A “Friends” story that players and the game have co-created over the past 18 years

I've always felt that "being able to play video games with old friends" is a truly rare thing in today's fast-paced society.

With my days filled with work and daily routines, I’d probably long since forgotten how long it had been since I last logged into that dormant account. Then, out of the chat window that had been silent for years, a message popped up: “Are you free? Let’s log on and catch up.”

The friends who once crowded around the screen to form teams and venture into the game, standing shoulder to shoulder to hold the front lines, have now, more than a decade later, scattered to the four winds, their steps slowed by the trivialities of daily life.I had thought those days of playing online together would remain forever locked away in old memories, but with just a single invitation, the burning passion of our youth surged back instantly. As the familiar login sound rang out, this virtual world—which has witnessed countless adventures, comradeship, and reunions—still waits for every old friend to return.

That sense of familiarity that comes with old friends is truly hard to resist.

This Friday, NetEase officially launched the "Old Friends Server," an anniversary server for *Tianxia*, which has been in operation for 18 years.

The “Old Friends” server had already attracted significant attention from veteran players during the pre-launch phase. As a limited-time server designed to bring players back to the game, it surpassed *Tianxia II*’s all-time record for pre-registrations during the sign-up period.On launch day, the excitement reached new heights: within just six hours of the “Contest for Central Plains” server going live, it set a new record for the highest number of first-day logins in *Tianxia II* history.

Not only that, but within 60 minutes of the server launch, over 100 factions had already gathered. Even before the server went live, top-spending players and well-known guilds from all over the MMO scene had officially announced their participation and had been busy mobilizing and preparing for battle well in advance.From the moment the servers went live, the voice chat rooms of each guild have been buzzing nonstop with commands and strategic deployments—just as in the old days, an epic battle for supremacy in the Central Plains is imminent.

To build hype for the launch of the "Old Friends" server, *Tianxia* even enlisted the nation’s iconic goddess, Joey Wang, as its spokesperson, using deeply resonant, classic symbols of nostalgia to rekindle players’ earliest memories of the martial arts world.

On July 16, Wang Zuxian’s social media account released the first celebrity AI commercial in China’s gaming industry, produced by NetEase. In less than two days, the video had amassed millions of views across all platforms.

The moment the server went live, a massive wave of veteran players returned all at once, instantly filling the server to capacity and making long queues the norm—a scene that perfectly recreated the grand spectacle of tens of thousands of players adventuring together on the same server back in the day.

Such a spectacle is rare these days. But in fact, this isn’t the first time *Tianxia* has sparked a nationwide wave of players returning to the game. Despite having been online for many years, *Tianxia* has consistently maintained a vibrant ecosystem that thrives against the odds.Online, streamers broadcast regularly, player communities remain vibrant, and it has long been commonplace for veteran players to band together to tackle new content, form teams for nostalgic adventures, and climb the leaderboards in new servers—with a constant stream of user-generated content (UGC) flooding major platforms;Offline, every carnival event brings together veteran players from all corners of the country for in-person gatherings in the virtual world, and enthusiasm remains consistently high year-round.

Former players who run into each other in the comments section these days always exchange a few pleasantries.

It’s hard to imagine that over the course of 18 years, the game development team and players have come to regard each other as old friends. This might leave some people wondering: How has *Tianxia* managed to achieve this?

01

Creating a Brand-New Experience with Familiar, Time-Tested Materials

The fact that an MMO that has been in operation for eighteen years continues to generate buzz shows that it is confident in what it is doing, and the most obvious reflection of this is its game content. The current product portfolio of *Tianxia* caters to the needs of players at different stages of their gaming journey, and the design philosophy behind each title points in the same direction:

Use what players are most familiar with to create a brand-new experience.

The phrase “starting a new server” has long been a source of frustration for veteran players, and at its core, it boils down to three major issues:

The assets accumulated over many years on the old servers have been completely lost; the original server’s social community and ecosystem have been diluted by players spreading out to other servers; the endless grind and microtransactions on the new servers offer no safety net; and quitting the game results in a loss.

. This server rotation model continues to erode player trust, turning new servers from a source of fresh gameplay experiences into an operational tactic that players go out of their way to avoid.

Meanwhile, the "Tianxia II" 3rd Anniversary Veteran Server overturns the traditional logic of new server launches by transforming the single-server, long-term rollover model into a season-based, time-limited gameplay system tied to permanent veteran servers—one that is time-limited, reversible, and backed by a safety net. Using a streamlined "search, fight, retreat" approach tailored for MMOs, it resolves three core concerns at their root.

In the "Old Friends Server" mode of *Tianxia II*, "launching a new zone" has been redefined as: inviting former friends to form a team and participate in a limited-time seasonal team battle with a clearly defined duration, tangible rewards, and full protection against loss.

Players don’t need to separate their accounts from the original server, so there’s no need to sever social ties;There’s a clear three-month time limit for joining the game, and you can fully develop your character and graduate in just six weeks—no need to be stuck in the game indefinitely; all in-game purchases, grinding, and rewards will ultimately be transferred back to your main account on the original server or retained by the developers; if you’re having a great time, you can wait for the next season to start and continue playing; if the experience isn’t good, you can settle your account and leave with a single click at any time—with absolutely no sunk costs.

It not only addresses the long-standing issues in older MMOs—such as static stats on a single server, making it difficult for new players to catch up,veteran players becoming disengaged and passive, all without sacrificing players’ years of account assets. It transforms the traditional practice of launching new servers to “cash in on existing player bases” into a positive cycle of “revitalizing existing player bases, re-engaging former players, and reinvesting in older servers.”

Simply put, launching a new server in the traditional way means “leaving the past behind and starting over in an unknown, long-term grind,” while the “Old Friends Server” is a “limited-time, risk-free, and profitable seasonal team-building event where you team up with old friends while building on your progress from the original server.” There are no sunk costs, no mandatory bindings, and you’re free to join or leave at any time.

For players who have temporarily left “Da Huang” and stepped away from the game, the “Old Friends” server offers a low-barrier opportunity to return: there’s no need to catch up with the main player base in the older servers. Players can start at a higher level and fight alongside old friends in three months of guild vs. guild (GVG) battles. After the event ends, resources can be saved or withdrawn, with no pressure from long-term bindings.For regular players who have remained in the original servers, the "Old Friends" server offers an additional side activity: players can use their spare time to participate in seasons, obtain exclusive materials to enhance their main characters, and enrich GvG combat scenarios. It also attracts former players who have drifted away to return, boosting server activity and revitalizing servers that have been growing increasingly quiet.

Even before and after the server launched, various powerful factions had already begun an arms race.

When players no longer have to bear sunk costs associated with choosing a server—and no longer have to choose between reuniting with old friends and preserving the value of their accounts—"launching a new server" transforms from a one-time, resource-draining operational move into a limited-time reunion for veteran players.

More and more players are returning to *Tianxia*. On June 10, *Tianxia 3* officially launched the “Ding Shanhe” S6 season. After a full year of operation and refinement, S6’s metrics have continued to rise; the number of participants in single GVG battles and faction wars on the current season’s servers has once again broken records,

The number of participants in a single battle has now surpassed the peak figure set last year, which earned a Guinness World Record.

…continuing to break records for the number of players in multiplayer battles on a single screen in domestic MMOs.

The answer is simple: Seasonal servers are becoming a low-threshold gateway for attracting PVP players from competing games. They don’t need to start from scratch; they can jump right in and start playing using a common language. This makes it easier for more players who enjoy this type of game to get started, reduces the pressure of learning, and helps them integrate into the game more smoothly.

On the other hand, in the retro MMO market—where many titles simply replicate older versions, start strong but quickly lose momentum and players—the "Tianxia II Classic Edition" ’s “Siege at the City Gates” expansion has taken a different path. It has revitalized the original art style, map layout, and the “Great Wasteland” worldview—which had been embedded in players’ memories for over a decade—and fully recreated the landscapes of the 2006 version’s Jiuli, Shuzhou, Liuguang, Yunxuan, Be’a,Mengyuan—and brought back into the game the scenes that countless veteran players had revisited time and again during their youth. With the cross-server GVG “Six-City Conquest” as its core gameplay, the developers transformed these once-static landmarks into a central stage where factions band together, camps clash, and new martial arts world tales are forged.

In the first week of the expansion, 101 factions entered the fray, with peak concurrent players on the battlefield exceeding 2,600.with battle reports and recruitment posts flooding the global chat and gaming communities. Major factions even offered cash subsidies to recruit free agents and mercenaries, with subsidies for a single siege battle reaching up to 100 yuan.This led to a sustained, month-over-month surge in new players, while the number of returning players also continued to rise. A large number of veteran players who had been AFK for over a decade returned to the servers, drawn back by the familiar lands of Da Huang. During the peak launch period, server queues were completely full, and the developers temporarily restricted new character creation to alleviate server strain.

What players miss isn’t the old content itself, but the people and events it once held. Truly effective nostalgic innovation involves transforming these old locations back into places where people can gather, compete, and create new stories—rather than turning them into “museums of old versions.”

02

Let Wang Zuxian Be More Than Just a Memory for a Generation

Once all the great game content is in place, a great spokesperson becomes the icing on the cake.

In early June of this year, Tianxia officially announced that Joey Wang had become the brand ambassador for Tianxia’s 18th anniversary, and at the time, many people were wondering why.But starting in late June, as people actually saw promotional materials featuring Joey Wang begin to appear one after another on large outdoor screens across the country—with her image lighting up the screens on bustling city streets—and as Chengdu was transformed into a limited-time “Tianxia × Joey Wang” theme city during the carnival,and the AI-concept promotional video *Graceful Silhouette*, produced through their collaboration, allowed young heroes to once again have an “unexpected encounter” with that familiar silhouette—all of which sparked widespread buzz both online and offline. As a result, this brand partnership became a self-evident “it was meant to be.”

Bringing about such a collective “revival of memories” is no easy feat; it requires alignment and effort on multiple levels.As for the choice of spokesperson, this Hong Kong star naturally embodies a unique essence: the era of Eastern martial arts cinema she pioneered has left an indelible mark on many hearts—one defined by aloofness, grace, and deep emotion. She is the very symbol of the 1980s and 1990s, capable of resonating with the majority of people.

Just as important as selecting the right people is ensuring that this collaboration gets noticed—which brings us back to *Tianxia II*’s “content-driven approach.”The project team’s approach is both bold and well-organized—rather than mechanically replaying old footage or simply posting promotional posters, they aim to leverage the cutting-edge AI tools they’ve mastered to bring the classic characters from a generation of players’ shared memories into the familiar world of Dahuang in new guises.

In the AI-concept promotional video *Shadowy Beauty*, an AI-generated Wang Zuoxian, dressed in a flowing white gown, gently strums a guqin and softly asks the player’s name from behind a sheer curtain.The dreamlike cinematography and her youthful features—much like in the classic film *A Chinese Ghost Story*—instantly transport viewers to the deepest recesses of their memories.

—This video was produced by the “Tianxia” project team in collaboration with Volcano Engine, combining NetEase Interactive Entertainment’s in-house DM Monet canvas tool with the Seedance 2.0 4K model to create a journey through time that precisely taps into the collective nostalgia of the audience.

03

The important question is: Why do we do this?

It’s not that the currently popular celebrities aren’t effective—it’s just that the development team, who are also from the ’80s and ’90s generations, understand exactly what players want to see.

These “old friends,” who came of age during the golden age of online MMOs in mainland China’s internet cafes, are more eager to see how the Hong Kong-style goddess will be portrayed in this new era—and to find out if the “Xiao Qian” of yesteryear has truly returned.

Under the AI short video ad featuring Wang Zuxian that was released on Tianxia, a large number of gamers born in the 1980s commented, “They really get us.”

Combined with the project team’s own highly refined production skills and aesthetic sensibilities, the final result delivers the most powerful statement:The precise choice of brand ambassador, supported by AI technology, combined with mutual effort to create a flawless whole, propelled this endorsement partnership into a new chapter of cinematic storytelling: the figure in the painting, the figure in the rain, and the one fighting for love—all ultimately return to the same phrase: “After traversing the mortal world, I am still myself.”

04

Understanding players is more important than anything else.

The decision to choose Joey Wang as a spokesperson shows that *Tianxia* really understands its players, because only a true friend who has been by your side for over a decade would know what you’re really feeling.

This is actually something *Tianxia* has been pondering repeatedly in recent years: What exactly do core players in their 30s and 40s want?

These people’s time is fragmented. Between work, family, and raising children, their days are split into several parts. Many haven’t logged in for years; they only remember to check their accounts when they happen to come across a news story, only to find that most of the avatars in their faction list are grayed out. But if you were to say they’ve truly drifted away, that doesn’t quite seem to be the case.A player might not have logged in for half a year, but if someone in the faction chat calls out, “We’re short an Iceheart for tonight’s city battle,” they’ll update the client that very night and sit back down at their computer.

These players are simply taking a break; it’s not that they’ve lost interest, but rather that they don’t have the time right now, can’t find anyone they know, or are afraid of having to start all over again. Guild relationships, server identities, gear and assets, and shared memories—these things don’t disappear just because they log in less frequently. Treating this group as permanently lost using traditional user acquisition logic underestimates the value of the emotional capital built up over more than a decade.

So what exactly are they after? To sum it up, there are three things:

Circles of acquaintances, a sense of familiarity, and a stable ecosystem

。

After a year of experimenting with the streamer ecosystem, *Tianxia* came to realize one thing: for an MMO, a streamer’s greatest value lies not in how many views they generate, but in their ability to bring in a group of people willing to follow their lead.Therefore, *Tianxia*’s criteria for selecting streamers do not focus on the view count of a single livestream, but rather on whether they have a stable fan base, can truly organize people, are willing to commit to long-term development, and can either compete with or collaborate with the existing ecosystem.

Because *Tianxia* aims to provide players with a stable and familiar environment: there are people to log in with, people to organize battles with, and people who’ll still be there to lend a hand even after you’ve been away for three months dealing with real-life responsibilities;The map is still the same map, the classes are still the same classes—there’s no need to re-explain what “factions” or “city battles” mean; the economic system is reliable, assets don’t depreciate randomly, and even if you’re away for a few months, you’ll still have a place to call home when you return.

The most striking example of this was his extravagant spending. After joining the Classic Edition, he not only spent money in a short period to upgrade his gear, roll diamonds, and secure the server’s top Soul Sword, but also used his own money to provide subsidies to faction members and recruit elite teams. Both before and after he joined the server, the number of participants in faction wars rose significantly, and players’ enthusiasm for combat literally doubled.

Xu Xu Bao Bao Media plays a similar role to Lao Wang and his team—stepping in as bosses, leaders, and organizers to create new forces, new rivals, new tournaments, and new talking points. From the outset, the publisher has directly intervened in the server’s social structure, rather than simply buying exposure from outside sources.

"Tianxia 3" has brought in YYF and his team of DOTA champion streamers for its new "Three Thousand Rivers of Weak Water" season. On the surface, this appears to be a cross-genre move to break into new audiences, but the underlying logic actually makes perfect sense.The core user bases of DOTA and *Tianxia* overlap significantly—both consist of mature male players in their thirties who have been playing these long-standing games for over a decade. They value teamwork and camaraderie, and they all face the same challenges: less free time, the dissolution of regular teams, and a shrinking circle of acquaintances.

So the core strategy for this cross-genre initiative isn’t “inviting DOTA streamers to play an MMO”—it’s leveraging the existing trust between top streamers and their fans to lower the social barriers to entering an unfamiliar MMO.On the product side, we’ve provided a low entry barrier, a monthly payment cap, and GvG battles with 1,000 players on the same screen; the publisher is offering 100 TI15 tickets as an incentive; and streamers are emphasizing “guides, companions, and organized groups.”

With money to be made, battles to fight, and a group of familiar comrades-in-arms, the number of players willing to return has gradually increased.

The “gamer-focused streamers” community for *Tianxia* on Douyin has grown to over 1,000 members, with a cumulative monthly livestream duration exceeding 30,000 hours.Most of these over 1,000 streamers are small-to-medium-sized native streamers. Unlike the fleeting, anonymous traffic found in general-entertainment live streams, their streams have long since formed closed-loop social networks of acquaintances.Consistent, year-round streaming has built a stable fan base. Most viewers in these streams are friends on the same game server or allies in the same faction. They gather to reminisce about past gaming experiences, coordinate raid times for the day, and discuss strategies for city battles—making the online stream a regular social hub for players.

Just looking at the sheer number of niche TikTok creators—over 1,000—on “Tianxia,” it’s quite staggering for this category.

Many old friends from "Great Wasteland" who are scattered across the country and haven’t been in touch for a long time have reconnected through live streams. Using these streams as a bond, they’ve brought scattered players together into a stable community, transforming new servers from isolated solo adventures into a social world where like-minded players can be found everywhere.

Not only online, but *Tianxia* is also creating a sense of familiarity for players through offline events:

Take Over a City gives players a warm sense of familiarity from the moment they arrive in Chengdu, because waiting for them are friends they haven’t seen in years.

According to members of the project team, over a thousand tickets were distributed to players for the 18th-anniversary Chengdu Carnival. The attendance rate among players nationwide exceeded 95%, and several hundred more players came to the event venue on their own initiative to purchase tickets and attend.

What’s more worth pondering than the numbers is what this group of people is talking about once they join the community—it’s basically not about the version’s content, but rather

"When's the next event? Who's carpooling with whom? How are we handling accommodations? And which of our old comrades haven't we found yet?"

。

The event in Chengdu was a success because there was no sense of distance or estrangement—only the casual, heartfelt conversations of old friends. The entire celebration shed the stiffness often associated with commercial events and was instead filled with the relaxed, warm atmosphere of old friends reuniting.

What players need is precisely this reassuring “sense of certainty.”

Conclusion

Over the past six months, the seemingly diverse and complex initiatives undertaken by *Tianxia* have, in fact, been focused on a single goal from start to finish: preserving the essence of the martial arts world that players cherish, using innovations tailored to players’ needs to continue the bonds forged over 18 years, and sustaining the deep friendships cultivated over many years.

Eighteen years—enough time for a teenager to become the father of two children, and enough time for “The Great Wasteland” to fill an entire generation’s memories of youth. Over the past eighteen years, *Tianxia* has proven one thing: MMOs haven’t gone away; they just need someone who truly understands who their players are, what they want, and how to make them feel it’s worth coming back.Not by throwing money at user acquisition, not by mindlessly copying trends with reskinned games, and not by cashing in on nostalgia—but by nurturing the bonds among that community day in and day out, and genuinely understanding what these players truly need.

The Great Wasteland is still here. This summer, it’s making its way back into many people’s lives in a familiar way.

This "Friends" story will continue.