, the project team has chosen to invest more patience and time in addressing the fundamental issues of liquidity by adjusting the underlying logic of the trading system.

Only by doing so can we truly address players’ most fundamental needs and deliver tangible innovations. The launch of this new economic system once again underscores the long-term commitment that the Dream Mobile team has consistently upheld over the past eleven years.

Conclusion

At this point, it should be clear why the future development of peer-to-peer trading in the *Fantasy Westward Journey* mobile game is worth watching and looking forward to. According to information released during this anniversary celebration, the first peer-to-peer trading server will go live on April 8.The official team has named it “The Golden Age of Tang,” a title that not only aligns with the game’s lore but also cleverly evokes the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty to foreshadow the vibrant future of in-game trading, further heightening anticipation for this new economic system.

All of this leads us to believe that this innovative and visionary mobile game has already secured its spot as the next "hit of the year," taking an early lead in the next wave of breakthroughs in the MMO genre.