<![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> Just an interesting aside but as an Aussie who's been in China for around a year now, felt I should point out the "girls in the game" thing seems to be a huge deal over here, probably more than it even sounds.

Pretty much all of the younger guys I know who I've seen playing MMOs do it ENTIRELY for the hope of picking up girls there and despite being very much hardcore MMO people (Playing the ridiculous 50,60, even 80 hour weeks you hear WOW players doing) will pretty regularly jump ship from everything from an RPG to an online Mario Kart rip, to a DDR clone, based entirely on 'where all the girls are these days'.

The only real exception seems to be Warcraft, there are people who really play it as in the US/AU, but anything domestic and it seems to be a big factor.

Savvy business though it may be, it's still pretty amusing to see them come right out and admit it like that though!

SyK

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> About the "girl" angle. This is no different than having "Free - No Cover Charge for Ladies" Night during the week at any bar in America.

Attract the ladies to the bar, you attract the guys who will pay for themselves and the ladies.

Only difference is this in China and it's an MMO.

Brilliant!

JohnnyLA

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> If you've been keeping up with the worldwide MMO market you know about the juggernaut/Scourge-style plague known as Zhengtu. If we could only get Jack Thompson pointed at this bad boy, we'd nuke two cuckoos with one rocket. The game is addictive in the bad way, not the 'fuuuuck, it's 4 AM and I work in 3 hours but we're still 2 hours out on this raid!' bad but the 'well, I can spare another $3 (never mind the first $997) on a treasure chest and maybe get a good item!' kind of way. It's Vegas in a box without the possibility of a tasty cash payout, a license for the owner to print money the likes of which WoW would shoot themselves in the collective nutsack for, and a SICKENINGLY bad game because of it. It is the virtual representation of the Chinese will to money and power no matter the cost to everything and everyone else, and as soon as it tsunamis its way up onto our shores we're all going to feel the acid burn.

PratzStrike

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> My 2 pence..I looked at the game site. Its not my thing. Im a woman (last time I looked) and military rpgs just dont interest me. Im more into D&D style games (neverwinter nights for example)

Dragoness_Muir

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> @YotaruVegeta: Thanks, Kotaku, for introducing me to a game that I never want to play. Ever. You saved my life.

Mecharine

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> Oh, great. Thanks, Kotaku, for introducing me to a game that I may never get to play.

YotaruVegeta

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> @mightyg: MMOs have never been a fair playing field. Whoever has more time to play will always make more progress. Some players are more adept at exploiting the in-game economy through buying and selling.

Velops

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> @Aethyr:
Speak not the name!

@Abriael:
Really? For what? I have trouble thinking of any form of game you can "buy" a round of, besides arcade ones.



man in gauze is king ramses II, silly.

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> This is highly innovative, start taking notes everyone!

NPC

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> I unfortunately have an addictive personality, and I became addicted to a certain 'free to play' MMO where players have to buy cash shop to upgrade items. The crazy part is the success rate goes down to 2% at the highest levels and each chance to upgrade costs a dollar. In the end people can spend hundreds of dollars getting maxed equips.

Getting owned by some smack talking 14 year old with daddy's credit card when you put in dozens of hours leveling and earning your stuff with in-game cash is a crappy feeling and not one I want to go through again, so I stay well away from MMOs now.

Fwiffo

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> It's only a matter of time.

SolInvictus

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> as facinating as this is, i feel as a gamer and probably an american, that this is a terrible kind of game. I've seen first hand the inequity caused by real money buying/selling in final fantasy xi. although squareenix has finally mitigated the worst of it, it has made a lasting impression on me and the games community. Especially since ffxi is such a community oriented mmo, (partying with others was originally a near nessecity to level up), seeing the haves and have nots of real life transferred into my online escape was very disheartening. let's hope this doesn't catch on in japan and the west.

mightyg

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> @man_in_gauze: That's normal even in the western world I'd say

Abriael

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> This game is a blight on the MMORPG market. Even more so than Runescape.

Aethyr

]]> <![CDATA[Zhengtu Tearing Up the Chinese Market]]> "'In fact in China's cyberspace many male players are very willing to pay the bills for their female counterparts', he says."

...I don't know what to say. That's hilariously awesome. Sort of like picking up a girl at an arcade by paying for her credits in House of the Dead or something.

man in gauze is king ramses II, silly.

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