In this noisy and increasingly complex era, the list of Xiakong’s development materials in the video game “Mingchao” is like a complicated and cruel social microcosm, reflecting people’s confusion and alienation under the framework of modern system. Tide-eroded sail core, burning phosphorus bones, crystallized phlogiston, golden fleece, iris blooming day… Behind these gorgeous and obscure nouns, there are so many struggles and helplessness of tired souls.
People often say that games are entertainment and pleasure. But if you only stay on the surface, you will miss a deeper insight. Xiakong’s development materials are like a silent satire, telling the invisible oppression of modern society on individuals. The abundance and complexity of materials are like heavy shackles, which firmly bind players in an endless cycle of labor and deprive them of the possibility of self-realization. Those “tidal sail cores” and “burning phosphorus bones” are nothing more than symbols of the red tape and institutional barriers in reality, which make people want to break free but unable to extricate themselves.
The classification of materials – impurities, crude extraction, distillation, and high purity are metaphors for the solidification of social classes in modern society. Many people can only struggle at the level of “impurities” and find it difficult to move towards the realm of “high purity”. The barriers of class seem transparent, but in fact they are indestructible, just like the multiple screening and restrictions of materials in this game, which are suffocating. There are also scarce and limited-purchase materials such as “Golden Fleece”, just like the unfair distribution of resources in real society. The pitiful opportunities are as precious as Golden Fleece, which makes people envious and jealous, but unable to change.
The design of increasing the drop rate of materials in the “Stuffed Meat and Tofu” dish in the game is like those short-lived and false “support policies” in modern society. They are bright and beautiful on the surface, but it is difficult to cover up the deep institutional ills. Players spend a lot of time and energy on this, but they can’t escape exhaustion and loss, just like people in reality struggle in the torrent of the system, but can only get limited respite.
What’s more touching is that the material named “Iris Blooms Day” is like a blooming ideal flower, which is particularly fragile in the cold reality development system. It symbolizes the unattainable beauty and hope, but it is crushed by ruthless rules and turned into countless cumbersome material fragments. In and out of the game, how many dreams are trampled on, and how many people are betrayed by indifference.
This scene reminds people of the “little people” in Lu Xun’s works, who silently endure the ravages of fate in front of the social machine. The players in the game are also the reflection of these little people. They are busy and struggling in the huge and indifferent system, but are pushed into the abyss by invisible hands. Xia Kong’s development materials are just like the endless obligations and tasks in modern society, forcing individuals to keep paying but difficult to gain freedom.
Mr. Lu Xun once said: “Hope is attached to existence. If there is existence, there is hope. If there is hope, there is light.” However, in this complex development system, can players still see a ray of hope? Or have they been tortured by the endless list of materials and lost the courage to resist?
When we are addicted to the mechanical cycle of “brushing materials”, we might as well stop and examine the real meaning behind this game. It reminds us how the modern system deprives people of their freedom and dignity, and how people who should love life become machines enslaved by materials and rules. Only by deep reflection and brave struggle can we break free from this seemingly invisible but extremely hard shackles and regain the forgotten “summer sky” – a free, pure and hopeful sky.