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China To Force Changes To 20 Popular Games, Ban 9 Including Fortnite and PUBG (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: A panel of censors set up to vet mobile video games in China has signaled it will be hard to please. State media reports that of the first 20 titles it assessed, nine were refused permission to go on sale. The Xinhua news agency added that developers of the other 11 had been told they had to make adjustments to remove "controversial content." The authorities have voiced concerns about the violent nature of some titles as well as worries about the activity being addictive.
It was announced in August that a new body -- the State Administration of Press and Publications -- had taken over responsibility for approving games and that it would limit the number of online titles available. And although it has not been specified, some experts are assuming that the new panel will operate under its auspices. Xinhua said it is comprised of gaming experts, government-employed researchers, and representatives from the media and video games industry. But it provided no other information about who they were or the titles they had already examined. UPDATE: The list of games being examined by the ethics panel has been revealed by users on NGA, a Chinese gaming forum. A number of games, such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft, will need "corrective action," while others will be "banned/withdrawn" entirely. Some of the most popular prohibited titles include Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).
It was announced in August that a new body -- the State Administration of Press and Publications -- had taken over responsibility for approving games and that it would limit the number of online titles available. And although it has not been specified, some experts are assuming that the new panel will operate under its auspices. Xinhua said it is comprised of gaming experts, government-employed researchers, and representatives from the media and video games industry. But it provided no other information about who they were or the titles they had already examined. UPDATE: The list of games being examined by the ethics panel has been revealed by users on NGA, a Chinese gaming forum. A number of games, such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft, will need "corrective action," while others will be "banned/withdrawn" entirely. Some of the most popular prohibited titles include Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).
Terrible, barbaric, tyrannical governments that censor every little thing, should be CUT OFF FROM THE WORLD. Sell them NOTHING. Change NOTHING for them. Tell them take it or LEAVE it.
we need to ban olympics from them US / UN has that power
When I see how crazily obsessed children are with Fortnite, when I see some adults here, comparing a Fortnite ban to human rights violation, it makes me think that maybe banning this shit would be a good thing.
GROW. UP.
(And if we have to talk about what china are doing, let's talk about their violations of human rights)
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
Someone suggested in the last thread on this subject that China should be lauded for trying to do something about this issue even if they are failing at other issues. I said it was hypocritical bullshit and they deserved zero praise for it. Today we see that I was 100% correct. Once PUBG and Battlegrounds were included it proved that this was not about protecting citizens, but about crushing competition. Shame on you if you thought otherwise.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Cut them off. Spare them the trouble of sifting through content and them deciding what should be allowed and what not. Maybe their citizens start rebelling then, but probably not, so just keep it up.
Everyone playing games does.
China is a HUGE market. If anything, that Diablo immoral (or whatever that installment was called) makes it evident. Studios bend over backwards to cater to the Chinese market.
Think your games will remain as they are? Think again. They know you'll buy the next Call of Battlefield anyway, even if it's a dumbed down phone minigame with microtransactions up the ass. They want that Chinese market.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I mean, how dare Firaxis not make the Chinese military units in Civilization more powerful than everyone else. They need to update that game for the Chinese market, so whoever plays that character always wins!
What does China have to do with socialism?
In the international name-and-blame game, what you call yourself matters jack shit. The GDR was the German Democratic Republic. So? It was neither democratic nor a republic. And considering how they speak in those areas of Germany, even the German is something that I'd consider debatable.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why? because they don't want to sell a couple of video games in their country?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
You tell those big studios that they should ignore a market the size of the US, Japan and Europe combined. Make a video, their reaction should be priceless. I bet it goes viral.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Think your games will remain as they are? Think again.
Or they can simply modify the edition the Chinese get. IIRC, Bungie had to make modifications to Myth for the European market, because some countries had a thing against blood in games, so they made the blood green. I think they also made enemies that exploded turn into confetti instead of a pile of carnage, but that might have been another game. I think Wolfenstein had to do the same thing in Germany because of the swastikas. Sure, it's probably a pain in the neck, but it can be done.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
nafta 2.0 = Mexico is back to making stuff
" long after China is but an unpleasant memory."
Says the youngest culture to one of the oldest cultures on earth.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
NERF BASTION!
When you step down off your soap box, you should look to your own critical thinking skills, and look up Whataboutism.
Yes, Germany has a stream of bullshit changes to pander to their ridiculous Bundesprüfstelle to defend kids against reality (IIRC that's the most accurate translation), and in general they were hilarious. Top of my head I remember the suicide bombers in C&C Generals being gurneys with little bombs on them. But that's far from the most ridiculous change ever made in a game to get an a-ok from them.
But we're not talking about cosmetic changes here. If you look at the reasons given as to why the games were banned, including reasons like "rewards given based on rank", "distorted concepts of history and culture" and "game missions include fraud", this means that fundamental aspects of the game, its core mechanics and the story it tries to tell, are suddenly no-gos.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Or they can simply modify the edition the Chinese get. IIRC, Bungie had to make modifications to Myth for the European market, because some countries had a thing against blood in games, so they made the blood green
They, can, and short term they will... but really the battle from the Chinese government is not just against specific video games, the current government is against video games in general.
That social worth score that they have where you're give a score by the government to say how good a citizen you are, it is impacted by video games. The more hours of video games you play, the more points you lose. Playing a lot of video games can mean you're banned from staying at certain hotels, getting some jobs, and visiting some shops. Granted, you probably have to waste your life away playing games for it to be significant, but they've already got a bias against video games built in.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Fortnite being produced by Epic Games, which is 40% owned by Chinese Tencent, I'm a little surprised at the Fortnite ban. I guess "fantasy violence" they're ok with, but anything with "normal" guns must be a no-no.
It seems China has the same issues the United States has in that folks with kiddos either:
1) Don't know how or
2) Don't want to be bothered
with actually being a parent.
The simple fix for that Fortnite addiction is to simply not allow them to play it for excessive amounts of time.
You know. . . . BE a parent.
"They can, but it costs money and time, and they are not willing to spend either."
Bingo.
No one wants to support half a dozen different versions of a thing. Even you programmer types can agree on that one.
Half a dozen? Definitely.
Two? A distinct possibility.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
My concern is that Chinese censorship will end up restricting what is available for the remainder of the world. It's going to be a growing, insidious problem that will hamper most forms of media.
-Bob-
This is authoritarianism. Usually it's associated with dictatorships or other forms of oppressive government, and yes, that can be socialist. But it can just as well be fascist. Or a theocracy.
But that's not what you need to hear, right? You're one of those people who label everything you don't like in a country "socialist", right? Oppression of opposition? Socialist. No free press? Socialist. People "disappearing" after a visit from some guys in black trenchcoats? Socialist. Being arrested for "reeducation" if you criticize the government? Socialist.
I'm pretty sure you're even one of those dimwits that will claim the NSDAP was a socialist party because it had "social" in its name. And it did all those things! See? The definition is true!
Right?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Banning Fortnite? For once I'm not mad at China.
One should hope so, but people keep preordering them like they can't learn from previous blunders. Fallout76 had one of the highest preorder rates ever. Yes, sales plummeted right after it got out the door, but who gives a fuck? Preorder sales easily pick up the slack.
And people will keep preordering. Know why? Because they get that exclusive preorder skin for their puppy and the exclusive preorder emote for the multiplayer game that makes them so SPECIAL!
So who gives a fuck whether they actually play it after they already bought it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Out of all of the comments here, none of them actually discuss some of the reasons that these games are up for review.
Notably, one of those reasons, would make Slashdot fall of the face of China: "Inharmonious chat"
Actually, this is a VERY legitimate reason for reform in the gaming community and on the internet in general. A lot of games fail because their communities are full of toxic players and that's becoming pretty much the bane of the internet these days. Anyone comparing Slashdot from 15 years ago to now, refers to the same thing, lack of moderation (self moderation?) and the allowing of trolls and toxic opinions to be flooding the comments section, it's no different in gaming. People got used to not being idiots fearing violence or being outcast from society but that disappeared with the age of the internet. China, taking aim on Gaming, will draw ire from the gaming community and the "inharmonious" groups that voice their opinions and only that, but honestly? They're the pioneers of making the internet great again (sorry for the pun) by holding gaming companies accountable for the toxic group of people playing those games. Holy Crap! That's awesome!
How can we further support this cause?
And while you're thinking about improving your critical thinking skills and learning what "whataboutism" is, why don't you also go realize that our goverment officials really don't represent the people very well. Classifying Americans into a group like you are is exactly like saying the Chinese government represents the will of the people there. It'd be very very wrong.
Application should detect if game is the under test and display teletubbies. Once player takes over - go full nine yeards.
It teaches you how to think. Flying sticks - verry violent. You can cheat - fraud. Phallic objects - sexual content. Don't even get me started that you are controlling game play not the government.
The most ridiculous decision was to ban river raid for brutality. River raid, for fuck's sake!
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I know where you are coming from as I know kids of friends who are generally good but have had to have some punishments applied because Fortnite drove them to some sneakiness to get around parent imposed rules.
But it seems to me that maybe this is useful, to have a real test of moral character around that can be used to temper otherwise soft individuals. It seems hard to even punish a kid these days, but no Fortnite for week or so is something that means something.
I've played Fortnite myself a bit, off and on - there's nothing inherently addictive, it's just got a good combination of latent story, gameplay, dance, and humor.
If kids are exposed to something this powerfully compelling early on, it would give them a lot of willpower later to resist other temptations.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They can, but it costs money and time, and they are not willing to spend either.
It's just another cost / benefit analysis. Some companies do spent the money and time because they see it as worthwhile over the life of the game. For example, Blizzard made a lot of visual changes to World of Warcraft just for China because they have some weird aversion to skeletons and bones. Player skeletons on the ground are replaced with tombstones, undead models don't show bones, bones and bits of meat on the ground are replaced with bread, etc.
Sure, it may objectively be a waste of time, but if you want to sell in that market (and they let you sell, lol) then you just have to decide if it's worth it. As long as the Chinese don't start dictating how things look and function for everyone else, that seems fine (for a relative meaning of "fine" given the authoritarian society) with me.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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Silent Service and Gunship were on the list too. Gunship. Of all the games. The infantry you "killed" were literally pixels.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Olympic committee just rejected E-sports. Ban olympics by your logic?
This is an opportunity to show just how risky investing too deeply into China is for gaming studios though. Remember that this review is just a start, and terms change with ebb and flow of Chinese leadership being made aware of potential harm that games may cause to Chinese "societal harmony". Which is the highest virtue in the Chinese system.
How do they even get "game missions include fraud" for Diablo? Of all the things to pick to complain about.
They also complained about "inharmonious chat" for every game. You want to do business in China, either eliminate all chat, or hire a huge team to monitor all chat in real time (I expect TenCent/RIOT will do the latter).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
We've already seen the effect of Hollywood bending over backwards, as you put it, to make movies they think will appeal to the Chinese market. It's a definite concern that videogame companies will tend to self-censor in anticipation of the objectives they think the Chinese censors will have.
As an independent videogame developer, this places a fairly large burden on me. Do I pay for a Chinese localization and try to enter that market, and then subject myself to the whims of a board of censorship? My inclination is to tell them to piss off, but as a practical matter, that's discarding a potentially large market. Do human rights benefit simply by me refusal to participate in a particular market? Hard to say, but probably not. It's not like the US embargo really helped Cuba.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Whataboutism.
>Ban 9 Including Fortnite and PUBG
Sweet! No more Chinese screaming, "CHINAH NUMBAH ONE!" in pubg voice.
Whataboutism.
Literally not an argument.
... doubleplusungood. Comply in shutting them down, adjusting them according to the standards of the ministry of love or be collected for immediate recycling at the biomatter tanks in your district.
Thank you for your cooperation citizen. And remember: Big Mao is watching you.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
You'll have to start censoring for everyone....and I have a pretty damn good feeling plenty of people here...who already don't give a fuck about freedom of expression; would be more than willing to put the screws to these companies.
It's better to maintain your integrity, stand behind your product, and tell China to go fuck itself.
But the problem is money talks...and it's become more and more clear that game publishers don't really give two shits about what gamers want...they just want money.
This is the end of the gaming industry. In a few years everyone will be demanding censorship and all we'll be able to do is look back at the great games we once had.
hahaha... Classic 'Murican. Says the representative government that he voted for is not a reflection of the people.
That is EXACTLY what it is. If you keep electing asshats... well.. you're an asshat, asshat.