Interactive Immersive Theater
My girlfriend has been in the hospital for over a month due to food poisoning. I haven’t seen her for a long time, and it’s also been a while since I went out for fun. Yesterday, I went to experience a rather enjoyable interactive immersive theater (of course, it was her idea) called “The Legend of Longmen,” at a venue near Sanlitun Gongti.
I’ve played murder mystery games many times and have also experienced immersive theater several times, but this was my first time playing an entirely interactive immersive theater. Before playing, I thought it was a bit expensive—less than 3 hours of gameplay costing 500 yuan per person. However, after playing, I didn’t think it was overpriced. There were only 7 players in total, accompanied by more than a dozen NPCs who interacted with us throughout the experience. The realistic set, spanning several hundred square meters across two floors, made the price reasonable.
During a casual chat with the front desk guy before the game started, I learned that this year has been tough for the entertainment industry. The venue hosting “The Legend of Longmen,” Mengjing Immersive Theater, is doing relatively well in Beijing, considering many similar establishments have closed down over the past two years. He mentioned, “Nowadays, people are worried about how to survive tomorrow; who would spend money on such entertainment games?”
I can relate to this, especially when it comes to murder mystery games. A few years ago, when murder mysteries were booming, not only were new venues popping up constantly, but new scripts were also being created, bringing innovation in genres and gameplay, with diverse and intriguing plots. However, from last year to this year, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of players and groups participating in murder mysteries. Often, I find it hard to find a session to join, and even if there is one, it’s usually a classic old script. These scripts are beginner-friendly, fun, and safe, but the lack of new content makes it feel like the murder mystery genre is becoming a sunset industry. Due to the lack of new scripts, I recently played “Snow Village Serial Killer” three times.
Regarding interactive immersive theater, there are two key terms: “interactive” and “immersive theater.”
Murder mystery games are highly interactive, as the whole process involves players engaging with each other. The setting is simple; everyone is in one room with a table, and that’s it. There are also “big role-play” murder mystery games, where although it’s still within one room, there are two or three DMs (Dungeon Masters) who act out certain scenarios from the script, enhancing the player’s immersion. These role-play games are mostly emotional scripts, where the number of men and women is equal, and players form couples based on their in-game identities, experiencing various types of relationships—romantic, familial, or friendly. Emotional scripts were my favorite type, as they were my main source of fun, but later I couldn’t play them anymore and had to switch to hardcore detective scripts, which didn’t bring the same level of enjoyment :P
There’s another type of murder mystery game called “real-scene investigation.” These games are mostly faction-based or detective-oriented, with simpler scripts. Real-scene faction games are suitable for corporate team-building events because they accommodate large groups, have low difficulty, and involve player competition. Detective scripts, on the other hand, can be a bit dull; despite the real-scene setting, you still end up sitting at a table solving the mystery, which can be quite boring. Therefore, I feel that real-scene investigation games might not have much of a future.
Then there’s immersive theater, which comes in two forms. One has fixed seating, with multiple stage areas in the venue. Actors perform across different stage areas, sometimes right next to or behind you, and they may randomly interact with some audience members—asking a question, playing a small game, or dancing together on stage (essential for extroverts). This type of immersive theater has the most distinct hierarchy, with different ticket prices corresponding to different seats, and actors giving more attention to those who paid more. There used to be a famous murder mystery venue called Fanxing on Line 6, which later transformed into Fanxing Drama Village, where many of these seated immersive theaters are performed. What I can’t understand is why someone would pay 1,800 yuan for a front-row seat when the back-row tickets are only 180 yuan, just to play a small game in front of everyone or have a few words with an NPC. Haven’t they played murder mystery games? You can satisfy any game craving for 100 yuan.
The other type of immersive theater has no fixed seating and is more of a follow-along experience. The performance space is large and realistic, with actors performing at their own pace. The audience can watch from anywhere in the venue, standing beside or in front of the actors. To follow the story, you usually stick to one or two actors to see what happens to their characters. In these performances, actors have limited interaction with the audience, with some communication, but the focus is still on the performance.
The interactive immersive theater falls somewhere between a murder mystery game and immersive theater. It has a realistic set, and the actors interact with you throughout the experience—they’re both acting and playing along. In terms of cost, a tabletop murder mystery game is around 150 yuan, a role-play murder mystery game is about 300 yuan, and while immersive theater has more actors and a larger venue, it can accommodate over 20 people, so the price isn’t too high—around 400 yuan, with some tickets costing 300 or 200 yuan, depending on how much of the performance you watch. Overall, interactive immersive theater is the most expensive, costing 500 yuan per person.
Interactive immersive theater also has some drawbacks, such as relatively simple plots. It might be beginner-friendly, but if you’ve played many murder mystery games, the story can feel a bit thin. After all, a murder mystery game lasts 6 hours and involves reading tens of thousands of words, with buildups, twists, and conflicts. Immersive theater is shorter and can’t fit as much content, so as long as you have fun, it’s good enough.
Here is the promotional poster displayed at the entrance of “The Legend of Longmen”:
Reading personal background information before the game starts:
The tightly shut gates of Ningyuan City:
Behind the gates is the realistic set:
As with all immersive theaters, no photos are allowed of the set or actors after the show starts.
After the game, we had a simple meal—Hunan cuisine—at Xiaoxiangge in the sunken plaza of Sanlitun Soho. The two of us spent 180 yuan, which is relatively cheap.
I previously wrote about “How Much Does It Cost to Eat in Beijing?,” where I mentioned that a meal costs 180 yuan per person. Now, it seems this isn’t too far off. If you’re eating on the fifth or sixth floor of a mall, that’s about what you’d expect. 180 yuan might be a bit high, and 150 yuan per person might be more reasonable, avoiding waste. Two people ordering three dishes is about right.
Others
Managing and reading PDFs on MacOS has always been a problem. I used to use paperlib, which was pretty good but couldn’t import non-academic PDFs, among other usability issues, so I stopped using it. A few days ago, I uninstalled paperlib, and the PDFs I had imported were archived on GitHub at smallyunet/paperlib_backup. If needed in the future, I should be able to re-import them using software.
I discovered that Zotero is a tool similar to paperlib but more powerful and user-friendly. Zotero is developed by a company, whereas paperlib is purely a personal project. Zotero also allows you to publicly share your library with a single click.
Additionally, this book “The Bitcoin Standard“ seems quite popular. I bought a pirated copy online and plan to read it. On Apple Books, this book costs about $29, but the pirated physical copy only cost ¥29, which is quite a deal. I suspect there’s a publicly available PDF online that the seller printed.
I still prefer reading paper documents over screens on computers or tablets—it’s better for my eyes and body. If my finances allowed, I would even consider buying a printer to print out all the PDFs I want to read.