Chinese Traditional Culture In The Online Game Chinese Paladin3:a Multimodal Perspective

As an important feature of digital era, online games are popular recreational activities. In the past decades, Chinese online gaming industry has made great progress and Chinese Paladin3has received most widely acclaim so far. Based on Chinese traditional culture, this series sets a precedent for domestic online gaming industry and establishes the model and future direction for online games in the following ten years. It has been an important issue for domestic online gaming industry on how to protect and promote Chinese traditional culture through domestic online games.Based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) sprung up in1990s. MDA refers to the fact that more than one semiotic resource contributes to the meaning making of a discourse, with the application of auditory, visual and tactile semiotic signs. As the combination of computer technology and traditional recreational activities, online games have become multimodal discourse with audio, video and three-dimensional animation, which will promote the theoretical progress and practical application of MDA. A multimodal discourse analysis of Chinese traditional culture in Chinese Paladin3will help people in domestic online gaming industry appreciate the excellence of Chinese Paladin3and produce better works.The official version of Chinese Paladin3is chosen as the object of research, which includes language, images, sounds and other semiotic modes. Based on SFL, Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar (VG) and van Leeuwen’s Aural Grammar, a synthetic theoretical framework is proposed for the analysis of Chinese Paladin3, focusing on the interpretation of three semiotic modes:poems, costumes and background music. Besides, it is also discussed in this thesis on how three semiotic modes reflect Chinese traditional culture. The present study adopts mainly a qualitative research method.By the analysis of three semiotic modes in Chinese Paladin3, the thesis validates the application of multimodal discourse analysis in Chinese Paladin3and also demonstrates how various semiotic modes reflect Chinese traditional culture in Chinese Paladin3. Theoretically, this thesis takes online games into account, enriching the research scope of MDA. Practically, presenting a new critical game design perspective, the analysis will promote the progress of domestic online gaming industry with the exploitation of excellent computer games with Chinese characteristics.