A COMPARATIVE STUDY

In recent years, more and more people start playing mobile games. According to NEWZOO’s report called “Global games market report of 2020”, mobile games accounted a huge part of global game markets creating 77.2 billion dollars of game revenue. And if we look at the global game market, the population of players from the Asian-Pacific region will reach to 1.4 billion at the end of 2020, which accounted for more than half of the global players. Among them, East Asia, especially China, played a key role.

When we talk about the Chinese game market, we have to discuss Tencent. In the 2019, the top 50 game companies in the world have together gained a total of 124.5 billion U.S. dollars in game revenue, which accounted for 85% of the global market. Among all companies, China's Tencent stably ranked first. In 2019, Tencent continued to expand their market and focused on overseas markets. They have become a successful example of Chinese game companies entering overseas markets. According to the global revenue data of the APP Store and G****e Play in 2020, Tencent’s “King of glory” is the highest earning game. In 2020, this game earned 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 47% from 2019. The overseas version called “Arena of Valor” produced by Tencent is a very important game in Tencent's overseas market. In the “2018 China Game Industry Report”, the average monthly income of “Arena of Valor” reached 30 million US dollars, and the average daily online number of overseas players exceeds 13 million.( 2018 China Game Industry Report, pp.46-51)

As players of the two games, they can obviously see that the shape of characters of two games is different. Why does the game company not fully transfer the characters in “King of Glory” into “Arena of Valor”? To find out the similarities and differences of shaping characters in two games, this thesis is composed of three main parts. The first part introduces the main methods of shaping game characters in two games. This section introduces some of the settings used to design game characters, including the fictional background of the game characters, the occupations of game characters, the personality design of game characters and the game skin design of game characters. 

The second and third parts will compare and analyze the shape of game characters of the two games from the perspectives of the game market and Chinese and foreign cultures.

Based on the perspective of the game market, this paper used the age rating system of the Chinese and foreign game markets and the Pricing strategy and Promotion strategy in the famous marketing theory called The Four Ps of Marketing. We can find that the images of the game characters in “King of Glory” have a characteristic of younger-age trend, and the images of game characters in the “Arena of Valor” have a characteristic of adulthood inclination. At the same time, the two games will list different prices according to the different images designed for game characters, and release some specific game skins of game characters at some specific times. Once the specific time has passed, the specific skins of game characters cannot be purchased.

Based on the cultural perspectives, this paper focuses on catering to the player’s cultural identity and recreating the images of the game characters. We can find that the characters in the “King of Glory” have more Chinese cultural characteristics and the characters in the “Arena of Valor” have more international cultural characteristics. The images of the game characters of two games have both been greatly recreated and innovated.

The purpose of writing this paper is to explore the characteristics of shaping game characters of two games by comparing the similarities and differences between the two games and draw relevant conclusions based on two research perspectives: game market and culture. Therefore, there will be four main conclusions. From the perspectives of age rating system and Pricing strategy and Promotion strategy, it proves that the two games highly pays attention and abide by the legal system of the game market and fully considers stimulating consumer’s desire of consumption when designing game characters. From the perspectives of player’s cultural identity and recreating the images of the game characters, this paper proves that the two games intend to preserve their own cultural characteristics, and both break people's stereotyped images of game characters.

1.1 The Fictional Game Background of Game Characters

When designing the characters for the “King of Glory” and “Arena of Valor”, Tencent used a very clever game setting. They fabricated the story backgrounds of the two games, which made the characters of the two games live in a fictional world. The game characters of “King of Glory” lived in a world named King’s continent. The game characters of “Arena of Valor” lived in a fictional continent where is full of wars. The advantage of creating these game worlds is that it expands the categories of game characters and it allows the images of game characters to not have to be completely as same as the images of characters in our real life. In the “King of Glory”, we can see classic mythical figures like Monkey King, as well as some real historical figures like Qin Shi Huangdi or Marco Polo, and the images of these characters do not completely correspond to their true images. In “Arena of Valor”, the types of game characters are also very complicated, including Japanese samurai, Viking pirates, native Indians and so on.

1.2 The Occupation of Game Characters

No matter in “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor”, all game characters have their own occupations. Due to their various occupations, their images are also different. Among all heroes, their types can be roughly divided into tanks, damage-dealers and supports. Tanks have the biggest pool of health, but correspondingly, their speed is very slow and their damage is low. Such kind of role makes their images resemble strong men or strong animals, such as Cheng Yaojin in the “King of Glory” and the demon bull in the “Arena of Valor”.

Damage-dealers have small pool of health, but they deliver higher damage and are the main attackers in a team. This definition makes their image more towards to assassins or shooters, such as Hua Mulan in the “King of Glory” and Batman in the “Arena of Valor”.

The supports are not good at attacking and defending, but they provide supplies and control for a team. Such roles are also called wizards or assistants, such as Wang Zhaojun in the in the “King of Glory” and Alice in the “Arena of Valor”.

1.3 The Personality Design of Game Characters

In the “King of Glory” and “Arena of Valor”, each game character has its unique design, these unique designs distinguish them from other characters. Such a design is the character's personality design, including the character's appearance, character’s skills, and the character's lines. The appearance of the game character is very important for shaping a game character, and the appearance of the character is mainly related to the character's name, the background of the game character and occupation of character. Character’s skills are seen as the core for players controlling a character. The designer creates 3-4 skills according to the background of different game characters and their images. The lines of the characters are also one of the important features of the character creation of two games. It requires the designer to show the character’s characteristics or their story background in the short lines of the characters.

1.4 The Game Skin Design of Game Characters

There is a very important concept when shaping the images of game characters in the two games. This concept is called the skin of the game character. We can understand that every game character has an initial or original image in the game. This image is what we can get through fictional coins in the game. However, considering that long-term use of a game character’s image will bring aesthetic fatigue to players, Tencent has added the concept of game character’s skin. We can understand that the game skin is just like the clothes of the game character. By changing the game skin of the game character, the player can get a different visual experience and enjoy the fresh design of the character’s image. The concept of game character’s skin makes players look forward to the new image of game characters. The design of these game skins also greatly stimulates players' desire to buy them because most of the game character’s skin requires us to use real money to buy.

2. The Analysis and Comparison from a Perspective of Game Market

2.1 About the Game Rating Systems

When a game company starts to make a game, they must pay attention to some market policies in the region where the game is released. Looking at the global game market, there is a game policy that is very important. This is the age rating system of the game. Why is age rating system so important? The answer is that this policy can prevent younger players from affecting by some images or contents of game that is not suitable for their ages. This paper will illustrate this point later.

In European and American countries, the development of the electronic game industry was earlier, so it faced the problem of age rating of games earlier. Therefore, they had formed a relatively complete and advanced age rating system. Although Asian countries did not start to form age rating systems as early as Europe and the United States, they have been learning advanced game age rating policies and have developed their own unique game age rating systems.

In China, game consumers, media, and game manufacturers have been calling for the establishment of a complete and reasonable age rating system of the game. In the current world game market, many countries have established their own complete and sound game rating systems, such as the ESRB system in the United States, the PEGI system in Europe. 

The full name of ESRB is Entertainment Software Rating Board, it was found by the Entertainment Software Association in 1994 in America. The committee is a non-profit industry organization. Its responsibility is to assess the content of electronic games and provide consumers (especially parents) with age-appropriate guidance on the content of computer games or online videos. ESRB's game ratings system have two kinds of manifestations, one is the rating identification, they are named like EC (early Childhood), E (everyone, content for everyone over 10 years old), T (Teen, content for players over 13 years old) ), M (mature, suitable for players aged 17 and above), AO (Adults Only, only for players above 18 years old). The other is the explanation of the content of games, which informs consumers the content that may appear in the game. (Liu, p.81)

PEGI means Pan European Game Information. This organization is found to classify computer games in 31 European countries, Israel, and South Africa. The organization was established in 2003 and its job was to give an age rating identification after a comprehensive evaluation of the game. It is mainly divided into 5 types. They are 3+ (content for every period of age), 7+( content for players who is 7 years old or above), 12+( content for players who is 12 years old or above), 16+( content for players who is 16 years old or above) and 18+( content for players who is 18 years old or above). (Liu, p.82)

In the current Chinese market, the establishment of the game rating system is constantly improving. Although the current rating system is still not perfect, in 2019, China's game rating system has made a tremendous progress. On June 26, 2019, China People's Daily Online made an announcement of the "Draft of Age-appropriate Reminders for Games", which put forward recommendations on the age-appropriate range based on the different characteristics of game products. In this draft, the game is divided into four levels based on its content, which are 6 years old or above, 12 years old or above, 16 years old or above, and 18 years old or above. Each level stipulates the contents that should not appear. Compared with the rating system of foreign countries, the minimum age set by this draft is 6 years old. On June 27, 2019, Tencent, NetEase and many other domestic game companies jointly launched the "The Initiative of Age-appropriate Reminders for Games ". Before releasing this initiative, Tencent had already tried to classify game users by age. (Yuan, pp.37-38)

2.1.1 The Image of Game Characters: Younger-age Trend and Adulthood Inclination

Based on the influence of different game age rating systems, the images of the game characters in “King of Glory” have a characteristic of younger-age trend, and the images of game characters in the “Arena of Valor” have a characteristic of adulthood inclination.

As Tencent's main MOBA games in China and overseas game markets, "King of Glory" and "Arena of Valor" face different game rating systems in China and overseas markets. In China, "King of Glory" has been marked by Tencent as a game that suitable for players aged 12 and above. In the Chinese game age rating system called "Draft of Age-appropriate Reminders for Games ", games which are suitable for players aged 12 and above are not allowed to show sex implication in China. This includes descriptions of female breasts, hips, and male’s sex organ. Besides scientific sex education, the content of the game should not include any pictures or topics related to sex. (Yuan, ,pp.37-38)

Based on the age rating system in China, Tencent chose to make their image look closer to children or teenagers when shaping the game characters of "King of Glory". At the same time, when designing some adult heroes, they also made their costumes look more conservative than the costumes in “Arena of Valor”. For example, in "King of Glory", Tencent had used a younger image to design the game character called DaJi. In history, it is said that DaJi was a beauty who was later married by the king of Shang Zhou as his wife. In the Ming Dynasty novel "Creation of the Gods", DaJi was manipulated and possessed by a thousand-year-old fox monster and was ordered by Nuwa（女娲） to disrupt the Shang dynasty. The king of Shang Dynasty had become so cruel because of DaJi. With the image appeared in this novel, Tencent portrayed DaJi as a beautiful teenager girl with petite body. In order to show DaJi’s charm and beauty, the game designer added a huge and soft-looking fox tail to her, and her ears were also designed as fox ears. The colors of overall costumes designed for this character are yellow and light red, which fits well with the image of the fox in the novel.

In addition, we can also see the influence of the game age rating system on the shaping of game characters from the changes in their image of character in the “King of Glory” in recent years. The character in the picture below is called A Ke, a female game character in the “King of Glory”. She is positioned as an assassin, and her prototype is the famous historical figure Jing Ke during the Warring States Period in China. The story of Jing Ke assassinating Qin Shi Huangdi has been already known by us today. Therefore, Tencent modified the image of Jing Ke in the game to become a female assassin. From the poster of A Ke, it is not difficult to see that A Ke's image design is sexier and more mature when she first appeared in this game. Her clothes have obvious hints of sex implication. However, after the game designer's modification, A Ke's image is now much more conservative. Although the overall clothing is still sexy, the whole image of A Ke increases the protection of women's private parts. There are many other examples of changing their images like A Ke, and their modified images are directly caused by the game age rating system in Chinese game market.

In overseas markets, "Arena of Volar" is rated as T level by the American Entertainment Software Rating Board, and is suitable for players aged 13 and above. Although the two games seem to be prepared for players aged 12-13 and above, the different game rating systems have greatly affected the appearance design of the game characters in “Arena of Valor”. In the ESRB’s game rating system, games that are suitable for the T level may contain violence, sex implication, rude humor, bloody scene, or few trash words. (Liu, p.81)

Based on the relatively free game rating policy in overseas markets, the design of characters in “Arena of Valor” is much more mature. In the game, there is a category of heroes defined as warriors. They are often shaped by male game characters. Their role is to protect their teammates and deliver higher damage. Therefore, this type of character is often very strong, with obvious muscle lines, and looks full of security. In "Arena of Valor", Malos is such a type of character like warrior. His appearance is a very typical demon image in the West. His face looks a little scary, with two huge horns on his head, and a pair of bat wings and a slender tail on his back. The color of his body of is dark red. Except for the arms and private parts that are covered with clothes, the rest of his body is exposed his muscles. Such a body is obviously in line with the aesthetics of European and American players, but at the same time his appearance and overall color are too mature, giving people a sense of horror and oppression.

In "Arena of Valor", although female game characters do not have exaggerated muscles and bodies like men, they all have very a good body shape. Women have thin and long necks, narrow waists and wide hips, and narrow backs. These designs make the female heroes look sexier and more mature. In terms of clothing, the female heroes in "Arena of Volar" are also dressed with clothes which are sexier and more mature than clothes in “King of Glory”. Thus it leads to the addition of sex implication. But such low degree of sex implication is also based on a relatively free age rating system in overseas markets.

Through comparison, we found that based on different game age rating systems, the images of game characters of the two games have the characteristics of younger-age trend and adulthood inclination. Such a way of designing also proves that Tencent has well complied with the relevant legal policies of the game market.

2.2 The Image of Game Characters and Selling Strategies

In the 1960s, E.J. McCarthy, a well-known American marketing expert, put forward the famous 4p marketing strategy theory called The Four Ps of Marketing. They were Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. The Pricing Strategy and Promotion Strategy of The Four Ps of Marketing will be used to compare and analyze the shaping of game characters in the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor”, to prove that from a marketing perspective, the shaping of game characters of two games has fully considered stimulated consumers' desire of consumption. 

2.2.1 Pricing Strategy: To Cater to Different Player’s Ability of Consumption

In the first chapter, we mentioned the concept of game character’s skin. The game character‘s skin can change the image of the game character most directly. These changes include the appearance, clothing, weapons, etc. of the game character. The skin of game characters can bring players a different visual experience and freshness and when they playing the game. But we also mentioned that most of the game skins in the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor” require players to buy with money, which means that each game skin has a corresponding price.

In the “King of Glory”, the game skins of game characters are divided into five levels, namely accompanying Skin, warrior skin, Epic skin, Legend skin, and Glorious skin. Each level of skin has a different image and also corresponds to a different price. Among the five levels, the cheapest game skin is the accompanying skin. This type of skin is characterized by not changing too much in the character’s original image, but slightly changing the character’s clothing and clothing color. Among the five levels, the most expensive one is the Glorious skin. This type of skin is characterized by greatly changing the original appearance and clothing of the game character, and adding richer cultural elements to make the appearance and clothes of the game character look more gorgeous and good-looking.

In the “King of Glory”, Xiao Qiao is a game character who is very popular among female players. She also has many types of game skins. In the above picture, from top to bottom, they are Xiao Qiao's original image, accompanying skin image, and glorious skin image. Compared with the original image, Xiao Qiao’s accompanying skin only changed the color of his clothes from pink to purple, and the color of his hair changed from silver to yellow. Therefore consumers only need to pay 28 Yuan to buy this type of game skin. But for her glorious skin, we can see that the appearance of the game characters has completely changed. Xiao Qiao is wearing a ballet skirt and ballet shoes, and the fan behind him has turned into black swan’s feathers. The overall image has changed from an original little girl to a mature ballerina. Both the costume and appearance are more beautiful and elegant. If you want to buy this type of game skin, you have to pay at least 200 Yuan.

In the “Arena of Valor”, the game skins of the game characters also have different levels. This is similar to the “King of Glory”, except that the level of the game skin has changed to accompanying skin, warrior skin, legend skin and epic skin, and the price of the skin is also different. The cheapest skin is also the accompanying game skin, the most expensive one is epic skin. The following pictures are the game skin images of a female character named Ye Na in “Arena of Valor”. From top to bottom, they are the original image, accompanying skin, and warrior skin.

In the well-known theory called The Four Ps of Marketing, Pricing Strategy mainly refers to the way that companies set prices and change prices in accordance with marketing rules to achieve marketing goals. These include the combination and application of controllable factors such as basic prices, discount prices, allowances, payment terms, commercial credit, and various ways of setting prices and techniques of setting price. (Kotler, pp.29-30) For the designers of the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor”, the purpose of creating different images of game characters is to make more players love the characters in the game, so that players have the desire to buy the game skins of the game characters, and increase game’s profits. Therefore, in order to adapt to the economic background of different players, the two games classify the image of the game characters. Different levels of images of game skins require players to invest different amounts of money.

The above picture from Aurora Mobile shows the statistics of players of “King of Glory” in 2017. We can see that the age of the players is divided into 6 ranges, which are less than 14 years old, 15-19 years old, 20-24 years old, and 25-29 years old. , 30-34 years old, more than 35 years old, and their monthly income has also been divided into three levels, which are above 8,000 Yuan, 3001-8,000 Yuan, and below 3,000 Yuan. We can see that in the game market, players have different levels of economic background. Therefore, Tencent decided to set different prices for different game skins of game characters to possibly cater to different player’s ability of consumption. It proves that this way of shaping game characters in the two games fully considers stimulating consumer’s desire of consumption when designing game characters

2.2.2 Promotion Strategy: Maximizing the Player’s Consumption

In the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor”, the appearance and clothes of game characters can be changed according to different levels of game character’s skins, but in addition to the level of game character skins, there is another type of skin called particular time skins or particular skins. The characteristic of this type of skin is that it is only sold during a certain period of time. Once the particular time has passed, this type of game skin will not be sold again. Such particular periods include some traditional festivals, like Spring Festival, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.

In the “King of Glory”, game designers like designing the particular time skins of game characters to change the appearance and clothes of the game characters. For example, in history, Xiao Qiao and Zhou Yu were famous couples in the Three Kingdoms period, so the designer took this as a highlight and released their game character’s skin featuring Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day. They wore white wedding dresses with a familiar western church as the background. This image attracted the attention of players who are couples. Such a marketing strategy is to combine character images with traditional festivals, and then use festival features as a selling point to stimulate consumers' desire of consumption through advertising on internet.

In the “Arena of Valor”, although the game skins of some game characters are not related to festivals, they still need to be purchased at a specific time period. The characteristic of this type of skin is to combine the image of the game characters with related activities in the game. Only players who complete the activity within a certain period of time can purchase this type of particular skins. Therefore, the game company will spread advertisements of various activities on the interface of the game, so that players can clearly know the time of the activity and relevant product information.

In the well-known theory called The Four Ps of Marketing, Promotion strategy mainly refers to the use of various methods of dissemination to stimulate consumers' desire of buying goods and promote product sales to achieve their marketing goals, including the combination and application of controllable factors like advertising, personal selling, business promotion, and public relations. (Kotler, p.29-30) In order to maximize the benefits of the game character’s skin in a specific time period, both the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor” added the concept of particular time skin. Then through advertising on the internet, this type of game skin will maximize the player’s consumption because such types of game skin can only be purchased at a specific period of time. It also proves that this way of shaping game characters in the two games fully considers stimulating consumer’s desire of consumption when designing game characters

3. The Analysis and Comparison from a Perspective of Culture

3.1 To cater to Different Player’s Cultural Identity

If we compare the creation of the characters in the “King of Glory” or “Arena of Valor”, we will find that the game characters of “King of Glory” have more Chinese cultural characteristics, and the game characters in the “Arena of Valor” have more international cultural characteristics. The purpose of such designing is to cater to players form different regions and cultural background.

When we shape the game characters, how to make those characters be popular among players from different cultural backgrounds and regions? The answer is that we can choose to cater to the cultural identity of players. Cultural identity is the common understanding and recognition of people's cultural tendency. People use the same cultural symbols, inherit common cultural ideas, follow common ways of thinking and behaviors, and pursue common cultural ideals. These are the basis for cultural identity. Huntington believes that people of different nationalities often answer "who we are" with the things that are most meaningful to them, that is, "define ourselves by ancestors, religion, language, history, values, customs, and systems", and use certain variety of symbols as signs to express their cultural identity, such as flags, crosses, crescents, and even heads. Huntington believes that cultural identity is the most meaningful thing for most people. (Zuo, p.176)

Tencent has a clear recognition of shaping the game characters in “King of Glory”. They know very well that the position of "King of Glory" is a MOBA mobile game with Chinese traditional cultural characteristics. Therefore, there is information in the game to show the characteristics of the characters of "King of Glory". In the game login interface, we can find Tencent’s game tips in the lower right corner. The fourth item mentions that this game combines traditional Chinese cultural elements in game animation, character design, clothing, etc., such as DunHuang arts, traditional opera, etc. These Chinese cultural elements can improve players' interest in the Chinese traditional culture, and enhance the sense of cultural identity. According to statistics, there are 104 heroes in "King of Glory", including 15 Chinese mythological characters and 54 historical characters. We can see that Tencent combines a lot of Chinese historical and mythological backgrounds to shape game characters.

On February 12, 2018, "King of Glory" officially released the game character Yang Yuhuan. Yang Yuhuan was designed by fully combining the image of Imperial Concubine Yang in the Tang Dynasty. In the game, Yang Yuhuan is a beautiful woman holding a traditional Chinese instrument, the pipa. The costumes she wears combine tube dress and chi-pao designed with the style from Tang dynasty. On Yang Yuhuan’s tube dress and chi-pao, we can find that the game designers used a kind of flower named Peony to decorate her clothes. Peony, as the most respected and popular flower of the Tang Dynasty is Yang Yuhuan’s favorite flower. So this kind of flower was integrated into the character design. Among Yang Yuhuan’s game skills, her first skill is called Jinghong Diao, and her second skill is called Nichang Song. Both of skills are from famous music during the period of Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty. In history, when Yang Yuhuan first met Xuanzong emperor in Huaqing Lake, Xuanzong emperor played the collard seduction songs as a guide for Yang Yuhuan. The last skill of Yang Yuhuan is called The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which is Bai Juyi's long poem about Yang Yuhuan and Tang Xuanzong's epic and tragic love.

In "Arena of Valor", it is relatively difficult to cater to the cultural identity of overseas players. In overseas markets, players of this game come from many different regions and are also from many different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, considering such a game exporting environment, Tencent chose to create characters from a more international perspective, so we can find many different cultures in the game.

Based on the various cultural elements involved in "Arena of Valor", I will list three heroes with distinct cultural elements. The first hero was named Wormal. His image is a very typical Viking pirate. He has a very strong body and a long beard, and his beard can be woven like a girl’s ponytail. His costume for the upper part of the body is a cloak made of beast fur. His helmet has two eye-catching horns. His weapons are a hammer and an iron sword. His Cotton boots and Cotton trousers are obviously designed to adapt to the cold Nordic environment.

The second hero is Su, who is defined as a shooter. His appearance comes from the native Indians of North America. For creating Su's appearance, the game company added a War bonnet which is a unique headdress for the Indians. Among the Indian people, the color and the way of wearing the feather on War bonnet symbolize different social status. In addition, Su also wore a small tanned apron made by leather and a wild cowhide cape and shawl, which were very traditional costumes for Indian men. On his left hand, th