Text: Yan Jinyan

As we've talked about before, there are always some games that are older and still have more vitality than you can imagine. And today we are going to talk about "Three Kingdoms Killing".

I'm guessing you've got a hint of subtlety by now, but this article isn't really a reverse.

There are two reasons to talk about it.

First of all, when it comes to "Three Kingdoms", can you tell how long it has been online?

The answer is 16 years – if you started playing in elementary school, you're already out of college by now. Seeing this time, I think many people's first reaction is, "Huh? Has it been so long?" After all, "Three Kingdoms Killing" seems to have new stalks and topics all the time.

What can further prove its vitality is that after the update of the version this summer, according to Qimai data, the 10th anniversary area of "Three Kingdoms OL" and "Three Kingdoms OL Interoperable Version" (hereinafter referred to as "Three Kingdoms 10th Anniversary") ranked 31st and 34th on the iOS game best-selling list respectively, and the DAU of the latter's new version skyrocketed on the first day.

Moreover, these are only two of the products of IP, and they are far from all its strength. How's that?,Did you suddenly find out that the players are actually honest.。

Another reason. There has always been no shortage of Three Kingdoms-themed products in the game field, especially the SLG track, which has been fighting anxiously and fiercely recently. But after so many years, "Three Kingdoms Killing" has not been affected at all, and it can be called the only phantom god in the Three Kingdoms game.

You'd say they're not on the same track, what's the point? Then let's not look at the product for the time being, but look at the marketing first.

Not long ago, the video content of "The 10th Anniversary of the Killing of the Three Kingdoms" and the UP host of Station B @逗比的雀巢 still ranked second on the whole site under the fierce competition of many popular games and head creators. The Douyin topic #三国杀一将成名 also reached 35 million+ views in 3 days.

is also backed by the theme of the Three Kingdoms, why has it been 16 years since "Three Kingdoms Killing", there are still so many ghost ideas, and you can frequently rely on content to get out of the circle? And why is its product so strong and so appealing to players?

01

The ability to content that has been underestimated

If you want to understand the evergreen methodology of "Three Kingdoms", you might as well start with this year's summer version.

According to the past thinking, a card competitive game, if you want to promote activity, new ways to play are essential. Take "The 10th Anniversary of the Three Kingdoms" as an example, this time their PVE roguelike gameplay "Heavenly Book Brawl" is back, and a new "Auto Chess" mode has also been added.

To put it simply, the auto-chess gameplay has been comprehensively iterative and innovative, and now the "auto-chess" gameplay of "Three Kingdoms Kills 10th Anniversary" has crossed over to the "Hearthstone Tavern Battle Chess", which has attracted many peripheral players, and is also known as the most suitable auto-chess for the physique of "Three Kingdoms Kill" players.

At the same time, this "Auto Chess" mode also combines the version of the character "Mou Jia Xu" with the theme of "Wenhe Exercise" to bring players an immersive troop arrangement experience that more restores the historical events of the Three Kingdoms, and this also makes players look forward to the content update of the "Auto Chess" gameplay under different themes in the future.

However, if you think that "Three Kingdoms" is just a way to play, you may have been deceived by it. This is only the surface, and the deeper layer lies in its content.

This year, the Shu novella version of "Three Kingdoms Killing OL" launched "Mou Pang Tong", and the "Three Kingdoms Killing 10th Anniversary" creation festival launched "Mou Jia Xu", both of which have caused a lot of topic discussion on the content platform.

The first is character selection. Pang Tong and Jia Xu are not new characters, in order to make a distinction, this time the Mou series focuses on the deconstruction of the characters on the other side of the two characters that are not well known.

In the past, we all said that Pang Tong was as famous as Wolong, but we rarely knew what major things he actually did that affected the pattern of the world, but Luo Fengpo remembered it firmly. So, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" started with a small slice, and selected the story of Pang Tong's three strategies to persuade Liu Bei to enter Shu, so that everyone can further understand the character characteristics of Pang Tong.

During the Three Kingdoms period, when Liu Bei broke with Yizhou Mu Liu Zhang, Pang Tong was well aware of Liu Bei's benevolence, righteousness and generosity, and in order to protect the reputation of the lord, he put forward three strategies, which corresponded to the radical, benevolent and compromise secret plan to attack Shu, and finally let Liu Bei's soldiers rise up and capture Fuxian, which opened the prelude to Shu Han.

In order to better interpret the story to players, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" used a more Q version of the "finger puppet" method to interpret the different endings of Pang Tong's three strategies of "attacking, luring, and defending" in the role PV of "Seeking Pang Tong", deducing the characteristics of Pang Tong's unsightly appearance, but looking at the overall situation and gaining insight into people's hearts.

And this side of Pang Tong happens to be a relatively scarce part of the past character deconstruction content, which can not only arouse the interest of players, but also drive the attention of lovers of the Three Kingdoms theme.

Further, there is the creation of characters in the game.

On the one hand, through the setting and lines, the three-dimensional character design of the character is strengthened. For example, the skill "Hongtu" of "Seeking Pang Tong" corresponds to the classic deed of offering advice, so the voice often begins with "I have a plan", which not only shows that Pang Tong himself is good at scheming, but this magical voice also attracts players to comment and imitate;

The skill "Perched Wu" is taken from the image of the phoenix, the phoenix perched on the plane tree, can dodge near attacks at a high place, but cannot defend against cold arrows in the distance, which coincides with the deeds of Pang Tong and Fengpo in history, and the lines revolve around the theme of "sitting high and not afraid of wind and cold".

Pang Tong admonished Liu Bei to enter Shu to open the prelude to Shu Han, so far Pang Tong's life is closely related to Shu Han. In this "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" Shu novella, in order to better excavate the Shu Han culture, the easter eggs of the "Mou Pang Tong" lines were added to the game, triggering the Sichuan dialect lines, and rendering the overall Shu cultural atmosphere.

On the other hand, in terms of specific gameplay, it is designed to fit the character and do skill design. Take the "Mou Jia Xu" launched in "The 10th Anniversary of the Killing of the Three Kingdoms" as an example, the core feature of this character is that you can have the ability to "go back in time" by launching a double limited skill, you can launch the first limited skill "Su Shen" in advance to record the peak state of your physical strength and hand, and then return to this peak moment through the second limited skill "Entering the WTO" to improve the possibility of winning the game.

And the mechanism of this limited skill also pays tribute to the famous limited skill "Chaowu" of Jia Xu, the classic version of the Three Kingdoms Kill many years ago, which makes the old players of the Three Kingdoms Kill feel full of feelings.

And these designs echo Jia Xu's label of "the first person to survive in the Three Kingdoms". In the Three Kingdoms, Jia Xufan made suggestions for self-preservation, and had a strong sense of survivability and risk management, whether it was instigating Li Dao and Guo Yan to counterattack Chang'an during the Wenhe Rebellion, or persuading Zhang Xiu to surrender to Cao Cao. Therefore, when players actually play, they can better understand how Jia Xu has insight into the situation and manipulates the overall situation behind the curtain.

From the above, it is not difficult to see that "Three Kingdoms Killing" is ruthless in its ability to deconstruct and shape the characters of the Three Kingdoms.

The benefits of this are also clear.

First, digging into the role from different angles can maintain the long-term update of the product. You see, "Three Kingdoms" has been around for 16 years, and it is still possible to continue to introduce new generals, new mechanics, and new ways to play in this way.

Second, although "Three Kingdoms" is a competitive card, players are all lovers of the Three Kingdoms theme. A good character deconstruction can provide more content-level consumption, and as long as it is recognized by players, then it is possible to get self-propagation.

Third, we often say that the Three Kingdoms, as part of the Four Great Classics and True History, have a wide audience. But this does not mean that the theme of the Three Kingdoms is a great benefit, on the contrary, the Three Kingdoms games are everywhere, but it has intensified everyone's competitive intensity.

If you want players to remember and like it, you must conduct an in-depth analysis of the culture of the Three Kingdoms and create a more three-dimensional and recognizable character. This should also be the reason why "Three Kingdoms" has always focused on the deconstruction of characters and the strengthening of packaging.

02

Surround the player

In other words, a large part of the reason why "Three Kingdoms Killing" can maintain its vitality comes from the excavation of the Three Kingdoms culture. However, this is only the basics, in order to expand the volume and achieve "the Three Kingdoms can be seen everywhere", they are also very experienced in market communication.

First of all, for core players, the creation festival of "The 10th Anniversary of the Three Kingdoms" is a classic example. Anyone can make a festival in games, but most of them are a whole gimmick, giving benefits to everyone, and doing some activities to promote return and attract new ones.

But the creation of the game festival, it is directly the core of the general design, into the hands of the player. Through the "One Commander Becomes Famous Warrior Design Competition", all players can teach the planner to make a game, and the generals designed by everyone are really likely to be included in the game in the end, such as the popular proposition character "Li Wan" in the 2022 Creation and Play Festival, and the "Chen Shi" in 2023.

Including this year's proposition characters "Mou Guojia" and "Ma Jun", etc., will also be voted for by players for the best design, and will be available to you soon.

At the same time, the official also took advantage of this to cooperate with KOLs. Last year, they explained the history of station B to the UP main @小约翰可汗, and made it a living military general with a characteristic landlord mode, and the topic once appeared on the top 4 hot searches of the whole site.

Secondly, it is to use the culture of the Three Kingdoms as the carrier to reach peripheral users at different levels.

On the one hand, around "Mou Pang Tong" and "Mou Jia Xu", the official has found KOLs in different fields, and through the interpretation of different themes such as workplace, campus, and life, as much as possible to reach users of different attributes and age groups.

For example, the workplace expert @李什么闯啊 uses the way of the modern workplace to interpret and show the tricks of Pang Tong; @项真爽, a former e-sports professional player, went to the barren mountains and mountains to have a real journey of survival, vividly echoing Jia Xu's way of survival in the most down-to-earth form.

On the other hand, in the layout of the publicity content, "Three Kingdoms Killing" is not just full of volume, in which they will use one or two high-quality content to first stand up for the new content of the version.

This time, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" combines Pang Tong and Guangyuan, focusing on Guangyuan's local Shu Han cultural characteristics, intangible cultural heritage skills and other content, and carries out in-depth excavation inside and outside the game.

Specifically, in the promotion of "Mou Pang Tong", they found Chai Xi and Mr. @有山, the well-known UP masters of Station B @超Carry, and other experts in the Three Kingdoms Historical District, and invited them to play Guangyuan together, re-walk the Shu Road, and enjoy Zhaohua.

During the period, Youshan took "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", according to the cultural attractions on the road, frantically exported his historical and cultural expertise, told the allusion of Pang Tong's three plans to advise Liu Bei, and at the same time, popularized the cultural knowledge of the Three Kingdoms, and finally created "Yong Pang Tong" passionately in the rain, a sentence "Luofeng people died and swallowed Shu, from now on look at the Three Kingdoms killing." not only expressed Pang Tong's regret, but also pointed out that after Feng Xiao's death, Wei, Shu and Wu's Three Kingdoms killed each other.

Also at station B, "The 10th Anniversary of the Killing of the Three Kingdoms" and the UP main @逗比的雀巢 team produced a more relaxed and funny feature film: in the context of a shortage of funds and the company's bankruptcy crisis, it also shows the characteristics of Mou Jiaxu's skills that can "go back in time" and "change his life against the sky". Regardless of whether you are a Three Kingdoms player or not, as long as you watch this short video, you should be able to remember the character's ability to change his life against the sky.

At the same time, with the high-quality plot and interpretation, the video once ranked second on the list of station B, which not only led the popularity of topics related to "Three Kingdoms" on station B, but also fed back the dissemination and discussion of its content.

Finally, in terms of communication, in order to achieve full-scene coverage, "Three Kingdoms Killing" also chose offline activities and cultural tourism cooperation with the flavor of the Three Kingdoms.

For example, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" focuses on "Mou Pang Tong", launching physical cards and peripherals to awaken the memories and emotions of new and old players playing cards offline; The "Mou Jiaxu" of "The 10th Anniversary of the Killing of the Three Kingdoms" was officially certified by Xuchang Cultural Tourism as the "Xuchang City Three Kingdoms Digital Cultural Tourism Promotion Ambassador", and its related image can be seen in popular scenic spots, business districts, and transportation stations in Xuchang.

In these cooperations, the "Three Kingdoms Killing" is also not blindly covered. Instead, it breaks the scenes inside and outside the game, and tells the history of the Three Kingdoms through online and offline linkage. Taking the linkage between "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" and Guangyuan Cultural Tourism as an example, they not only launched the exclusive background of the game activity field Sword Pavilion, but also cooperated with Guangyuan intangible cultural heritage hemp willow embroidery to launch Mou Pang Tong's hemp willow embroidery intangible cultural heritage skin "Ji Lan Jinxiu".

In addition, finding the right point of convergence from the generals and culture, from the point to the surface, from the surface to the inside, is also an important means for the "Three Kingdoms Killing" to dig deep into the culture of the Three Kingdoms and tell historical allusions.

When "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" cooperated with Maliu embroidery, it combined it with Mou Pang Tong, and extracted cultural commonalities from the two: Mou, Zhi and Jian, which not only showed the exquisite skills and wisdom of the embroidery maker, but also conveyed Pang Tong's strategy. From this, you can feel that all the cooperation and market behaviors of "Three Kingdoms Killing" are rooted in the culture of the Three Kingdoms.

And when all this is realized, everyone will naturally sigh: how can they be surrounded by the "Three Kingdoms Killing" again. At the same time, many users will also discuss and discuss the content of these cultural orientations, and finally like the interpretation of the content of the Three Kingdoms by "Three Kingdoms".

03

Conclusion

Speaking of which, you should be able to understand why "Three Kingdoms" has been able to maintain its vitality for so many years.

Essentially, it's about their continuous digging into the culture of the Three Kingdoms and a set of skillful methodologies that reach users.

Of course, it seems that this method is not very difficult, but you must know that although we often say that the theme of the Three Kingdoms is the stuff of our ancestors and an inexhaustible treasure trove of materials, not everyone can dig up this part, not to mention that it has to be innovated and disseminated with the times.

Moreover, this is not something that can be achieved overnight, and it must be persisted in order to achieve brand accumulation and precipitation. And "Three Kingdoms" should be hoping to spend 16 years trying to convince everyone that it is the IP with the deepest research, the best interpretation and the most innovative understanding of the culture of the Three Kingdoms in the game field.

Whether it is this year's "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" or "The 10th Anniversary of Three Kingdoms", they continue to launch breakthrough Three Kingdoms game content. Just as most gamers mention the Three Kingdoms, they can almost immediately think of "Three Kingdoms", and I believe that in the future, they will still be able to "thrive".

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