“Game of Life”: Script Murder Became Younger Chinese Generation’s Major Entertainment
“A funeral has gathered six suspects and everyone has his or her own secrets. All of you had mysterious relationships with the deceased, so your job is to find out who invited you to the funeral and who is the murderer,” the game arranger said when revealing the background of the game.
This is an excerpt retrieved from a Chinese TV show called Who’s the Murderer. The show is a live action role playing game (also known as “script murder”) in which celebrities are given different character’s background stories and aiming to find the murderer. The popularity of script murder increased steadily since 2016 in China. Beginning in 2020, the off-line script murder store has increased dramatically, which is a significant evidence of how script murder has slowly dominated Chinese younger generation’s entertainment.
How and Why:
People hardly know that script murder originates from the western murder mystery games. As a popular party game in western culture, murder mystery game asks participants to solve a murder mystery in an allocated time, usually between 1.5 hours to 3 hours. The history of murder mystery game can be traced to the early twentieth century, after Roah Hill House murders, starting off in the form of after-dinner games. In 2013, the first murder mystery game “Death Wears White” was introduced into China; In 2016, “Who’s the Murderer” launched on media platform. By April 2021, there were more than 45 thousands script murder store in China, around 9.41 million costumers and 70% of them are under age 30. A mixed-culture entertainment was born and quickly became prevalent in the younger generation.
After the adaptation of murder mystery game into China, the Chinese market has fine-tuned some original game structure and content. Unlike the western murder mystery game, script murder has a longer allocated time between 4-8 hours and involves more participation in evidence searching and interrogations. There are various forms of western murder mystery game, such as scripted or turned-based game, interactive games, interviewing suspects game, and script murder has incorporated all of them into one. However, the genre and themes of the script are expanded and adjusted according to Chinese culture. For example, Chinese script writers include more traditional Chinese elements when making storylines, such as a background of ancient China, or an adaptation of a famous unsolved murder in China.
With the increasing themes of script murder, more companies and individuals are willing to choose script murder as a group activity to build up group connection. A major reason that makes script murder a hit to young people is that the form of role playing helps participants to be freed from their troubles and busy lives. By putting themselves into the character’s life, the participants get to put away their trivial matters and experience a “second life”. Moreover, Script murder industry has a huge cutomers range including people who are tired of entertainment in bars and KTV, people who like acting and scriptwriting, and people who want to socialize. Participants are able to experience and act out another life and enjoy the mystery solving process. The concept of socialization was also reflected in western murder mystery game, when it used to be a tool to enhance family connection.
The expansion of script murder industry has not stopped yet. The first to perceive the trend in the market are the script writers. From an interview with Wang Sansan, leader of a script murder author exchange team, said the group “has rapidly expanded from 0 to nearly 500 people, half of which are born in the 90s and one third are born in the 00s.” As participants hardly ever play a script twice, there is an increasing demand for new scripts in the market. More students and employees jumped into the market by being part-time script writers. The mass production of script murder game has only just started. Moreover, along with the dominance of script murder, Gao Yun, a manager of specialization in decoration in a script murder company, said: “the large number of newly opened script-killing shops have rescued many small decoration companies.” The preparation of a new script murder store does not only include the decoration of rooms, but also the costumes. The basic set up of a script murder store requires around 40 thousands dollars to 80 thousands dollars, which is much higher than a regular board game store. Moreover, an important element of a script murder is the Dungeon Master (DM) who is both the process controller and a competent actor. A DM who has inadequate skill in acting or is unfamiliar with the script will result in a bad reputation of the store. Following the demand of new scripts, the increasing demand of DMs is also a problem. Therefore, more companies are established for DM training. The expansion of script murder market gradually makes itself a major contribution to other industry’s production.
The role play mechanism of script murder makes the game something more than passive activities like movies, where participants can actively participate. They get to experience the pleasure of murder solving as script murder brings fiction to real life. However, criticism also comes with the rise of the industry. While the prominent news publication XinHua News has agreed that script murder can release mental stress, it denounced that a lot of scripts includes violent and horrorifying contents that are not necessarily supported by the government. With the concerns about the contents of the scripts, more people are arguing if script murder will become another addicition after video gaming. Nevertheless, the industry of script murder is still growing persistently, people are still exploring the benefits and drawbacks of this “game of life.“
Works cited:
https://mastersofmystery.com/blogs/latest/what-are-murder-mystery-games
https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/10/01/state-media-criticize-chinas-murder-mystery-craze/