CHARACTER TRANSFORMATION IN THE GAME MOBILE LEGENDS: BANG BANG! (MLBB) AND ITS IMPACT
TRANSFORMASI TOKOH DALAM GAME MOBILE LEGENDS: BANG BANG! (MLBB) DAN DAMPAKNYA
Abstract
Chinese culture thrives on a lot of popular culture including gaming. One of the games that contain Chinese culture is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang! or MLBB, developed by Moonton as the developer company from Shanghai. Moonton elevates Chinese culture in MLBB through hero characters that gamers can choose from. There are 11 hero characters with Chinese culture, including the hero characters Chang'e, Sun, and Zilong who have the highest popularity. The three hero characters are based on mythical, literature and historical characters related to China, namely: (1) the mythical figure Chang'e as the hero character Chang'e, (2) the literature figure Sun Wukong as Sun, and (3) the historical character Zhao Yun as the hero character Zilong. The hero characters have undergone transformation from the name to the story background so there are differences from the figures. This transformation aims to be an adjustment to the game conceptualization as well as a marketing strategy to attract the players’ attention. This research will examine the figures’ transformation into selected MLBB hero characters (Chang'e, Sun, and Zilong), and it is concluded that the transformations made by the developers not only attract the players’ attention, but also eventually became MLBB's strategy to develop the market.
Copyright (c) 2023 Bambuti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Lisensi Creative Commons Atribusi 4.0 Internasional.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Lisensi Creative Commons Atribusi 4.0 Internasional that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).