All great games inevitably carry a bit of absurdity. The name Mingchao sounds very poetic, like the sound of waves hitting the shore, with a natural rhythm and the rhythm of life. However, when we carefully observe the cultivation materials of the new five-star resonator “Xiakong” in this game, absurdity quietly climbs onto the nerves.
29 low-frequency tidal eclipse sail cores, 40 medium-frequency tidal eclipse sail cores, 52 high-frequency tidal eclipse sail cores, 61 full-frequency tidal eclipse sail cores – these numbers are arranged like some kind of crazy music score. Players have to jump in the ocean of numbers to reach the “right way” of the game. This is a challenge to the player’s patience, or more accurately, a kind of manipulation of the “game industry”.
“Burning Phosphorus Bones” and “Golden Fleece” sound like rare treasures in adventure novels, but in this game, they are just excuses for endless farms and monster spawning. Countless players are trapped between dungeons and bosses, waving their controllers repeatedly, like ants endlessly circling on the same piece of candy.
Do you think this is a simple numbers game? No, what is hidden behind it is the invisible kidnapping of human nature by modern consumerism. The game tells you that you need these materials, and you must spend time and energy to get them, otherwise you can’t make your Xiakong stronger. So, people complain and struggle at the same time, falling into an unsolvable cycle. It’s not the game you play, but the game plays you.
There are also those special weapon materials, 6 simple shackles, 6 basic shackles, 10 modified shackles, and 12 special shackles. The metaphor of rings and shackles is obvious. The game tells you in the most subtle way that you are a free soul locked in shackles, and all your efforts are just adding bricks and tiles to these shackles.
The recharge platform of this game is an even more absurd epitome. The so-called discounts, moon phases, points, and tokens sound like stock codes in the stock market, but in fact they are just another gamble of capital in the digital playground. Players use real money to buy the “growth” of the game in exchange for virtual vanity. Soon you will find that the money is gone, the vanity is gone, and what is left is just a pile of numbers and the emptiness of the soul.
“Iris Blooming Day”, this name could have been full of poetry, but in the game, it has become a rare material that can only be obtained by defeating the weekly challenge “Wheel of Fate”. The contrast between the name and the way to obtain it seems to mock the enthusiasm of the players: the closer you want to be to beauty, the more you have to pay.
There is a prop called “Stuffed Meat Tofu” in the game, which can increase the material acquisition rate by 50% for 30 minutes. This “Stuffed Meat Tofu” sounds warm and friendly, like a home-cooked dish made by a mother, but its use reveals the essence of game design: even the simplest happiness is based on the exchange of resources.
We live in an era full of choices and temptations, and games are just a microcosm of this era. Mingchao’s Xiakong shows us how people lose themselves in an invisible capital game and are led by absurd rules behind the endless accumulation of materials.
I want to say that real games should make people feel free and happy, rather than heavy and stressful. But here, we see the shackles of numbers, the loss of time and the exhaustion of psychology. Behind each number is an invisible shackle that binds people’s will.
Xiakong, she is not only a character in the game, but also a symbol of countless people who are bound by numbers and rules in reality. We need to reflect on what is a game, what is life, and what is the freedom we really pursue.
“Mingchao” should not be just a name, but also an inspiration, inspiring us to find our own rhythm from the hustle and bustle of reality, rather than a machine led by numbers and rules.
This is the story of Mingchao Xiakong, and also the story of our time. Behind the absurd game, there are profound struggles of human nature and the survival dilemma of modern society. May we all find our own Xiakong in this ebb and flow.