First, the culture of the Three Kingdoms: the theme repeatedly borrowed by online games
At present, there are three main views on the concept of the culture of the Three Kingdoms in China: the first is the "historical view of the culture of the Three Kingdoms" (or the narrow cultural view of the Three Kingdoms), which holds that the culture of the Three Kingdoms is the spiritual culture of the Three Kingdoms period in history; Second, the concept of "Three Kingdoms Culture" in historical and cultural research (or the extended concept of "Three Kingdoms Culture") holds that "Three Kingdoms Culture" is the sum of material civilization and spiritual civilization in the Three Kingdoms period in history, including political, military, economic and cultural fields. The third is the concept of "Three Kingdoms Culture" (or "Three Kingdoms Culture" in a broad sense) of "Great Culture" that I mentioned at the beginning of this article. I think "Three Kingdoms Culture" not only refers to, but is not the same as "Three Kingdoms Period Culture", but refers to a comprehensive culture with the history and culture of the Three Kingdoms Period as its source and the spread and evolution of the stories of the Three Kingdoms as its main content. The culture of the Three Kingdoms in this paper chooses the third viewpoint. For ordinary people today, the concept of the Three Kingdoms often comes not from history, but from culture. It comes from the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as well as the drama and comics derived from the novel, especially the TV series Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is popular on CCTV, and makes the Romance of the Three Kingdoms come alive in the eyes of the public with unprecedented visual impact. These various texts and modes of communication convey various figures, various tactics, allusions, legends and wars about the culture of the Three Kingdoms, as well as the concepts of loyalty, righteousness, courage, orthodoxy and road circulation, all of which revolve around tactics. For contemporary society, the concepts of loyalty and courage, orthodoxy, and avenue circulation may gradually fade away, and Machiavelli culture still has vitality. It is in this sense that The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is often interpreted as a book of Machiavellian tactics, especially its numerous references in the fields of business and management, which proves this point. The recent popularity of Boiling the Three Kingdoms (1) is an obvious proof.
In the creation of online games, the culture of the Three Kingdoms is a theme that has been repeatedly borrowed. At present, there are several online games with the theme of Three Kingdoms culture or starting from scratch, such as Three Kingdoms National Policy Online, Three Kingdoms History Online, Swallowing Heaven and Earth Online, Extraordinary Three Kingdoms, Network Three Kingdoms, Century Three Kingdoms, Romance of Three Kingdoms Online and so on. In terms of types, most of these online games are strategy games or role-playing games. In the final analysis, everyone can be regarded as a role-playing, but the proportion of strategy and war is different.
There are profound background reasons why so many online games borrow the theme of the Three Kingdoms. The culture of the Three Kingdoms has special significance not only in China culture, but also in the oriental culture. In particular, the concepts of loyalty, righteousness, courage, avenue circulation and orthodoxy advocated in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms play an important role in China's traditional culture. Machiavellian culture is almost a main line of China culture. In a sense, the history of China is a history of power struggle. Moreover, due to cultural origins, the cultures of the three countries have great influence in Japan, South Korea and other eastern countries. Cultural identity is an important factor for online games to gain recognition from players. It is not difficult to explain why the online games in the above three countries are developed and operated by China, South Korea and Japan instead of Europe and America.
The history of the three kingdoms meeting and infighting itself is very dramatic and ornamental. All kinds of folk stories, novels, operas and TV plays derived from it have enhanced its drama and appreciation, expanded its spread, and thus made it have a broad audience base. This enables players to have a full pre-understanding of the online games with the theme of the Three Kingdoms from the beginning, and can realize the "first possession", "first sight" and "first mastery" of the games. This profound pre-understanding and broad audience base make online games with the theme of the Three Kingdoms easier to be understood and accepted by players in China, South Korea, Japan and other eastern countries.
There are significant differences between online games and stand-alone games, one of which is that online games must provide many players with long-term life and confrontation cyberspace. As a complex and meaningful system, the culture of the Three Kingdoms is open and derivative, which provides the possibility for the continuous development and creation of online games. Moreover, the infighting and wars between Wei, Shu and Wu lasted for a long time, full of antagonism and legend, which highly met the needs of online games. Looking at it from another angle, isn't the political struggle in Wei Shuwu a super game?
However, the use of online games to the cultures of the Three Kingdoms is only a means rather than an end, a borrowing rather than a copy, and a rewriting rather than a copy. After all, with the time difference of nearly two thousand years, many traditional concepts in the cultures of the Three Kingdoms are out of date today, which has created a gap with today's audience. At the same time, the culture of the Three Kingdoms in oral media, print media and TV media can not meet the needs of hypertext of online games and multimedia of online media. So rewriting must be unprecedented.
Second, online games rewrite the culture of the Three Kingdoms
Online games have rewritten the culture of the Three Kingdoms in many ways.
The first is the history of games and consumption. In online games, history is no longer the object of textual research and restoration, but the object of the game; Culture is no longer the object of worship and appreciation, but the object of consumption. Here, history and culture are rewritten at will and truly become "a little girl who can dress up at will". This rewriting is mainly reflected in the following two aspects:
On the one hand, it is a substantial rewriting of historical facts. In the martial arts RPG3 game "Swallow Heaven and Earth Online", the player plays a modern high school student, who is selected by the immortals as a hero candidate to end the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms, and then begins a series of adventures. After players enter the game, they must first choose their own character attributes from the four attributes of earth, water, fire and wind. Then the characters will join one of the five camps of "Ranger, Yellow Scarf, Shu Han, Cao Wei or Soochow" because of actions, events and tasks, while historical figures such as Liu Bei and Cao Cao will become NPC in the game [1] and can be employed by players as war and travel partners. Relatively speaking, although the Three Kingdoms Policy Online is more in line with the original features of the Three Kingdoms culture, it openly declares that "the history of China will change with the participation of every player" [2]! The game is set in the troubled times at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Whether players are in cahoots or rise up depends on their own choice [3]. That is to say, the Three Kingdoms are no longer the three kingdoms in historical facts. The direction and outcome of the Three Kingdoms no longer depend on the intrigue and trade-offs between Wei, Shu and Wu, nor on the writing of history, but on the choices, actions and complicated relationships between players. In online games, the culture of the Three Kingdoms became the background and source, and retreated to the edge of the stage. Turned into a sheep's head, used to market dog meat for online games. All these random rewrites have undoubtedly deviated greatly from the true colors of history.
On the other hand, it is the digestion of traditional concepts in the three cultures. In the substantial rewriting of historical facts and the random replacement of time and space, the sense of heaviness and tragedy in the cultures of the Three Kingdoms has almost disappeared, and the concepts of loyalty, righteousness, courage, kingliness and orthodoxy contained in them have all disappeared. Machiavelli's thought is the only thing that has been preserved, but this thought has also undergone great variation in online games: in online games, Machiavelli is no longer fighting wits under the guise of the state and political power. In the broken activities of the game, in the miscellaneous conversations among the hot money players (including a lot of spoken language and swearing), Machiavelli really became a game, losing his mystery and solemnity. In this deconstruction, players get the pleasure of subversion, and history becomes consumer goods in games and subversion.
Secondly, it is a rambling narrative. "Narration is about events that have happened, are happening and may happen", and "human beings construct their own history, culture and shape themselves in narration" [4]. Specific to online games, its narrative subject and narrative mode have undergone great changes.
"Whoever tells a story will control the society" [5]. Whether it is history books, novels, operas or TV plays, there are always clear narrators. They may be the authors of history books and novels, or the creators of operas and TV plays. However, in online games, it is difficult to find such a definite narrator: besides the producer of the game, there are thousands of unidentified players, and each player's actions and dialogues constitute his own narrative, and countless narratives are intertwined to form a chaotic and dynamic narrative system. The change of narrator from relative certainty to immutability shows the decentralization of text control; The narrator, from the author of the text to the consumer of the text, shows the transfer of control to the player. In this sense, players are transmitters and receivers, and they are the unity of producers, consumers and life, and their dominant position has been greatly improved. This is one of the attractions of online games.
The cultural narration of the Three Kingdoms, which exists in folk stories, historical books, novels, operas or TV plays, often revolves around a certain center and follows a linear trajectory, and its plot often has a process of occurrence, development, climax and ending. "Narration is a story, and the story contains a series of events arranged in chronological order" [6]. However, this central narrative and linear narrative mode has been greatly changed in online games. In online games, there are many decentralized narratives, nonlinear narratives and interactive narratives. Decentralized narration refers to the uncertainty of theme and center; Non-linear narrative shows the jumping and regression of time and space (such as the resurrection of characters), and the complex has a head and a tail (players will give up forever after playing a game) or a tail and a headless (players buy others to play the game to a certain extent); Interactive narration mainly exists between players and also between players and game producers and operators. Strictly speaking, online games are unfinished texts that need to be triggered by players one by one. These changes lead to online games no longer having a clear center, a clear plot, a clear protagonist and secondary role, and a clear author and reader.
The third is the variation of character symbols. Man is a symbolic animal 1, and man himself is also an important symbol. Consumption has a dual structure of material and symbol. The consumption of online games is a typical symbol consumption, and players mainly get meaning and pleasure from it. In online games, there are various symbols such as voice, music, characters, buildings and equipment, and the character symbols can undoubtedly be used as clues to interpret online games.