The Legend Returns
(Chengdu Commercial Daily) "The Legend" Returns In A Completely Different Format, Several Thousand Netizens Blocked City Gates In Protest. August 29, 2009.
(newspaper report translated from Chinese)
Yesterday at 2pm, Shanda officially introduced its nostagia edition of <The Legend Returns>.
Many years ago, the online game <Hot-blooded Legend> had been the classic game that touched an entire generation of game players. But as all types of new games rushed onto the market, the Legend players gradually dispersed. Today, these players returned with great hopes for the updated version of the game. But when they found out that the new games was over-commercialized and not the "original flavor" as advertised, they felt cheated and used the method of blocking the gates and passages of the various "cities" to protest.
"Chu Yu" is the nickname for a netizen. Eight years ago, this second-year university student registered the user name "Chu Yu" in the <Hot-blooded Legend> game. For the next three years, he fought on in this virtual world. For his first year, he cut classes for one year as he played a knight, slaughtered monsters, got promoted, attacked cities and traveled around. In April 2003, he won a green necklace. While his fellow students were attending ancient Chinese classics class, he was screaming and yelling in the Internet cafe and almost smashing his keyboard. In September, he met the female Taoist "Xiao Xiao." One late night during the game, they rode horses to the seaside to gaze at the blue water. He told her that they will go to Beijing to watch the Olympics. Then he took her into the city and bought her a purple Taoist robe.
Eventually Chu Yu succeeded in graduating from university. He came to Chengdu and became an office worker. In his rental room, he watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with tears coming down his eyes. It had been many years since he played <Legend>.
Today Chu Yu still regrets not having "married" Xiao Xiao." "Wait until she graduates and we can take two wedding rings and ride our horses to see the matchmaker and get married to the cheers of our guild brothers and sisters." After <The Legend Returns> announced, these memories returned to Chu Yu. He even remembered that on a certain afternoon, he woke up in his bedroom with his mind full of the image of the purple Taoist robe.
Chu Yu started to follow the reports on <The Legend Returns>. He quickly discovered that it was hopeless to expect too much. Several days ago, Shanda published some screen captures which the players sadly found to include class restrictions and commercial stores ... the RMB will dominate everything ... if a player has cash, he can purchase equipment to upgrade without having to go through the trouble to combat monsters ...
The players decided to call for a boycott. They established Baidu forums and QQ groups to protest the "false advertising" by Shanda to "take advantage of their feelings." Some of the leaders even called for the players to block the entrances to the various cities at 2pm, August 28 when the game officially opened.
At 2pm, the game opened as scheduled. Chu Yu was in his office and could not directly play the game. Via QQ chat, he observed the screen captures that other players were uploading.
At one entrance, more than 40 characters stood still. They wore cloth dresses and cloth shoes and stood shoulder to shoulder. Other players cannot enter. Two hours later, more than 2,000 people entered the chat room. Meanwhile, several thousand people were blocking the gates of the various cities in the game.
The "counter-attack" came soon. The chat room kept being shut down. Some players found their screen went black suddenly as they were tossed by the system administrator into the black room. "I have played <Legend> for eight years and this was the first time that I entered such a room." "Hua Xie" from Jiangsu province said sadly. Other players were transported by the system administrator far into the wilderness.
Fatigue and disgust set in eventually. Players began to leave.
For one last time, Chu Yu checked the QQ chat. Someone was calling for blocking the gates for one whole week. This drew a sarcastic comment: "Were you involved in blocking today? You were not blocking the city gates. You were blocking your own loneliness out!" Chu Yu smiled and thought about the purple-dressed figure flowing in his heart. He made up his mind that he was going to leave for good. He will never turn back.
(blog post translated from Chinese)
The reason why this mass incident occurred was that the new version of Legend was over-commercialized and quite inconsistent with their advertising claim that the "original flavor" would be preserved. In previous versions of the game, victories and social rank depend on persistence. As long as the player is "hardworking" and is brave and strong in combating monsters, he can get promoted in rank and obtain more equipment. In fact, he can proceed to have "romance" and even "marriage" in a life of leisure.
But things are different in <The Legend Returns>. There are commercial stores in which you can buy anything that you want as long as you have RMB (the real currency of China). As long as you spend money, you can get promoted even if you don't fight the monsters and you can live a life of leisure. It is no wonder that the netizens are protesting: In a virtual world in which real-world money means everything and actual ability counts for nothing, what embodies the values of life?
It is not hard for us to see in this mass incident that everybody longs for a world with fair competition in which people fights for victory on the basis of their ability rather than being driven solely by ideas of "authority" and "money." This is a good thing. People should have those value preferences. As far as this incident went, it was comforting to see this phenomenon.
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(e0575.cn)
"Gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend, gimme back my Legend"
"Protest Protest We've been cheated Protest Protest We've been cheated"
"Is this the 2002 Legend? Isn't is supposed to be 'original flavor'? They are deceiving the players. Gimme back my Legend, I will block to my death"
"Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die Die"
"Boycott Shanda. Fuck Cheng Tianqiao to death. Gimme back my original Legend."
"Defend our dignity"
"I will never play any Shanda games again. I will never play anything except QQ."
"Boycott Shanda. Gimme back my Legend. Fuck his mother! All the brothers move over to 245566!!!"
"We don't want Chen Tianqiao's mom to receive customers, we want Chen Tianqiao's wife to receive customers!"
"Boycott Shanda! Overturn Chen Tianqiao! Boycott Shendga! Send your greetings to the female members of Chen Tianqiao's family!"
"Protest against Shanda for abusing the feelings of the players towards Legend. Let us support IS245566."
"CTQ, I fuck your wife's stinking cunt until she gets cancer/maggots!"
"Protest! Gimme me back the real Legend"
"Use the weapon in your weapon to boycott SD. Deceptions again and again. We must not be silent. Protest strongly!"
"Don't play anymore. SD, I fuck all the women in your maily. I fuck you mother 2002 years."
"Fuck SD. Everybody boycott SD. Deceptive advertising." Defend our dignity!"
"Gimme back version 1.76. I fuck SD and CTQ."¡@
"Stay far away from me. Motherfuckers. I want to play my game. Mind your own business ..."
"Gimme back my Legend! Gimme back my dignity! 10,000 are on IS245577. You are not fighting alone!"
"I protest strongly against SD. Gimme back my version 1.76. I protest the arbitrary placement of me elsewhere. Disrespectful of the players."
"The Legend Returns. Has it really returned? Is this how everybody want it to return?"
