Corporate Symbols Transcending Culture: Building video games around Dalian, London, and Wellington architecture
Words by Yansong Wang (he/him)
Growing up in Dalian, I felt most connected to the traditional hutong neighbourhoods where local life flourished alongside modern development. However, when I moved to London and later Wellington, I experienced a jarring juxtaposition. Despite the excitement of discovering new architectural styles and cultural contexts, familiar corporate brands created an unexpected sense of familiarity.
It diminished the uniqueness of each place.
This observation became foundational to my creative study at Massey, particularly in the development of my games, Phantom and Spectacle.
Phantom is a single-player, first-person exploration game where players navigate commercial environments and actively replace brand imagery with local alternatives. The goal is to encourage critical reflection on consumer culture. Spectacle takes a more abstract approach, immersing players in environments saturated with brand symbols to examine how digital imagery shapes perception.
Moving between Dalian, London, and Wellington exposed me to the fascinating paradox of global consumer culture. While each city possessed distinct architectural character and cultural identity, the corporate brands dominating their commercial spaces remained strikingly uniform.
In Dalian Zhongzhan Square, traditional Chinese signage competed with global logos amid towering modern skyscrapers. London's Piccadilly Circus presented its iconic curved screens broadcasting familiar brands like Coca-Cola and Samsung, while the classical architecture provided historical context. Wellington's Willis Street, with its heritage MLC building, showcased how corporate brands adapt to local architecture while maintaining their global visual identity, yet somehow flattened the distinctiveness of the place.
Despite these cities' vastly different languages, histories, and building styles, I encountered identical brand experiences that pulled each location back toward uniformity — the same logos, similar store layouts, and consumer behaviours. It made unique places feel surprisingly familiar in ways that diminished rather than celebrated their character.
These cities had a direct influence on my game development. The contrast between the intimate scale of local shops in Dalian's older neighbourhoods and the imposing corporate towers inspired the spatial tensions I recreated in Phantom, where mom-and-pop shops occupy warm central spaces surrounded by cold corporate environments. The overwhelming brand saturation visible in Piccadilly Circus' digital displays inspired Spectacle's exploration of how logos and symbols dominate urban consciousness.
Living as an outsider in these cities heightened my awareness of how global brands function as a universal language. Walking through unfamiliar streets, the golden arches of McDonald's or the logos of Starbucks became reliable landmarks. It revealed to me how corporate imagery colonises public space.
Corporate symbols create a sense of manufactured familiarity that transcends cultural boundaries.
Architecture, language, and customs differ dramatically across cultures. But the mechanisms of consumer persuasion are remarkably consistent. Questioning consumer dominance isn't merely a local concern but part of a global conversation about how we want our communities to look, feel, and function in an increasingly standardised world.
Both games were developed as part of my university research project investigating how interactive media can foster awareness about consumer manipulation. While these are currently academic prototypes, they explore possibilities for using gaming as an educational tool. It addresses broader questions about corporate influence on public spaces and personal identity. The game aims to create space for players to question their relationship to consumer culture rather than simply entertaining or providing definitive answers.