The game is on! Young entrepreneurs find their niche
Editor's note:
Young people are the creative energy that will carry business in Shanghai forward into the future. A generation of young entrepreneurs is generating new ideas about how to combine lifestyle with making money. Shanghai Daily's series sheds light on their efforts and ambitions.
Wang Yijun, 30, earned a master’s degree at Sydney University before returning to China two years ago with an itch to open his own business.
In Australia, he fell in love with tabletop role-playing games (TRPG) like Dungeons and Dragons.
"I had played the games there for years,” he said. “It's not just the world of a game but also a 'second life.' Even when people are busy with work, they will drop everything for a weekly tactical game party."
Wang started up a tabletop role-playing game business in Shanghai and is about to officially open his first outlet, which is now operating on a trial basis.
He’s not alone among the thousands of Chinese students returning from abroad with dreams of starting their own businesses.
Zhu Yinghua, an official with the city's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, estimates that Shanghai has become home to some 160,000 returning overseas Chinese students from across China, who choose the city to pursue those dreams.
Wang decided to enter the tabletop game genre in China after noticing how young people were taking to the idea.
It has been more than five decades since Dungeons and Dragons was first published and became commonly recognized as the beginning of the modern role-playing game industry.
The reception area of a Mirror Land store on Datian Road features vintage decoration.
A male game master of Mirror Land is officiating in a multiplayer role-playing game on adventure at a store on Datian Road, Jing'an District.
"The concept of TRPG is much more than just tabletop game,” he told Shanghai Daily, using the genre’s acronym. “It's also something like immersive theater and the role-playing detective games are now growing in popularity in China.”
Wang chose Jingtu, translated as Mirror Land, as the name of his brand. It has the same pronunciation as “pure land” in Chinese, and the idea was to give relief to people trapped in a busy urban life. And "mirror" also refers to the parallel world players create in the games.
"I always told my colleagues that this project has magic,” he said. “Many of my team members and our supporters joined us just after playing one game. But since it's my first foray into the business, I always keep at cautious attitude. I am not ready to do large-scale market promotion yet.”
The only difficulty Wang has faced this year is the novel coronavirus pandemic. Several new projects planned at the beginning of the year, including an outlet in Beijing, had to be delayed.
"We could do nothing but abandon our projects for the time being,” Wang said. “But thankfully, our investors have trust in us, so that we hope that we can soon make up for lost time."
On a Sunday afternoon, two tabletop role-playing games were underway in different rooms at the new Mirror Land outlet. One group played a game involving a team of agents sent to investigate mysteries happening in a city.
They took on different characters — a musclebound butcher carrying a cleaver, a mysterious magician who uses playing cards as a weapon, a female idol who uses her voice to hypnotize people.
There are five players in all. They get points for attributes like strength, agility, intelligence and charm, and for skills such as fighting, hiding and driving.
They can "control" their characters to move to different places, talk with different people in the story and act in emergencies. When a dispute arises, players roll a dice to decide if a non-playing character can be defeated.
In tabletop role-playing games, there’s no fixed plot. The story unfolds according to players' whims and decisions.
"It has one obvious disadvantage,” Wang said. “Unlike some other quick games, a TRPG game often takes a long time to complete. But we aren’t trying to compete with businesses targeting ‘fragmented time.' Our 'deep experience' is an advantage to be tapped.”
Wang said his business is simplifying complex playing rules to make it easier for Chinese players to learn the game.
“Since current games in the market are mainly from overseas, we are creating Chinese games by ourselves,” he said. “Now we are working on a mobile application for users to play the games on their phones."
So far Mirror Land has developed some 30 games and has about 100 projects for commercial or non-commercial use.
"I really do appreciate the hard work of colleagues who have been with me for two years without a single coin dropping in their pockets,” he said.
Rho Sun, 20, is a college freshman majoring in art, does part-time job for Mirror Land as a game master. As a seasoned player, he thinks the games help people keep an open mind and teach them patience.
"In some mobile games, I can sometimes feel the rage of players who care too much about winning,” Sun said. “But in our games, that will never happen. If you win, that’s a story; if you lose, it’s another story. Both can give you satisfaction.”
A female player is designing her own character with written descriptions like dark brown tresses and glasses on her face during a Mirror Land game.
Shanghai welcomes students returning from overseas with open arms.
"Because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, there's a surge in overseas Chinese students who are now seeking advice from us or making application to settle in Shanghai," Zhu with the city's human resources bureau told Shanghai Daily.
According to the Beijing Overseas Study Service Association, about 86 percent of Chinese students currently studying abroad wish to return. Some cite dissatisfaction with the way host countries are handling the spread of coronavirus.
“We have policies to help them settle here, including training or even funding to start up businesses or do research," Zhu said.
Yu Xiao, 31, another returned student, has profited from the city’s inviting business environment.
A graduate from the University of Nebraska in the US, Yu returned to China in 2013 and now is a managing partner in a financial capital company.
"I studied economics in the US and after I returned to China, I first worked as a manager at an asset-management company, working my way up to chief operating officer,” he said.
In 2014, he and a partner established an education institution in finance. A year later, he created the Republic Travel Agency to capitalize on the growing tourism industry. By 2018, the company had expanded from two to about 40 employees. The endeavor attracted “angel” investors and won entrepreneurship awards.
The coronavirus pandemic this year knocked back tourism, and Republic Travel suffered big losses. Yu, forced to return to working in the finance industry, remains undaunted.
"In Shanghai, if you make the effort, you can reap the rewards,” he said. “You create jobs rather than looking for one.”
A female game master of Mirror Land is officiating in a multiplayer role-playing game at a store on Datian Road, Jing'an District.
