Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem,’ humanity comes face to face with the worst kind of threat: an alien invasion. This invasion, however, is not all bloodshed. The alien race is fully aware of humanity’s potential, so it comes up with different ways to cripple humans before making their move on Earth. In between all this, scientists die mysteriously, and a new game seems to be connected to it all. Winning this game seems to be the only way out of the life-or-death situation, but playing this game is not so easy. For people who love playing video games, it would be interesting to think about whether such a game could exist in real life. SPOILERS AHEAD
3 Body Problem is a Fictional Game Connected to the Aliens
Generally, video games are played for pleasure. It is a hobby for people to indulge in during their spare time. Every game offers a different kind of world, often bound by impeccable storytelling, and the players go through different levels to get to the end of the line. Once the mission is completed, the mystery is solved, the race is won, and the player moves on from the game and finds their next mission, mystery, or race. With the 3 Body Problem game, things are very different.
The game is entirely fictional and was conceived by Liu Cixin for the first installment of his sci-fi novel series, ‘The Three-Body Problem.’ The story focuses on the impending invasion of an alien race, but it was important to keep the mystery while also divulging enough details to the audience so that by the time the entire picture comes to light, they would have an inkling of what to expect.
In the show, the game is a way for the aliens to introduce humans, and a select few at that, to their world. The world, tweaked to feel more familiar to humans, is a solar system with three suns. The players have to get through the Chaotic Eras and Stable Eras, and the first level focuses on predicting the pattern of the Eras to help the civilization survive the aggressively uninhabitable Chaotic Eras. As a game, this setting doesn’t feel too weird to the player because they are expecting some over-the-top plot, and they don’t feel too intimidated because it is just a game.
It is only when the players have crossed a couple of levels and are more familiar and rather attached to the world that the next level reveals the true purpose of the game. 3 Body Problem is tailor-made by the San-Ti Ren to introduce their world and themselves, which is why there is no real-life counterpart of the game. While you won’t be able to play the game as of yet, there are a couple of fan-made websites that try to recreate the world of the San-Ti Ren, presenting a sped-up version of the Chaotic and Stable Eras. It is a fascinating thing to see, but there is barely any interaction between the players, which makes it much less exciting and high-stakes compared to the game portrayed in the Netflix series.
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