The Chinese Socialist MMOG

GP writes "How different is China? In the online game version of the idealized Socialist state, you gain experience points by 'doing good deeds' and 'thwarting spys'. You can even meet Chairman Mao!" From a great writeup by Scott Jennings on the game: "And now we have the online MMO version, 'Learn From Lei Feng Online', which allows you to... mend socks. Again - not making any of this up. To quote from the original Xinhua story 'For beginners, sewing and mending socks is the only way to increase experience and to upgrade,' said Jiao Jian, a six-grade pupil in Yuexiu District, quoted by the newspaper. He then continues. 'Every time you are promoted to a higher level, your clothes will become more average,' he said. I'm pretty sure this isn't a translation screw up. The longer you grind, the more you look like everyone else. I guess new users wear designer pastels or something."

Comments

what about their TOS?

[Klowner]

I wonder if you get an immediate ban for using 1337 Falun Gong macros.

Revolutionary idea!

[bromodrosis]

Where do I wait in line for a copy?

Excellent advice

[the_other_one]

in real life, Mao believed that deflowering virgins would help him live longer

All I need now is a steady stream of corsage bearing virgins.

Just one question: What do I do with the flowers?

Re:Excellent advice

[Ekhymosis]

Actually, it comes from an ancient Taoist belief. Not too sure exactly what, but the elderly men were deemed to be suffering from a lack of balance (Ying and Yang) so it was believed that the virgin woman would provide some counter to the ailments the elderly men were suffering. This is why back in the old days old men were always shagging young girls and hoarding virgins.

Gettin' some ying for their yang! (There goes my karma...)

Re:wow

[neoform]

Yeah, cause countries like the United States never make propaganda games, right? Man, china's such a fucked up country! How dare they do this?!

Re:wow

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

Oh boy, after a hard day's work making basketball shoes for a nickle an hour, you can go back to your tiny apartment and mend socks online.

A virtual sweatshop.

You look more and more like everyone else..

[ROBOKATZ]

'Every time you are promoted to a higher level, your clothes will become more average,' he said. I'm pretty sure this isn't a translation screw up. The longer you grind, the more you look like everyone else.

And this is different from WoW in what way?

Re:Hmm

[pomo monster]

I dunno. How much do you get for stuffing your aging parents in "retirement communities" where they can be conveniently forgotten?

(Before you ask--yes, Chinese people really do consider us barbaric for our cultural idiosyncracies. And killing infant girls really isn't pervasive in modern China, even in rural areas, regardless of whatever uninformed drivel Microsoft-NBC is spewing today. Gain some perspective, please.)

A good fit

[Henry V .009]

Amazing how well the ideological absurdity of utopian communism finds its expression in the mechanics of a multi-player online game. Or maybe it's not that amazing. Surely you World of Warcraft players, engaged in the "grind" of leveling, have heard an Orwellian Animal Farm voice calling "Work is Fun. Fun is Work. Fun is Unfun." Co-operation and submission to the group is explicitly rewarded through "Guilds" and similar organizations.

Of course, not only is the gameplay of multi-player online games ideologically communist, but the mechanics of game economies are explicitly communist. They are planned economies. Gold farming and black markets are exactly the same phenomenon. The Chinese Socialist online game will be interesting to watch for observers due to this inevitablity. How will they deal with external and internal black markets? Will it be possible to distinguish countermeasures gameplay from reality as ingame countermeasures are taken?

Re:A good fit

[Moraelin]

"Well, actually, you can't have a communist democracy, because communism requires a totalitarian government. You simply can't allow the slaves, sorry, the workers, to choose other forms of government, because they'll choose the freedom provided by personal economic power (money) if you do. That's why every communist leader has been a dictator."

No. Trying to enforce _your_ own point of view, regardless of what people want, is what's incompatible with democracy. It's not even just about communism. The USA McCarthy era trying to enforce capitalism and weed out any communist thinking wasn't a particularly democratic process or a case of "land of the free".

Freedom and democracy mean that the people are able to choose whatever they choose, including communism, capitalism, something in between, or something very stupid. (E.g., ancient Athens democratically chose to wage war on Sparta, even though the power of Athens was naval and Sparta was landlocked on a mountain. And most land battles had been won for Athens by the Spartan elites. Let's just say Athens never recovered from that mistake.) But that's what democracy means: letting the people choose for themselves.

And there's this fundamentally post-McCarthy American point of view that, given freedom and a right to choose, anyone would choose a cult of the psychopaths. (In the medical sense, not in the axe murderer sense.) That anyone would choose a dog-eat-dog world, where it's only right to be chewed up and spit out by those more powerful than you. And that there are no other shades of grey.

In practice, in Europe for example most countries have democratically chosen something in between. Something where enough economic freedom is left to keep the economy going, but there are plenty of safety nets for those who aren't CEOs. Some countries, as was pointed out, veered pretty far to the left.

But even if I was to accept your points, the GP point still stands: there's something particularly stupid in claiming basically "everything I don't like is communistic." In this case someone argues that "working" in WoW to gain an advantage over other players is somehow communistic, because he doesn't like that. Excuse me? Last I've heard having to work to gain an advantage was the very fundament of capitalism.

That's really the whole problem. For some people "communism", "capitalism" and so on have lost any trace of their real meaning and are some generic synonim for "evil" and "good". Everything they like, including getting a free meal, is "capitalistic" and "democratic". Everything they dislike, e.g., having to work to get a reward, is inherently "communist" and "totalitarian". They've become just buzzwords triggering some Pavlov's Dog kind of prescribed response, without any thinking involved.

Payback

[Anonymous Coward]

I will be spending all my time farming socks. I can hear them now, damm these American sock farmers.

Seriously, I want to try this!

[Dr. Spork]

This may sound messed up, but in an age of Yet Another "Madden" Football Game and Zombie Fragger 9 (or whatever), we finally have a game that piqued my interest. I'm not being ironic for once. I doubt there will be an English translation and even if there were, there wouldn't be US servers... but if there were, I really would consider trying it! I mean, it would be free for the people, right?

Doesn't anyone see how this could be fun? Yeah, mending socks doesn't sound like a thrill, but what do you do for XPs when you're weak in a commercial fantasy game? Endlessly stab chickens? How is that more fun? No, I think mending socks in a sweatshop that more of a feel of honest labor.

I think my talent would be in being a newspaper reporter for the government. I'd try my best to sound like this North Korean paper. Really, it would be a blast! And I bet there would be all sorts of neat quests, like stopping burglars, helping fishermen, getting a village to quit smoking... the sort of stuff that would be really refreshing after months of "deliver this scroll to Naldemor and you shall receive this +2 sword and lots of XP!" Yes, it would take a lot of creativity to make this game fun, but I guess I am one of these people who still appreciates creativity.

translation mess up?

[SYSS Mouse]

I read a news on tihs report in Chinese.

From this article "Every time you are promoted to a higher level, your clothes will become more average."

"More average" is not it is supposed to mean. That word should mean "simple".

Also, the title should read the Chinese Revolutionary MMO.This has to do with the person Lei Feng itself and the background at that time. "He was characterized by propaganda as a selfless and modest figure after his death and consequently was an idol to many." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lei_Feng

He is protrayed as a selfless person, including his accidential death at 22. A quote from him: "Life is limited, but the service to the country is boundless. I want to use my limited life to boundless serve the country."

It was the time whe loyality to the party that matter's most. In was in the 1950 and 60's in the history, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution

Re:Hmm

[pomo monster]

Oh please. I'm as capitalist as they come. If you think Frommer's travel guides and the Economist are mouthpieces for the Chinese Communist Party, I'm afraid you're beyond "reeducation."

Score one for propaganda

[aendeuryu]

I really hate it when governments try to sneak propaganda into computer games. This indoctrination of youth is really creepy. You're never going to see me advocating or playing a game like this. Those Chinese are just so... so... sinister.

[/goes back to playing America's Army]

Parent is right

[Oldsmobile]

Most slashdotters don't know a damn thing about China. It is like listening to a bunch of humanities students talking about computers.

"Man, I just re-formatted my processor because I got a virus or a bug or something in my window."

"Yeah I know, you should use that linux-program I heard it really zaps those bugs!"

Re:Hmm

[KDR_11k]

No, abortion = foeticide because foetus != infant.