China has long championed the protection of forest ecosystems. Not only is respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature part of Chinese virtues, but also crucial tenets for sustainable development. Protecting forests is, in essence, protecting humanity itself.

        In light of the ongoing depletion of forests, NetEase Games has been actively exploring new methods and practices to protect forests, contributing its energy within the gaming industry to construct an ecological civilization.

 

I. Internalizing the Concept of Forest Protection

       The key to protecting forest ecosystems is to plant the seeds of awareness. NetEase Games has assumed the role of forest protector, working to incorporate forest protection into game design. Using games as a platform to promote the depth and breadth of forest protection, NetEase Games has found new ways to promote ecological ideology within game design.

　　NetEase's asymmetric competitive mobile game Identity V launched the "Verdant Dreams" Arbor Day themed event in 2023, with an activity set in a wasteland where the natural environment had been destroyed. The game presented players with a desolate landscape of withered fields, dead trees, and dried leaves. Players carried the last seeds on the land and needed to sow greenery—and hope. While out finding planting locations based on coordinate clues, players had to contend with the harsh environment and apocalyptic scenery and grapple with the importance of forest conservation.

Identity V: Arbor Day “Verdant Dreams” Event

　　NetEase's mobile game Eggy Party launched a UGC (User-Generated Content) "green public welfare" map called "The Fourth Sapling", wherein players experienced the entire process of planting saplings while going through the map. Players helped revive the valley in the game, adding an educational element and promoting the idea of living in harmony with nature. The game also featured a large number of forest-themed maps such as "Firefly Forest", "Island of Deer”, and "Dreamy Forest", wherein players could appreciate the natural beauty and foster a close affinity with the forest.

Eggy Party: The Forest-themed Map

 

II. Empowering Forest Protection With Collaborations

       Practical approaches to raising awareness on the value of forest products is a major challenge for current efforts to construct green societies. In response to this, NetEase Games has leveraged its role to carry out extensive crossover collaborations themed around environmental protection to promote and streamline efforts to construct a green society.

　　In summer 2020, NetEase's martial arts mobile game A Dream of Jianghu launched a large format desert map "Mirage". While offering players vast desert landscapes, it also announced a partnership with the Alxa Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE) to carry out the "Desert Oasis" activity. In this process, individual saxaul desert plants became a "commodity"—for, every time players teamed up, they would advance the "One Hundred Million Saxaul" afforestation project in Alxa. In this way, it helped develop local environmental NGOs and harnessed the power of gaming to rebuild ecological barriers and prevent desertification.

A Dream of Jianghu x Alxa SEE: The "Desert Oasis" Activity

　　In 2023, NetEase's mobile game Eggy Party teamed up with Ant Forest to jointly launch an activity that realized the potential of "gaming + public welfare". Players could enter the game through Alipay or Eggy Party and "water" saplings in the "Eggy Party Public Welfare Forest" to complete activity tasks and win green rewards. As leaders in their respective industries, Eggy Party and Ant Forest were able to not only encourage a greater number of netizens to participate in forest protection activities and raise awareness of the issue, but also provide platform support and industrial clout for forest conservation.

Eggy Party x Ant Forest

 

III. When Awareness Meets Action

        In 2022, the Office of the National Afforestation Commission and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration issued a voluntary tree planting initiative, emphasizing the importance of afforestation and inspiring the general public to promote a green society, participate in tree planting, and work to build a more beautiful China. NetEase Games is aware of the importance of afforestation and promoting green initiatives and has worked to actively fulfill its social responsibility to build a green society, transitioning from games to action.

　　NetEase's sci-fi game Infinite Lagrange not only created an online "Earth Day" event, but also offered an offline environmental element working in tandem. Since its 2022 Earth Day, Infinite Lagrange has launched a series of forest protection activities and teamed up with the China Green Foundation to participate in the "Million Forest Plan" and plant 10,000 saplings in the Tengger Desert in Alxa on behalf of players. In 2023, Infinite Lagrange continued the "Million Forest Plan", planting 20,000 saplings in Alxa and filming a documentary depicting the planting and results. Players able to witness the tenacity of the trees were able to appreciate the importance of green initiatives and Earth Day. Through these innovations, Infinite Lagrange was able to forge a meaningful connection between online and offline activism, making a closed loop of public welfare and achieving a positive cycle between game intelligence and forest conservation.

Infinite Lagrange: The "Million Forest Plan"

　　Forest conservation today benefits the world of tomorrow. To help protect the environment, NetEase Games has sought innovative methods to combine games and forest conservation for the public. By engaging in activities, crossovers, and practical action, NetEase Games continues to advance a greener China and greater forest conservation.