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It’s anxiety for millions of young Chinese returning to their native provinces for the Lunar New Year: family dinners and their share of embarrassing questions. But this year, a game based on artificial intelligence is helping them.
“You are in a relationship, is that it? When are you going to get married? How much did you earn this year?“, these are the questions simulated in this game developed by a group of students in just 24 hours, during a competition.
As China entered the Year of the Dragon on Saturday, millions of residents are rushing onto public transport these days to reunite with their loved ones and celebrate the event with family.
Called “Epic Showdown: New Year Reunion”, the game, which uses artificial intelligence to reproduce the traditional interrogation that young people undergo by their families, has clearly hit the mark: more than three million people played it in the week it was released in late January, a popularity that eventually caused its computer servers to crash. “At first everyone thought it was a game to denigrate the family“, says one of the creators, Wang Ziyue, 21 years old. “But then people realized they could use it to figure out how to communicate with their loved ones and make them happy“.
Among the characters in the game, ten family members who are more or less accommodating or invasive. The player may be called “selfish” or accused of “abandoning the family” if their responses are deemed too abrupt or unsatisfactory regarding work or marriage prospects. But the game’s virtual aunts also provide advice like “be careful while driving” Or “stay warm“. The game offers different levels: you must navigate smoothly through eight uncles and aunts before arriving at the most formidable level, that of the parents.
Promote communication between generations
For Wang Ziyue, the idea is above all to promote communication between generations. “We hope to bring a little humanity to young people during the Chinese New Year and help them understand the love and concern of their loved ones“, he says. The game also serves as a catharsis for some, to tell their family, virtually, what they really think. “Traditionally, we cannot express ourselves freely“, explains Shi Hongjie, product manager. And “this causes grievances to accumulate, which can easily erupt one day. Now you can vent to AI, making it easier to talk to family when you get home“.
Some users say they are surprised by the realistic side of the game.After eight rounds of questions, I’m sweating“of nervousness, confides one of them on the social network Xiaohongshu, a sort of Chinese Instagram. Others find a new emotion in this experience, one of them having found comfort with his “mother” Virtual : “I can’t return to my province this year, so it affected me“. A gamer whose father died 14 years ago described crying all night after trying the game, according to Yu Linfeng, head of the group of students who created it.”It’s been a long time since I had a conversation like this with someone close to me.” he told her.