With the gradual intensification of market competition in the game industry in recent years, how to polish high-quality game content and effectively tap the diversified value of games has become a key breakthrough direction for the whole industry.
Under the wave of industry transformation, manufacturers are looking for cross-border linkage channels suitable for their own product attributes. In recent years, "Fantasy Westward Journey" has frequently and skillfully played its own product advantages, successfully explored the diversified value of products through the path exploration of "game + traditional culture + N", realized the dual benefits of traditional culture dissemination and its own product operation, and the highest number of online people successfully exceeded 2.72 million.
Recently, Southern Weekend launched the "Follow the Light and Dreams" Westward Journey Cultural Special Activity, inviting guests from "Fantasy Westward Journey" and other guests closely related to Westward Journey culture to start a creative relay to jointly explore the profound connotation of Westward Journey culture and explore possible ways of contemporary cultural inheritance.
Enduring core drivers
See how "Fantasy Westward Journey" builds a new "Westward Journey"
"Journey to the West" carries the best fantasies of generations of people about the fantasy world. The core of diversity and openness allows different people to have different understandings and interpretations of Westward Journey culture, and many classic "two masterpieces" have been born.
"With the changes of the times and the advancement of information communication media, "Journey to the West" is not limited to the translation of the original novel, and gradually derives a large number of adaptations with exotic characteristics." Mei Yi, a national first-class writer, said in this column that as a classic work of traditional Chinese culture, the continued development and interpretation value of "Journey to the West" is infinite. We should expand industrialization as a cultural industry.
Based on the diverse characteristics of the Westward Journey IP, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" cleverly deconstructs it, allowing Journey to the West to continue to shine in the new era in the form of digital games.
"Restoration and respect are the first steps in inheritance. But at the same time, 'drawing a scoop according to the gourd' is not advisable, and in the process of interpretation, you need to have an 'ambition' to write the legend of the bloody gods and demons that belong to contemporary people. Wu Weicong, general manager of the dream business unit, said.
The game structure of "Fantasy Westward Journey" is everywhere a shadow of Westward Journey, but many places have made secondary innovations based on the well-known "Journey to the West". The game world view evolved into a fantasy time and space dominated by the three races of immortals, people and demons, and in "Fantasy Westward Journey", players are no longer the actors of Tang monks and apprentices, but as "young heroes of Heaven's destiny", accompanying them to slay demons and eliminate demons along the way, and feel the deeper spiritual core of Westward Journey from a new perspective.
In addition, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" also takes the Westward Journey culture as the base, and carries out an innovative display of the classic bridges of the original book in digital form. Including the in-depth adventure of Bibotan Dragon Palace, which restores the residence of the Halloween Dragon King and related plots in the novel "Journey to the West", and the secondary interpretation of the plot of the real and fake Monkey King, etc., all allow players to feel the charm of the original Journey to the West, as well as the spirit of sincere cooperation and trust.
"We deconstructed the complete narrative behind "Journey to the West", and formed a logical and self-consistent world view based on this, which is also the prototype and motif of "Fantasy Westward Journey"." Lin Yunfeng, senior vice president of NetEase, said that by following the original book and deconstructing it twice, "Fantasy Westward Journey" has deeply branded the product with Westward Journey.
Cultural heritage goes hand in hand with game operations
"Fantasy Westward Journey" deeply plays the "game + culture + N" strategy
Through the in-depth creation of the value of the Westward Journey IP core, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" has successfully realized the product myth of "domestic MMO track evergreen". In recent years, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" has also opened up the exploration of the win-win strategy of "game + traditional culture". "We are based on the Westward Journey culture, but we are not limited to that. We hope that different traditional cultures will blend with each other through the stage of "Fantasy Westward Journey". Wu Xinxin, vice president of NetEase Game Market, said, "This is also what digital technology should strive to achieve to build a communication bridge between cultures and people, and between cultures and cultures." ”
In order to promote the innovation of traditional culture communication path, "Fantasy Westward Journey" deeply integrates the real beauty and fantasy world, and gives traditional culture a "digital new life" through games. Previously, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" joined hands with Tang Paradise, Dunhuang Museum and Xi'an Museum to integrate these cultural attractions and natural wonders into the game in the form of gameplay and scenery reproduction, which deepened players' dual impression of real scenery and game scenes, and made players have a strong interest in real experience after experiencing game content.
With the strong social attributes of MMO games, "Fantasy Westward Journey" has also successfully achieved the innovation of traditional culture communication methods. For example, the project team's elaborate design of the imperial examination, "Hanmo Danqing", festival activities and other gameplay successfully integrated traditional cultural elements such as classical Chinese mythology, history, astronomy, geography, and literature into the game. Through social interaction, the players' feelings and enthusiasm for traditional culture are transmitted.
At the same time, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" also focuses on multi-channel communication, combined with the habits of contemporary game audiences, and arouses their strong resonance of traditional culture and circle-breaking communication in a way that young audiences like to hear. For example, the computer version of the female tomb sect song "Everything Dances" in "Dream Westward Journey" combined with Ruan Xian's art; The dream Dunhuang version of "Rare Characters" co-authored with singer Chen Keyu is to create new channels for its inheritance and innovation through the combination of traditional culture and popular songs. It is worth mentioning that "Everything Dances" has been played more than 5.8 million times on station B alone, which has been praised by both players and Zhong Ruan art lovers.
In addition, "Dream Westward Journey" also co-sponsored the "Dream of Dunhuang" game costume design joint course with Dunhuang Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, and cooperated with Gao Shuiwang, the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage Tang Sancai skills, to create exclusive Tang Sancai crafts for Dream Westward Journey, all of which have given traditional culture a new life in the digital era.
The long-term "game + culture + N" strategic operation has effectively promoted the successful upgrade of the product positioning of the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" from a game to a "multi-carrier of game + culture", and took the initiative to assume the responsibility of finding new communication paths for the dissemination of traditional culture. And through effective traditional cultural inheritance, it also achieves multiple win-win results in market reputation and game popularity.
At the moment of intensified competition in the industry, mining diversified value and creating products with more competitive barriers is the direction that almost all manufacturers are pursuing. As a national-level IP game, the computer version of "Fantasy Westward Journey" has given a very representative solution through the product operation strategy of "game + culture + N".