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This past weekend, the first stop of the "Azur Lane" Summer Coolness Festival landed at the Coconut Beach in Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

This event is a brand new project that was first unveiled during the seventh anniversary live broadcast of "Azur Lane" in May. It attracted a lot of attention from the second-game circle at the time. Everyone was curious about how the official would carry out this event and what kind of results it would produce.

Before arriving at the event, I had imagined many possibilities, such as "what is the format" and "what are the links", but after participating, I found that it was more accurate to use words to describe the entire event - it was relaxed, happy and beautiful.

Talk about the "Azur Lane Player Exclusive World" I saw

The venue of the Summer Cool Festival is an artificial beach with the Shenzhen Bay as its back. The whole scene is built with blue and yellow as the main colors. In addition to the yellow chicken images of different sizes, there are many marine elements such as lifebuoys, surfboards, lounge chairs, beach swings, yachts, etc., which fully give a sense of relaxation.

The carefully prepared beautiful scenery will naturally be heated up by the equally carefully designed on-site experience activities.

There are 6 challenge items scattered around the venue, including bowling, writing messages, and riding a big slide. The gameplay is simple but brings a lot of fun. For example, the part of putting a doll into a box is a bit of a test of arm strength because the doll is round. A player just teased his friend and then he couldn't master it quickly. Fortunately, his friend shared the skills and he succeeded.

If you perform well in these activities (which are basically easy to do), you can get limited peripherals, and after collecting stamps, you can also participate in the grand prize draw - a folding camper in the port area. Whenever someone draws a camper in the prize redemption area and walks around with a big box in his arms, he will be surrounded by envious eyes, so everyone is more looking forward to the challenge of collecting stamps.

If you have finished the challenge project, or want to participate later because the line is too long, you don’t have to wait, because there are multiple official Coser check-in areas scattered next to the challenge project location.

When checking in, the official Cosplayers don’t just pose on their own. If players want to take a photo, they can even see three Cosplayers coming together to cooperate in the photo, making it a “real exclusive photo”.

During the event, there were also Cosplayers posing at the entrance, big slide and other scenes so that everyone could "collect them all in one picture"! Because of the popularity, I couldn't get a spot and could only hold up my phone from the side to take a picture of this scene.

Here are some photos I took when cosplayers were taking photos together for everyone to enjoy:

After an afternoon of busy and cheerful interactions, the evening scene was more relaxing.

Looking at the entire venue from a distance, it did not rain in Shenzhen that day. The clouds in the sky were low but not oppressive. Together with the little yellow chickens floating on the river with lights on, they formed a landscape painting that needed no embellishment and was very artistic.

Players also began to walk to the rest area in the middle of the venue in groups of two or three to sit down (there were some lazy sofas) and watch the animated short film of "Azur Lane" together. Some gathered to share the "results" of the day, some talked about game changes with friends they just met, and some just half-lying down and quietly enjoying this time.

Cosplayers also walked out of the fixed check-in area and moved around the venue to interact with players. If you just stood in a certain place, a Cosplayer might walk by you, bringing a sense of immersion where the game and reality are truly integrated.

Taking advantage of the evening atmosphere, several Cosplayers lit up handheld fireworks, showing everyone a style that was completely different from that of the day.

When I left the venue at around 8pm, there were still about 100 people, including some players who had been queuing since 2pm and with whom I had communicated in advance. I think everyone must like this event very much, so they want to stay as long as possible.

The "identity" of players is not just a player, but also the most important part of the Summer Cool Festival

In fact, the experience of the Summer Coolness Festival does not only come from the scope provided by the official, a large part of the happiness comes from the player community.

While waiting in line, most of the cosplayers who were waiting in line with me were commanders who loved cosplay as a hobby. They dressed up to participate because they liked "Azur Lane". After arriving at the venue, I roughly observed the players who were cosplaying and participating in various challenges. At the moment, I roughly counted and there were nearly 20 players.

There are many high-level cosplayers. For example, a player who cosplayed Cheshire came to participate in this event. I chatted with him for five or six minutes while waiting in line. I knew he was not an official cosplayer, but when he appeared in the check-in area and posed, the number of tourists who came to take pictures was no less than that of the official cosplayers. Later, he even took a group photo with the official cosplayers.

What moved me even more was that those Cos players who everyone could see were "not officially invited" were very cooperative with other players at the scene who wanted to take photos with them, which also provided the event venue with more check-in content and a more comfortable atmosphere.

Moreover, Cos itself has become a social symbol in this scene. For example, I saw a player wearing a Cheshire headgear, calling another player who was also wearing a Cheshire headgear to take a photo, and then the two of them took a walk together.

Secondly, communication among like-minded people became a supplementary high-quality experience of this event.

When I arrived at the scene, people were still queuing. There were four players chatting at the front of the line. Xiaolu (pseudonym) told me that he and his friend had been queuing at 12 o'clock and wanted to be the first to go in and take a look. The other two were friends from other places. As there was nothing to do in the queue, they started chatting and added each other as friends.

I initially thought this was just an individual case, but I didn't expect it to be the same in the field.

Xiaokong (pseudonym) was a passerby I stopped because I saw he bought a lot of peripherals, so I planned to ask him about his experience. He was obviously very happy that someone wanted to chat with him. He excitedly pulled me to the message wall and pointed to the image he drew. Although we didn't chat for long, I could clearly feel his happiness when sharing.

During the conversation, Xiaokong told me that he didn't like queuing and didn't participate in the challenge activities on site, but he met a lot of people and everyone was able to chat. He came from Hong Kong alone, but when he left, I saw him walking with a group.

I also met a player who seemed to be more introverted. It was the first time we met. I chatted with her when I was collecting comments about the on-site experience. I thought we would never meet again, but when I was standing at a high point to take pictures, I saw her leaving the venue. She even stopped to say hello to me. I also took out a bottle of water from the official ice chest at the side of the venue and handed it to her. Although we were strangers, everyone was passing on friendship and warmth to each other at the Summer Cool Festival of "Azur Lane".

Before leaving, I bought a customized T-shirt and mouse pad for the "Azur Lane" Coolness Festival because I wanted to remember these beautiful moments.

I now understand why "Azur Lane" has been so popular for 7 years

Recalling the entire Summer Cool Festival, what impressed me most was the full message wall where players wrote their own messages on the spot. Everyone was saying beautiful compliments and blessings such as "Thanks for your company", "Keep going", "Prospering", "Azur Lane yyds" and so on. With such a group of players, it is not difficult to understand the vigorous vitality of "Azur Lane".

So, why can "Azur Lane" gain recognition and support from players?

The first is to understand the users. The official is always adjusting to improve the players' flow experience. For example, many players come to the exhibition with cameras, hoping to take more good-looking Coser pictures. The staff will also adjust the opening of the Coser's fixed check-in area and the time and frequency of the gathering area according to the on-site situation, invite the official Coser to interact with everyone, and try to make the players "return with a full load".

The second is to pamper users, which can actually be felt from the cities where the Cool Festival is held. Many players said that they had only heard of many exclusive activities held in Shanghai, the base camp, and it was not easy to participate in other places. This time, Shenzhen and Changsha have moved to new areas, giving more users the opportunity to celebrate the festival offline. In addition, the free mineral water on site also used up the two-day preparation on the first day. The official is also urgently allocating more supplies to ensure that the player experience is the top priority.

The third is to be innovative. The three cities of Shenzhen, Changsha and Shanghai hold the same cool festival in different formats. Azur Lane did not simply copy the design, but chose to adjust it according to the characteristics of each city. So Shenzhen will have a coconut grove and beach, Changsha will have a street, and Shanghai will be built based on the exhibition hall.

Although the design and operation of offline activities are not exactly the same as the development and operation of games, the underlying logic is interoperable. If it is done with enough care and well enough, players will naturally buy into it.

To date, Azur Lane has been around for more than seven years and has continuously created its own long-term operation myth. Therefore, we should pay more attention to how Azur Lane can retain the hearts of players in a fiercely competitive circle. Because in the future battlefield, this is the most core competitiveness.

I would also like to borrow the blessing from the message wall, "I hope that Azur Lane will get better and better."