The "Journey to the West" that I used to watch with great interest as a child has been turned into a game, which became a global hit as soon as it was released. I, someone who has never been interested or involved in games, have also heard of it. I have always been uninterested in games. However, when the teacher shifted the topic, the concept of the metaverse was deeply etched into my mind. I never thought that the elegant, ink painting-like, and Chinese aesthetic game graphics and effects I saw on my father's computer were created by AI, as my understanding of AI was limited to AI art and ChatGPT. After the lecture, I kept pondering a question: "Before AI became popular," people's expectations of it might have been just to replace cheap labor, never expecting that AI would now start to take over creative work, such as composing music and painting, and even generate profits from it.
The huge success of "Black Myth: Wukong" is a successful dissemination of Chinese culture and a reflection of Eastern aesthetics in gaming. The impact of the game on China and the "Journey to the West" is undeniable, but as AI is applied more and more, the issues it raises may also be worth our deep contemplation.
Alice Zhang