PLA Develops First Person Shooter With US Troops as Targets

An anonymous reader tipped us to a People's Daily story about the (Chinese) People's Liberation Army's new shoot-em-up game with US soldiers as targets, and that story led us to a more complete description of the Glorious Revolution game at the Daily Mail, which includes a nice video (in Chinese, of course) toward the bottom of the article that shows how the game looks in action.

Comments

We are their enemy

[Anonymous Coward]

and best customer all at once.

Re:We are their enemy

[cplusplus]

I guess that makes the US and China "frienemies".

Not surprising

[jonescb]

There are games where China is the enemy. Why is it suddenly a bad thing when the US are the bad guys?

Re:Not surprising

[0racle]

Because the US is always the good guys. It can't be the other way around.

Re:Not surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

There are games where China is the enemy. Why is it suddenly a bad thing when the US are the bad guys?

Citation needed for games where the Chinese army is the bad guy and the game is made by a world government.

Re:Not surprising

[jonnythan]

Because those games are not created by the US government or US Army, nor are they used as training tools for actual soldiers.

Re:Not surprising

[Maxo-Texas]

So did the game developed by the US Army feature chinese and russian enemies?
Of the article is accurate, this game wasn't developed by some third party but was developed by the PLA.

Seems a bit revealing to me.

And folks tell me I'm wrong when I say there will be a significant war with china in the next 50 years. But this is how things start. The chinese have a fairly enormous racial superiority complex laid over a deep inferiority complex due to the 1800's and early 1900's. That kind of thing can boil over in a bad way.

The best thing to happen will be to get them away from the racially pure meme they are nursing. That kind of belief has lead to bad things very reliably over the last several hundred years.

Re:Not surprising

[SwordsmanLuke]

...And you don't think *that* would lead to a major war?

Re:Not surprising

[yurtinus]

We simply can't repay all the debt we owe at one sitting - that is as big of a problem for China as it is for us. Demanding all of our loans be repaid would wreak havoc in both economies.

Re:Not surprising

[DarkOx]

and we could shitcan the Chinese economy in 24 secs announcing our intent to default on that debt, and stopping the purchase of their exports.

Re:Not surprising

[truthsearch]

Any attempt to seriously harm the US through economic methods would also hurt themselves.

Re:Not surprising

[tgd]

...And you don't think *that* would lead to a major war?

Not when we need to borrow money to pay for it.

Re:Not surprising

[mlts]

I fear a Sino-American war, and hope it doesn't happen. However, there are a lot of things that worry me:

1: Two countries, one set of resources. Almost always, this is what wars end up being fought over.

2: China's nationalism. Race is second, because there are a lot of races in China.

3: Revenge, especially of what Japan did to them last century.

I just hope old hatreds can be set aside, people here in the US start using nuclear power as opposed to fighting over dino juice, and that both countries get some wisdom of their own that trading is a lot better than chucking ICBMs.

China is also going through a cultural renaissance. Now that people can do art and music without being lined against a wall and shot (like in Mao's time), people there are more interested in education and developing their economy as opposed to military gains.

I cross my fingers -- in a lot of ways, China is a command economy, but it isn't an extreme country (now that the nuts like Mao are cozily dead), nor is it one that would sacrifice its children for religious dogma meaninglessly. I just hope it stays that way.

Re:Not surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Not Chinese, but American Army is pretty damn close as it's made by US Army. You're always playing US soldier and shooting down some middle east guys. And always meaning it doesn't mean which side you play with, you always see yourself as US Army and the other ones as middle east guys.

Re:Not surprising

[Nadaka]

All in due time. All in due time.

Re:Not surprising

[idontgno]

1: Two countries, one set of resources. Almost always, this is what wars end up being fought over.

I assume you mean the resources currently in Chinese territory. I doubt we'd go to explicit war against a major military power with nuclear capability over resources. Easier and safer to bargain, like we have up until now.

2: China's nationalism. Race is second, because Han is the only race in China that matters.

FTFY. Ask the Uyghur about that. However, the concept of the Middle Kingdom is key to its foreign policy. China invented exceptionalism millennia before George Washington was born.

3: Revenge, especially of what Japan did to them last century.

I hope not. There's enough ancient hatred in the world as it is.

I still think the flashpoint will be when China decides it's put up with "its rebellious province" long enough, and the US will have to decide whether it will go to war on behalf of its little ally or just let it go, along with a fair bit of US military hardware and technology.

Re:Not surprising

[Nadaka]

There used to be a lot of races in China, most have been "ethnically cleansed" by the Han. The Han race is China is the Peoples Communist Party. Maybe things will go well, but they are pretty close to the Nazi party in the late 20's, so my hopes are definitely not up.

Re:Not surprising

[DarkOx]

Not the point; I was responding to

China actually could shitcan the US economy in 24 hours, either using currency manipulation, calling in the debt, or even military means

If they did any of those things to the extremes that would "shitcan" the US economy we would not be buying any electronics anyway. At that point it would simply be a matter of "if I am going down, I am taking you down with me."

China can't really call in the debt. These bonds they be sold on the market or redeemed. Redeemed is pretty close to "calling in the debt" but if the instruments are not mature something less than face value would be paid. The market lacks enough buys to absorb the assets if they were dumped at anything beyond firesale prices. China would lose a huge portion of their own savings, but it would turn the dollar into paper. They can't redeem them all at once at the Treasury either as they don't have the cash on hand to pay, and can't borrow it because we are in excess of the debt ceiling already. So we would default. That would again destroy China's savings and turn the dollar in to paper. With the even greater side effect of destroying our ability to borrow. T-Bills being reduced to a JUNK rateing would be a much bigger problem for our banks and private sector than those bogus valued CDO/CDS/MBS ever were, and still remain.

The DEFLATION that would trigger would be so incredible that nobody could find a dollar spend and few would have anything of enough value to trade for one if such a dollar was found. The ONLY spending that would be happening is completely on inelastic products like staple foods.

No US money would be purchasing electronics from China through intermediaries or otherwise.

Meanwhile in China FoxCon and friends have a problem. Their biggest market has vanished overnight. The only markets large enough in population to replace it (their own domestic and India) don't have a standard of living which would permit many to buy these products. The only way to fix that overnight would be a sudden and extreme revaluation of currency which would alter the political landscape so rapidly their governments could not survive. If they don't revalue until most citizens can buy and IPad, well everything grinds to halt. Workers go home because there is no need to build more inventory, wages are not paid to workers not working, farm products don't get bought even though people are starving, the farms collapse and then everyone is starving.

So yea its essentially a non-nuclear MAD arrangement.

Re:Not surprising

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

I don't know how many games have turned killing Chinese into entertainment value? This isn't a game made by a game company. This was developed by the PLA. Did America's Army developed for the US Army attack Chinese, or really anyone? Propaganda is propaganda.

Re:Not surprising

[ZankerH]

It's called America's Army. And yeah, that's pretty disturbing.

Re:Not surprising

[SuricouRaven]

They might do that one day. China plans long term - I wouldn't put it past them to cause such an economic collapse, with the intention of hurting their competitors more than they hurt themselves. Having a centrally planned market would give them some advantage in the ability to plan ahead - they could have stockpiles built up years in advance, employ blatant protectionism to help domestic industry recover faster. They government could spend vast amounts of money propping up unprofitable industries for a decade so they are ready the moment recovery starts, while the rest of the world is founding new companies and building new factories. It'd hurt their economy, yes - but if it hurts the rest of the world more, it's still a valid plan for financial warfare. Collapse the economy, recover faster than anyone else, and use the window thus created to take over foreign markets and purchase what competition remains. The end result would be a situation where most economic activity, even that not performed in China, would be by Chinese companies.

Re:Not surprising

[SuperDre]

But 'terrorist' is something in the eye of the beholder, for one it's a terrorist for another it's a soldier.. There are enough countries and people who consider the US to be terrorist with their 'You have to do what I say or else' attitude.. Which country was the first and only country to use atom bombs on civilians? yes it was the US..

Personally I don't care which ever side you can play in any game or how horrific a game can be, it's all just virtual reality, and as long as it stays there, I don't care.. And I like the US countryside, only sad thing is, there live so many 'not so intelligent' people there (next to a lot intelligent, but it seems those haven't got anything to say)..

Re:Not surprising

[Suiggy]

The recently released FPS game Home Front features the PLA as the enemy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homefront_(video_game)

In fact, I would hazard a guess that this new game pitching the US as the enemy is a direct response to Home Front.

Re:Not surprising

[Kelbear]

Per your link, the enemy in Home Front is not China, it's North Korea.

"The antagonists in Homefront were originally intended to be Chinese, but were later replaced by a unified Korea for two reasons: a possible backlash by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the reality of economic interdependence between America and China that made the Chinese "not that scary"[8] said Tae Kim, a former CIA field agent and consultant on the game's backstory."

Not convinced...

[vlpronj]

Where are the screenshots of US soldiers as the enemy? I.E., American flag on uniform, American flag or markings on the Apaches? Apaches are heavily exported, the "enemy" could be one of many nations the US has sold them to.

Is it Really US Troops?

[Sonny Yatsen]

I can't quite listen to the Chinese audio since I'm at work, but based on the video alone, is it really against American troops? I only saw very generic urban warfare tactics in a very generic Chinese city and a very generic set of bunkers and pillboxes. The only "indication" that it was against American troops was a very fuzzy helicopter that might be an Apache or might be something else entirely.

In any case, so what? We in the US has been playing games where the Chinese Army was the antagonist for ages. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Battlefield 2 are two that I can name off the top of my head.

Re:Is it Really US Troops?

[gman003]

Not to mention actual wargames. 11th Armored Cavalry (to name one, can't remember the others) is actually dedicated to acting as a training enemy during training/wargames. Up until '05 or so, it was a replica Soviet unit, with tanks modified to look like T-80s and transports modified to look like BMPs. Right now, they're a mock-insurgent unit, but I wouldn't be surprised if all the heavy gear is being modified to mimic Chinese gear (shouldn't be hard - most PLA infantry gear is derived from Soviet gear).

Re:Is it Really US Troops?

[Opportunist]

Well, technically, after all we're talking about a communist country, whether it's a company or government doesn't matter since they are the same.

Re:i always complain about false equivalency

[DBNickel]

I think the controversial point is "Glorious Revolution, which is used as a training tool for People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers" + "US Soldiers"

Bad summary: No US troops, only a drill

[NekoYasha]

The game is named Glorious Mission, or sometimes Mission of Honor, not Glorious Revolution, and the plot follows a soldier's life through military camp and cumulates in the eponymous large-scale drill, as reported by China Daily. No US Troops anywhere.

It also supports 32 person multiplayer. You can watch footages of the game on YouTube here.

Download?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is the free download link?

If it's not free and FOSS, it's COMMUNISM.

Re:Fair enough

[gad_zuki!]

>For years in USA had the URSS (and viceversa), then URSS dissapeared and three years later it was Irak,

Ah yes, the United Republic of Soviet States. They were truly an incredible enemy. Remember when they launched a theremin guided tesla space coil at Atlanta and it turned everyone into an ape for 10 days? Or when they landed on Mars only to find an ancient race of rock-based life who beat them back with mud weapons? Or when Kennedy and Khruschev fought each other telepathically on national television to win control over the the Fidel Castro android that was running Cuba?

Oh man, don't get me started on Irak. Lord Irak himself killed my grandfather in a electric sword duel. Those were the days...

Re:Fair enough

[MysteriousPreacher]

>For years in USA had the URSS (and viceversa), then URSS dissapeared and three years later it was Irak,

Ah yes, the United Republic of Soviet States. They were truly an incredible enemy. Remember when they launched a theremin guided tesla space coil at Atlanta and it turned everyone into an ape for 10 days? Or when they landed on Mars only to find an ancient race of rock-based life who beat them back with mud weapons? Or when Kennedy and Khruschev fought each other telepathically on national television to win control over the the Fidel Castro android that was running Cuba?

Oh man, don't get me started on Irak. Lord Irak himself killed my grandfather in a electric sword duel. Those were the days...

Where can I buy this game? I must have it!

No I didn't...

[pla]

Thanks for the writeup, guys, but really, I have nothing to do with this.

More of an RPG and puzzle game fan, anyway.

Don't forget...

[MrEricSir]

...we're also one of their largest investments.

And it should be noted

[Sycraft-fu]

The US Army HAS created a game. It is called America's Army and is free for all to play. You play as US forces, of course. So who is the enemy OPFOR, basically the generic professional opposing force the Army itself has. Whatever side you play on always appears as US Army, the other side always appears as OPFOR. No country is the "bad guys" in their game.

The Army game doesn't make a political statement, and indeed is based off of the Army's own training idea and methods.

No they can't

[Sycraft-fu]

The people who act like that are just people who don't understand the world economy. They see it on a narrow, personal, level and think it is like a loanshark situation: China gave the US money and can call it due any time. That is wrong, what actually happened is China chose to invest in US securities and bought them. They pay defined rates at defined times and there is no ability to "call in the loan."

Also important to understand is that US securities pay in US dollars. So if the government chooses to inflate their way out of it, you are SOL. A note pays a fixed dollar amount and unless it is a TIPS or inflation protected one, and long term bonds are not, then it isn't paid in adjusted dollars. If you have a note that pays $1 million then that's what you get, doesn't matter if that $1 million has 1% of the buying power as when you purchased the note. Means there's a reason for holders of these to not want the US economy to tank.

Now what China could do it sell the securities on the open market. While the government doesn't pay the balance on a note until it is due, you can sell it to other investors. Ok, but if they unloaded all their securities at once, it would cause a massive price depression which would mean a massive loss of money for China. If they tried to unload securities with a face value totaling a trillion, but could only get people to pay ten billion because of oversupply and people being worried, they'd take a massive financial hit.

There's more to this (like the fact that default is an option for the US, or that the notes are all just accounting entries managed by the treasury, not physical notes) but what it comes down to is it is not a situation of "They loaned a lot of money and can hold it over your head." It is rather a situation of "They have invested a ton of money in your securities and need those securities to do well so they don't lose their investment."

USA

[G00F]

U.S.A. government, http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000033404&year=2009

Or we can look up BSA or other "not for profit" orgs they use to buy the government with.