-
Kotaku East
Horribly Racist Arcade Machines Are Nothing New In China
Earlier today, Rocket News 24, a Japanese news site, uploaded photos of an arcade machine spotted in Myanmar. The arcade machine at first glance looks pretty much like every cheap arcade game out there—however, upon closer inspection, one can see that it’s horribly racist. Towards the Japanese. The arcade machine in question, PK918, isn’t a…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Meet WarStorm, the Unreal Engine 3 FPS Created by One Chinese Guy
The Chinese blogosphere is abuzz with excitement over a demo for a new single player first-person shooter. That’s right, there is a lot of buzz for a demo. So what exactly makes this demo so exciting for Chinese players? It’s a domestically made FPS, done by a one man studio over the course of one…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
NetCafe Offers Free Transport to Gamers… In a Limo
Shuttle services are a great way for business owners to attract customers. In China, Carrefour and WuMart offer free transportation for grocery shoppers, but for internet cafes to offer a shuttle, that’s a first. Spotted outside of the Nanjing Institute of Technology today was a stretched Lincoln Town Car, with a banner that welcomed students…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Chinese Company Offers House Call Maid Service… To Play DoTA
My apartment is a mess, my many online game accounts are in terrible disarray and need attention, but with two jobs and a dog, I really don’t have time to do everything I should. However, according to a post on Sina Weibo, a Chinese IT company is offering a service that can change all that;…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Chinese Gamer Shuts Self In Home For 6 Years
Last week, a post broke out on the Chinese Twitter clone Sina Weibo about a young a man who hasn’t left his home in 6 years. The post, an impassioned plea for help, was written by the man’s father in hopes that someone could help his son return to his normal life. The post on…
By Eric Jou -
Bootleggers Explain Why There’s So Much Video Game Piracy in China
Piracy is a huge issue in China. Enterprising lawbreakers have loads of ways to make money off piracy, one of which is selling pirated DVDs of movies or games. So it always surprises me when I talk to purveyors of pirated video game hardware and software who tell me that they, the pirates, want to…
By Eric Jou -
A Look Back on China’s Most Beloved Video Game Console
Even before the ban on mainstream game consoles in 2000, the Chinese have been playing old school video games on third party machines. One of these machines, aptly named the “The Little Tyrant (小霸王)” garners particularly fond memories—memories of a time when things were simpler and gaming was a fun family affair. The Tyrant, a…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Thief Steals Fake iPhone, Is Caught While Returning It
Pickpocketing is a major issue in a lot of places, and China is no different. Crack open any Chinese travel guide and there will be whole sections dedicated to techniques to prevent pickpocketing—however, there doesn’t seem to be any guides on what to do when reverse pickpocketing occurs. In Yiwu, Zhejiang province, police were called…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Special Effects Team To Blame For Asura’s Wrath Plagiarism, Say People Blamed for Plagiarism
Stephen Chow’s latest box office offering, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, is slated by the Chinese press to rake in billions of yuan by the time its run is over. However one thing is still causing problems for Chow: the allegations that his movie stole assets from a video game. Chow, the director,…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Chinese MMO Adds Crane Riding and Space Ships, Ruins The Movie It Was Based On
Video game adaptations of movies are a dime a dozen—you’ve got Transformers the Movie the game, E.T. the game. No matter the subject matter, very few of the games turn out as well-received as the films—not everyone can be a GoldenEye—oftentimes these “tie-in” games are just a repeat of the movie but with some interactive…
By Eric Jou -
Chinese Gamer Almost Dies After Gaming Marathon
Long gaming sessions are excruciatingly hard and tiring. They often require a superhuman constitution to endure, but gamers beware, all that stress can lead to terrible things. One gamer in Fuzhou, China had a gaming marathon during the Chinese New Year and is now in the hospital. Thirty-six year old IT administrator Xu Yi spent…
By Eric Jou -
Culture
My Creepy Valentine With Barbie
Over the last 53, soon 54 years, Mattel’s Barbie has done everything from being a doctor, to going to space as an astronaut, however Barbie’s accomplishments are only found within the realm of the “fantastic plastic” world. Despite being a fictional “embodiment” of women, Barbie has hit the real world with different forms of media…
By Eric Jou -
Chinese Actress Claims To Be Super Gamer, Supposedly Plays 5 Different Games Simultaneously
Chinese actress Li Xiao Ran (李小冉）is known for many things in China; she’s famous for her roles on both the big screen and the TV screen as well as her prowess as a dancer. The one thing that she really isn’t known for is being a gamer, and now she’s out to change that. Best…
By Eric Jou -
Terrible 19-Year-Old Threatens Suicide To Get Money For In-Game Equipment
Previously we’ve translated a report about a young woman in China threatening suicide after receiving a fake iPhone—well now, there’s a young Chinese man in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, threatening to commit suicide over video game equipment. Late last month, 19 year-old Zhou (same surname as me!) wanted to buy a set of equipment for an…
By Eric Jou -
Notorious Chinese Hacker Caught After Extorting Game Company
Last Thursday, a notorious Chinese hacker was arrested in Qingdao, Shangdong province. The hacker, a 24-year-old surnamed Zhang, has been plaguing many Chinese internet companies over the last year. iFeng.com reports that Zhang was arrested in an internet cafe in Qingdao, doing the very thing that made him a criminal: using other people’s money to…
By Eric Jou -
Two Dudes Attempt To Steal and Sell a Cab To Fund Their Gaming Habit
Two young Chinese men are in custody for attacking a taxi driver with a knife and stealing his taxi last month. The young men wanted to sell the car for quick cash. Cash to play online games with. Twenty five year-old Liu and 26 year-old Li were both from the same village outside of Guomi…
By Eric Jou -
China’s “God of DotA” Embroiled in Love Scandal
Professional gamers in China are treated pretty much the same way professional gamers are treated in other parts of Asia; with a certain deference. With the social position comes being a celebrity, and with that celebrity status it makes sense that something as personal as a romantic affair can blow up into something huge, even…
By Eric Jou -
Kotaku East
Afraid of his Mom, Chinese Kid Hides at Net Cafe
A ten year-old boy hid himself in an internet cafe in Changsha, Hunan province, for four days after receiving bad marks on his end-term exams. The boy, called Rui Rui, didn’t go to the net cafe to ease his pain—Voice of China reports that instead, he was hiding there to avoid punishment from his parents.…
By Eric Jou -
Let’s Rank the Pokémon Games, Best to Worst
We did it with Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Final Fantasy, and now we’re back at it again to rank the Pokémon series. The Pokémon world is an enormous one, one that spans over 20 core titles (mostly with slight variations) and countless other side stories (30 by my count), but for newcomers into the…
By Eric Jou -
Bringing Chinese Games to the West Is a Lot Harder Than You’d Think
Every time I visit Hong Kong or Taipei, I notice that more and more console games are being translated for the Chinese market. Be it English to Chinese or Japanese to Chinese, it seems much of the focus is now on creating games that the Chinese can play. On the flip side, Chinese game companies…
By Eric Jou
Eric Jou
Eric Jou's posts