What is Culture Industry?
Culture Industry refers to commercial and state-owned organizations in the arts and media committed to directly producing, sponsoring, displaying, and distributing cultural goods and services (such as exhibitions, sports events, books, newspapers, and films) (Mambrol, 2016).
Culture Industry in My Life
Summarize some examples of cultural industries that have recently appeared in my life. In my opinion, one industry I admire is a game called “Honor Of Kings.”
Honor of Kings “is a MOBA domestic mobile game developed and operated by Tencent Gaming Tianmei Studio Group on the Android and IOS platforms. The gameplay is mainly competitive, with players engaging in PVP battles in various ways, such as 1V1, 3V3, 5V5, etc. After meeting the conditions, players can participate in the game’s ranking competition and the PVE challenge mode. It is a tower-type game. In September 2023, Tencent’s “Honor of Kings” grossed $198 million in global App Store and Google Play revenue, ranking first on the global best-selling mobile game chart (Sutton, 2022).
Not only are these impressive data, but what is even more fascinating is that the characters and cultural backgrounds set in this game draw on many famous historical figures, stories, and battles from traditional Chinese culture. Honour of Kings tap into elements of Chinese social culture that have helped it become a real cultural phenomenon in this market. Made in China for a Chinese audience, the gameplay and themes are relatable: characters are based on legendary figures making it culturally relevant. This works much better than shonky localised western Not only are these impressive data, but what is even more fascinating is that this game’s characters and cultural backgrounds draw on many famous historical figures, stories, and battles from traditional Chinese culture. Honor of Kings taps into elements of Chinese social culture that have helped it become a genuine cultural phenomenon in this market. Made in China for a Chinese audience, the gameplay and themes are relatable: characters are based on legendary figures, making it culturally relevant. This works much better than shonky localized western games in translation; to meet the needs of fans for the game background, some anchors have even opened overseas special channels to share and spread the story of the Honor of Kings. By incorporating elements such as Chinese mythology into the game, this game unexpectedly promotes the export of Chinese culture to the outside world. (Zaccaria, 2018). Miyamoto Musashi, Japan’s greatest swordsman, was a warrior-type hero. King Arthur, King of the Britons, was a warrior-type hero. Marco Polo is a traveling Italian merchant who once visited China as a marksman-type hero. Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War, as a warrior-type hero. So on and so forth.
Conclusion
Indeed, with the integration of games and traditional culture becoming the mainstream trend, more and more games are exploring how to inject new era blood and connotation into a traditional culture. The approach of “Honor of Kings” no longer seems too novel. However, in the monotonous linkage, ‘Honor of Kings’ is one of the few models to bring traditional culture to life.
Even in terms of quantity, it is difficult for other games to match the large number of traditional cultures that Honor of Kings has collaborated with since its birth. Even more commendable is that in integrating with traditional culture, Honor of Kings still respects culture and explores its diverse and youthful expression by extracting the core elements of traditional culture.
To this day, Honor of Kings, which frequently appears in the public eye, still insists on finding the key to integrating traditional culture and gaming. While absorbing and integrating cultural connotations, we also focus more on conveying the stories behind culture, thereby enhancing the dissemination and value of traditional culture with the help of IP.
References:
Grey, S. (2022). Honor of Kings: Not just a game platform. [online] Digital Innovation and Transformation. Available at: https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/honor-of-kings-not-just-a-game-platform/.
Mambrol, N. (2016). Culture Industry. [online] Literary Theory and Criticism. Available at: https://literariness.org/2016/04/15/culture-industry/.
Zaccaria , S. (2018). Gaming in China: The Cultural Phenomenon of Tencent’s Honour of Kings. [online] Toppan Digital Language. Available at: https://toppandigital.com/translation-blog/gaming-china-cultural-phenomenon-honour-kings/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2023]
I love playing Honor of Kings too, but now the game really seems like a media factory, not just the game itself, there are a lot of things that go into it. In recent years, the game has been used to produce variety shows, which has led to a lot of star players, and the KPL league has packaged those players. Each club also produces and sells merchandise. But I think this production model could accelerate the decline of the game.
Great blog! I am also a loyal fan of King Glory. To be honest, I didn’t know it was so popular before that. It’s really a pleasure to see games in my own country sell so well. If you don’t mind, we can play this game together in our spare time.
That’s a really good example about how TenCent used the game as a media platform to spread Chinese history. by the way, Its purpose as a game is to make profit and make players like it, so he will tamper with the image as well as personality of historical figures in some cases. For example, they will change Li Bai, a famous ancient Chinese poet, into a murderous hero, which may cause some people who lack the knowledge base of history to misunderstand the character because of this game. In the end, it is a good means of cultural dissemination, but it can’t represent the whole of a culture.
Thank you！
Great blog! I am also a loyal fan of King Glory. To be honest, I didn’t know it was so popular before that. It’s really a pleasure to see games in my own country sell so well. If you don’t mind, we can play this game together in our spare time.