China’s Gamers

It’s not often when my interests in China and gaming collide. Nate, of the China blog Orientation, recently posted on Chinese gaming habits, particularly the huge numbers of MMO gamers in wang ba, or net cafes.

China contains an undulating 59 million online gamers. Despite the fact that 47m of them play free-to-play games, this is a massive amount. To put that into perspective, the 2007 estimate of England’s population was 51,092,000 while the 2008 census quoted America as having 306,068,000 million people. Imagine the entire country of England plunking down and playing a game everyday. Keep in mind that these are only online PC games.

The majority of Chinese gamers, though, seem to play in net cafes and not on personal computers. (Although this may be changing, I saw plenty of Beijing teens with their body weight in personal electronics, and laptops can’t be far behind). Playing in net cafes instead of at home changes the gamer culture quite a bit. No more jokes about nocturnal gamers living in their basements, although there are plenty of 24-hour wang ba for late-night gaming sessions.

Also, fewer games rely on the purchase of software (I’ll save the discussion of China and software piracy for a different post!), since one copy will be installed in the cafe and anyone who comes by will use it. Instead, games have an in-game cash shop or an hourly fee. While talking about Runes Of Magic, Lexton Collins credits the Asian game community for bringing us the free-to-play MMO model.

I also wrote on Chinese net cafes and gaming culture over on  Wang Ba: Gaming In A Strange Land on CNReviews. (It feels a bit odd to quote myself, but it’s better than re-writing my description):

Chinese net bars sell computer time by the hour, and most also sell juice, soda, candy, snacks, and instant noodles, the Chinese equivalent of a Hot Pocket. You can also buy cigarettes, smoking isn’t just permitted in net bars, at times I think it’s mandatory.

The library-like silence of an American net cafe is gone, replaced with the usual thousand-decibel cellphone conversations, Tudou or Youtube videos, and shouts from the boys playing CounterStrike. It might not be the most conductive environment for working, especially when compared with the headphones-wearing crowd back home, but the cheery shouts of videogame victory don’t need translation.

Another thing Nate noticed was the divide between guys playing combat-heavy games and girls spending their internet time using QQ, China’s answer to AIM. Chinese girls do play games but it’s more likely to be something cute on a handheld game or on their mobile phones than hardcore PC games.

I’m sure Chinese netizens and Old China Hands will see this as a very surface analysis, but it’s very interesting to me, to see how the gaming sub-culture translates into other countries! Share your thoughts in the comments!

Related: Travel in China is like a Fantasy Novel, Living In China Is Like an RPG.

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What To Do With That Max Cooking Skill?

Open a WoW-themed cafe, of course!

Seeking to capitalize on the success of World of Warcraft in his native country, a Chinese businessman has opened a restaurant rife with artistic touches gleaned from Blizzard’s MMO.

His goal, he claims, is to offer WoW fans a place to enjoy themselves and share in his affection for the game. From the recreation of Tel’drassil in the center of the dining room to the vast murals depicting artwork from the game, the attention to detail alone is evidence of that affection.

While I’m sure this eatery would be sued out of existence if it were created here in the United States, Chinese copyright law is somewhat less strict. Though I’m sure Blizzard — and Chinese WoW operator The9 — are less than pleased with the restaurant, it’s unclear if either firm has any legal options regarding the establishment.

Much as I love China, China is where intellectual property and copyright means nothing. Nothing. You ca buy knockoff everything, not just on the street but on the shelves in real shops, so I don’t know if Blizzard is going to be making any money from this cafe. (Although with millions of Chinese subscribers, and the number steadily increasing, they’re probably not hurting for RMB)

I can definitely vouch for WoW’s popularity in wang ba or internet cafes. I wish I’d gotten to see this when I was in ChinaQ

Now for the important questions: Can I order Deviate Delight and Nogginfogger Elixir here?

Via World of Warcraft Restaurant Opens in China | Game | Life from Wired.com

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China’s New Altruism Game

Usually my local net cafe is full of boys and young men playing CounterStrike for hours on end or staring at the lao wai girl (your results may vary). As internet gaming becomes more popular, it’s having some surprising effects in China.

China is home to the Beijing Internet Addiction Treatment Center. It may not be totally unwarrented, as this article on a serial cyber-husband, whose internet dating cost real cash and a huge GPA decline, shows. I’m not entirely sure how one cures internet addiction… does the treatment center fake a power outage? Do they find girlfriends for the nerds in page-refresh recovery? Do they enlist all the addicts in a week-long D&D game?

Also, the CPC is worried that these gamers are learning about dark elves and snipers, but not about Mao. So now the Chinese government has asked the Shanghai-based gaming company Shanda to develop a new game, called Chinese Heroes. In this game, players will learn about Chinese history and tradition virtues. No word on if there’s a dragon boat race to rescue a drowning poet.

In case you think China was inspired by America’s Army, some tasks include carrying bricks and answering questions about the hero’s life. I’m not sure how that’s going to pull players away from WoW, but Puzzle Pirates’ block games were surprisingly addictive. No release date yet.

Little Red Blog’s take and PC Magazine’s article

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