Was thinking about where to post this, and i decided to put it here instead of the China thread.
This is again something started few months ago with the appearance of that Taiwan newbie and one of the arguments during the time was about bans for videogames in PRC. Especially eugen's alleged intention of tapping into the chinese market with wargame 3. Consideraing that recent events at eugen suggest them not swimming in money also makes this following article interesting.
http://user.guancha.cn/main/content?id=11261I will not translate the whole thing for obvious reason.
Summary: The MoC raided some 500 internet bars and found banned games there, then an overview about the normal media control measures for electronic entertaiment with lengthy part about legal norms and youth protection blablabla.
The interesting part is about the reasons given for banning certain games, which few examples are:
安装了违禁游戏,有《虐杀原形》、《行尸走肉》、《红色警戒之共和国之辉》、《GTAV》(侠盗猎车手)、《使命召唤》等。
Prototype, The walking dead, C&C RED alert 2 glory of people's republic (a mod done by chinese C&C fans...), GTA 5 and Call of Duty. I think everyone can see what would normally trigger the censorship i.e. excessive violence. In case of C&C and CoD it's mainly two things.
- PLA vs PLA (C&C) => suggests a start of new civil war and the resumption of the 120 years of chaos in modern chinese history
- Assault and destruction of Tiananmen square (CoD) => Destruction of important landmarks was always a touchy topic
The given reason are formost by arguing with youth protection and the disturbance of value system. The whole part in chinese.
执法人员告诉记者,以上违禁游戏含有暴力血腥、色情、错误意识形态等内容,严重损害玩家的身心健康。尤其严重的,是这些游戏传递的不良信息,在意识上对玩家造成潜移默化的影响,在认知上产生错误的导向,进而形成错误的价值观,对于心智尚不完全成熟、缺乏判断力的青少年来说,可能造成毒害,对社会的危害程度不可小觑。
Obviously cutting or banning games in the name of youth protection is nothing new, each country just have their own emphasis. The US is foremost about nudity, the Germans pretty much everything that has to do with Nazis, and in case of the Chinese market it's the destruction/defamation of the current order.
While we are at it, i remember years ago the Germans talked about China banning C&C Genrals, and at the same time the german version got cut into the correct shape to please the "Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien". Some clip from Germen version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9niDM9qmaS0&t=8m30sIf eugen somehow magically got the ressources and competence to expand into the huge chinese market, then this is a topic that their management needs to deal with. And let it be known that currently wargame can be banned simply because of that Hongkong campaign.
And just for the record, the spending power on games by the Chinese is huge. Competitive games are hugely popular (World of tanks/Warthunder but also RTS like C&C and Star Craft), the old beaten horse of CCP banning everything that depicts PLA as the losing side is mostly just serving an established narrative.