If modern society is compared to a sophisticated machine, then the list of materials for the cultivation of “Xia Kong” in the online game “Mingchao” is undoubtedly the brightest gear on this machine. Its dense list of materials not only dazzles players, but also makes people wonder whether people in this era are chosen by themselves or kidnapped by the virtual world?
“Tide-eroded sail core”, “burning phosphorus bone”, “crystallized phlogiston”… This sounds like an alchemy secret recipe from a magical world. In fact, it is just a list of materials for cultivation that cannot be more ordinary. You have to collect them to make the game character “Xia Kong” powerful. It sounds right, but if you think about it carefully, isn’t this a “digital version” of suffering? How much time, energy, and even money do you have to spend to rise from a “nobody” to a “five-star war god”? If this were put into reality, it might be getting up early every day to squeeze into the subway, repeating meaningless work, and finally struggling desperately just to change for a better life. You see, the material list in this game is very similar to the life formula of modern people.
In fact, there is a deeper paradox behind this: we know that those materials have no practical value, but we still collect them tirelessly. The reason is simple-humans like “sense of achievement”, especially when they can’t find a sense of belonging in real life. You brush materials and upgrade characters, just like you light a small lamp in the shadow of life, even if the light is very weak or even false, you are willing to persist. We don’t like to face the chaos and powerlessness of the real world, and the complex material list of virtual games gives us the illusion of “control”.
The designer of this material list is undoubtedly the embodiment of capitalists. They are well aware of the weaknesses of human nature and cleverly turn a plate of “psychological chicken soup” into “money milk tea” to induce players to consume repeatedly. You spend time and money to create a stronger character, but that character will not solve the anxiety of real life for you. On the contrary, this process may make you more and more trapped, until you forget the original intention of the game and the essence of life.
What’s more interesting is that the names of these materials themselves are like an absurd symbol show. “Sighing Ancient Dragon” and “Golden Fleece” sound like myths and legends, but in fact they have become symbolic tools of capital. You can regard them as some kind of religious symbols, and believers worship and collect them endlessly, but never question the meaning behind them. No wonder sometimes I feel like a modern superstitious person, obsessed with virtual holy objects, willing to be tied up in an invisible net.
Back to reality, why do we let ourselves fall into this kind of cultivation game? Maybe because modern life is too boring and too anxious, the collection of cultivation materials gives us a clear goal and the illusion of staged victory. This feeling is like you watering plants every day. Although it may not bloom immediately, it at least makes you feel that you are doing something. The problem is that most of these materials are fictional symbols, but we use our lives to “water” them.
This reminds me of a sentence: Humans are animals that live with stories, and games happen to be the most typical story carrier in modern times. However, behind this story lies an invisible hand – the hand of capital. It kidnapped the players with the list of materials, and also kidnapped our attention and time. So we spend hours every day brushing materials and doing tasks, but ignore the time that truly belongs to us.
Perhaps, one day we can jump out of this set of game rules and ask ourselves: What is this “cultivation” for? What does it bring? Why are we led by a list of materials? Only by truly understanding these questions can we no longer be confused by the complexity of the virtual world and find the freedom and reality of life again.
Finally, as a bystander, I would like to tell all the players of “Summer Sky”: Life is far more complicated than games and far more important than lists of materials. Don’t let those virtual “tidal erosion sail cores” and “burning phosphorus bones” take away your life. Put down your phone and look at the real scenery in reality. Maybe that is the “role” you should really cultivate.