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"When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Game Grape 2024/07/03 21:16

Text/Wang Dan

From June 29th to 30th, Tencent's "Love of Light and Night" (hereinafter referred to as "Light Night") held its third anniversary concert in Shanghai. This is also the first time they have held a concert since the launch of the game.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

To be honest, I wasn't very excited before I arrived in Shanghai on the 29th. After all, it's not uncommon for content to be a concert for a game; Moreover, other Tencent games have also held concerts before and invited many celebrities. So I originally thought that this should be a simple, uncomplicated music broadcast event for the third anniversary of "Light Night".

At the beginning of June, "Light Night" announced that it would be invited

Lang Lang, Gong Linna and other heavyweight guests

But the moment I stepped out of the venue on the evening of the 29th, I found that things were more difficult to explain than I thought - back at the hotel, my heart was still pounding to the rhythm of the concert, as if I was gone, but my soul was still in the venue. Later, I found out that I am not alone, many players have different degrees of withdrawal reactions after leaving the game, and some people can't sleep until 4 o'clock in the morning, and there is a feeling of "I can't believe it's over".

Source: Little Red Book

Why is there so much stamina? Lying on the bed, I reviewed the details from the outside of the field to the inside of the field, from the players to the crying on the 29th, and found a possible answer:

The Light Night concert is not about the third anniversary of the game, but about the third anniversary of the game and the player. It may be said that the real performers and protagonists of this concert are actually the emotions of the players. The off-the-field layout and the performance on the stage are like oversized megaphones, showing the emotions and feelings of the players exponentially.

01

"A Wedding in Shanghai"

Although the concert starts at 7 p.m., the emotional impact it brings begins well before admission.

I thought about going to the entrance of the stadium at half past 16 and taking some photos of the layout outside the venue, but I didn't expect that the entrance of the stadium was already crowded with players at this time.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

At that time, the ticket inspection had not yet begun, and it was not possible to enter the off-site layout area

Everyone filmed through the fence

In the eyes of players, this concert must be of great significance, because many people are dressed up + full makeup to attend. The most common ones on the scene are all kinds of gauze skirts, dresses, and people holding roses...... The whole scene was as if thousands of people were about to attend a romantic and grand banquet.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

And, in a sense, players don't "come alone": many people brought the male protagonist to the scene to take a group photo, such as a pain bag full of the male protagonist's badge, and plush dolls.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

Swipe left and right to view

Perhaps in anticipation of the player's preparation, the off-site layout of "Light Night" also pays considerable attention to the sense of ceremony. After the ticket check started at 17 o'clock, everyone walked on the avenue to the concert, and there were potted blue flowers on both sides of the road, as well as the poster of the road flag of the male protagonist of the game, as if the player was accompanied and watched by the male protagonist, step by step towards the venue.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

The highlight is a long staircase before entering the venue. At the entrance of the staircase, the dark blue satin gold-rimmed curtain is pulled up, setting off the solemnity and grandeur behind the curtain; Every time you take two steps, the player can see that on the stairs, the male protagonist's confession and confession in the game are like oaths;

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

And when the players walked to the top of the stairs and the entrance of the venue, accompanied by flower clusters and memoirs, they were greeted by a huge poster of the male protagonist wearing a dress and holding a musical instrument. It's as if they're dressed up for the day and are well prepared to wait for the players here.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

When I walked up the steps, I was in a trance: Am I here for a concert or for a wedding? Many players also sighed: "Why isn't this a grand wedding in Shanghai......"

02

Familiar but doubling emotional shock

Of course, the sense of ritual outside the stadium is just an appetizer to mobilize the player's emotions, and the concert inside the stadium is the real emotional bomb.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

At 6:50 p.m., the lights in the auditorium dimmed. The male protagonist's voice sounds, reminding the players that the concert is about to start. There is no host throughout the concert, and the person responsible for reminding the players to open, introduce the performers, remind the intermission, and inform the end of the concert is the voice of the male lead.

Before the performance began, the two young ladies sitting in front of me were obviously a little excited: "Are you going to start crying?" "I don't want to cry!"

After the countdown on the screen ends, the 8 a.m. alarm goes off and the day of the "designer" (the profession of the protagonist in the game) begins. The band played the most familiar game level BGM "Feast of Bloom", and the figures of the male protagonists appeared on the screen in turn.

After this first song was played, the young lady in the front row, who had said that she didn't want to cry, couldn't hold back anymore and cried.

After all, listening to an orchestra live is not the same as listening to music while playing a game: a live performance is more emotional than an electronic player. The close proximity of the orchestra, combined with the reverberations in the venue, makes the drums heavier, the piano clearer, and the orchestral longer. The people sitting in the scene seem to have their entire brain and chest resonating with the music.

Therefore, although the program list is written with game tracks that players are familiar with, it is not until the actual performance begins that everyone understands that these familiar contents will bring unexpected and doubling emotional impact.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

What's more, this time "Light Night" also adapted a lot of tracks, prolonging and expanding this sense of impact.

The staff in charge of the concert told me that many of the original music of "Night of Light" was only 1.5 minutes long, which was too short for a concert. In order to make the performance more suitable for the special scene of the concert, and to provide freshness, they expanded and adapted most of the repertoire.

Among them, the most obvious difference is the repertoire in which Lang Lang and Gong Linna participated.

For example, in the case of "Flowers and Prologue" (BGM for the first anniversary celebration of "Light Night", the theme of the event is "Wedding"), the original song is actually only a little over 2 minutes, but it is played for more than 4 minutes in concert. The "Light Night" team not only supplemented several original orchestral piano ensembles, but also interspersed some fragments of solo piano performances. Under Lang Lang's playing, the piano sound is sometimes heavy and sometimes light, and the rhythm is fast and slow, as if the male protagonist and the player are whispering, adding more romantic and intimate feelings to "Flowers and Prologue", and also providing a sense of ritual for the "wedding" theme behind this song.

Game Grape, "When I think of Tencent's operation, I can't sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning"

In the third anniversary theme promotion song (the theme of the third anniversary of "Light Night" is Journey to the West), "Light Night" adjusted the lyrics and arrangement, and incorporated Gong Linna's singing clip. Gong Linna's pronunciation full of ancient Chinese style, coupled with the high-pitched singing voice that broke through the Tianling cover, made many audiences at the scene can't help but cry out when they hear the sentence "sit on the ground and survey the sky". When I heard this, goosebumps instantly appeared on my body, and I felt like I could rush to the Heavenly Palace to make a big fuss immediately.

The staff told me, "Good music can cause resonance. "On the list, these tracks may just be familiar names to some players, but for the Light Night team, there is so much emotion behind the whole list that they want to convey.

For example, the whole performance is composed of the chapter of light, the chapter of night, as well as the prologue and the interstitial chapter, which is actually performed according to the player's emotional accumulation and progressive process in the game. The chapter of light is light and cheerful (the career of the "designer" sets sail + the relationship with the male protagonist warms up), and the chapter of the night is intertwined with heartache and tears (the latent crisis appears, and the protagonist and the male protagonist are struggling). The team hopes that through this performance sequence, players can recall a sweet and bitter and unforgettable sense of love.

For another example, the "Light Night" team told me that the special invitation to Lang Lang and Gong Linna to cooperate was not for cold commercial purposes, but because they really felt that the areas that the two teachers were good at could make the concert better resonate with the players and mobilize emotions:

Lang Lang is an internationally renowned piano master, and the piano is a musical instrument that often appears throughout "Light Night", from beginning to end, it is expressive, can present a lyrical and aesthetic sense of hearing, but also can emphasize the fierce contradictions and conflicts, and the team invited Lang Lang to cooperate, it is precisely to highlight the presence of the piano as the "backbone";

In addition to rapper, "Light Night" also needs a respected singing artist to strengthen the national charm, and Gong Linna, as the founder of Chinese new art music, has a very deep understanding of national vocal music itself, and she has also made an attempt of "modern + national" in recent years (once sang "Sea of Flowers" with Mei Yi Liya), and has a lot of fate with the theme of Journey to the West(Gong Linna has a work of "Golden Hoop Stick"), which is naturally the most suitable guest.

On the stage, Teacher Gong Linna is in charge, and Miss Miss Wearing a mask on the lower right is in charge of rapping

The "Light Night" team said that in order to have a perfect connection between the repertoire, and in order to make no mistakes in the adaptation and cooperation parts, they rehearsed all night a few days before the start of the performance, but fortunately, the overall cooperation was very smooth, and the overall effect even exceeded the team's expectations. The most honored thing is that even the two masters, Lang Lang and Gong Linna, gave a highly positive evaluation of the music of "Light Night" during the rehearsal process.

Click image for full size. "Light Night" did not ask the two teachers to promote it on social media, but they still took the initiative to share their performances and experiences.

As for why it went so well, "Light Night" still attributed the reason to the music: "Good and wonderful content, in the process of cooperation, there will naturally be some collisions, new inspirations, and some coincidences, so in the end, we can achieve the effect that satisfies the players." ”

03

It's not just music, it's an audio-visual feast

However, the team believes that doing a concert should not only focus on auditory enjoyment: "It is an audiovisual feast. We hope that visually and audibly, designers can recall the unforgettable memories they spent with the male protagonist. ”

First of all, through the visual design, the "Light Night" concert emphasizes the presence of the male protagonist, and also adds more emotional points to the performance that evoke the player's memories.

For example, in the Night chapter, "Light Night" choreographed five mainline classics. The screen screen corresponding to each song, as well as the classic quotations that appear in the picture and that the male protagonist once said, are narrating their experiences; The dance moves in front of the stage fit the musical atmosphere and match the narrative on the screen, jointly highlighting and emphasizing the inner feelings of each male protagonist.

Moreover, the props used by these dancers, such as blindfolds, umbrellas, feathers, purple balloons, and masked masks, are either items that have appeared in the game, or images that can reflect the personality and character characteristics of the male protagonist.

These details not only complement each other and strengthen the narrative sense of the whole track, but also strengthen the sense of substitution and immersion of the whole concert in disguise - the male protagonist in the game is using music, screen, and performance as a medium to tell the audience about his own mental journey.

Swipe left and right to view

However, if you want to say that the players are most impressed and cheer the most visual surprise, it has to be the five male protagonist QQ dolls. They're cute enough, and they have a sense of realism that is close to the eyes and breaks through the dimensional walls. Even when I left the stage, I heard players shouting "Don't go!" ”

Secondly, "Light Night" is interspersed with a lot of small visual details that ignite the atmosphere at the scene.

For example, in the lighting area, they found a professional stage lighting team, combined with specific tracks, different stories, and different special lighting effects to set off the atmosphere of different themes, or perhaps it can also be said that the lighting effects on the scene are also changing with the player's emotions;

When playing "Carnival of Bliss", a lot of green rays were used

Emphasize the horror and tension of the content of the version

For another example, when the third anniversary journey was coming to an end, a large number of fireworks suddenly erupted from the audience, and golden ribbons fell from the sky. The fireworks may be considered a basic exercise in the offline event, but at the end of the "Light Night" concert, these fireworks mean a lot to the players - this is a grand finale, but it is more like a celebration from the five male protagonists to the players, because at the same time, the fireworks are also floating on the screen. Many players reach out to pick it up, probably because they also want to catch the congratulatory gift sent by the male protagonist who broke the dimensional wall, and retain the emotion and excitement of that moment.

Source: Little Red Book

Image source Xiaohongshu, with text:

The streamers fell on me as if you were saying "I knew you were coming"

In addition, "Light Night" has prepared some funny easter egg performances in the concert.

For example, Blue Star (Blue Bird, which can be understood as the mascot of "Light Night", often regarded by players as a symbol of the project team) carries a basket and hands out apples to the orchestra (apples are physical consumables in the game), only to be shouted by the audience "Return the money!" "Free shipping!". This scene also happens to correspond to the "return the money!" played in the PV of the third anniversary event of "Light Night". "Stalk,It can be said that PV has come to life.。

Concert scene in PV

Someone held up a message that said "Return the money!" (red box)

Lan Xing was quite comfortable, waving and comparing his hands to the audience, and sometimes pulling out his empty trouser pockets to show the players, probably to "refund the money!" Response.


I think that many players may be like me, and when they look back on this concert, their memories will not only stay on the auditory, but also remember the lights, performances, and easter eggs...... As the team put it, "A concert is not only music, but also an audio-visual feast. ”

04

When the player becomes the protagonist of the ensemble

So, can the "Light Night" concert keep players awake at four in the morning, just because of the double impact of sight + hearing? I think it's probably not that simple, because the players are not only the listeners of this concert, but also the participants.

This sense of participation may have been hinted at in the title of the concert, "1096: Come Prima". The "Light Night" team explained that come prima is an Italian musical term that means to prompt the player to play as before, when they see the symbol, to maintain the initial state and feeling; And 1096 is the sum of the days since the third anniversary (2024 is a leap year, add an extra day).

So the actual meaning of the concert's name is "Love you all the time for 1096 days and nights". And it is not only the game and the male protagonist who have gone through the three-year process, but also the "designer" (player).

Therefore, when creating the third anniversary song "Meant To Be", "Light Night" incorporated a lot of details in it: the piano melody at the beginning and end of this song is the same, as if there is a good beginning, and there is a lot of experience in the middle, and finally it returns to its original intention and is consistent; The team put a lot of thought into the string design of "Meant To Be", because the strings are suitable for expressing delicate emotions and can depict the sense of fatalism of "we are destined". This song is sung by a female singer, and its lyrics can be understood as telling and reviewing the emotional journey with the male protagonist in the past three years from the player's perspective.

Part of the lyrics, source B station

In the third anniversary concert, "Meant To Be", as the finale song, also has a unique performance design - when Lang Lang plays the prelude melody, the screen will review the journey of "Light Night" and players all the way from March 6, 2020 (game test), and the background is not a card face or PV, but a sea of audience lights holding glow sticks, and the players.

What is very detailed is that as the journey progresses on the screen and the content of different activities, the color of the sea of lights on the scene will continue to change.

"Light Night" said that the reason why such a performance form is adopted is because it is hoped that the sea of lights composed of the "designers" who came to the scene, and the experience of everyone in the past three years, can form a limited and irreplaceable eternal memory.

At that time, I suddenly realized that the players in the audience had become the performers, tellers, and even protagonists of the ensemble of "Meant To Be". It was also at that moment that I felt like I figured out why the "Light Night" concert was so impressive – on the third anniversary, "Light Night" made a song that spoke from the player's point of view, and the finale of the concert featured the player...... "Light Night" celebrates not its third anniversary, but its own and its players' third anniversary, and they put the player's experiences and feelings over the years in the most important finale.

The "Light Night" team also explained that this is not so much a concert as the official and "designers" at a special time (third anniversary) and a special location (concert venue) to get together and look back on the past 1096 days through the ultimate audio-visual enjoyment.

05

epilogue

At around half past 10 p.m., the concert ended. Although it has been seriously timed out, the players are still shouting "encore", and when the stadium announcement rings to inform the audience to leave the venue in an orderly manner, the players realize that this is really the end. Many people sighed of loss, and then reluctantly began to leave.

"I feel like it's too short." The player next to me complained to me. I think, in fact, in terms of duration, the concert of "Light Night" is interesting enough, and the player says that it is short, probably because he has begun to have a withdrawal reaction and is unwilling to come out of this emotion.

The young lady who sat in the front row chatted with me when she left, she said that after watching this concert, she felt that "games are not just games", which made me a little confused, why did she suddenly say this after watching the concert. She explains:

"Even now, even if I'm not playing games or reading dramas, but just watching performances and listening to music, I can feel the emotion. It's not just the experience of playing games, but also the music and performances that convey that feeling. ”

However, compared to the game, I think the feeling conveyed to the players by this concert is special: shouting and crying for the things they love with other "designers" on the spot; The player's voice and the orchestra's performance are intertwined and echo through the venue; The emotion and excitement of thousands of people merged into huge mood swings...... It's something I can't possibly experience when I'm alone on the couch playing on my phone.

So I think that at the moment when the sea of glow sticks and lights set off ripples and the players around them sobbed, the emotion that "Light Night" wanted to present through the concert should have been conveyed in place.

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