American McGee, a video game designer living in Shanghai and probably best known for the game Alice, is working on a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) racing game titled Baijiu Racer (白酒赛车). The following is the announcement that is featured on American McGee’s blog:
Announcing “BaiJiu Racer” - An MMO-lite racing game concept with China as the core theme. The concept has been in focused pre-production for the past three months here at Spicy Horse. Working with our Chinese publishing partner ICEE we’ve crafted a solid Game Design Document, Technical Design Document, Art Bible, Visual Target Demo, and Development Plan. Together these materials constitute a compelling pitch for a title we think will be a strong competitor in the worldwide, lite-MMO, online racing category (think “Kart Racer”).
A lot of teams dream of a “Mario Cart” or “KartRider” killer - and we think our concept goes a long ways towards being a viable contender. For one, it’s the first Chinese cart racing game developed with an authentic and original Chinese art style, set in real-world locations, and featuring some of the funkiest racing vehicle designs the world has ever seen (inspiration coming from actual Chinese vehicles). We’re focusing on semi-realistic (and fun) physics-based racing dynamic, going light on the power-ups, and throwing in a lot of visual action. Check out the art and video to see the result.
The game certainly seems promising, and I can’t think of any other racing games that are set in China. Based on the concept art and the video it has a cartoony but authentic look. I am also interested in how successful this “game pitch for the next generation” will be.
E-sports, or video game tournaments, have become increasingly popular in China. At the same time, Chinese regulations governing the e-sports market are extraordinarily restrictive and serve as a barrier to foreign investors; forcing them to adopt creative solutions in order to reap the benefits of access to Chinese e-sport consumers.
E-sports can be generally described as video game tournaments. This type of sport has been formally recognized by the Chinese government as the 99th Official Sport of China and was featured as the “Welcome Event” of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Although this emerging industry is very attractive to foreign investors, the difficulty in entering the Chinese e-sports market arises from the Chinese government’s strict regulations on e-sports and on video games in general, and does not differentiate between e-sports and home video games. Due to the stringent nature of Chinese regulations in this area, investors are forced to seek creative solutions if they wish to enter the e-sports market.
The Chinese regulations governing video game websites came into effect on January 31, 2008. The relevant regulation, entitled the “Regulation on Managing Video Sites,” establishes rules for to the lawful operation of video game websites in China, including those devoted to the promotion of e-sports. Individuals and entities that wish to operate e-sports games in China must obtain three necessary permits, all of which have stringent requirements. One of the permit requirements even goes so far as to bar companies that are “foreign-invested operational entities” from receiving the permit and, thus, from legitimately operating e-sport services in China. One hallmark of this regulation is that it is highly protective of the internal industry and creates barriers for foreign companies that seek to access the Chinese video game market.
One can see the possibilities of what could be in South Korea, particular in regards to Starcraft competitions (one of the professional Korean Starcraft teams is sponsored by the Korean Air Force!). Perhaps the Chinese government is afraid that if they allow foreign companies to invest in these events, that more foreign video game players will compete, and more incidents like the Taiwanese Controversy at the World Cyber Games will occur.
Most surprising is that video game tournaments are the 99th Official Sport of China. What are the other 98?
Nintendo recently asked the US to help it crack down on what they claim is a 1 billion dollar lose in sales due to piracy last year.
The console giant listed countries such as China, Korea, Brazil, Hong Kong, Paraguay and Mexico in its appeal.
Nintendo filed its comments under a ‘Special 301′ process which allows the public to underscore specific areas of concern for the US Trade Representative.
“While China remains the primary source of pirated Nintendo DS and Wii games, Korea has emerged as the leader in distributing illegal game files via the internet,” Nintendo said in a statement.
While I find these estimates of an amount of money lost due to piracy to be a little sketchy, operating under the likely assumption that most of those buying pirated copies would never pay the full price, it is certainly a big deal. And is a problem for my favorite hand held console, the Nintendo DS, because of a Chinese-made item named the R4:
It’s called the R4, and it’s here to rain on Nintendo’s parade. The R4 fits right into the DS’s cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded via a flash drive. The R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into. The China-made piracy device is available all over Akihabara, where retailers advertise it vaguely: “New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product…” or “Guaranteed for one week only! Of course we can’t explain what the R4 will do…”
Free-to-play online games services, instead of the fee-based model, would continue to dominate the market with an estimated 80-percent market share, the survey showed.
Is there no international situation that is safe from from tension between China and Taiwan? Long a feature at of the Olympics and United Nations, it can now be found at world gaming competitions.
“F**k your mother!” “Was his mother a bitch dog?” “What kind of trash flag is that?” “You are not Chinese!” “Do you know that this will result us being banned from the competition!”
The situation became so heated that event organizers had to separate the two sides. The Chinese government, like on any other international stage, has threatened to pull gamers out of the compition if the orginizers officially recognize Taiwan. Which is why at the Asia Games you have teams like Chinese Taipei. But hey, it’s better than shooting rockets at eachother in Xiamen. Right?
Under government rules that went into effect Monday, Chinese Internet gaming companies must implement a screening program that requires users to enter their identification card numbers.
The program then monitors the online time of players identified as under 18 and prompts them at the three-hour mark with a message asking them to stop and “do suitable physical exercise.”
The software monitor slashes by half the points of underage players if they keep playing beyond three hours, and wipes their points out completely if they stay on more than five hours.
This article seems to be written by a journalist who has little understanding of how gaming works. Assuming that they are talking about an MMORPG like World of Warcraft, by points do they means experience points? Because if this is the case those who have hit the level cap, meaning the highest level possible in the game, experience points do not matter to them and the restrictions would be pointless (hehe). Or does it means your characters stats, his abilities in the game? That would be a more effective method but still seems as though it would be difficult to implement. I have not seen in any source how this system specifically works.
The Chinese government is also considering penalizing companies who do not comply with these rules. OF course shouldn’t these penalties already be in place since the law requires them to have these systems. The video game company The9 has already put this policy in place for the games it runs.
Zhao Yurun, public relations director of the The9, which runs WoW in China, said, “We have installed the anti-addiction system on all games, including WoW, the Soul Ultimate Nation and the Fantastic Melody Online.”
An official with General Administration of Press and Publications said officials were still discussing penalties for firms that had failed to install the anti-addiction system, a GAPP official said.
Overall, here are the questions that I have about this system
Can the person log off at the 3 hour point and then just log back on? If they can it defeats the purpose of the system.
Couldn’t a child just use a parents ID to log on, and then play as long as they want to?
This only effects those who are under 18. This is also a large problem with students in college, and this law completely ignores that problem
Should internet cafes have any responsibility in this system?
And gaming companies must not have been thrilled about this policy. For them there is no choice, either abide by the rules or don’t do business in China. I personally don’t see this as much of a solution to the problem, as kids who want to spend 8 hours a day playing these games will find a way to do it somehow.
I had previously written about art changes on Chinese Magic the Gathering cards requiring the company to modify art that featured skeletons. This apparently does not just apply to card games, as now game developers are being forced to make changes to the latest expansion of World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, to take out skeletons.
The operators of “World of Warcraft” in China have replaced skeletons with healthy human bodies in the local version of the popular monster-killing online game, a spokesman said Friday, amid a recent government campaign to clean up Internet content.
Being a recovering WOW player myself, I know that taking the skeletons out of this game must be a huge hassle. Many of the enemies in the games, including a few of the bosses, are skeletons. And one of the major cities, Undercity, has massive amounts of bones and undead phenomenon. Of course the time and effort that it takes to change these things is certainly worth it to gain access to the Chinese gamers. But the question comes up once again, why just skeletons? And is it better to be killing humans than skeletons?
Before I begin, a brief definition of cosplay for those who are not aware of it. This is from Akime’s Anime World:
Costume Play; either the act of dressing up as favorite characters, particularly at a convention, or a sort of amateur theater in which fans in costume reenact scenes from anime, almost always at conventions.
Cosplay is used to refer to both the act of reenacting scenes from anime dressed as the characters and the act of dressing up with no theater involved. The word is an Americanization of a Japanization of Costume Play; that phrase was adopted by the Japanese and shortened into Cosu-purei, which has been readopted into English as Cosplay (both versions have the same meaning).
These people can also dress up as video game characters, and I think that is still considered cosplay. I don’t know, it all seems weird and kind of scarey to me. For weeks now there have been signs all over Nanjing advertising the 2007 China Joy Cosplay convention. I wasn’t aware that people weren’t into this here in China until I saw a group getting dressed up in a McDonald’s. Apparently it is quite popular. So yesterday, the first day off the May week long holiday, we took the long hot trip to the cultural center downtown. It was overall disappointing, mainly because of the small number of people that were dressed up and the high entrance fee, 30 RMB per person. There were probably a total of 30 people in costume, a really small number for a cosplay convention. Here are some of the more hardcore enthusiasts, pictures by Jenn.
I am not sure what MMORPG they were supposed to be from, but they were terrifying.
An online game operator has demanded that banned players donate blood to be allowed back into the game. Moliyo, which runs a 3D massively multiplayer online game in China, made the demand after banning 120,000 players who attempted to hack the game, according to gaming news website, 17173.com.
More than 100 players had already signed up to exchange half a litre (1 pint) of blood for game accounts, 17173 reported (in Chinese). The company has also offered free accounts to ordinary players who give blood, the website claimed.
Is it strange that I thought 1 litter of blood is not that bad to get a free account? Or maybe WOW gold for blood? Of course with the questionable cleanliness of needles in China I don’t think I would take the risk. Also I wonder what the company then did with the blood once they obtained it. I’m thinking that they didn’t donate it but probably tried to sell it. This essentially amounts to blood trafficking, which seems highly illegal.
There has been some strange happening in Nanjing over the past few months, with this and the life saving excrement pile.
The weather in Nanjing for the past few days has been great. It is about 70-80 degrees, sunny, and the leaves and flowers are blossoming. Of course we have to enjoy this while we can, as everyone we talk to reminds us, since spring here lasts only for a couple of weeks. Soon it will be 90+ and horribly humid. And apparently by July it will be about a 110. So I have been taking very long walks around, trying to enjoy what scenery there is. This led me to discovering this poster.
On the top of the poster it reads Game College and Game Factory, and there is picture of a Dark Elf. These things lead me to one conclusion: World of Warcraft gold farm recruitment poster! My translation from the poster:
Finishing Games
Is Not as Good as Making Games
Game College
Urgently Recruiting High School and College Graduates
Important International/National Authoritative Authentication
Game Design and Development Training
Explosive Enrollment
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