Slashdot Log In
China Bans 50 Games
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:27 AM
from the it's-an-unfree-county-bub dept.
from the it's-an-unfree-county-bub dept.
Stargoat writes "The official mainland Chinese news agency, Xinhau, is reporting that China is banning 50 gaming titles. These titles include Battlefield Vietnam, The Sims 2, and FIFA 2005. A similar game banning event occurred six months ago in China, but not to this scale."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:5, Informative)
"Chinesegovernment in 2005 will focus on combating illegal publications. This especially concerns pirated textbooks, electronic publications and illegal journals that will have negative influence on the youth."
It sounds to me from the article like they're cracking down on piracy and not necessarily passing judgement on the games themselves (other than the people making pirated versions of them). But then, it was written by someone that likely doesn't speak my native language natively so who knows? (Although their English is likely far superior to my total lack of knowledge of Chinese).
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:2, Funny)
I'd like to see the US government crack down on piracy of Microsoft products by confiscating ALL copies off the shelves and holding "the publishers, producers and distributors ... accountable".
But that's just me.
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFA:
As part of the effort to protect intellectual property rights and create a good environment for Chinese youth
It's most definitely at least partially censorship. The fact that they are banning several Vietnam War related games, which almost certainly show the Americans as the "good guys" and the communist North as the "bad guys", supports this idea.
Parent
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes.. They fail to recognise that Cupertino and Vancouver are not part of China.
Parent
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3)
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:5, Informative)
During the Vietnam conflict/war, China was instrumental in supplying the NVN with weapons and funding. My father's job in the USAF was to listen to Chinese pilots who were carrying military cargo to Vietnam... sometimes Chinese, sometimes Soviet.
Parent
The President posts to Slashdot. (Score:3, Funny)
It would seem that the President of the United States posts to Slashdot. His comment above mimics those reported in Ron Suskind's NT Times Magazine article "Without A Doubt":
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Informative)
I can't really figure out why they would outlaw FIFA and Sims..? I agree that it sounds like banning pirated games and not the games themselves.
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sounds like a piracy crackdown, not a ban. (Score:3, Insightful)
Or at least they don't care enough about computer games to risk dying for.
Minor correction (Score:5, Informative)
FIFA 2005 (Score:4, Funny)
Re:FIFA 2005 (Score:3, Funny)
You get to play as fans as well as players?
(Note: post may not be retain humour outside of England, where football fans are stereotyped as hooligans)
FIFA 2005 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:FIFA 2005 (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Capitalist Overtones (Score:5, Funny)
I was wondering about that too (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I was wondering about that too (Score:3, Insightful)
Like the idea of buying things for your family in order to placate them? Promoting mass consumerism as an effective way of life? Sounds like the Communist building blocks that the modern Chinese empire is founded on.
(But it's probably because there is no official distrubitor of Maxis games as of yet, and all the games being retailled are pirated copies of varying quality)
Consumerism isn't really new or american (Score:3, Insightful)
Again, from experience, I can tell you that The Sims could have been just as well about a Soviet family, or a Czech one, or a Bulgarian one, or an East German one. Maybe the
Hmmm.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm more concerned about my kids getting run over by a tank because they disagree with the government, or contracting some fatal disease because the country runs around like nothing is wrong, than with textbooks, publications or journals.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/ [syslog.org]
Governments are not concerned... (Score:3, Insightful)
My friend, it is time to learn that all types of governments have one thing in common, and that is that they don't care about you in the slightest. They organize to use you for power. You don't even have a choice. There is only one thing that they do care about, and
Re:Governments are not concerned... (Score:3, Insightful)
In democracy, there is a difference between feeling like you don't have a choice, and not having a choice. Most people are too lazy to change things, that's the problem. True leaders, that have a vision, who can organize, and influence change are few and far between, most people just follow. Why do we still give favored nation status to China? It's because most average people prefer to save a few bucks on a DVD player than worry about the
Re:Governments are not concerned... (Score:3, Insightful)
The delusion that this is possible is the reason capitalism works.
You are correct that we enjoy more freedoms than many other countries. However, that doesn't make the the grandparent any less correct.
Piracy (Score:4, Insightful)
Sims 2? (Score:5, Funny)
FIFA? (Score:2)
I wonder if they published a localized version where the Chinese team can't be beaten if they'd allow it?
I mean what else could they NOT like about the "world's" favorite sport?
Re:FIFA? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me guess... Taiwan has it's own team?
In A Related Story... (Score:3, Informative)
Chinese #1 news source - /.ed. (Score:3, Funny)
Potential WTO fight? (Score:3, Interesting)
China seems to be if not exactly ignoring the WTO and GATT agreements, then playing loosely with them. American and European governments promised their voters that China's entry into the various world trade organizations would a) promote democracy, and b) allow the West to export high-tech products to China.
Point A doesn't seem to be happening very quickly, but we can have hope for the future. On Point B, the Chinese economy is frankly wiping the West, exporting tons of goods and importing relatively little (while supporting the dollar's high value).
We may think that this is only about IP, but software is one of the few things the West can hope to compete in. This seems like a legitamate GATT / WTO offense. It would be pretty fun to see these agreements actually work for the benefit of the US by overturning the software ban.
Other games (Score:3, Funny)
If they banned Katamari Damacy I think we should go immediately to DEFCON 2. And if they banned Ratchet & Clank games, well, it's time to send in Marines armed with sheepinators.
Easy (Score:3, Insightful)
They discovered ideology.
Command and Conquer... (Score:5, Informative)
And in early 2003, the same agency banned the Electronic Arts-produced title Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour Expansion for "smearing the image of China and the Chinese army," according to the state news agency.
While I understand that Command and Conquer and it's sequels/expansions could easily be seen as portraying China in a negative light, the premise of the "Generals" series is hardly anti-Chinese:
Anti-communist, maybe, but anti-Chinese, certainly not. Perhaps they were "smearing" the dreams of some political leaders? This came from Planet C&C [planetcnc.com], by the way.
Way, to go, /. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you read the actual article, you will see, as many astute readers have pointed out, that this is an issue of China attempting to crack down on video game piracy, not ban games because they are evil communists.
It is my opinion that recently slashdot has started down the slippery slope of becoming what I despise about big time news agencies: a marketplace for sensationalized stories. Every dramatic article posted on /. recently ends up being far less dramatic upon further investigation. I used to love slashdot for the lack of glitzy CNN-esque flash headlines of empty news articles, now slashdot is becoming exactly that.
And don't give me that "well it's the readers who submit articles, so don't blame slashdot, blame the readers" crap. We all know how hard it is to get an article posted on the front page, and we all know that there are tons of articles submitted and only a few chosen by a handful of people who have their own ideologies/agendas. The only difference with having users submit the articles at this point is that the moderators don't have to dig up the articles themselves.
If trends continue along these lines, I think my days of reading slashdot are numbered. I can read sensationalized news anywhere (CNN, FOXNews, ABC, CBS, NBC etc). I come here for the in-depth, interesting, non-glamorous, I-might-just-learn-something-today news, and I am finding it harder and harder to come across on slashdot.
Mod this however you want. I might be a troll, but I feel like it needed to be said.
Game Programmers' Paradise (Score:3, Interesting)
The VCD is entirely first-person movies of actual military action, shot by China from their troops, and some captured from Vietnamese troops who shot their own footage. It's black and white, but full of action and fast cuts, along with subtitles in Vietnamese and (I guess) Han and Cantonese Chinese, over pair of Vietnamese and (I guess) Mandarin narration voiceovers. It all flies by so fast that I want to slow it down, which would stretch its hour into at least two, an epic on a war both hidden in the West, and doubtlessly fictionalized in the East. It looks like a trove of material to illustrate a historical game, even if crudely integrated with overlaid interactive game graphics. And I doubt it could represent that tawdry little commentary on Communism any less accurately does than its Chinese propaganda version. Plus, I'd expect its inevitable banning by the Chinese mafia government to spur its underground popularity in the vast Chinese market. Who's with me?
It's not Xinhau (Score:3, Informative)
Very VERY wrong summary (Score:5, Informative)
- Pirated copies of the following games are banned: Age of Mythology: the Titans, The Sims 2, Manhunt, FIFA 2005, Battlefield Vietnam and Painkiller: Battle out of Hell. PIRATED copies. Much to the delight of the makers of those games. They can still be legally sold and obtained in China.
- These games were illegal in China (they weren't allowed to be sold -- banned): Conflict Vietnam, Vietcong: Fist Alpha and Devastation. But, presumably, people sold them anyway and therefore they have been banned. Let me repeat, only the following games have been completely banned from China: Conflict Vietnam, Vietcong: Fist Alpha and Devastation.
First slashdot reports an urban legend as true and now this.<ranting about how incompetent news posters are and how careless slashdot editors have become>
Re:Very VERY wrong summary (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Very VERY wrong summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Slashdot got the headline wrong (Score:5, Funny)
It should be China promoting 50 new games
AP- In a flash of brilliant marketing, China has given 50 games the kiss of life by banning them. Young students were clamoring to see the list so they could figure out what games they wanted to get ahold of first. One unnamed student was quoted as saying "I've never had a way to find out what games would be good. This list is awesome".
Wow, Slashdot sure ate that propaganda up (Score:3, Insightful)
Take a game like "The Sims 2". It's not published in China. Hence, all copies of "The Sims 2" in China are pirated. Hence, China can claim they are fighting piracy... But the truth is, if EA decided to publish "The Sims 2", they would not be able to because it is banned. (Interestingly, Ubisoft tends to publish EA games in China; for instance, Call of Duty. AFAIK, EA doesn't publish in China.)
That being said...
The dychotomy of China is that, while a game, movie or book might be banned from legal publishing, the Government makes no real effort to prevent piracy! If you're a movie director who does gay movies in China, the Government will most certainly 'ban' your film, which means you'll never find a distributor and cannot make money from projections. Your movie can still be found for a buck on the street corner, though.
So, the result of banning a pirated game just means publishers will never be able to publish it in the Mainland.
Result: it encourages piracy by preventing legal publishing.
Re:Get a hint (Score:5, Insightful)
By banning BFV, FIFA 2005, and Sims2, the Chinese are doing it to protect their society from the misconceptions that America was the "good guy" in Vietnam, from the notion that Taiwan is sufficiently independent to get a soccer team, and a game featuring characters that elevate their moods by "meditating" with pseudoscientific mysticism, see "ghosts", can enter same-sex relationships, and who frequently hop into a bed for pixelated "woo-hoo" -- the latter of which oughta be grounds for a ban in any civilized nation. But all three games are being banned for the same fundamental reason: they threaten the stability of the Chinese government.
When our lawmakers do it, it's for the freedom and security of our children.
40 years ago, Ted Kennedy had to leave his girlfriend to drown so he could continue defending our children's future. And the Senators from Disney probably had to snort a lot of cocaine from between a lot of plastic starlets' tits before deciding it was time to ban the internets.
That's the difference between freedom and repressive communism. Honestly, we have no idea the sacrifices our lawmakers make for us.
Parent
In PRC (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Really weird list of banned games... (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking of bans, they mentioned during one of the Prince Dumbass (the guy who wore the Nazi outfit to the party) news blurbs about Germany's ban on the swastica. Do they grant waivers for things like history books? Or do they have to blur out the symbol in any historical photos, or something?
Parent
Re:Really weird list of banned games... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, they do. It would be a little pointless and self-defeating to remove them or blur them out from historic documents.
Parent