China Backs Gaming Initiatives

Gamespot is reporting that a Chinese government official spoke at an E3 conference session. He outlined the explosive growth of online gaming in the nation and discussing future ventures for the growing consumer base. Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China (gasp) Xiao Wei Kou also spoke to plans to connect the government up with universities and further focus development internal to the Chinese state. From the article: "According to our estimates, there will be more than 300 domestically developed online games in the next five years. And we're in need for more than 20,000 professional game developers. Right now the reality is there are only a few thousand professional developers in China. The lack, especially senior level developers, has become another important bottleneck."

Comments

Civil control?

[Leroy_Brown242]

I wonder if the games the produce will be pro-China civil controling like games. Like the high volume of war style games that come out of the US.

Re:Civil control?

[DigiShaman]

You see. There will be this one game developed by the CCP regarding a war FPS game. It will contain real maps of American cities on the west coast and Tailand. As a bonus, it will reward players for good skills and automatically promote them in rank if they join Chinese military willingly...

OK ok, I'm kidding. But that would be REAL fucking scary if something like that happend.

Re:Civil control?

[Anonymous Coward]

China is not a communist country, nor are they out to kill any Americans, Europeans or anybody else. We're their largest trading partner, they are not stupid you know. Now go back to your bunker and worry about "oh-so-scary" Osama Bin Laden.. Yeah, i bet they played so much american army by now, they can take you gun nuts out in your sleep.

Re:Civil control?

[DigiShaman]

Your right, forgive me. China is NOT based on communism. In fact, the CCP is Totalaterian regime in disguise. How thoughtless of me for not being more exact.

Re:Civil control?

[cluke]

You mean like America's Army?

Re:Civil control?

[Anonymous Coward]

or are they out to kill any Americans, Europeans or anybody else

I'm sure they would like to kill a few pesky people from taiwan. They might be pretty keen on killing some Japanese people too. They do count right?

We're their largest trading partner, they are not stupid you know.

Sad but true, they aren't too keen on ruffling Americas feathers simply for the fact that we buy so much of their goods. Free trade can be a good deterant to war...sometimes.

Now go back to your bunker and worry about "oh-so-scary" Osama Bin Laden..

Bin Laden was should have been a bit more scary than he was assumed to be by many pre 9/11

Yeah, i bet they played so much american army by now, they can take you gun nuts out in your sleep.

Unlikely.

Re:Civil control?

[stinerman]

Well, your sig is at least quite right.

Re:Civil control?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

>> Communism = Equality at the lowest common denominator.
>
> Well, your sig is at least quite right.

Ironically, it's also accurately descriptive of MMORPGs.

Think about it. Skill matters very little -- it's all stat based. What little skill there is is not in the battles but rather the tracking down of upgrades to your character + the skill of being able to not get festering sores on your behind from camping for decades.

Compare vs. Quake online, wherein real, high skill let you slaughter your opponents by the dozens simultaneously.

Assuming you have skill, which is the whole point vis-a-vis communist levelling, i.e. tearing people down to the lowest common denominator.

Yes, there's skill in the healer/defender/controller/support type classes, but for battle classes? Very little. The only game that benefitted from player "battle skills" I've seen was the scrapper class in City of Heroes, and then only just barely. The Tanker, or fighter types in EQ, AC, Horizons, DAoC, or Star Wars Galaxies, are all little more than statistical arguments at unskilled idiocy.

1st

[Justabit]

i want to play "evade the Tank" new chinese game.

More innovative again?

[drakethegreat]

I'm sure others have noticed but over the past few years there has been a complete lack of innovation in the game industry as far as plot lines and new styles of games. Maybe this new market will actually make enough competition and developers to see some new stuff.

Re:More innovative again?

[faloi]

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I imagine that we'll just see an even faster regurgitation of the same old stuff. I can only assume that the garbage that's being put out is selling, or it would already be gone. If you can make a profit with easy "low hanging fruit" (reskin and release!) games, why devote a bunch of time or money to something truly innovative?

20 years from now

[asjk]

China is playing and YOU are farmer.

Opiate for the masses

[Slider451]

I think China has come to realize the value of giving intelligent, hard working people a fantasy distraction in their off-hours that consumes them more than TV, but doesn't damage them like drugs or gambling. A distracted populous is easier to control.

Re:Opiate for the masses

[Anonymous Coward]

I think China has come to realize the value of giving intelligent, hard working people a fantasy distraction in their off-hours that consumes them more than TV, but doesn't damage them like drugs or gambling. A distracted populous is easier to control.

Or there are finicial motives. Someone in the Chinese government might have seen what's going on with gold farming and the sale of virtual items. Perhaps they want to get a piece of this business, either directly or as a way to expand their country's economy at large.

Numerical Superiority

[Doc Ruby]

20,000 extra Chinese programmers, competitive with their foreign counterparts, aren't going to come online so fast. Training, or more appropriately productivity and quality, might become the driver for foreigners supplying the Chinese market. Communism's suppressions and communications bans directly conflict with the ability to get knowledge quickly and evenly distributed to everyone who needs it. So those lucky enough to be in on Chinese communities already in the global info economy might find themselves running out of accessible technologists just as fast as their peers in Euramerica. The competitive advantages of Euramerican education might just become the only advantage over China's sheer population scale.

no wonder they lack developers

[muszek]

"Right now the reality is there are only a few thousand professional developers in China. The lack, especially senior level developers, has become another important bottleneck."

1. Those that are to become developers tend to think. Those that think sometimes find it hard to keep to themselves. In China those that think and express their feelings tend to end up in jail.

3. Game developers need access to technology and (less importantly) gaming sites... not only to get knowledge, but primarily to "develop themselves in the right direction". People involved in gaming or coding tend to be beeg fans of the ideas of Freedom/Anarchy. Sites with such content tend to be banned in China.

Re:no wonder they lack developers

[muszek]

1. Those...
...
3. Game...

who said I can count to 3?