Game studies1 Exercise 2
Non-digital to digital – Evolution and remediating this game
1. Introduction to the Non-Digital Game:
Legends of the Three Kingdoms
三国杀, often translated as "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" or "Killers of the Three Kingdoms", is a highly popular Chinese non-digital card game first released in 2008 by YOKA Games. It draws heavily from the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and a pre-existing Italian card game, Bang!. Players take on the roles of famous historical figures from the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD) in China, each with unique abilities. The game typically involves 4-10 players.
The basic premise involves hidden roles:
Monarch: Aims to eliminate all Loyalists and Rebels/Traitors.
Loyalist: Must protect the monarch and eliminate rebels and traitors.
Rebel: Aims to eliminate the monarch.
Traitor: Aims to eliminate everyone else, including the monarch last.
2. Evolution of the Non-Digital Game:
Origins and Initial Impact: Conceived by designer K.K. Ai in Beijing, while it borrowed the framework of Bang!, "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" quickly surpassed its predecessor's influence by introducing richer character abilities, a historical background more attuned to Chinese culture, and a unique "role" system, becoming a phenomenal tabletop game.
Character Expansions: This is a vital source of the game's longevity. Famous expansion series such as "Wind", "Fire", "Forest", "Mountain", "Mythical Realm", "Becoming a General", etc., continuously introduced new characters. These characters not only differed numerically but, more importantly, brought entirely new skill mechanics. For example, "Divine" characters usually possess powerful abilities capable of changing the game's tide, and some characters introduced new concepts like "Soul Stance", "Limited Skills", and "Locked Skills", increasing strategic depth and variety.
Card and Mechanic Updates: Besides characters, expansion packs also brought new basic cards, trick cards (like variations or counters to "Supply Disruption" or "Acedia"), and equipment cards. Sometimes, new game mechanics were introduced, such as the "Hidden General" and "Ambitious Warlord" settings in the "Kingdom Wars" mode.
Mode Innovation: From the initial role-based game, it gradually developed into 1v1 duels, 3v3 team competitions, and the "Kingdom Wars" mode, which allows more players and emphasises factional conflict, catering to the needs of different player groups.
Rule Optimisation and Community Interaction: As the game developed, officials released FAQs, errata, and rule updates to address ambiguities or balance issues in earlier rules. Player community discussions and feedback also positively influenced game balance adjustments and new content design, even leading to officially recognised player-designed character events.
Merchandise and Derivative Culture: The success of "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" also spurred a large amount of merchandise, such as card collection albums, character figures, and themed novels, forming a unique "Sanguosha cultural circle". Concurrently, some simplified versions or derivative tabletop games targeting specific age groups also emerged.
3. Core Mechanics and Appeal
Hidden Roles & Social Deduction: This is one of the core charms of "Legends of the Three Kingdoms." Players need to deduce others' identities through clues like cards played, speech (if allowed), and targets of attack, subsequently deciding their own strategy. Trust and betrayal, alliances and feuds, intertwine dramatically throughout the game. Accurate judgment, clever disguise, and timely revelation of one's role are key to victory.
Sophisticated Card Management & Resource Utilization: Cards in the game are divided into basic cards (like the core offensive/defensive "Attack" and "Dodge," or "Peach" for healing), trick cards (like "Snatch" or "Sabotage" for control, "Ex Nihilo" for card draw, or the game-changing "Negate"), and equipment cards (weapons, armor, mounts providing attack range, defense bonuses, or special effects). How effectively players acquire, retain, and use these cards, playing key cards at opportune moments, is a crucial measure of a player's skill.
Strong Player Interaction & Strategic Confrontation: Whether it's direct attacks and defenses, assistance and restrictions via trick cards, or changes in the offensive/defensive landscape brought by equipment cards, all constitute direct or indirect interactions between players. Alliances often form based on common enemies or temporary interests but can also quickly dissolve due to changing situations or revealed identities.
Variation of "Edutainment" and Playfulness: Although "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" is not strictly an educational game, the "playfulness" within its complex rule system is worth learning from. Through clear objectives, ever-changing situations, the joy of role-playing, and the excitement of social interaction, it motivates players to invest time in learning and mastering its rules. This ability to make a complex system enjoyable is crucial for any game design, especially for educational games aiming to convey specific knowledge points.
4. Remediation into Digital Format
Leveraging its broad fan base and mature gameplay, "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" has been successfully remediated into various digital formats, available on PC, web, and major mobile platforms.
Evolution and Diversity of Digital Versions:
"Sanguosha Online" and various PC/Web versions: These were the primary early digital forms, striving to replicate the physical card game's gameplay and utilizing the internet for remote play. Some versions focused more on faithful adaptation, while others began earlier to experiment with new modes or visual effects unique to digital platforms.
"Sanguosha Mobile" / "Sanguosha 10th Anniversary" and other mobile games: Mobile versions quickly captured the market due to their convenience. These versions paid more attention to optimizing touch controls and adapting to mobile device screens in their UI/UX design, while also more actively introducing new characters, skins, and various operational events.
Translation and Presentation of Core Mechanics on Digital Platforms:
Role and Character System: Role assignment and character selection are automated by the system. The UI clearly displays character skill descriptions, health status, number of cards in hand, etc. For novice players, the system also provides skill activation prompts.
Card Operation and Rule Automation: Players perform actions like playing or discarding cards by clicking or dragging. The biggest advantage of digital versions is the automatic execution and resolution of rules, such as determining attack range, the trigger order of trick card effects, and damage calculation. This significantly lowers the entry barrier and avoids rule disputes or errors that can occur in the physical game.
Game Flow and Information Display: Automatic turn rotation, dynamic display of health bars, equipped cards, cards in the judgment area, etc., are all clearly visible. A game log feature also allows players to review key actions.
Changes and Enhanced Experiences in Digital Form:
Comprehensive Upgrade of Audiovisual Experience: Exquisite character art, dynamic skill animations, voice acting that matches character personalities, and atmospheric background music and sound effects are all incomparable to the physical card game, greatly enhancing immersion and expressiveness.
Social and Competitive Systems: Built-in friend systems, chat functions (though sometimes restricted to ensure fairness), convenient team-forming for group play, and competitive systems like ranked ladders and tournaments cater to players' social and competitive desires.
Personalization and Collection Systems: Digital versions often include rich personalization elements like character skins, dynamic card effects, avatar frames, chat bubbles, etc., which players can obtain through in-game currency, event rewards, or direct purchase. This desire to collect and display also motivates continued player engagement.
Transformation of Business Models: Many digital versions of "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" adopt a "free-to-play, pay-for-items" model. Players can experience basic content for free, but acquiring new characters, rare skins, etc., may require spending time accumulating in-game currency or paying directly. While this model expands the user base, it can also lead to discussions about game balance and fairness in payment.
Experiences Potentially Weakened or Lost in Digital Transformation:
Subtleties of Face-to-Face Social Interaction: Physical ("face-to-face kill") games involve rich non-verbal communication like reading expressions, judging tone, and body language, which are hard to fully replicate in online interactions dominated by text and preset emoticons. The unique psychological warfare and atmosphere from "table talk" are also diminished.
Tactile Sensation and Ritual of Physical Cards: The physical experience of touching, shuffling, and dealing cards, as well as certain rituals formed around physical games (like gatherings for specific occasions), cannot be replaced by digital versions.
Conclusion:
The journey of "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" from a physical card game to a diverse product popular across major digital platforms vividly demonstrates how a successful game can be revitalized through continuous content innovation and adapt and reshape itself under different media characteristics through effective remediation strategies. The game's core charm—its background deeply rooted in Three Kingdoms culture, unique role-playing dynamics, and endlessly varied character skills and card combinations—has proven to possess strong cross-media vitality.
Its remediation process was not a simple online replication of physical rules but fully utilized the advantages of digital platforms: automation lowered the entry barrier, audiovisual effects enhanced sensory experience, network functions expanded social and competitive boundaries, and new business models supported its continuous operation. Of course, this process was also accompanied by the loss of certain unique experiences from the physical game.
Analyzing the evolution and remediation of "Legends of the Three Kingdoms" can provide valuable experience for understanding game design principles and how to strike a balance between playfulness and complexity (or, as in this course project, "educational elements"
Comments
Post a Comment