Posted in: TV | Tagged: 3 Body Problem, ken liu, Liu Cixin, netflix, TenCent, vr

3 Body Problem: Comparing The VR Game in Chinese & Netflix Versions

The VR game in 3 Body Problem is the same as the book's but the Netflix version makes significant changes from the Chinese TV adaptation.

Warning: You should finish watching Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's 3 Body Problem before reading this because it's ALL spoilers… for the night is dark and full of spoilers. Seriously. We jump right into spoilers from the start to after this; there's no turning back. You've been warned…

In 3 Body Problem, a VR game is a major part of the story. In Liu Cixin's book and the Chinese TV adaptation, the game itself is called "The Three Body Problem," and it's used to reveal the world of the aliens and why they plan to invade Earth. The big revelation is that the San-Ti are living under a literal 3 Body Problem – their planet is in an unstable orbit around three suns whose gravitational pull destroys their civilisations completely at unpredictable intervals, after which they have to start all over again. Millions of them die each time their planet is destroyed by extreme cold, heat, or gravity. The Chinese TV adaptation and the Netflix version both depict the game in interesting ways, and both work very well.

The "3 Body Problem" Game in Chinese Series Faithful to Book

The "3 Body Problem" game in both the Chinese TV and Netflix versions is a Virtual Reality game that serves two purposes: to show the players what the San-Ti's world is facing and to find the smartest places who find the most answers to why their world is constantly being destroyed so they can be recruited into the pro-alien cult. In the book and Chinese version, it's called the Earth-Trisolaran Organisation (ETO).

(By the way, "San-Ti" literally means "three body" in Mandarin Chinese, and that's the original title for the first book and the name of the aliens. Ken Liu (no relation), the American novelist and translator of the books, called them "Trisolarans" after "tri-solar" for the three suns, with Liu Cixin's approval.)

The Chinese version faithfully adapts the game scenes virtually word-for-word and scene-for-scene. Hero Wang Miao (Edward Zhang) is the sole player as he moves through the game under the username "Copernicus," solving the Science problems and advancing the civilization each time before the planet is destroyed. He makes it to the steam era and beyond, all the way to the final stages of the game, where the world faces its final level, and other players gather for a wake as the whole world shuts down for good. Later, he and detective Da Shi (Yu Hewei) use the game's VR software to access Mike Evans' servers to see what the Trisolarian's world and society is like, though they and the society are presented in abstract graphics because the Earth-designed game doesn't have files for what the aliens really looked like, and even Ye Wenjie visits the game to visit the alien world for the first and last time herself after her arrest.

Changes in the Netflix Series' Version of the Game

The 3 Body Problem game in the Netflix version is more overtly a "game" with an overlay that tells the players what level they're at. There are also fewer players in it, so some viewers get confused about whether the other characters in the game or NPCs or rival players. The game also introduces a figure for the players to get invested in – Follower (Eve Ridley), a little girl NPC (who turns out to be modeled after Vivian Ye, Mike Evans, and Ye Wenjie's daughter when she was a child). Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) immediately becomes obsessed with trying to save Follower – who remembers every time she dies in each level – only to discover that she can't. The real objective of the game is to figure out how to save the San-Ti, but it's an unwinnable game. Being in a three-body constellation means each civilization and its people are always doomed. The game's real goal is to find the smartest and most determined players to recruit into the pro-San-Ti cult. The game in the Netflix series never gets very far in the evolution of the civilisations nor does it have the Chinese version's commentary on MMO games with huge gatherings of competing players, though the other players resent Cheng Jin's ability to figure out the right scientific experiments before they do.

Different VR Tech in the Chinese and Netflix Versions

The Chinese series features existing VR technology and gear for playing the game. The Netflix version features an advanced futuristic headset that looks like a pair of silver underwear with no jacks or cables. It's partly inspired by the VR headset in the Sword Art Online anime, but technology that advanced would have come from the San-Ti sending the tech specs to Mike Evans, who would spend his fortune developing the gear. Like the Chinese adaptation of 3 Body Problem, it's never stately but heavily implied that Evans and Ye Wenjie designed the game, modeling human historical periods to create relatable settings and only inviting elite people to play the game. Those people would be scientists, environmentalists, and tech millionaires. The headsets scan their brains and collects their biometric data to not only create sensory input to the players' senses so they feel the game world but also scan their brains for their emotional reactions to sense when they become emotionally invested in the plight of the NPC people in the game, who are the San-Ti's stand-ins. The game also features a woman with a sword who's not only the game guide but a visual manifestation of the sophon, the proton-sized supercomputer who only appears in the third book in the trilogy "Death's End."

"3 Body Problem" Has More Gamer In-Jokes 

Both TV versions of the 3 Body Problem feature satire about gaming in the game scenes. The Chinese TV version shows the game as more of an MMO with more players gathering and arguing since MMOs were a big deal in China in the early 2000s. The game in the Netflix version feels more like a Western game with larger declarations of the game missions like having Sophon show up to expel uninvited players like a moderator. Jack (John Bradley) punching NPC Sir Thomas More (Kevin Eldon) is just what gamers would do just to see if they can. Jack and Cheng Jin becoming obsessed with the game is also a commentary on gamers and also shows Cheng Jin's obsessive-compulsive nature when it comes to puzzles and Science. The game scenes also give showrunners Weiss, Benioff, and Woo a chance to give guest cameos to their favourite current British comedians and also an appearance by Game of Thrones vet Conleth Hill, who played Verys, as a bored and officious Pope.

Virtually every aspect of 3 Body Problem is a deep dive, even if they rush through a lot of the first book. You could spend weeks picking through them. 3 Body Problem is streaming on Netflix.

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