Slashdot Mirror
26 Million Chinese Gamers Online
Gamasutra reports on a recent study done by the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications finding that there are more than 26 million Chinese gamers online, with something like $470 million in income. From the article: "The GAPP report also theorizes that the future of the online games industry may lie in online casual games and mobile games, both of which saw increases in 2005. Casual games accounted for 30% of the 2005 total online game revenue, and the number of online mobile games increased to 18, a number expected to expand more rapidly once 3G service is introduced to the country. Online game revenue is expected to reach 17.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion USD) by the year 2010." Scott Jennings has commentary on this at Broken Toys.
It is actually just two guys and a really efficient script. Then they sell items on eBay. Quite brilliant really.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
A game could be made in which it had a real economy, rather than just killing things in mass genocide for gold.
Maybe we could find some other way to make money and items that are a bit more than just programing an automated script.
You know... Like crafting...
Heck, why not make an MMOG which players have to gather resources and mint their own money. The issue is that people don't realize it isn't the people who are to blame (because you can't change human nature) but the fact that game allows for such problems.
Farming would be a bit harder in a world where the economy and game universe was a closed system (zero sum) in which the amount of resources was not infinite.
Though many of you wouldn't want to play that now would you?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I can't help but think these numbers are inflated, much like MMO subscription figures. I'm curious to know how many of these are individual subscribers and how many haven't been purchased by internet cafes. A lot more gamers in Asia game this way than they do in the West.
China likes this kind of publicity because it makes them look credible as a burgeoning market. Developers also like it because it makes them look successful.
Granted, China has a massive number of people, but the vast majority are in no kind of financial situation to be able to afford gaming online.