Battle of Qingcheng

Author: Xiao San Shao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: A truly, A novel adapted from the personal experiences of players, A realistic record of the current state of online games. Art is the distortion of facts. Apart from artists, only madmen have the right to do so. The Battle of Qingcheng is the first book I published after four years of writing. It's filled with legends about online games, or rather, distorted facts crafted by me. You can choose to believe these stories, or you can choose not to. — Xiao San Shao, The Battle of Qingcheng
The story background of The Battle of Qingcheng is taken from the online game MapleStory Online, abbreviated as RO. This online game is adapted from the equally popular manga by South Korean mangaka Lee Myung-jin, with the same title. The game's cute, Q-version characters have attracted a significant number of female players. Since its launch across mainland China, it has amassed over 7.1 million registered members and boasts a peak online player count of 300,000, ranking at the top of the Q-version online game charts.
For most people, if this book is still worth praising, then I believe its greatest significance lies in its very existence. In other words, as the gaming industry gradually enters the public eye, whether it's the author or the publisher, the definition and hope they place on this book are heavily weighted by the idea of: existing for the sake of existence. Even players from different games can find their own reflections in this book, because as players, the passion, the dedication, and the emotional connection to fellow companions in the virtual world are all the same.
So now, it's finally time for the players to speak, but there isn't much they can say. Because that book has already become an integral part of the players' normal lives. Their current state of existence is what they want to express. Without understanding this premise, it's impossible to truly understand them. The language in this book is very close to real life, or rather, very close to the life of online games. All the dialogues are derived from real online game terminology. Perhaps we might encounter some words that can't even be found in dictionaries, and this is something that often happens—especially when reading this book. But this doesn't hinder us from appreciating the vividly individualized characters, because as long as you have a middle school-level reading comprehension, understanding this book is quite easy. In fact, even elementary school students can finish this book without much difficulty, because although they don't understand much about language, at least they understand games.