FROM A ROLE-PLAYING GAME (RPG) TO A BRAND: STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FROM AN OVER-TWO-DECADE CASE

Figures & data

Table 1. A selected list of characteristics and motivations for playing RPGs.

Variance Factors	Description
Players’ Motivations
Achievement	Within the RPG world, the desire to gain power, progress, and status will encourage the players to continuously optimise their characters and play the game (Yee 2006). These may be realised in the forms of, for example, getting in-game weapons or items (Au 2021).
Discovery and immersion	Enabled by a virtual environment (Cole and Griffiths 2007), RPG players may start new adventures, interact with in-game characters, and explore the game world. These will offer them an exclusive (Yee 2006) and immersing fantasy experience (Cole and Griffiths 2007; Tychsen, Hitchens, and Brolund 2008).
Fantasy	Within the game’s fantasy world, players may take charge of everything (Tychsen, Hitchens, and Brolund 2008) or do something they may not otherwise do in real life (Au 2021).
Role-playing	In RPGs, players enact characters who participate in a narrative collaboratively with other in-game characters for self-realisation (Li et al. 2018; Tychsen 2006).
Characteristics
Advancement	RPGs may offer a sense of power, progress, and accumulation of wealth or abilities. Upon advancing in the game, players may encounter various challenges, which engage players further (Lui and Hang Au 2017; Yee 2006).
Character-controlling	In RPGs, players typically control the characters through which they interact with the fictional world (Hitchens and Drachen 2009). The sense of control, in turn, will foster players’ engagement (Lui and Hang Au 2017).
Goals and Rules	Game rules describe the goal structure, objectives, and reasons for actions within the game world (Planells de la Maza 2013). The goals within an RPG will usually be the character’s survival until the end of the game, but there may also be other victory conditions (Zagal and Altizer 2014).
Mechanics	The game mechanics may include the game masters interacting with the players and managing the realisation of different in-game elements (Hitchens and Drachen 2009; Yee 2006).
Storylines in a fictional world	Storylines are core features of RPGs, usually pre-programmed (Tychsen 2006) and “story-telling with rules.” The fictional world created by the storyline will offer players different narrative experiences through in-game interactions (Planells de la Maza 2013).

Table 2. A selected list of previous arguments related to different dimensions of brand extensions.

References	Arguments
Applications of brand extensions
Reddy, Holak, and Bhat (1994)	To maintain the branding benefits in new product introduction, the first and most frequently used growth option is to introduce variations of the initial product within the existing product category with the same brand name.
Völckner and Sattler (2006)	The success of brand extensions depends on the contextual fits between parent brands and brand extensions, marketing support, parent-brand conviction, parent-brand experience, high consumer innovativeness, and overall strength of the parent brands.
Arslan and Korkut Altuna (2010)	Among different growth and market-entering strategies, brand extension is one of the easiest, most popular, and least risky options, given the popularity of the existing brand may foster higher consumer acceptance.
Sattler et al. (2010)	Parent brand quality, fit between parent brand and extension product, perceived availability, perceived advertising support, and consumer experience in the extension category drive consumers’ attitude toward brand extension, which, in turn, drives brand extension price premium.
Aguirre-Rodriguez, Bóveda-Lambie, and Montoya (2014)	Brand extensions may be in the form of crossover, leveraging the parent brand name’s familiarity and reputation to enter new product categories while introducing distinct cultural representations to the parent brand’s image.
Keller (2014)	Realising brand extension requires a well-designed and well-implemented roadmap that explains the brand’s goals and routes.
Chiu et al. (2017)	In online service contexts, brand commitment may positively affect attitudes toward brand extensions. With perceived fits, attitude collectively leads to higher acceptance intention of brand extensions.
Liu et al. (2018)	Extending brands into new categories is an option for a diversification growth strategy. Among the three types of brand extensions (substitutable, complementary, and independent), substitutable and complementary brand extensions aim primarily at the same group of consumers of the original products, while independent brand extensions may aim at different consumer groups.
Shokri and Alavi (2019)	Consumer-brand identification (CBI) is positively related to consumers’ attitudes towards brand extensions, which may also be influenced by the tie and fit between the parent brand and extensions.
Qian and Messinger (2022)	Consumers’ positive responses towards brand extensions are primarily driven by the perceived fit between extension product and parent brand but may also be mediated by parent brand characteristics, consumers’ individual differences and other information.
Risk and Impact
Aaker (1990)	Using an established brand name (i.e., extending a brand into new contexts) may reduce new-product introduction risks and guarantee profits, but brand extensions may not always be successful.
Chen and Chen (2000)	Unsuccessful brand extensions may dilute the original brand and canalise its market share, regardless of the distance of the brand extensions.
Thorbjørnsen (2005)	While brand extension can be a highly successful marketing strategy for profiting from the established brand image, it may weaken the parent brand’s image and harm the market share.
Arslan and Korkut Altuna (2010)	Ill-conceived brand extension strategies may fail both the extended products/services and the parent brand, especially when the parent brand and the extensions do not fit each other.
Ashraf, Merunka, and Melewar (2013)	When companies launch new products, systematic support from existing consumers is not guaranteed. More than 80% of brand extensions fail to achieve market and financial goals.
Liu et al. (2018)	In B2C markets, having more substitute brand extensions will decrease the firm’s profit, while having more independent and complementary brand extensions will increase the firm’s overall profit.
Nguyen, Zhang, and Calantone (2018)	A complex and dynamic brand portfolio may be established after several brand extensions, but such portfolios may also pose a severe challenge to firms in protecting their brand identity and retaining loyal customers. On the other hand, maintaining a brand portfolio coherence may improve (re)purchase decisions with regard to brands in the portfolio.

Figure 1. A theoretical model on the development of RPG into different facets and the development of game culture.

Table 3. A selected list of comments on the fan-made MV and official MV of the theme song of “Chinese Paladin 3” TV drama.

Comments on the fan-made MV	Comments on the official MV
“When I was watching it, I was still a primary school student. Now, I have graduated from high school. When I listened to the song, I just recalled my memory.” “The lyrics of the song highly matched with the stories. When the screenshots were there, the lyrics were matching … … If you have watched this TV drama and you are aware of that, you will find it more touching.”	“The MV should have an artistic conception relevant to the song. This song should match Chinese Paladin 3. But except for the part about running, it looks like it’s talking about reincarnation. The other parts (of the MV) just don’t match the lyrics.” “It is just better to use directly the (TV Drama screenshot) for the MV of CP.”

Table

Source	Description
Games information portal	These websites inform us about users’ feedback related to the games as well as different brand extensions. Some of them have established specific forums for major and long-lasting game series, including Chinese Paladin. These portals included Gamersky.com, Game Base (https://gamebase.com.tw) and Gamer.com.tw.
TV Drama	Preliminary data collection indicated that the stories of Chinese Paladin had been adopted and transformed into TV dramas. To understand the process as a brand extension, we watched the TV dramas originating from Chinese Paladin 1, 3, and 5 to compare the major differences between the games and the TV dramas.
Official social media channels and websites	These websites and channels primarily illustrate (1) the development and updates of the series, (2) users’ feedback via the official channels, and (3) developers’ feedback in response to (2). These social media channels and websites may be established by Softstar or its partners (e.g., Changyou.com).
Fans-made Website/Wiki	These websites provide information on (1) players’ interpretation of different games and derivatives within the series, and (2) how to overcome the game’s challenges.
Large-scale online forum	The series has sustained for more than two decades and is made known to the larger public body. These websites included HKGolden Forum (https://forum.hkgolden.com), Hong Kong Discuss Forum (https://discuss.com.hk), PTT.cc, Zhifu.com and Bilibli.com
News articles and videos related to developers and other stakeholders	These articles and videos allowed us to include insights and information from the perspective of developers, actors, and different stakeholders of the series.
Games of the CP series	We explored all the games within the Chinese Paladin and may capture some relevant screenshots for comparison.

Table

Name	Job Title or Role	Topic Discussed
Informants from Softstar
Zhuang-xian Yao	“Father” (a.k.a. founder) of the Chinese Paladin Series and General Manager of Softstar Beijing	Development history, story settings and emotional ties of the RPG series, challenges from online and mobile games, relationship with fans, the development of TV drama series
Yong-jin Li	Founder of Softstar	Impression on Yao, development history of the RPG series, impact of the series on Softstar
Ting Huang	Art Director of Softstar Beijing	Impression on Yao, emotional ties with the RPG series, challenges and evolution in the development, interactions with fans
Xiao-quan Zhang	General Manager of Softstar Shanghai	Impression on Yao, challenges in the development of the RPG series, stories and evolution of the game series
Jing Luan	Project Producer	Impression on Yao, emotional tie with the game series, relationship with collaborators, development challenges
Jun-ji Jiang	Artwork Designer	Relationship with fans, development history of the RPG series, RPG as a brand
Yi-long Zhao	2D Art Director and Chief Designer	Emotional ties with the RPG series, interaction with fans, The development of the series
Xiao-ke Ji	3D Art Coordinator	RPG mechanics and design, challenges in the development of the game, relationship with fans
Zhi-hao Zeng	Chief Musician of the Chinese Paladin series	RPG theme music production, emotional ties, history and challenges of development of the RPG Series
Xin-rui Xu	Music producer of the Chinese Paladin series	RPG theme music production, emotional ties, history of the RPG Series, collaboration with the core developers
Informants outside Softstar
Ga-be Pan	Deputy General Manager of Seven Stone Entertainment, a collaborator of Softstar for in-game animation	Emotional ties with the Chinese Paladin series, collaboration relationship with Softstar
Meng Sun	Director of Seven Stone Entertainment	Emotional ties with the series, working process on the animation, collaboration relationship with Softstar
Jiao-bin Peng	General Manager of Changyou.com, a collaborator of Softstar for game distribution in Mainland China	Emotional ties with the series, collaboration relationship with Softstar, difficulties of the RPG market
Sun-ya Xiao	Singer of various theme songs of the Chinese Paladin Series	Impact of game theme songs on her career, Emotional ties with the game series, relationship with fans
Jie Zhang	Voiceover Director of Voicegem, a collaborator of Softstar for in-game voiceover	Voiceover work (and its importance) of the RPG, trends of newly developed RPGs
Hugh Hu	Actor in TV Drama “Chinese Paladin” and “Chinese Paladin 3”	Impact of the RPG series on his career, emotional ties with the series
Wallace Huo	Actor in TV Drama “Chinese Paladin 3”	Filming process and challenges of Chinese Paladin 3 TV Drama
Wai-To Chan	Stunt Director of TV Drama “Chinese Paladin 3”	Filming process of Chinese Paladin 3 TV Drama
Crystal Liu	Actress in TV Drama “Chinese Paladin”	Impact of the RPG series on her career, Emotional ties with the series
Kwok-Lap Li	Chief Director of Chinese Paladin 3	Filming process of Chinese Paladin 3 TV Drama, Reasons for adopting the stories of the RPG series

Table

Theoretical Dimensions	Second-order themes
RPG	Characteristics, Motivations of playing (See Table 1)
Brand extension	Measures, risk, and impact of brand extension (See Table 2)

Table

Prequels/Sequels	Number of Copies Sold
Chinese Paladin	Approximately 800,000
New Chinese Paladin	More than 250,000
Chinese Paladin 2	More than 300,000
Chinese Paladin 3	More than 500,000
The Aftermath of Chinese Paladin 3	More than 350,000
Chinese Paladin 4	More than 700,000
Chinese Paladin 5	More than 1,400,000
The prelude of Chinese Paladin 5	More than 1,500,000
Chinese Paladin 6	More than 760,000

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