To TK's Westerner fans: Why you have interested in Three Kingdoms from the beginning?

[daiyevon]

Although I'm a Asia, Three Kingdoms period very familiar with me. However, I still difficult to understand about Westerner fans. How can Westerner people have interested in Three Kingdoms period????

I mean. I doubt that many Westerner fans really read all of " Romance of The Three Kingdoms" novel.

Not only that, Three Kingdoms include too many character. Even I am a Asia, it is very difficult to me to remember almost of TK's main characters in English ( Guan Yu, Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Lubu,...). Is Westerner fans really can remember almost of these name?

ROTK belong to Chinese's culture. Very many elements can't translate to English totally.
Exp: The famous poem:
" The Empire long divided, must unite.
The Empire long united, must divide."
In the origin, the poem shorter and look better the translation.

= > So. What made Westerner fans know and have interested in Three Kingdoms?
Thank you.

------------------------------
I share everyone about my feeling whenever Ubisoft released their Assassin Creed game:

- Assassin Creed 1:
“ Crusader? Christianity fight against Muslim? I just know that. Character…I just know Saladin. Alamut, what is this? Oh, the trailer is cool.”

- Assassin Creed 2:
“ Borgia? Who is Borgia? No matter what, trailer is very excited.”

- Assassin Creed 3:
“ American fight against Britain, I don’t know much about it. Washington? I only know he is the first president of U.S…. Everything look like boring.”

- Assassin Creed 4:
“ Pirate of Carribean again? I don’t know anyone in game. Look like boring.”

- Assassin Creed Unity:
“ Napoleon? I know it. Maria Antoinette? I know her. So…what?”

- Assassin Creed Origin:
“ OHHHHH. Caesar and Cleopatra? I know them. He is the GREAT conqueror, and she is the most beautiful of that period.
OHHH. I can’t believe it. They really made the scene how Cleopatra meet Caesar almost follow the history. It is so GREAT. The fiction mix with the history.
OOOOOHHHH MY GOD. So I am the first guy who stabbed Caesar? The writer so great. I feel like I really live in that period.”

= > So, my own experience is: I only be excited if that story: based on the historical period, which not only I have familiar to, but also my favorite period.
( Sorry for my bad English grammar).

[rincewind]

KOEI and their games introduced me to the setting basically.

First with RoTK series and then the Dynasty Warriors series. (But Genghis Khan II will always have a special place in my gamer heart!)

[Magdaki]

Like rincewind, I first learned about Three Kingdoms from the KOEI games. Then I read books on the subject because it seemed really compelling. And it is.

Genghis Khan II forever! :)

[Suburban Killbot]

I like Total War games, so I'm always going to be interested in a new TW regardless of the setting. I didn't know anything about the Three Kingdoms period prior to the announcement of this game, but I've taken some time to learn more about it.

I also didn't know much about Japanese history prior to playing Shogun 1, or the Roman Republic / Empire prior to playing Rome 1. Just because a game doesn't reflect *my* history doesn't mean I can't be interested in learning about it, and TW games are a fun gateway into periods of history I wouldn't have otherwise explored.

[Chicken RUN!!!!]

same thing i started playing romance of the three kingdoms 8 on the ps2 if i remember well.
had a blast then i found dynasty warrior 4 and voila the rest is history. :)

[StevoTheOutlaw]

I love history, love European Medieval history, with knights and castles.
Growing up I loved martial arts films, and I played Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors.
I read the novel and fell in love with the time period, I love Sengoku Jidai era as well.

RoTK8 on the ps2 was amazing.

[Vacca]

Originally posted by daiyevon:

Although I'm a Asia, Three Kingdoms period very familiar with me. However, I still difficult to understand about Westerner fans. How can Westerner people have interested in Three Kingdoms period????

Short answer is, while it's not "popular", it's well known. Actually that's the same for most history-related stuff - it's not like people around here consider historical characters like Caesar or Napoleon to be "popular", you don't see people going around like, "yo have you checked out the last movie about NAPOLEON DOING BATTLES AND STUFF??".

[Gamer de esquerda]

I've met the story through the DW series. It really interested me to know the ending, since the first games werent clear on who won on the end (the winning side was always your side), which led me to research about it. Was really sad in discovering Shu didnt win. :(

I liked the strategies, its different from most medieval movies/games where characters mostly kill everything in their way. Zhuge Liang became one of my favorite characters

[moka]

I really liked to watch korean historical dramas, then i started to search for some chinese or japanese equivalents. And the 2010 chinese adaptation of novel was the best serie i've ever seen in my life. From that i bought Koei rotk13. And now i'm just quite excited because i already liked Total War franchise before, especially Empire and Shogun 2.

From 2010 drama, my favorite characters are Zhao Yun and Sun Quan.

If one day there is a game or dlc about korean 3 kingdoms, i'll buy it for sure too !

[MShelleysMonster]

I've studied the Three Kingdoms period for the last 15 years. In fact, 我爱三国，所以我开始学中文

Like many others, it was Koei's Dynasty Warriors that got me interested in the time period. There is an element of the exotic and foreign to it. Americans in particular don't have a medieval history, so we love stories about Knights and Samurai or Alexander the Great and so on.

What personally appeals to me about the period is something that you see in the American Civil War- everyone knows eachother. There's an interpersonal relationship across the battle lines. It isn't just an English King fighting a French King or something like that- Liu Bei and Cao Cao sat down and talked to one another. The generals understood eachother's thoughts and intentions. I also love how every single one of the main three characters was at one point in time both an underdog AND the unstoppable giant that ended up defeated anyway. Far too often, the historical records for other time periods and other civilizations is "We fought the barbarians and because they are barbarians, we won." or something to that effect.

[Ferreus the Umbral Arrow]

Originally posted by rincewind:

KOEI and their games introduced me to the setting basically.

First with RoTK series and then the Dynasty Warriors series. (But Genghis Khan II will always have a special place in my gamer heart!)

My first experience with the Three Kingdoms story was Kessen 2 on the PS2
After that, I got into the RotK games. Then I also started playing a few Dynasty Warrior games.

I may be a history nut, and a mythology expert - but I'll fully admit to not knowing, nor caring about the chinese history around the Three Kingdoms. History wise with asian countries, I prefer the warring states period of Japan.
So why am I, a westerner excited for this game? Because as a GAMER, not a westerner, I have enjoyed so many games set in the Three Kingdoms story - I am excited for another one. As a gamer who loves the Total War style of RTS, I am excited for another one. As a Total War:Warhammer fan, I am excited for a historical game with elements of fantasy in it like legendary lords.

We are ALL gamers, my friend. We don't have to ever think about politics, about nationality and culture - we just have to enjoy video games :)

[Nero]

Dynasty Warriors 3 and 5 on the PS2. Awesome days, other days.

RedCliff the movie on TV. Heh a historical movie with little historical accuracy.

Ikkitousen... the original series is cool.

[Chicken RUN!!!!]

Originally posted by Alith Anar (The Shadow King):

Originally posted by rincewind:

KOEI and their games introduced me to the setting basically.

First with RoTK series and then the Dynasty Warriors series. (But Genghis Khan II will always have a special place in my gamer heart!)

My first experience with the Three Kingdoms story was Kessen 2 on the PS2
After that, I got into the RotK games. Then I also started playing a few Dynasty Warrior games.

I may be a history nut, and a mythology expert - but I'll fully admit to not knowing, nor caring about the chinese history around the Three Kingdoms. History wise with asian countries, I prefer the warring states period of Japan.
So why am I, a westerner excited for this game? Because as a GAMER, not a westerner, I have enjoyed so many games set in the Three Kingdoms story - I am excited for another one. As a gamer who loves the Total War style of RTS, I am excited for another one. As a Total War:Warhammer fan, I am excited for a historical game with elements of fantasy in it like legendary lords.

We are ALL gamers, my friend. We don't have to ever think about politics, about nationality and culture - we just have to enjoy video games :)

thump up fo ya man . it's quite true we are all gamer's totally agree with you .

[Poqreslux]

Like a lot of us here, I was first introduced to Three Kingdoms from Koei, mainly Dynasty Warriors. As I kid I liked a lot of other things that go well with Three Kingdoms: history, mythology, martial arts, and reading. I first read Romance of the Three Kingdoms in its entirety in the eighth grade with the Moss Robert's translation.

And yes, I had a very difficult time following who all the names were, keeping track of all the characters, and most of the thematic elements of the novel were lost on me. I've reread it multiple times since then, and everytime I reread it, I get something more out of it than I did last time. That to me is how I know it's excellent literature.

But really, I owe a lot of it to Dynasty Warriors. I love Dynasty Warriors, pretty much adore all the main line games (looking at you 9...) and since that was really the only major series I knew about in the west that had anything to do with Three Kingdoms, it also helped the setting feel so much more unique. It's funny that in reality it's rather the opposite and it's really overdone.

Nowadays, I remember the names of pretty much all of the major characters (anybody who was in dynasty warriors for example) and other major characters who aren't in those games but important to the plot like Yuan Shao's sons Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan, and Yuan Xi, the leader of the Xiongnu at the time Yufulou and so on. It's really the minor characters that trip me a lot and I often need to look them up to remember who exactly they were and then it clicks for me.

Like if you asked me to tell you who Zhang Wen, Zhang Bu, and Zhang Zhao all are off the top of my head, I'll be honest, I couldn't. But as soon as I refresh my memory a bit, I go "oh yeah, that guy, I remember him. I almost remember reading about how he was involved with this event, which had this other guy that I now remember facts about too." It's funny how human memory works.

[planescaped]

I prefer the Water Margin honestly...

Lin Chong ftw!

Also the Song Dynasty was kind of a hot mess. XD

[Aggris Abernathy]

I get around.