Online Gaming Continues To Soar In China

Thanks to EvilAvatar for linking to a ChinaDaily.com article discussing the further rise of online gaming in China. According to the story, "the All China Sports Federation recently recognised video gaming as a sanctioned sport", and it's also noted that "the China Center of Information Industry Development (CCID) estimates that there were 19 million online gamers in China at the end of 2003. This year the number of users is predicted to explode to 32 million and will continue growing to 48 million by 2005." Notably, it's also revealed that China's leading MMO title, "The Legend of Mir II has an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 ACUs [Average Concurrent Users], attracting some 650,000 simultaneous users during peak times. The [Chinese distribution] firm's owner, Chen Tianqiao, is listed as China's second richest IT entrepreneur, with a cool RMB 4 billion [$500 million] in the bank."

Re:nothing impressive.

[simoniker]

Well, I still think it's pretty impressive, considering the biggest Western MMORPGs claim to have around 400,000 total subscribers, and this title is claiming up to 650,000 logged on simultaneously (so, what, anything up to 5-10 times as many total users?) Obviously, there's probably a different subscription service (Internet cafes buying bulk memberships?), but nonetheless.. it's a big market to be not covered that often.

The World

[blueZhift]

Over the last decade or so, it seems that games have done a lot to drive the progression of computer technology. Afterall, your secretary doesn't really need a 2.4 GHz P4 to write reports, except maybe for the next iteration of MS Office! Given this, it would seem that China and Korea are well positioned to become the next nexus pushing the IT envelope.

Purhaps the real foundation for The World (been watching a lot of .hack//Sign lately) is being laid in Shanghai and Seoul. In the U.S. playing MMORPGs still makes you a nerd, but in China it seems to be becoming a part of everyday life which has definite ramifications for technological prowess in that society. And with all of the government support the online ventures are getting there, they will only continue to grow. Before you know it, the new standards in networking, security, and online virtual world building will all be Chinese with an installed base too large to ignore. I wonder how much of this is being built on Redflag Linux. Hmmm...

Saw It

[Herkum01]

I went to China earlier last month. I turned the TV on one morning and there, on their version of the sports network, was a game of Warcraft III. There was commentary (Couldn't understand though) on the game going on, so I guess it is considered seriously by some people, especially high school kids.

The biggest problem I had with it was the way the show was produced, which has limits based upon the game. Instead of being able to seeing a place of gameplay and highlights of action, they could only show one person's monitor. It made it hard to get a feel for what is going on in the game looking from their person's view. It is annoying because a person may flick back and forth to a couple of different places and it makes it hard to keep up. Not to mention it is irrating if you miss anything because the player is looking somewhere else.

If they wanted to do this the game for TV it need to have some sort of spectator mode, and then have several spectators in the game and clip and cut and paste the footage together into a real production where the action is brought to the forefront instead of a player determining what is being shown. TV is trying to show overall events and the excitement of the game, the player is trying to implement a strategy. They are very different.

Re:nothing impressive.

[tprime]

What you have to understand is

1. They are just getting started with this in China. We have had online play in the states for years. (how long has Everquest been out??)
2. This is under an opressive government. Nothing private grows very fast in China.
3. The average Chinese citizen is not rich. Many in China cannot afford to play any sort of game, let alone own a computer.

Basically, this is quite a feat in any country, especially in one that has all of the cards stacked against it from the beginning. Give it time, it will grow.

Net cafe's everywhere

[metalgeek]

I live here, and honestly, theres net cafe's everywhere. most of the students here don't own computers, but the net cafe's are rediculusly cheap (if you go to the ones for locals, and not use foreigners;)
in fact last time I was in one of the computer cities near me there was a CS tourney going on with a top prize fo 10k RMB ( a fair amount for the people playing usually about 1200-1300 USD)
They seem to mainly play CS, WC3, and some MMPORGS here, very little Q3 or UT