This summer, I took an internship at Oxfam. I thought I was only doing office work. I knew that I would play “Xicheng Ji: The Invisible Existence” the next day. Staff sister told us that this is an outdoor reality puzzle game created by Oxfam itself. Through observation and puzzle solving, players can deeply experience the reality of poverty hidden in the community. When I heard it, I felt so novel. I have never thought about NGOs that can be creative, and the “real-world puzzle solving” sounds so attractive!
On the second day, after we checked the game box props and downloaded the game app, we gathered with two other friends at the Xiyingpan subway station. There are five game characters in the story of “Xicheng Ji”. They have different personalities, and the things they care about can be very different. At the beginning, we have to choose the roles we want to play, and after confirming everything, we can start the game!
“Xicheng” is a “realistic puzzle” game, the gameplay is similar to a mixed version of escape room and city hunt. We have to follow the instructions of the game app to reach the checkpoint, and then by observing the surrounding scenery and solving the problem with the game box props, we can unlock the next location first.
As a rookie in the game, it takes a lot of time to checkpoint the checkpoint, but in the meantime, we have deepened our understanding of Western District. For a long time, our impression of Xihuan centered around living in high-end residential areas and hot spots. But after playing the Prophet, it turns out that the old building is next to the beautiful building in Western District, and there are also special shops along the way.
Talking about the story of the game, our most profound character is Gini. He wanted to punch the card all the time, and claimed to be a “goddess”, a veritable “Hong Kong girl”. Passing by the garbage station, or seeing the paper-skinned mother-in-law, Gini will be full of disgust. I thought it was just because of being greedy and afraid of corruption, but slowly I saw that Gini made more criticisms against the poor, and I realized that there are few myths or even prejudices about the poor. The plot has given us a lot of reflection: In our daily life, should we look at the disadvantaged groups? Is there a reason behind poverty, or even a deep-seated social problem?
This time the “Western City Project” experience tour has exciting moments to solve mysteries, and there are also moments to relax and tease the cat. I don’t think it’s meaningful to spend half a day leisure time! If you don’t know how to play this weekend, you might as well try “Xicheng Project” for a unique in-depth tour of Hong Kong.
Source: Oxfam
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