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Maciamo
Mar 21, 2004, 01:30
BBC News : Mercenary PC game upsets Chinese (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3550089.stm)

China has banned the sale of a computer game on the grounds it discredits the national image.

State news agency Xinhua said the game was accused of intentionally blackening China and the Chinese army's image.

Project IGI2: Covert Strike features a freelance mercenary stealing intelligence and conducting sabotage in China.

Last year a game which portrayed the country as a base for terrorists caused an outcry among Chinese gamers.

Big money

This is the second time that a computer game has ruffled feathers in China. Last year, a game by Electronic Arts called Command and Conquer: Generals upset the Chinese.

In the game, a group of international terrorists set up base in China and fired missiles at the capital, Beijing.

Computer games have become a booming industry in China, largely fuelled by the popularity of the internet.

Some 14 million people regularly played online games in China, according to the China Games Publishers Association.

Analysts expect the market for online gaming in China to be worth $356.8m by 2007.

cacawate
Mar 27, 2004, 11:20
Wow, you'd think it would be from games made in Japan. Instead, they were western-made games from Norway and the U.S. Go figure.

Maciamo
Mar 27, 2004, 12:38
So what. No connection. It's about content, not personnal revenge for WWII or whatever.

Jean-Francois
Mar 27, 2004, 13:42
The communists are pretty narrow-minded. C'mon, it's just a game!

digicross
Jul 16, 2004, 07:40
Personally, after decades of observation toward the video game industry, I have come into the conclusion that video games (and probably also other type of entertainments) aren't made primary for profit.

Capcom surely released Tekki Taisen (Iron Rider Big War, a.k.a. Steel Battalion) not for profit.


Anyway. The Chinese government reasoning to ban things that negatively potrayed it seems to be reasonable.

Let see... If there's a video game titled "Beat up dad" that had the same theme as its title, do you think that dad will allowed it to enter his home?

But I doubt that the Chinese government do this banning under its own will, considering that the Chinese government probably isn't an independent force right now and just following order from the outside. If it decided to ban it, it probably would just confiscated any copy on sight instead of announcing its banning (that its banning probably wouldn't be enforced really good).

Of course, the Japanese government seems to shared the same fate too, for having little power at all on banning things (there's a difference between banning things because you want to and because you was ordered to do so). Considering the publishing of "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" in Japan (which again proves that video games are made not for profit). Come on, the Japanese government edited the text book to potray Japan in a good way in World War II, don't you its strange they would let their youngs (children and young adults) be 'educated' with video games than text books? It's kinda scary though seeing people killing their fellow countrymen, eventhough that it's just a reenactment of a past battle.


As for Comand and Conquer: Generals.

I think that Chinese was one of the two good forces (the other one was the U.S.A.)? The bad force of one of three main forces in C&C: G I think that it was the Global Liberation Army (kinda a reversal to C&C's Global Defense Initiative, and similiar to C&C's Brotherhood of Nod), a stand in for the P.L.O., the I.R.A., the C.N.R.T., the Base, and so on that exist in real life.


As for online game.

Well... The Korean seems to be quite good at developing online games (Ragnarok Online, Lineage, etc).

bossel
Jul 16, 2004, 10:35
But I doubt that the Chinese government do this banning under its own will, considering that the Chinese government probably isn't an independent force right now and just following order from the outside.
Hmm? Whose orders are the Chinese following?

For the video games industry being non-commercial:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c2675/
"The good news for the video game industry was 35% aggregate revenue growth for the past fiscal year. Furthermore, aggregate operating income in fiscal 2002 was 11.5% of revenue compared with an aggregate loss in fiscal 2001."

There may be some stuff out there which intended as pure propaganda, but the major players in the industry are just as commercial as in any other industry.

Knives
Jul 21, 2004, 01:56
ya but in the US theres never been a game that has that crap done to america if that was happening the gov. would be pissed as well im sure the chinese dont like it because it gives them a bad name plus when was the last time we heard of anything really going on in china lol

Duo
Jul 21, 2004, 04:38
Some of these game makers are really idiots sometimes. They portray countries in unrealistic manners and give them the title of terrorits nations or sm stupid stuff like that. When was the last time that you saw a game portraying Americans or Westeners as the bad guys. It always has to be someone else.

antantrevolution
Aug 1, 2004, 14:55
Ha! As if the Chinese need an outside influence to smear their image!

*Thinks about that nuclear test*

Ant

TwistedMac
Aug 1, 2004, 20:15
Some of these game makers are really idiots sometimes. They portray countries in unrealistic manners and give them the title of terrorits nations or sm stupid stuff like that. When was the last time that you saw a game portraying Americans or Westeners as the bad guys. It always has to be someone else.

GTA? (murderer and thief - american) Hitman? (murderer for hire - american) castle wolfenstein? (nazis! german ones) that one goes for Medal of Honor - Allied assault aswell..
or what about postal?.. that guy is sick and american..