"Three Kingdoms Killing", which has been online for 15 years, has become the first Three Kingdoms game for many young people!
A few days ago, the 15th anniversary carnival of "Three Kingdoms Killing" was successfully held in Shanghai Zhangjiang Science Hall, and Du Bin, vice president of Carnival On-site Card Network, reviewed the development process of "Three Kingdoms Killing" in the past 15 years, and also disclosed a set of data of great interest in the industry: In the past 15 years since its launch, the cumulative number of registered users of Three Kingdoms Killing IP has exceeded 400 million, of which 83% are young users aged 18-30.
Frankly speaking, it is not uncommon for registered users to exceed 400 million, and the entire industry can operate games for more than 10 years, and the user scale will not be too bad. What is surprising is that how a 15-year-old "old" game like "Three Kingdoms Killing" achieves that the proportion of young users is as high as 83%, and it continues to add young users?
Contemporary young people, are using "Three Kingdoms Killing" to learn the history of the Three Kingdoms?
Looking at the entire gaming industry, how classic games appeal to younger users is a common topic. Some people try to iterate on the visual experience and make an art style that is more in line with the preferences of users of the Z generation; Some people also try to integrate more popular game settings, trying to attract the attention of more young users with novel gameplay.
But a closer look at the operation of Three Kingdoms reveals that they took another, more bumpy and challenging path. That is to choose to deeply cultivate traditional culture, draw inspiration and nutrients from traditional culture, ensure that "Three Kingdoms Killing" has always had the unique "flavor" of the Chinese cultural circle, and use its own special cultural charm to attract more users.
In the game, in addition to changing the game content based on the cultural background of the Three Kingdoms, the game is also used as a special carrier to popularize more niche allusions to the Three Kingdoms. From gameplay to character skill design, as long as it is a place that users can reach, "Three Kingdoms Killing" is interspersed with extremely careful allusions.
For example, many people may be very familiar with celebrities such as Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, but do they know the allusion to "Qu is wrong, Zhou Lang Gu"? In "Three Kingdoms Killing", this little-known allusion was indeed directly made into one of the skills of Shen Zhou Yu.
In addition, there are characters of the Three Kingdoms that are not familiar to the public, such as Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan, Liu Biao's eldest son Liu Qi, all of which were reproduced in the game by "Three Kingdoms Killing", and according to historical materials, these "less important" Three Kingdoms characters allusions were restored one by one. To borrow a player's evaluation, that is, "I originally played "Three Kingdoms Killing", only to know that there are still these characters in the Three Kingdoms".
In fact, it is precisely because of the setting of "Three Kingdoms Killing" that deeply integrates historical allusions and traditional culture into the game, so that it has gradually evolved from a game to a digital carrier that integrates the culture of the Three Kingdoms. Not only ordinary users can learn more about little-known historical allusions through "Three Kingdoms Killing", but even in the classroom, teachers have used "Three Kingdoms Killing" to popularize the history of the Three Kingdoms to students.
A teacher of a middle school in Heyuan City used "Three Kingdoms Killing" to teach "Three Kingdoms Victory"
Of course, another important reason why "Three Kingdoms Killing" can attract more and more young people is also the historical precipitation of the game itself. It is no exaggeration to say that this board game, which was born 15 years ago, is actually an enlightenment game for many people.
At that time, perhaps because of a gathering of friends, or other special occasions, I first came into contact with "Three Kingdoms Killing", and under the guidance of friends, I gradually understood and became familiar with this classic board game, which was also out of control, from board games to page games, and then to mobile games, looking back on the past, I found that "Three Kingdoms Killing" has been silently accompanying him for 15 years.
Just as some old players always calmly answer "already used to it" when faced with the question of "why can't they let go of "Three Kingdoms Killing", "Three Kingdoms Killing" has unknowingly become an inseparable part of the lives of this group of young people, and the accumulated emotional precipitation support is one of the fundamentals that support its evergreen.
The 15-year-old "Three Kingdoms Killing" is using games to inherit traditional culture
Drawing inspiration from traditional culture and feeding back the game is a unique operation method that "Three Kingdoms Killing" has explored in 15 years. How to spread the thick history and culture to more young users, and also get the love of young people, is another innovative way to explore by "Three Kingdoms Killing".
In this regard, "Three Kingdoms Killing" revolves around the three main lines of promoting national essence, protecting intangible cultural heritage, and inheriting culture, and interprets traditional culture with the trend elements of the times in a way that contemporary young people like.
For example, in terms of promoting national essence and protecting intangible cultural heritage, in April 2022, "Three Kingdoms Killing Mobile Version" joined hands with Jiang Wujin, the inheritor of Dongyang wood carvings, to create a historical concept short film "Confrontation", the short film uses the confrontation between the inheritor of Dongyang wood carving and himself and the wood carving skills and the logs in his hand, the short film has attracted the attention of many players as soon as it was released, and the film has been played by more than 500,000 views on station B so far.
In September of the same year, at the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala held by Hunan Satellite TV, Dai Quan and Lan Tian sang a theme song for the anniversary of "Three Kingdoms Killing" "Xindingjun Mountain", which caused widespread heated discussion.
This new theme song "Xindingjun Mountain" is based on the song "Dingjun Mountain" of Peking Opera, incorporating more popular electronic elements and combining classic poems to create it, which is an excellent Chinese style work that takes into account the beauty of ancient and modern, has both classic charm and modern trend elements. At the beginning of its release, it was on the CCTV music channel "Music Weekly" column and was sought after by many people.
In July this year, "Three Kingdoms Kills OL" joined hands with Master Meng Dezhi, the representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage (Shu embroidery), to start the intangible cultural heritage linkage for the first time and produce a series of intangible cultural heritage documentaries and derivative songs. Among them, the documentary "Shu Embroidery Fenghua" launched during the linkage period is based on teacher Meng Dezhi as the main perspective, explaining the history and memory of Shu embroidery, showing the inheritance and education of intangible cultural heritage, and integrating Shu embroidery into the game "Three Kingdoms Kill OL", so that this intangible cultural heritage culture can always exist in the game.
In addition, "Three Kingdoms Killing" has also been linked or cooperated with many traditional cultures.
For example, in December 2022, in conjunction with the Shu school guqin, it jointly released the cultural documentary "Shuqin Yayun", and specially invited Professor Dai Ru, the non-genetic inheritor of the guqin of the Shu school, to use traditional techniques to integrate the guqin melody into the character theme song of the new warrior general "Clan Wuran" in "Three Kingdoms Killing", and invited the B station UP master "Yang Lovely Ukulele" to interpret this song, attracting more than 150,000 viewers.
During the "Cam Ranh Festival" of "Three Kingdoms Killing" in May 2023, the well-known historical KOL "Anzhou Mu" was invited to deeply interpret the story of Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and Xu Shu's "Three Disciples of Water Mirror", and "Anzhou Mu" took the "Three Disciples of Water Mirror" as a typical case, combined with many historical ancient books, to popularize the tortuous fate of historical figures of the Three Kingdoms to the audience, and also let more peripheral users have a deeper understanding of the historical figures of the Three Kingdoms.
In July this year, "Three Kingdoms Killing" teamed up with Sichuan opera master Kang Yong to produce a character promotional video centered on the traditional Sichuan opera "Capture the River". In addition, the game also refers to the traditional Sichuan opera costumes, launches the theme skin of "Capture the River" for the characters, and cooperates with the Shanghai transportation card outside the game, and launches the exclusive card face of the Sichuan opera linkage theme skin, etc., deeply integrating the spread of traditional culture into all aspects of the game.
In addition, "Three Kingdoms Killing" has also been linked with boutique national comics such as "Kuiba", "Assassin 567", "Zhenhun Street" and so on, so that more young people can experience the excitement of games + national comics.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary, "Three Kingdoms Killing" has set its sights on the fashion circle, integrating traditional elements of the three countries into the current fashion, designing new national fashion clothing, and inviting dozens of super popular KOLs and models to perform live catwalks, jointly creating a visual fashion feast and leading the wave of the Z era.
Blossoming at home and abroad, "Three Kingdoms Killing" is telling Chinese stories to the world
In fact, the cultural inheritance of "Three Kingdoms Killing" is not limited to China, but also overseas is also sound. As early as a few years ago, the Three Kingdoms Kill physical card has been released in English, German, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, and has been sold in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Central and South American markets, exported to 65 countries and regions.
In 2019, based on the Three Kingdoms Killer IP derivative mobile game "The Legend of the Three Kingdoms Killer", it has been successively logged in South Korea, Vietnam and other places, of which the Korean market has won the 1st iOS download list and the 9th best seller list of iOS, and is invincible in Vietnam, once it was launched, it topped the two major channels of iOS and Google Play, becoming one of the most popular local IP works in the Three Kingdoms.
At the same time, in Europe and the United States, where cultural differences are greater, "Three Kingdoms Killing" has also been silently making efforts, and even using a more "willful" way to forcibly push the traditional cultural concept of the three countries to European and American users.
For example, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of "Three Kingdoms Killing", the official landmark buildings of the four world fashion capitals in New York's Times Square, France's Milan Church, Paris Printemps, and London's Piccadilly Circus put on the national trend fashion based on the traditional culture of the three countries, allowing the world to focus on the traditional Chinese culture of the three countries and re-understand what is cultural fashion.
All in all, from inside the game to outside the game, from domestic to overseas, "Three Kingdoms Killing" spares no effort to practice every time in the inheritance and dissemination of traditional culture, perhaps as the official said, "innovative boutique game content is the engine of the development of "Three Kingdoms Killing". Only by constantly creating more innovative gameplay and content around the culture, and constantly adding bricks to the games they love, can the majority of players make the game worthwhile."
Conclusion: Nearly 400 million registered users in 15 years, young users account for more than 83%, seemingly "old" "Three Kingdoms Killing", but has long been detached from the simple game level and has become a real Three Kingdoms cultural symbol. And now adhering to the diversified development of "Three Kingdoms Killing" is also realizing more possible wings, perhaps with the continuous enrichment of the IP of Three Kingdoms Killing, there will be more classic cultural communication cases based on it in the future, and we also look forward to that day coming as soon as possible.