HiPiHi: more than Chinese Second Life

A post on VGViews discusses HiPiHi, China’s answer to Second Life:

HiPiHi is pretty new, and so it’s struggling to get out of the shadow of Second Life. The similarities are pretty strong, but I think there’s enough interest in virtual worlds to keep both going. Also, China’s market share in MMORPGs is growing by the minute, so there are more and more online citizens, which are all potential HiPiHi-ers.

Chinese MMORPGs are collossal, with just huge numbers of subscribers. They’re also huge in another way, as the casual online gamer is pretty rare in China. (Which isn’t to say casual gamers are rare, just they they’re more likely to play a game on their cellphone or handheld.) Marathon gaming sessions are nothing new to Chinese high schoolers, who have been prepared for such long hours in front of the PC by marathon cramming sessions. So I don’t think HiPiHi will have any trouble getting subscribers!

Still, HiPiHi will need more than just bodies to distinguish themselves from Second Life.

Read the whole post on VGViews or check out HiPiHi’s English page.