As the start of this blog, I want to introduce you a man who named Alan Irwin Abel.
Abel is someone who loves pranks so much that throughout his life, he constantly tried and successfully fooled the entire United States multiple times. He sees the world as one big game, and every person affected by his words and actions is a player in this game.
At first, he started this game to mock the stupidity of society. However, in his later years, he gradually realized that, on an individual level, most people have enough intelligence to make rational and reasonable judgments. It is only when people form into a crowd that they lose the ability to discern complex matters, and the judgment of the masses quickly weakens.
Let us make the simplest example——trends.
Fashion, trends, is the simplest thing to show how people be influenced by each other. People pursue things they may not truly like—simply because others are pursuing the same things. They adopt new preferences for themselves, and through these actions, they cause even more people to develop the same preferences. This influence spreads like a virus; sometimes, with just a small nudge, people unknowingly begin to control everyone they come into contact with or who comes into contact with them.
A few months ago in China, there was a example event with a huge impact — the release of the video game Black Myth: Wukong.
For the development company of Black Myth: Wukong, Game Science, their budget was very tight, so nearly all their funds were dedicated to game development. The only marketing came from a few videos posted on major video platforms.
However, as the first AAA single-player game born in China, a country with a complex national environment, Black Myth: Wukong attracted widespread attention from the release of its first demo video. So far, that video has reached 61.27 million views on a single platform in China. After the game’s release, it sold 10 million copies within just three days, and 20 million within a month. This is an astonishing figure, no matter how you look at it.
The status of Black Myth: Wukong is so high that many Chinese people have rushed to buy it. Some genuinely want to play the game, while others purchase it to show off or to bolster their identity as gamers, and still others buy it simply to follow the trend. As its popularity continues to rise, there have even been a few extreme statements online in China, such as “not buying Black Myth: Wukong means you’re unpatriotic.” Even my parents, who have always thought video games were not a good thing, also started asking me about this game. In such a feverish and exciting atmosphere, who can confidently say they won’t be influenced, or——manipulated?
——So look, this is why Goffman theory makes sense.
Unfortunately, with my current level of knowledge, I’m not yet able to thoroughly analyze the specific causes and logical paths behind this complex phenomenon. But do you remember Abel? He offered his perspective—perhaps some people are simply preventing the public from seeing the truth.
Reference
Alan Abel, Hoaxer Extraordinaire, Is (on Good Authority) Dead at 94 by Margalit Fox, Sept. 17, 2018
美国的整活大王是谁？ by 小约翰可汗
Alan Abel by WikiPedia
Black Myth: Wukong by WikiPedia
Featured image from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/obituaries/alan-abel-dies.html
Interesting thoughts