Game Theory, Works Criticism, Elements Puzzle —— Based on Genshin Impact's Thinking

Ren Tong/PhD candidate, School of Journalism, Fudan University

Now the adult generation influenced by games and animation is not far from the "second element". The "maturity" required by real social communication seems to go hand in hand with those so-called "childish" hobbies. When an idea is accepted by more people, the embarrassment of "You also play Genshin Impact" actually narrows the distance between them.

Of course, only "two elements" are not enough. The successful exit of any minority culture requires more common "elements" to enter the public's field of vision. The concept of "element" is very complicated, not only the concept of chemistry and mathematics, but also the composition of computer language and the core gameplay of the game. Genshin Impact has built an open world around "elements". Suppose we regard the understanding of electronic games as a "puzzle" [1], and the correct way to restore the game picture should be to find the correct position of the first puzzle: let's take a look at what happened in Genshin Impact's world with the definition of "element".

Genshin Impact's worldview orientation is: here is the fantasy world "Tiwat" where seven elements meet. In the distant past, people were endowed with the power of driving elements because of their belief in gods, and they could build their homes in the wilderness. [2] Element, the basic substance condensed by human beings from the concept of nature, becomes a symbolic dimension in the game. Building a city-state and civilization, the world formed around "elements" is gradually forming a system: Mond of the wind, Moon of the Rock, and Rice Wife of the Thunder. Players become stronger through the promotion of a certain character element, and explore the true meaning of unknown fields through travel.

But it is strange that how can the constraint relationship based on elements be developed only by "seeing-listening-operating"? People can't feel the basic elements of real nature. Only through the screen interface can they feel the harm and danger of elemental force in adventure. According to John Durham Peters' view that "if you want to exist, you must be perceived first", how does the "Force" in the game representation exist in the game, making players tirelessly try to control the world with the "Force"? According to the logic that video games "simulate" the real world, the mystery of "elements" also needs to seek answers from reality.

First of all, as an element of "chemistry"

At the beginning of Genshin Impact's story, the brother and sister of the traveler confront an unknown strong man, and the failure leads to the separation of the brother and sister. Therefore, the significance of travel lies in finding lost relatives and accumulating the truth about this world through exploration. The accumulation of experience is also the accumulation of strength, which is consistent with the logic of "wanting to be strong" shown in video games.

As a chemical "element", it is the reaction between matter and basic matter, and the result of qualitative change caused by the quantitative change of proton number in atoms. In ancient China, the basic elements were divided into five elements, namely water, fire and earth in Jin Mu. The formation and interaction of all things are based on this relationship. Aristotle in the west concluded that everything in the world has contradictory nature: cold/hot, dry/wet. Elements are composed of these original attributes in different proportions. It is based on people's perception of basic elements that Genshin Impact endows characters with strength and text stories.

In the "Tiwa" continent, a strong desire will be refracted into a medium called "Eye of God" to help the characters transform their own strength and become more powerful. It is man who uses media to manipulate the power of elements, but it is god or devil who can release elements without media, which is unknown to nature. The protagonist of the game "traveler" is different. He/she from another world can gain and maintain the power of an element by touching an idol with some element, and then use it. In the game, a four-person team based on different element configurations will trigger reactions between elements: for example, wind can diffuse other elements, water and fire can trigger evaporation effects, and so on. Elements emphasize "reaction" at the operational level, which can be reflected in the refinement of characters' skills and equipment (items). An alchemy game combines scattered elements to gradually enhance the player's game experience.

There are two logics for "wanting to be stronger" from the perspective of "reaction": 1. The elements between the characters are properly matched; 2. Use various elements to improve the level of character equipment. In terms of characters, function (the skills of characters) and stage (the level of characters) are separated, and then materials (experiences and objects) are mixed together, and the order and level of consciousness no longer exist [3]. Players gradually lose the rationality of why they want to upgrade their roles between the choice and cooperation of roles, and fall into the mood of diagonal discoloration. Some roles can only be obtained by extraction, especially the five-star role is very difficult to obtain. Based on the consumption caused by the game mechanism, only "European Emperor" players and Kryptonian players can get a perfect lineup. The game of chance embodies the consciousness of possibility and a kind of freedom with the advantage of opportunity. For example, since Genshin Impact opened seven countries in succession through the map fog mechanism, players will feel "empty" every time they complete a world mission and a legendary mission (that is, they have passed all the main plots). This expectation of the main plot of the game maintains the logic of "continuing to coin" the game.

As far as equipment is concerned, although Genshin Impact did design an "alchemy platform" for players to integrate and upgrade their equipment (weapons and sacred objects), it did not interweave the changes of subject and object, bringing an uncertain "qualitative change", but attributed different reactions to fun. For example, in the game, the reward you get for playing the secret realm and doing the task is certain, but what is uncertain is the quality of the item itself. The combination of people and things is not unknown, but a definite "strengthening". This is different from Andrew Pickering's alchemy, which brought "imagination" to science: the optimization of the joint operation of human power and non-human power [4] has never been given. But as a game product, it must be perceived and operated by players. Players can exchange time for the accumulation of experience value-that is, the game logic of "liver".

Specifically, the feedback mechanism takes data as the core to establish various items: attributes, weapons, sacred objects, the seat of life, and talents. Each character is waiting for the player to spend energy to accumulate values. When the traveler's experience value (travel) increases, the level of "opponents" (monsters and plot characters) in the open world will also increase accordingly. Therefore, if you want to play a better "element" effect and become stronger, you need to have a better personality refinement and pursue the optimal solution between each item (such as whether you are pursuing health or critical strike rate).

Take equipment (relics) as an example: five different relics of a character will trigger different elemental damage bonuses, and a single relic itself also has various data blessings such as attack power, attack percentage, defense power, health value, elemental recharge and critical strike damage. Different people need to upgrade different materials and have different collection and equipment methods. This turns the game into a "sequence" that needs complex confirmation, and the way to test your role is to try to solve puzzles in various tasks. Klaus Pias likened the gamer to a kind of "program inspector", and any game operation will get a response or no response in the confirmation of "binary", which leads the game behavior in the right direction, just like "minesweeping". In the discourse elements of computer games, there are no "killing people" and "grasping gold nuggets", only timeliness, rhythm and control [5]. The motivation of all players to play games is actually a process of pursuing "numerical perfection".

Of course, the sense of operation brought by numerical values is based on reasonable plot flow and behavior. Objects scattered in the Genshin Impact world have become the key to understanding the whole world outlook and solving puzzles in the game. Players hedge the demand for high scores, in fact, they hope to get a stronger and faster puzzle solving experience, and the pursuit of numerical values is also a requirement for story experience.

Second, as an element of the concept of "setting"

As one of the basic concepts of mathematics, set means that the sum of things with certain attributes is "set" and elements are everything that constitutes a set. Apart from the basic elements, Genshin Impact has other elements that make up this open world. Obviously, mobile phones, computers, palmtop computers and televisions all follow the visual "physics", that is, they are perceived by catalysts in the form of acousto-optic thermal power. Mystery, conflict, color, game design is just a picture scroll on the plane, only all-round perception can make the player's operation run through, which is what we often call game immersion. According to Genshin Impact, the atmosphere that games want to create has been improved from the point of view of traditional cultural industries: that is, all the top elements of science, technology and art forms are integrated into video games.

Voice: Genshin Impact's voice is not necessarily true. It is based on the dubbing mechanism of movies and 3D animation, and assists the powerful soundtrack team to arouse the "reverie" of elements. For example, the background sound heard in Mond, a symbol of "freedom", is composed in Lydia mode from the church [6], which provides an imagination about Nordic culture; In shaping the fighting background sound of Li Yue, a Chinese style, the musical sound of guzheng and pipa was added [7]. The appearance of music enriches the elements of culture and simplifies the relationship that is difficult to express. At the same time, the top vocal music cooperation makes it easier for players to adapt to the changes in the scene, and the music rhythm "rationalizes" the game behavior and finds the state and feeling of the game.

Light and shadow: Genshin Impact's effect through the screen light is more reflected in the change of the scene. Perception of the scene and adaptation of information are the keys to immerse players in the game. From sunny to rainy days, from day to night, the light and shadow in the game scene change, making the game situation unfold smoothly. Light and shadow is the simulation of time and reality, the beginning of narrative logic, and the element truth felt through visualization. For example, when you attack the frozen tree (which can be understood as the boss of the checkpoint), even the game scene reveals a faint white light, which makes the player feel the chill brought by the elements; Sometimes, the transition of the game world needs to be done by map marking. In order to alleviate the abrupt transition, the game interface will be decorated with element symbols and "partitions" for conceptual interpretation, and visual elements will be filled with symbol elements.

Cross-version of game transition

Heat: The heat of video game products is not only reflected in the players' love, but also in the tolerance of electronic devices. When the media is "overheated" during the game, it means that your equipment and system seem to be insufficient to support the game. Overheating is a common phenomenon in the use of mobile phones, and some games with high frames will require the configuration of basic mobile phones. Different from the logic that movies spend a lot of money to shoot commercial blockbusters to attract more viewers to pay for tickets, video games pay more attention to selecting target users, and the price of game equipment determines which game products players become paying users. For Genshin Impact, 8-9GB games are a test of the carrying capacity of mobile phone hardware. The highest picture quality is fully open, and the picture quality frame is 60, which makes it difficult for many mobile phones to dissipate the card. This fully shows that Genshin Impact is "hungry" for graphics card (GPU) configuration. The metaphor of "overheating" just proves two things through games: 1. For Genshin Impact, the design idea of game products is not limited to the use of mobile phone channels; 2. Electronic games help us to better understand consumption, that is, the value embodied in technical "data", which is more worthy of players' attention than brand-oriented consumption value, and then complete the "disenchantment" of consumption "myth".

Electricity: According to the materiality of mobile phones, the meaning of "electricity" for mobile phones lies in "charging". How did the original God "empower" himself and give more meaning to the open world? Just like the daily drama in the TV context, Genshin Impact's main task and limited-time activities adopt the online production mode at the same time, creating a "serial" game work for players who like plot and narrative. Different from MOBA (multiplayer online tactical competitive game) and SLG (strategy game), the version update that Genshin Impact players expect is more about the relationship between the plot and the characters, such as the attributes and positioning of the new characters. At the same time, the game enriches the playability of Genshin Impact by adding different puzzles of "small game" and "light game", which is also in line with a recent idea of electronic game design, that is, enriching the level of the game itself through other ways of playing. For example, Dota2' s veranda mechanism allows self-propelled chess to successfully go out of the circle. The "energy" of this game is also reflected in Genshin Impact: fishing, playing chess and cooking. These ways based on daily life and the existing small game play greatly enrich the character setting and the structure of the main world view, making players more willing to stay in the game.

Force: any immersive experience will eventually return to the behavior itself, that is, the operation of force. From buttons and joysticks to touch screens, the media silently bears the power of users, turning them into information and transmitting them to the places where the devices receive them. Power is meaning. If you want to be strong, you must play the game of "liver" desperately, just to convey your meaning to more places that can be accommodated. Therefore, this force is not about the discussion of "playing with work" when games become work, nor about Heidegger's transformation from perceptual to intellectual. It is the "self-enjoyment" of the game world. In fact, it hopes to arouse the resonance of more players and build a "fun space system" with strength as an extension. Game, operation, hand-to-hand combat in silence, and gain mutual understanding between the two sides of the game. From this point of view, the idea of "technology house changing the world" is pure from the starting point, and it tries to practice the extension of "power" in video games.

In short, Element, as a collection of elements, mainly shows how the form and content of the media affect Genshin Impact. This confirms Bogster's view that video games have the most common internal relationship with "poetry, literature, film and art" [8]. In addition, today's video games will learn from each other in terms of "easy to use" gameplay, and invest more in product effects, so that players have more choices in the open world.

Third, as a "secondary" element.

In the role-playing game (RPG), one of the difficult problems faced by designers is to restore real people through technology. The chief designer of Primal, an action adventure game, described the complicated design process of "model design-simulation-three-dimensional modeling-picture-plot" when he created the role of Jane, and at the same time, he had to follow the local principles around the world and adjust the acceptability of the role. [9] Now a two-dimensional "element" RPG can successfully break the circle and is loved by players all over the world. Why?

Of course, in terms of the ownership of the product, it can be said that this explosive game has done a good job in painting style, game experience and pre-testing. That's why we have achieved such outstanding results, but these conventional measures can't summarize the characteristics of their success. In my opinion, Genshin Impact accurately demonstrated the "status" and "role" through the intermediary, and formed a complete system, which has the following advantages:

(A) the advantages of the second element: blurred the boundaries of identity

One of the reasons why two-dimensional images are criticized is that the imaging method is too simple to see the difference between people. In Genshin Impact, it is a good thing to blur the identity of the characters, so that designers can "copy" something familiar to the players without having to find another way to build a completely unfamiliar world view. As mentioned earlier, Genshin Impact has just marked "Chinese Civilization" in Li Yue, which shows that the designer wants you to see that the game is based on reality. However, in the shaping of key figures, this idea is clear and contradictory. Let's take the role of "Ning Guang" in the game as an example: as the most important "middleman" in Li Yue, she can wear a long skirt with a hairpin and a cheongsam ... But if you look closely, you will find that this role satisfies people's aesthetic imagination of China people, but it is not a copy of China's clothing in the traditional sense. The second element contains two opposing elements of universality and individuality in cultural choice, which inexplicably forms a role setting that most people can accept. This contradictory tension makes the role present a distinct visual effect. So the second dimension means a fusion dimension, which simplifies the complex identities. No one will question whether Ning Guang is a real person in history, but she has well displayed the characteristics of traditional costumes in China and expressed her identity, thus satisfying the world's imagination of "Chinese civilization".

Image of Genshin Impact Ning Guang

(B) Channel advantage: a kind of media integration

Perhaps the "Collapse" series confirms this point: the "looming" of the second dimension gives Genshin Impact an advantage, which is more obvious on the channel. According to the above, game companies pay special attention to the product launch of target users, which makes them cautious about the platform for product launch and the media for game operation. But since its official launch, Genshin Impact has been positioned as a computer, a mobile terminal and a host computer-an electronic game shared by all mainstream channels. Technically, it is not difficult to realize the transition from accurate delivery to full listing, but from the channel point of view, it is extremely difficult to involve the revenue of different channels, the user's game behavior habits, the promotion logic of the channel platform, and the way to obtain the game. In order to gain revenue through a unified platform, game distribution must be based on a wide audience of players.

Therefore, Genshin Impact positioned the game products as a global context, and made more games acceptable to players through viewpoints and plots, which is inseparable from the fuzzy setting of the second dimension. First of all, the secondary culture emerging in Japan has a broad world foundation, which combines different elements, but it can satisfy the imagination of players with different identities in role-building: the role manipulated by players may be an aristocrat in the old age, how to choose their own path in the new free atmosphere, or a researcher in the new era, exploring the truth based on elements. Although the player may not be a fan of the second dimension, he can accept the simulation and adaptation of what happened in the real world under the second dimension. Secondly, the second element confuses the cultural elements in reality and appears in the form of fragments, which are "puzzles" through the imagination of the player's mind. For example, the setting of "Looking for Kitchen God" in "Monthly Sacrifice" is a combination of the setting of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, with familiar cultural elements as the background of the game story. These contents are not only to restore the cognition of a country or region to specific content, but also to integrate some common game cognition in the world. This may be one of the reasons why Genshin Impact is accepted by all channels.

Conclusion: To reconcile the "reaction" between different elements.

In short, if the element is regarded as a basic material, then the core of the element "reaction" is just how to make the game a product that can be accepted by more players. For a mobile game like Genshin Impact, the initial goal is how to make players all over the world fall in love with this game.

Mcluhan once had an expression of "foresight". When the era of electronic media visual dominance comes, ears will retaliate against eyes. We can't judge whether this prediction is really accurate, but the era of graphic writing has quietly arrived. In terms of software application, video games and short videos have achieved such good results in cultural output that they have to be alert to the areas that accept this media culture and the power infiltration behind the media. In the past, the stereotype of China's game market was that we had a wide audience and market for games, but we couldn't make good games. However, with the transformation of computer games to mobile terminals, game companies such as Tencent, Mihayou, Lilith, Stack Paper and Netease all have new outlets. From the perspective of game categories, the achievements made during the epidemic period are obvious to all. This shows that games can also shoulder the mission of international communication.

Different from the worldview advocating "American Dream" and personal heroism in Hollywood era, Mihayou inherited the caution of game companies in selecting target users and tried to be "moderate" in the worldview displayed in the game narrative. For example, with the efforts of the "middleman", Li Yue completed the handover of the era for more than 3,700 years and signed a "contract to end all contracts". At the same time, China people's commitment, honesty and trustworthiness will be transformed into a statement to follow the spirit of contract, which is also to be compatible with Chinese and Western values and can be reflected through various channels.

Game plot screen

Although it is cautious in commercialization, Genshin Impact has given us some inspiration for the future development of video games in China: 1. Video games are constantly learning from reality, and games are based on reality simulation. However, this thick-line projection also brings real problems into the game world, which requires players to adhere to Marx's point of view: not only should they pay attention to industrial machines (technology), but also deeply understand how power relations are covered up by the media [10], and both reality and games need people to reflect on their own thinking; 2. While improving the basic software design, the understanding of cultural communication should also be innovative. Games are not the glue of anything, system, power or even people. It belongs to the rule of freedom, and anyone who wants to experience the game can design or participate. Since we have the ability to design the rules of video games, we should shoulder more responsibility for spreading culture; 3. China's cultural going out to sea does not advocate hegemony, but inherits the viewpoint of "seeking common ground while reserving differences" put forward by Premier Zhou Enlai at the Bandung Conference. The omni-channel success achieved by the caution of commercialization provides China with in-depth thinking on how to seek common ground while reserving differences.

In short, the mystery of element weaving is never limited to the game itself. It is the relationship in the real society, and it will also discuss the serious unresolved dimensional problems in reality because of simulation. Different elements affect the commonness of human beings: they have an instinctive interest in the history of natural rise and an understanding of basic elements; We can also seek common ground while reserving differences, accommodate the differences of different cultures, and imagine the proper meaning of civilization through game operation.

Precautions:

[1] Christopher Kukrik: Particle Society: Social Model in the Digital Age, translated by Huang Kun and Shack, CITIC Publishing House, 20 18, 199.

[2] Introduction to Genshin Impact's World Outlook, /main/map.

[3] Henri Lefebvre: Criticism of Daily Life Volume I, translated by Ye and Ni Xiaohui, Social Science Literature Publishing House, June 20 18, p.11page.

[4] Andrew Pickering: "Science as Alchemy", translated by Hao and Cai, "Chronicle of Social Critical Theory", No.8 series.

[5] De Klaus Pias: The Gamer's Responsibility: Completely Becoming a Port, from Media Archaeology: Method, Path and Significance, edited by Elki Hutamo and Youxi Pericat, translated by Tang Haijiang, Fudan University Press, first edition in March 2020, p. 175.

[6] blade master, who came up from the mile-by-mile-by-mile-by-mile: Analyzing the soundtrack, do you really know the game soundtrack?

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