The game “Mingchao” has been very popular recently, especially the list of materials for the cultivation of Xiakong, the five-star resonator, which is so complicated that it makes people doubt their lives. Looking at the series of “low-frequency tide erosion sail core”, “burning phosphorus bone”, “crystallized phlogiston”… and “golden fleece” and “iris blooming day”, it is really varied and dazzling. This can’t help but remind me of contemporary society, where there are not a bunch of inexplicable rules and regulations that tie people up tightly?
First of all, we have to admit that the design of this cultivation material system is really “clever”. It allows players to constantly swipe monsters, collect, and upgrade, forming an endless cycle. At first glance, it seems to provide people with challenges and goals, but in fact it is more like using complex tasks to trap players in a cage, making people unable to stop at all. Some people say that games are escaping from reality, but such a design is like recreating a small cage in reality. Wang Xiaobo once said: “People live to change the world, or at least change themselves”, but such a cultivation process only changes the number of materials, and they still repeat boring actions like machines.
If you think about it carefully, the names of these materials are also full of metaphors of modern society. What “impurity crystallized phlogiston”, “rough extraction crystallized phlogiston”, “rectified crystallized phlogiston”, “high purity crystallized phlogiston” sound like different levels of social classes. Most people can only barely get “impurity” or even “rough extraction”, and only a few people can touch “high purity”. In social reality, the unfair distribution of resources and the solidification of classes are not another reflection of this cultivation system? This makes people have to ask calmly, are we playing games, or are games playing us?
Let’s talk about the “Golden Fleece”, which is limited to 15 pieces, and each player can buy a maximum of so many per week. Think about real life, key resources are always limited, and you have to rely on queuing and buying, and everyone is working hard for profit. Game designers bring this sense of scarcity and competition into the game, as if to tell us: social resources are originally a zero-sum game, and only those who grab them can make progress. Isn’t it absurd? We are clearly playing a game, but we feel the competitive pressure that is more cruel than reality.
Even better, there is a dish called “Stuffed Meat and Tofu” in the game. After eating it, the material drop efficiency is increased by 50% and lasts for 30 minutes. How ironic! Isn’t this just giving players a stimulant? In reality, we often rely on various “shortcuts” and “skills” to make life look more efficient, but the essence is running around, always chasing a vain goal. As Wang Xiaobo said: “Absurdity is the essence of life.” This pot of “Stuffed Meat and Tofu” is just a small condiment of absurd life.
Of course, this complex development system also reveals another side of modern society: lack of rationality. It stands to reason that life and games should be designed to make people happy and fulfilled, but we invest our time and energy in meaningless “brushing materials” and forget why we are here. Just like the “rational romanticism” advocated by Wang Xiaobo, we must face reality rationally and retain our passion and curiosity for life. But reality tells us that rationality is often suffocated by commercial design and social pressure.
The name of the material “Iris Blooms Day” reminds me of the romance and humor in Wang Xiaobo’s writing. What a beautiful name, like a blooming flower, but it takes a lot of complicated materials to “collect”. In life, our dreams and beauty are always disrupted by tedious reality. We struggle hard, but forget to enjoy the fragrance of the “iris”. Isn’t it a bit like each of us?
In summary, the complexity of the list of materials for Xiakong’s cultivation is not just the ingenuity of game design, but more like a mirror, reflecting the absurdity, class differentiation, resource scarcity and lack of rationality in modern society. We all repeatedly swipe monsters in this system, repeat meaningless labor, and desire a little progress, but often lose our way.
Finally, I would like to borrow Wang Xiaobo’s words: The greatest happiness of life is “thinking”. Perhaps we don’t have to be completely trapped in this endless accumulation of materials, but should stop and think about what we really want? How to live a real and interesting life in this absurd world? Only in this way can we get out of the virtual world like “Mingchao” and face a more complex but more real life.