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only in china

Chengdu Police Arrest Two Gold Farmers

Steve at PlayNoEvil noted this little news story, which involves two Chinese gold farmers who have pulled in over $200K USD being arrested in China. Why? How, exactly? Well, it would appear that one of the pair felt they were being swindled out of profits and reported his partner to the police:

Chengdu's Shuangliu county has arrested two virtual item and currency traders, surnamed Li and Zhang, focused on tapping out The9's (Nasdaq: NCTY) licensed MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW), reports Chengdu Evening News. Police arrested the pair after Li reported Zhang for unfair revenue distribution. Going into business last August, the gold miners accumulated more than 20 employees with 20 computers to generate RMB 1.6 million in seven months of dealing.

Oopsies. I'll be nosing around for more on this story (like exactly what the pair was arrested for), but if any intrepid readers come across anything, send it my way. As Steve at PlayNoEvil notes, "Turn up the Irony Meter to 11. After all, with all of the complaints in the US about gold farming, it takes the Chinese to stand up and do something about it."

WoW Gold Miner Offers Himself Up To Police [Pacific Epoch via PlayNoEvil


only in china

Chinese MMOs Go After Tibetans ... Er, 'Drug Smugglers'

Oh, the punny, punny Chinese language — an article from an Indian site noted that a "new online game" is offering Chinese players the chance to go after people engaging in cangdu (smuggling drugs, 藏毒) which, if you use the other pronunciation of the first character, sounds like zangdu (Tibetan independence, 藏獨). Some perfunctory nosing around revealed some frighteningly nationalistic rambling and cranky Taiwanese gamers, though at least one 'game' would appear to be new content for an existing MMO, QQ Huaxia. Says the (unnamed in the article) company: More »

only in china

Titanic 1912, the RPG: A Review

I just about died laughing at this lengthy and vitriolic review of the Shenzhen Nanjing bootleg/grey market Titanic 1912. It's long, it's funny, it's worth a read. The quality starts in the first few paragraphs:

I have a hard time imagining what possessed anyone to make this game. The board meeting probably went something like this:

President: OK guys, we have this terrible RPG engine for the Famicom. How can we squeeze more money out of it?
Developer: Well, Titanic has been popular with students studying English. What if we make a game based on the movie?
President: But how will it work? I mean, the only character you could play as would be Jack, and he dies.
Developer: Don't you see! An RPG where the player's character dies! It will be revolutionary!
President: Make it so.

Well, they made it so.

The result was the most unbelievably fucking awful game in history.


Bad game mechanics, wacky plot shenanigans, and a submarine (yes, an in-game submarine on the Titanic) all make an appearance. Go forth and enjoy (the other reviews of equally terrible Chinese knockoffs are also worth spending some time with).

Prepare yourself, for tonight we board IN HELL! [CinnamonPirate via GameSetWatch]


only in china

China Launching 'Operation For Tomorrow' Crackdown

What would modern China be without campaigns? This one's lacking in a snappy name and related propaganda, but the government is gearing up to go after those hotbeds of moral decay, crime, and WoW: internet cafes. Introducing "Operation for Tomorrow," targeting unlicensed websites, internet cafes, and porn.

Internet cafes have been repeatedly targeted for breeding juvenile crime and promoting truancy, despite widely ignored rules barring anyone under 18 from admission. Located in towns and small cities throughout China, internet cafes mainly offer online games that are popular among young people. Authorities have blamed the cafes for Internet addiction and for encouraging juvenile crime as a way to earn money to play online games.

First the problem was that kids were so busy playing WoW and other MMORPGs that they didn't have time for anything else; now the problem is that WoW's keeping them too busy ... with crime? Does this mean we'll see a related drop off in suspect addiction 'treatment' methods?

China Targets Internet in Crime Sweep [AP]


only in china

China Trying To Keep Out Foreign MMORPGs

It's no secret that foreign games, be they WoW or Korean imports, are wildly popular in China - thus, in a clear case of local protectionism, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has instituted new regulations to keep out foreign game companies:

Under the new regulation, the [GAPP] will postpone the examination, approval and licensing of foreign company products if the companies are sued or targeted for arbitration actions by Chinese online game companies.

It sounds to me like this is dealing with new products and WoW is safe from frivolous lawsuits for the time being - but this is still rife with potential problems, since many domestic games are introduced to China via partnership between foreign companies and domestic operators. The potential negative impacts on domestic companies if games are unfairly held up is huge; and some of the most recent lawsuits involving Chinese and foreign game companies have involved disputes over licenses and operations. Considering Chinese companies have proved they have absolutely no compunction about illegally operating foreign games outside set corporate agreements, I'm not at all convinced this will actually do anything in the long run other than encourage domestic companies to commit IP theft.

China Adopts New Regulations to Keep Out Foreign Online Game Companies [Virtually Blind]


only in china

Chinese Government Cracking Down on Online Gaming

Despite governmental efforts to the contrary (gaming addiction 'bootcamps,' time-limiting systems and the like), China's gaming population just refuses to be fenced in. The Chinese market is growing by leaps and bounds, which - unsurprisingly - is making the government just a wee bit skittish. Due to rampant piracy, lack of game ratings, and more illegal internet cafés than you can shake a stick at, the government is worried over reports of rising numbers of gaming addicts (and what they see as a related rise in juvenile crime). Will the fact that previous measures haven't exactly had the desired effects mean that the CCP is going to throw their hands up in defeat? Of course not: More »

only in china

Chinese MMO of the Weekend: ELF Online

Oh, how I wish I had seen the original press release for Happy MMO's ELF Online. The sketchy translation both in-game and on their website leads me to believe the press release must have been a true gem. It's clearly a game that's not taking itself too seriously (running into a "wet nurse for newbie"? A "baby mode"?), and Jeff Freeman has a funny look at gameplay and environment in ELF Online. Considering the number of free to play Chinese MMOs that take themselves way too seriously, it's almost refreshing (though perhaps hiring some starving ex-pat to provide translation services wouldn't be such a bad idea):

All the quests that I completed were all of the kill 5 of this, kill 10 of that, collect 4 of these by killing 4 or more of those sorts, excluding quests sending me from one NPC to another. Stock MMO quests.

One other quest some might consider an exception, was the become-a-soldier-quest itself, after killing 7 of something, being required to swear that my little guy would fight to the death for the Imaginary Goddess.

But most people wouldn't consider that an exception, and would instead say, "What now? I didn't really read it." Stock MMO players.

One of my wishes for 2008? That gems like this and Shanda press releases continuing flowing freely from China.

How I Spent My Vacation: Elfing [via Worlds In Motion]


only in china

Zhengtu: Where RMT, Gold Farming and Gambling Reign Supreme

I was thrilled to come across a most glorious article on Chinese MMORPGs (specifically, the wildly popular Zhengtu Online), translated to English from the original that appeared in the Southern Weekly. As Steve at PlayNoEvil sums it up, "While wimpy Americans can whine about "cheating" in online games, quibble about Real Money Transactions (RMT), complain about gold farming, gripe about power-leveling, and otherwise aspire to a mythical "purity" of game play, the most popular game in China, ZT Online, from Giant Interactive has embraced all of these things.. and online gambling to boot." More »

only in china

Shanda Sued, Forced To Pay For 'Stolen' Virtual Items

Shanda - one of Mainland China's heaviest hitters in the MMORPG world - was asked by police to remove virtual items from a player's account during an investigation into the sale of stolen virtual items. Shanda did - then forgot to give them back like the police had told them to. When the player discovered his missing virtual items, he flipped his lid and sued them. Shanda lost and has been ordered to apologize and pay a restitution of 5,000 RMB (a little less than $700 USD) - but to add insult to injury, the player has even more lawsuits in mind: More »

only in china

Chinese Kid Becomes 'Fire Mage,' Sets Fire to Classmate

Ai you - to add to the ever growing collection of bizarre stories from the Chinese gaming world comes news that a 17 year old high school student has been sentenced for setting a classmate on fire. What does this have to do with gaming, you ask? Because the kid 'thought' he was a WoW fire mage. Now, in China, the 'but the video game made me do it!' defense doesn't work so well (the kid was sentenced to 8 years in prison, his accomplice - who lured the victim outside with the old line about wanting to chat for a bit - was sentenced to 7, and both boys and their families were ordered to pay a 760,000 RMB restitution - over $100K USD - to the victim and his family), so there's nothing to gain - nor a lawsuit to pursue - by pointing the finger at Blizzard, The9, or Warcraft. From billsdue: More »

only in china

'The Warlords' Hitting Theatres and PCs Next Week

On December 13th, China (and the rest of Asia, apparently, excluding Japan) will be treated to the dual release of a big-budget movie (starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, and Takeshi Kaneshiro) and an MMO version of the film, both entitled The Warlords [投名狀]. My ears perked up at all of this for two reasons: (1) the setting is the Taiping Rebellion, during the waning years of the Qing dynasty (and one of my favorite subjects) and (2) announcements about impending MMO releases equal one thing in China: fantastically bad press releases. And indeed, NetDragon and the Central Motion Picture Corporation don't disappoint ('night-errant' culture?). The Warlords is apparently only the beginning - the NetDragon CEO makes references to even more games based on movies (and TV shows and books and ...). Full release after the jump, and lots more info at the game's website (in Chinese). More »

only in china

MGame to CDC Games: This is All Your Fault!

The MMORPGs may all be clones of each other, but at least pan-Asian game related legal battles are entertaining: MGame, a South Korean company, responded this week to the two lawsuits filed last week by CDC Games (as we mentioned last weekend), which cited breached contracts and lack of technical support (among other things) as a basis for their suits. This legal battle is quickly devolving into a 'they said, they said' battle. MGame alleges that they dropped CDC Games for non-payment of license fees for the wildly popular MMO Yulgang; CDC hasn't responded to these allegations, and it looks like there might be even more heated battles soon: More »

only in china

Beijing Perfect World's Video Contest Winners

Beijing Perfect World, one of Mainland China's biggest players in the online games market, ran a contest for gamers to put together movies showcasing their idea of 'a perfect world.' The interesting thing is that the winning video actually got aired on China Central Television (the national TV network, better known for all sorts of fantastically dramatic Chinese soap operas - at least, that's what I fondly remember it for). I took a look at several of the prize-winning videos - some of them are obviously more game-related than others - and it's good for quite a bit of entertainment. True to BPW form, the press release is a gem in its own right. Take a look at the winning videos here and find the full release after the jump. More »

only in china

College Freshman In China? No Computer For You!

Via Ars Technica comes a Chinese article on one of the latest (and potentially least offensive) ways officials are trying to combat internet addiction and people dropping dead of gaming binges: freshmen at a number of Chinese universities aren't allowed to bring computers with them to school. Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University recently joined the growing ranks of Chinese universities who have instituted such a ban. On the surface, I guess it makes sense - no computer = no easy access to the magical online = no WoW binges, at least in theory. But the plethora of internet cafes and quick and easy access to those oh-so-seductive games means many are suspicious about the efficacy of such bans: More »

only in china

Regulating China: 'Crackdown or Censorship'?

It's been a tough year for China's gaming world: intellectual property disputes, internet addiction boot camps, new government regulations, cafes and companies ignoring those new regulations, all punctuated by the occasional death-by-marathon-gaming. NBC has a roundup of this year's events, and brings up the broader issue of government censorship under the guise of keeping tempting materials out of the hands of minors and/or people who are going to game for 3 days straight, then drop dead of a heart attack: More »

only in china

Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters

Shanda Entertainment - one of Mainland China's heavy hitters in the gaming industry - announced that their subsidiary, Aurora Technology, has frozen accounts of male players who have elected to play as female characters in the King of the World MMORPG. Apparently there are no bans on women playing male characters, but women (and men-wanting-to-play-as-women) will be required to prove their gender via webcam. How exactly is this all going to work? And is it going to last? Who knows - but it certainly seems very odd and not prone to lasting long: More »

only in china

Get Your Ninetudo DS Accessories

ninetudoadapter.jpg Two summers ago, a friend of mine went to mainland China for a vacation - unluckily for her, she forgot her DS charger in Taipei. Fearing she'd have to go a day without checking in on her Animal Crossing village, she didn't realize that the wonderful world of Chinese bootlegs would be coming to her rescue: the Ninetudo DS power adapter! Those jokes about the Sonya PS3 didn't seem so far-fetched. Wonderland posted this photograph of the actual article (from a Flickr photostream by Crys) - so if anyone's stranded in China with no DS charger, fear not: it's Ninetudo to the rescue.

only in china

Chinese Editorial Calls for RMT Ban

A "rather sensationalized editorial" (as Worlds In Motion describes it) by Ma Jun in the Shanghai Daily suggests that the government should step in an add another level of control to the Chinese MMO industry: banning the sale of virtual goods for real money. While the author takes a dim view of the conditions gold farmers and their ilk work in, they take a really dim view of the people who make their living stealing account passwords and equipment from virtual avatars: More »