I had a favorite growing up (Anita Yuen in the 1998 Taiwanese television series). He was obsessed with Chinese period television series like , and . I consider myself fairly well-versed in Chinese historical figures, especially those depicted in 90s and 2000s entertainment in Asia. So when I discovered that a UK-based studio had created a virtual reality game called The pirate queen Based on a forgotten leader who was prolific in the South China Sea, I was surprised. How had I never heard of her? How come the Asian film and television industry has never covered it?
I was able to play a bit of the game this week, which was released on the Meta Quest store and March 7th. The main character, Cheng Shih, is voiced by actress Lucy Liu, who also executive produced this version of the game with the CEO and founder of UK-based Singer Studios, Eloise Singer. Liu and Singer sat down with me for an interview about The pirate queenCheng Shih, the strengths of virtual reality and the importance of cultural and historical accuracy in games and films.
Cheng Shih, which translates to “Mrs. Cheng” or “Mrs. Cheng,” was born Shi Yang. After marrying the pirate Cheng Yi (usually romanized as Zheng Yi), she became known as Cheng Yi Sao, which translates to “wife of Cheng Yi.” Together they led the Guangdong Pirate Confederacy in the 19th century. After the death of her husband in 1807, she took over the reins and became what South China Morning Post “The greatest pirate in history.”
How did Singer Studios find out about Cheng Shih and decide to create a game (and an upcoming franchise including a movie, podcast, and graphic novels) around her? According to Singer, it was word of mouth. “It was a friend of mine who first told me the story,” Singer said. “She said, 'Did you know that the most famous pirate in history was a woman?'”
Vague reference had been made to Cheng Shih in prior to this, as the character Mistress Ching in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: at the end of the world and Jing Lang in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. As Singer noted, Cheng Shih also appeared in a recent episode of doctor who.
Singer said his team began developing the project as a film in late 2018. But the pandemic upended their plans, prompting Singer to adapt it into a game. A short version of The pirate queen It later debuted at the Raindance Film Festival and soon after, Meta came on board and provided funding to complete the game's development. They then approached Liu when the completed version was ready and about to appear at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
“The rest is history,” Liu said, “but not forgotten history.” He said that Cheng Shih was never recognized as the most powerful pirate. “It seems crazy that in the 19th century, this woman who started out as a courtesan then rose to power and then had this fleet of pirates that she commanded,” Liu added. She went on to talk about how Cheng Shih was ahead of his time and also depicted “a bit of an underdog story.” To watch the full 15-minute interview, you can watch the video in this article or listen to this week's episode of The Engadget Podcast and learn more about Liu and Singer's thoughts on virtual reality and technology over the past 20 years.
Capturing the historical and cultural details of Cheng Shih's life was paramount to Liu and Singer. They said the team had to create women's hands from scratch to be represented from the player's perspective in virtual reality, and a dialect coach was hired to help Liu perfect the pronunciation of the Cantonese words Cheng Shih speaks in the game. game. Although I am not entirely sure whether Cheng Shih spoke Mandarin or Cantonese, the latter seems the more accurate option given that it is the lingua franca in the Guangdong region.
All this added to the immersion of The pirate queen, in which players find themselves in an atmospheric maritime environment. The Meta Quest 3's controllers served as my hands in the game, and I rowed boats, climbed rope ladders, and picked up items with relative ease. Some of the mechanics, especially the idea of ”teleportation” as movement, were a little clunky, but after about five minutes I got used to how things worked. You will have to aim with the left controller and press the joystick when you have chosen a location and the scene will change around you. This will likely minimize the chance of nausea, since you won't be sitting still while watching your surroundings move. It's also pretty typical of , so those with experience playing will probably be familiar with the move.
You can still walk and explore, of course. I peered into the corners of rooms, inspected the inside of cabinets, and more, while searching for keys that would open boxes containing clues. A lot of this is pretty standard for a puzzle or room escape game, which is what I used to play most in my teens. But I was especially captivated by sequences like rowing a boat across the sea and climbing a rope ladder, both of which made me sweat slightly. Inside Cheng Shih's hut, I lit an incense stick and placed it in an incense holder, an action I repeated every week at my grandfather's altar as a child. It looked so realistic that I tried to wave the incense to put out the flame and I could almost smell the smoke.
It's these types of activities that make virtual reality games excellent vehicles for education and empathy. “We didn't want to have these combat elements that traditional VR games do have,” Singer said, adding that it was one of the challenges in creating The pirate queen.
“It's nice to see and learn and be a part of that, rather than 'let's turn to page 48,'” Liu said. “That's not as exciting as doing something and being an active part of something.” When you play as a historical character in a game, and one that's as immersive as a virtual reality game, “you're living that person's life or that moment in time,” Liu added.
While The pirate queen Currently only available on Quest devices, Singer said there are plans to bring it to “as many headsets as possible.” Singer Studios also said it is “extending The pirate queen franchise beyond virtual reality and turned into a graphic novel, a film and a television series.”
