The continent of Teyvat is just a virtual paradise, but every news of version update is like a mirror, reflecting people’s inner desires and the impetuousness of the times. The news of the card pool of version 5.6 is like a declaration that makes people love and hate, bringing the temptation of new characters and replicating the shadow of old characters. They are just symbols of modern consumer culture and a microcosm of people’s constant struggle between reality and virtuality.
The newly-launched Aikefei, the messenger of the ice element, with a long-handled weapon in hand, seems to be quite heroic. Her skill design is just an illusion created for players, healing teammates and weakening enemies, but she has no life in the rules of the game. Her passive talent is advertised as “support”, but it is just a gimmick under commercial logic, an illusion built with cold data. As for her “matching” with the next version character Silk, it is just a consumption trap carefully arranged by the planning team, leading players to spend money again and again.
Ifa, a wind-type magic weapon character, is given the beautiful name of “healing” and “control”, but in fact it is just a boring code in a mechanical program. His elemental combat skills and bursts are interesting, but they can never cover up the monotony of the design. The so-called “diffusion reaction” and “electric reaction” are just links in the game’s economic chain. The enthusiasm of players is commercialized and turned into endless card drawing and recharging.
The re-engraving of General Raiden seems to be a nostalgia for the old times, but it is also a profound metaphor for the bottomless pit of real consumption. Behind her cold face is the tip of the iceberg of commercial interests. Kinichi and Navia are just character images that are repeatedly squeezed and used, like those old things forgotten by the times, occasionally taken out to polish, repackaged and sold.
The enthusiasm of players to draw cards is nothing more than an escape and sustenance under the pressure of modern life. They are like smokers in the old society, smoking “fate” in the card pool one after another, expecting to get the so-called “luck”, but more often, they can only swallow disappointment and anxiety. Drawing cards is not only a gamble, but also a mental torture, a contest between people and their own desires in the consumerist era.
The emergence of the Treabar platform is an indispensable part of this huge system. It provides players with “safe” and “fast” deposit services, which actually provides a channel for capital circulation. Those “discounts” are nothing more than sugar-coated bullets to attract people to continue to spend money, covering up the exploitation and greed behind them.
The news of the 5.6 version card pool is far more than just a game update. It is a magic mirror that reflects the greed, loneliness and helplessness of human nature. Behind those cold skills and dazzling bursts are the invisible hands of capital and the vortex of players’ desires. Teyvat is no longer just a fantasy world, but a microcosm of our era, a new cage interwoven with virtuality and reality.
I hope that everyone who steps into Teyvat can stay awake in this turmoil, not be confused by the illusory light, and find the freedom and awakening that truly belongs to them.