Chinese culture has long cherished the rough-and-tumble martial world known as the Jianghu. A unique creation in Chinese literature and art, its genre, known as wuxia, embodies the spirit of adventure and exploration.Nowadays, new wuxia literary works have gained widespread fame and are beloved by countless Chinese readers. Films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers" have also received international acclaim. A century has passed, but the influence of wuxia has not diminished, becoming a unique symbol and emblem of China. Finding ways to make the Jianghu fit with the public’s growing visual and cultural needs and using wuxia works to enhance Chinese culture have become important concerns for modern wuxia creators.

       As a leading voice in wuxia games, NetEase Games has worked to innovate, using historical and cultural foundations as well as classic wuxia works to explore new frontiers in Chinese wuxia and promote traditional Chinese culture.

 

I. Promoting the Continuation of Art and Cultural Heritage

       With its artistic achievements, heritage art is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. As apprentices in intangible cultural heritage become less common and the public loses enthusiasm for it, finding ways to pass on these skills and traditions is increasingly challenging. Faced with this dilemma, NetEase Games has found clever ways to combine elements of intangible cultural heritage with wuxia, reproducing dance, martial arts, songs, and more in-game for players to learn more about the culture.

　　NetEase Games’s martial arts game Naraka: Bladepoint has incorporated an extensive amount of traditions. On November 2, 2023, Naraka: Bladepoint teamed up with The Global Times to launch the Chinese Martial Arts Heritage Protection and Inheritance Plan, using new media platforms to promote Chinese martial arts. Guan Lei, the producer of Naraka: Bladepoint, said that the plan will serve as the theme for the Naraka: Bladepoint 2023 Martial Arts Sword Competition. Combined with various boxing techniques such as Shaolin, Wudang, Xingyi, Baji, and Wing Chun, they will also launch the event "Infinite Martial Arts" to focus on promoting martial arts. Replicating cultural heritage visuals and skills in the game not only helps people better understand, appreciate, and carry on traditional Chinese culture, but also helps modernize and transform the skills themselves.

Naraka: Bladepoint: Chinese Martial Arts Heritage Protection and Inheritance Plan

　　The wuxia mobile game Justice Online has also integrated elements of traditional cultural heritage, leveraging its clout to promote intangible cultural heritage. On June 10, 2023, Justice Online officially announced the formation of a national group of experts from across various fields on traditional culture such as martial arts, dance, song, creative works, and more, to function as cultural ambassadors. At the Asian Games, Justice Online partnered with intangible cultural heritage master Zhou Shuangxi to create battle clothes for the Chinese women’s volleyball team, sparking interest in traditional arts.

Justice Online x Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team

 

II. Promoting the Jianghu With Technology

       Games make dreams reality, and combining evolving technology with games gives imagination wings. NetEase Games is committed to tech research and application to optimize players' game experiences with advanced technology.

　　Since 2018, NetEase has been researching GPT models. Its wuxia game Justice Online has officially implemented the first game version of ChatGPT in China, allowing in-game NPCs to interact more intelligently with users. They no longer follow predetermined responses, but instead react to the user's actions. Applying GPT technology in some ways allows wuxia games to return to a more human-centric form, enabling players to have a more immersive emotional experience.

Justice Online: AI Composition

　　In addition to cutting-edge technology, NetEase Games has worked to optimize resolution, touch controls, 3D modeling, and other simulation and modeling technologies to create more interactive experiences for a realistic, open-world Jianghu. Justice Online has achieved real-time ray tracing for the first time in China based on this feature in mobile platform hardware acceleration. In this way, players can get more immersed in the game, raising the bar for mobile game graphics quality. Naraka: Bladepoint also utilizes technology such as PBR materials in CG rendering and the light source organization method of Clustered Forward/Deferred Hybrid, depicting the Jianghu onscreen in detail and providing players with a realistic visual experience. Because of this, it won the Best Graphics Award at the inaugural MWU China Rankings, 2020.

Justice Online: Ray Tracing Technology

　　Wuxia not only perfectly encapsulates traditional culture but also ignites boundless imagination on human abilities and limits, making it widely beloved. In the process of developing this iconic part of culture, NetEase Games has fostered the relationship between inspiration, technology, and social responsibility. This effort has breathed new life into wuxia, while also promoting the protection, development, and dissemination of traditional Chinese culture. Wuxia culture as well as the classic stories of the Jianghu, have once again been revitalized through the power of games.