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Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

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Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#21

Post by GuardianCaveman »

zabana wrote: post #10

[Off-topic] - What's with all the "China is evil" articles lately ? Are there any websites (non-chinese) where I can find news about positive advancements in the country ? This whole anti-China hype train got me intrigued.

Positive advancements? From whose perspective? I am sure the Chinese government and many Chinese views these articles positively. The article is pretty matter of fact just listing things that are banned and why. They see the games as immoral and are taking action, now whether or not that’s the real reason who knows.

I mean China state sponsors corporate espionage and supports copyright infringement like no other country in the world. It also has essentially a second internet because it so heavily censors its own. It also locks up millions of a cultural group into concentration camps. I just don’t see a lot of positive advancements in general and I’ve been there as well. This isn’t just from the news.

Sometimes things are reported overwhelmingly negative because they are, in fact, overwhelmingly negative. It’s not always a bias it’s just reality.

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#24

Post by zabana »

duchenne wrote: post #19
zabana wrote: post #10

[Off-topic] - What's with all the "China is evil" articles lately ? Are there any websites (non-chinese) where I can find news about positive advancements in the country ? This whole anti-China hype train got me intrigued.

I do not have a specific website in mind. But, there are some news about some cool Chinese accomplishments: they will send a robot on the far side of the Moon soon; they are leading in electricle vehicules and public transport, photovoltaic pannels, electonic payments. They have some promising research in Thorium-based plants.

Thanks this is the kind of stuff I want to read about. Obviously no country is perfect and the chinese govt have their flaws without a doubt, but politics aside It's still a fascinating country with an immense culture.

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#25

Post by factsaresacred »

zabana wrote: post #10

[Off-topic] - What's with all the "China is evil" articles lately ? Are there any websites (non-chinese) where I can find news about positive advancements in the country ? This whole anti-China hype train got me intrigued.

[flagged]

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#27

Post by danbruc »

realusername wrote: post #18
duchenne wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is probably a mistranslation, they obviously mean that the "battle royale" theme is too violent: a bunch of strangers are gathered and have to kill each other until the last one. Personally, I enjoy that kind of games, but the fact that they display smiling cartoon characters killing each others can make some people even more uncomfortable. On steam, a game where you play a school shooter was recently banned. Can…

You could argue about that but what about blood and gore? There's not even any blood in the game.

Maybe it is not meant to be taken too literally and just means violence, may even be an artifact of the translation.

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#28

Post by 2bitencryption »

zabana wrote: post #20
wisdomoftheages wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in the Xi era China has a) become more of an overtly fascist dictatorship and b) harder for Westerners to make money in, so because of b) there's more incentive to focus on a) Still lots of great stuff happening there, so long as you're not an ethnic minority, religious, LGBT, disabled, an addict, mentally ill, interested in social change, or too poor to afford your own private oxygen and food supply

Ethnic and religious minorities are also persecuted all over the US and Europe, it may not be physically (except if you're black in the US) but there's definitely a psychological warfare being declared against these groups through mass media and culture (movies, tv shows, literature ...). I'm not too sure we can give lessons to the Chinese government on this subject.

> are also persecuted all over the US and Europe

Persecuted? I mean, maybe there's social stigma. But I can start a local chapter of " support group" and no one is going to knock on my door and disappear me in the night. I can make a website that's entirely dedicated to criticizing my government, and my internet connection won't be blocked. I can jaywalk across the street without a CCTV camera auto-detecting my face, associating it with my Citizen Social Credit score, and then having it be broadcast on a massive digital billboard to shame me in front of thousands of people.

Okay, that started to drift from your original point a bit, my bad.

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#29

Post by craigsmansion »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #11

Interesting in light of the leaked CIA profile on Xi Jingping (Current leader of the Chinese communist party) https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html A choice quote: Xi knows how very corrupt China is and is repulsed by the all-encompassing commercialization of Chinese society, with its attendant nouveau riche, official corruption, loss of values, dignity, and self-respect, and such "moral evils" as d…

The road to hell...

The reason hardly anyone knows the names of important party members after Deng Xiaoping and before Xi Jingping is that it was policy. Deng recognised the dangers of creating a cult of personality, such as he had witnessed (and suffered) under Mao.

Xi is quickly reversing this, presenting his person and ideas as central tenets of the party. It's a direction that should cause concern, since I think it's mainly Deng's policies that laid the groundwork for China's rise and current status on the world stage.

Re: Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online games, bans 9

#30

Post by johneth »

sbhn wrote: post #4

In UK they use the PEGI rating system for games that influences the design process. They also have OFCOM, ICO, HMRC and even more. Chinese companies cant sell games in the UK without complying with all the laws. Sounds like another case of dictator knows what dictator does. Perhaps china is retaliating for canada locking up a huawei executive for violating US sanctions on iran, or maybe china is exercising its import…

That’s a completely pointless observation.

PEGI is a pan-European (note: not solely UK - it’s an industry body) rating system. It doesn’t censor content or creativity, it just recommends that younger people can’t buy extreme content. It’s not active censorship.

Ofcom doesn’t apply to games - it’s TV, radio, phones, communications regulator (Office of Communications).

The ICO regulates data protection and privacy. In what way is this related to game and creativity censorship?

HMRC is tax collection. The only way this can affect game design is via tax breaks - these tax breaks are not predicated on specific creative requirements.

So - how is the UK in any way similar to China in terms of game censorship?

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