The author | Lilyann
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In the digital age, the concept of AR and meta-universe is flourishing, and many new ways of playing have been born in the field of games and e-sports, players can give full play to their imagination in the virtual world, go to watch an auction, or enter the playground with a simulation store to experience a cyber carnival.
But it seems that at the moment when the entertainment needs are gradually being met, we will still touch the scene or think of it for no reason, many years ago, the era of dial-up Internet access, XP familiar boot music and the desktop background of the blue sky and white clouds, the rare freedom of computer classes for twenty minutes, open the 4399 web page satisfied to play for a while "Stickman" or "Gold Miner"... [1]
Last year, China News Weekly published an article titled "How Long Have You Not Played a Browser Game", which triggered the collective resonance of many post-80s and post-90s generations. From the rise and popularity to the nostalgia for "Ye Qing Hui", what derivatives have been experienced in web games? Combining the archaeological theory of games, this paper explores the psychological appeal behind our digital game memory and this nostalgic aesthetic by using games as one of the forms of contemporary media carriers.
01
How did the 4399s, who were popular in childhood, become the "tears of the times"?
In the era of great entertainment with all participation, do we still need small games? Before solving the answer to the question, let's turn the clock back to 2000. At the beginning of the millennium, NetEase launched "Journey to the West ONLINE", which became the first attempt of the portal network to enter the online game industry, and the following year, the "Legend" produced by Shanda exceeded expectations to show the strong gold absorption ability of online games.
Screenshot of the "Journey to the West ONLINE" page
Two years later, Li Pingxing, the webmaster of the navigation website "Hao123", sold his website to Baidu for 50 million yuan, throwing himself into the new wave of online games. In 2008, the page game website he founded became Google's annual TOP10 internet brand Chinese, and created many popular page games such as "Golden Miner", "Three Kingdoms of Blood", and "Ming Dynasty Era", occupying the memories of many people's youth. This is the 4399 mini game website that can be called "the first page of the domestic game collection".
Perhaps in today's view, the picture quality and interactive experience of the game at that time are difficult to call perfect, but this does not affect our addiction. Whether it's beating your chest because you can't catch the biggest piece of gold, looking for clues to escape in the red room, collecting gems in the forest as an ice and fire man with your friends, secretly stealing kryptonite for the Sails....... We have passed through levels and levels in the game, and the game also carries the youthful memories of many of our student days.
At the same time, the small games in the early stage of domestic games have also become the "enlightenment works" in the industry after that, and the "Magic Tower" that we are familiar with is a typical example.
More than a decade ago, when the main stage of most large games was still stuck in Internet cafes, "Magic Tower" was enough to be called a "complex brain-burning game" that we could play with the web, and it was described by players as "the dark soul of the 4399 world". As a warrior to save the princess is the main plot, the core of which is actually a mathematical game that tests calculation and intelligence.
The first page of the Magic Tower game
Because of this, the discussion among players is so heated, and even directly spawned the emergence of no less than five or six updated versions of "Magic Tower" after that. In the early years of Baidu Tieba and various game forums, the discussion of gameplay strategies, level settings, world views, etc. was endless, and later players were arguing about whether "Magic Tower" should insist on making independent RPG games or conform to the trend of mobile platforms, and launch H5 games.
The game self-media "one machine game" once described in the article: "From the simple concept, to the finished game, from the carnival of the niche community, to the changes brought by the players, and from the improvement of the fine capacity of the key picture quality to the impact of the mobile platform, the journey of the magic tower game for more than ten years seems to be the epitome of the development of the video game industry, which is lamentable." ”[2]
It's not just the Magic Tower mini-games that are changing in the wave of mobile media changes. The reason why the web games have transformed H5 games, and even slowly disappeared from the player's vision, is the exit of Flash. At the end of 2020, Adobe officially announced the end of support for Adobe Flash Player, and major browsers have removed Flash components.
Today, when we open the 4399 webpage and try to play Gold Miner again, we may see a few lines pop up on the page, indicating that the system used can no longer support Flash games.
In this context, the time turned to 2019, the market share of 4399 began to plummet, and the self-developed 4399 game box did not trigger the trend. In the eyes of more and more people, the small games that once accompanied us to spend a lot of leisure time seem to have been put on a layer of dim filter and turned into the tears of the times.
However, even now, many popular "light games" are still highly similar to the small games of that year. For example, Pinduoduo, Kuaishou, WeChat and other apps are online "jump" and "continuous look", as well as "hidden" web easter eggs in the browser. Today, if you search directly for "Solitaire" or "Solitaire Game" in Google, you can directly find the empty Solitaire, search for "Pac-man" will appear in the Pac-Man mini-game...
Although the mini-games have been replaced by new carriers, they are still popular with many people, including adults who were once teenagers but are now in various parts of society. I wonder if when we see these familiar gameplay again, will we also remember a day when we were young, or the moment when we finally passed the level with our former friends?
02
Behind the game archaeology, how are our digital memories stored?
In the context of the ups and downs of the game, some scholars have put forward the theory of "game archaeology", calling on everyone to take action to retain the precious collective memory in the virtual world.
One way is "physical collection", which excavates and collects ancient game hardware and software to form a huge "game collection library". One of the most well-known fieldworks was the excavation of the 2013 site of the American video game company Atari's game cassette landfill: the physical cassette cartridge of the game was buried in the desert, making the game itself a mysterious urban legend.
At a gaming conference in 2020, Necrosoft's creative director at the time also mentioned the story of an old collector he once visited in Japan.
The old gentleman, Takai, over the years he collected many old-fashioned home consoles and old games that did not even leave their names on the Internet, and set up a special drawer for each Japanese arcade game, placing CDs, brochures, manuals and other materials in it. [3]
In addition, through the "digital trace" is a more common game archaeology method today, that is, to save the story behind the game and development through "personal interviews and combing of materials through graphics, videos and other carriers".
An online museum named "Internet Archives" once set up an "online game hall" to house early console platforms and classic online games, and also provided the public with free versions that could be played.
At the same time, with the termination of Flash's service, the website also announced the protection and collection of Flash web games, and developed a new version that can continue to play without Flash, through the purpose of "only by allowing more people to contact, can stimulate the sense of protection", under the rapid technological changes to guard the "cultural relics" of the digital age, so that it continues to emit the faint light of the years in the museum.
On the basis of the increasing attention paid to the cultural heritage attributes of games, countries have also begun to study the archaeological value of video games: the National Video Game Museum of the United States preserves various forms of game consoles, as well as a complete database of various web games. For example, Beijing Normal University has established a "game people's archive" that combines online and downside, hoping to preserve the history of the game while also spreading more "human stories" behind it. [4]
On this basis, another question is that, as an academic study, game archaeology has a necessary and important value, but for ordinary players, the ancient games that once made us "addicted" (taking the web game as an example), is there any special record, or even the need for restoration?
03
Reflective Narrative: Why Do We Float in the Game's Nostalgic Aesthetic?
Compared with other mediums, games can bring players an irreplaceable interactive experience, which is one of the reasons why "game is the ninth art" is always circulating. In fact, in the process of high-tech empowerment in recent years, games have moved from a simple "play function" to a wider audience vision, and have become an online cultural ritual for people to communicate with each other.
From this, those web games can hardly be said to be our strong demand today, but although many years have passed, we can still clearly remember the names of those classic games, and even play them again many years later, and we will also be familiar with the pits in the levels or the operations of the super gods to play through the level.
There are so many new games, why do we still "remember" the ancient and rustic little games?
One of the reasons is that the unique experience given to us by this type of game has become the "loop" of the old memory. There is a theory in psychology called the "Zeignick effect", which refers to the fact that people will be particularly obsessed with things that are short-lived or unfinished, and these things that we remember in our hearts, let ourselves have a sense of concern or tension, are called "loops". [5] In the juvenile years, when the material conditions were not yet abundant, it was enough to play a few games outside of school. And it is precisely because of this opportunity that is not readily available that our gaming experience becomes precious and impressive. This is also similar to other things that have been repeatedly remembered, such as the "nostalgic aesthetics" that gradually become popular every once in a while, which further confirms the special weight and significance of these seemingly ordinary images at some stage of our past lives.
Secondly, this is also related to the tone of the web game itself. Today's games offer us powerful interactive narrative play, but sometimes we prefer to form a closed loop ourselves, quietly in a daze, or do something that doesn't require much thought to get positive feedback.
Just as last year's original Japanese TV stop-motion animation "Guinea Pig Car" triggered a "healing" craze, some of the early web games also gave games the healing effect of "slow medium": while competitive games increasingly tested the player's speed, agility and proficiency in numbers, the original casual games represented by "Moore Manor", "Happy Farm" and "Angry Birds" amplified the peace and non-utilitarian nature of the experience.
"PUI PUI Guinea Pig Car" Japanese animation, no vocal dialogue, only the cry of the guinea pig, was praised by many viewers as "2021 healing work"
At a time when modern people's time is becoming more and more precious, and many games such as City: Skyline and The Sims have turned on acceleration functions, we really need a place for us to "waste time as we want". And this kind of casual game that can provide a sense of slow-paced companionship can be a nostalgic escape from our "accelerated society". [6]
In addition, the "game elements" that are becoming more and more generalized in today's society can highlight the pure feelings brought by the early games to players. We are in the Internet world, we have long been familiar with the social logic of the digital age, but many details in it reflect the color of "game" and "competition". For example, the rush to buy, full reduction, spelling on the shopping website, and the progress bar function in the design of many App products are hoped that users will be guided by platform rules or gameplay, thus triggering certain choices and behaviors, just like the player behavior in the game.
Even in the view of communication scientist Stephenson, "Modern audience contact with the medium is a game, people can choose the medium according to their own subjective will, immerse themselves in it and experience it, which is a kind of game behavior." [7] Thus, when we realize that we are already deeply involved in a generalized "game world", we more or less begin to miss the purity of the past that allows us to choose.
This is also the insight that mini-games try to convey to us at the beginning: although the picture quality and materials have been difficult to catch up with the rhythm of today's game development, regardless of the current industry ups and downs, or the rapid iteration of technology, "harvesting happiness" is always the initial and ultimate meaning that the game brings to players.
Looking at the present, the ways in which we can relax have developed into thousands, and new ways to play games are emerging, but under the trend, the preservation and archaeology of classic games has become an important task for some people. For players, it seems that the impression of flash mini-games on the web page is mostly stuck in the youth and pure youth. Although we will sigh about this, we have to admit that it is difficult for us to return to the state of mind when we grow up today.
That kind of immersive into the game plot, perhaps just to see their own small vegetable garden grow fruit, or just to break out of a new level, this simple and somewhat green persistence, it seems that it no longer applies to the current age.
This is a reflexive narrative that the web stand-alone mini-game provides us: we understand the importance of "presence", but sometimes we also need to be in the "absence" position, so that we can look back and examine more distantly, better understand our inner movements and the truly precious and memorable things.
This sense of alienation of "wanting to go back", but "in fact, there is no need to go back" reflects the player's emotional helplessness, but perhaps it is already the most real and appropriate care we can take care of the disappearing thing of the web game.