Recently, an electronic game called “Mingchao” has become popular among young people, especially the cultivation system of Xiakong, a five-star resonance, which is famous for its numerous materials and demanding requirements. A careful examination of this list of cultivation materials is like entering an endless utilitarian labor, which makes people think of the endless pursuit of efficiency and resources by people in contemporary society, and even the general confusion and distortion of the meaning of life. This time, the materials include “Tide Eclipse Sail Core” from low to full frequency, with additional “Phosphorus Burning Bone”, “Golden Fleece” and “Iris Blooming Day”, and even the temporary assist of “Stuffed Meat Tofu”, all of which reveal a stereotyped and slightly absurd mechanical nature.
Careful scrutiny can’t help but make people smile: such a layered material list is like a “modern people’s cultivation guide”, but it is more like a maze map, tempting players to repeatedly calculate between the two equations of “time = wealth” and “energy = success”. The game developers probably never expected that their “conscientious work” would become a battlefield for many players to become “labor-like”, just like the so-called “hard work” philosophy of life in all walks of life in reality, which often comes down to endless plundering of resources and mechanical obedience to system rules.
Even more humorous is that the “Golden Fleece”, a legendary ancient divine object, is restricted to purchase as a “luxury” and must be carefully distributed, just like the scarce resources that are hyped in modern consumer society. Players can only buy fifteen per week, and it seems that each material is endowed with a certain “capitalist production restriction” attribute, making the resource allocation mechanism in the game surprisingly similar to the real market economy. Such designs may be intended to encourage players to plan rationally, but in fact they increase the boredom of the game, just like assembly line workers who are forced to follow the rules and can only mechanically replicate the cycle of “acquisition-consumption-upgrade”.
This can’t help but remind people of Mr. Qian Zhongshu’s “Besieged City”: people outside the city are eager to enter, and people inside the city are eager to escape. The game is like a siege. Players throw themselves into the game with a sense of achievement and expectations for the characters, but eventually they are trapped in the torrent of materials and the maze of cultivation. Countless repeated monster hunting, collection and strengthening have become another kind of “trapped beast fight”, which can neither get real freedom nor peace of mind. The dish “stuffed meat tofu” in the game can improve the efficiency of material drop, which seems to be a variety of quick methods and shortcuts in reality, bringing temporary comfort, but it fails to fundamentally solve the fatigue of “cultivation”, but instead aggravates the tension and fatigue of the rhythm.
And the classification of various types of “crystallized phlogiston” – impurities, crude extraction, distillation, and high purity, reflects the current society’s demanding standards for “perfection”. Whether it is a game character or real life, perfection has become an almost unattainable ideal. Everyone is constantly pursuing a “purer” state, but gradually lost in the process. Isn’t this situation a vivid portrayal of the “bottomless anxiety” of modern people?
What is even more interesting is that the poetic name “Iris Blooming Day” seems to be a romantic blend, but it is mixed in this mechanical development process, which seems to remind players: Even behind the cold system and numbers, there is still beauty and hope, but they are often covered by the cumbersome and utilitarian reality. Unfortunately, most players may not be able to stop and appreciate it. Instead, they are forced to continue to fight the next “material collection” like parts on an assembly line.
From this, it can be inferred that although the game is virtual, it actually reflects the spiritual state of modern people. It wraps the boring “brushing materials” with a dazzling interface and compact gameplay, just like a beautifully packaged ideal, kidnapping people in a repetitive labor and depriving them of a deep experience and thinking of life. Game players are no different from modern office workers. They are all locked on a specific track by the system and rules, struggling to survive, but it is difficult to break free.
As Qian Zhongshu said, everyone in the world is suffering, but they are mostly busy with superficial utilitarianism and form. Few people can clear the fog and see the truth. The detailed list of development materials is not only a test of the players’ patience and perseverance, but also a metaphor and warning for the current social culture. It tells us that if we indulge in the accumulation of numbers and resources and ignore the real needs of our hearts, we will eventually fall into the spiritual desert and mechanical loneliness.
Therefore, facing the complex list of development materials in “Mingchao” Xiakong, we may pause for a moment and reflect on what is true growth and satisfaction. Although the game is beautiful, don’t forget the original intention; although the human heart is complicated, it still needs to be clear. Only by finding yourself in the gap between virtuality and reality can we get out of the utilitarian dilemma and embrace a richer life realm.