China Enforces Even Stricter Regulation On Games 235
eldavojohn writes "Chinese gamers have a pretty hard life. From crackdowns on 'undesirable' games to bans on gangster games to delayed World of Warcraft expansions, they suffer. The worst part is that in order to qualify for operating in China, you face a maze of conflicting bureaucracy and regulation. Well, it just got a little worse. Now, if you want to operate, you need to hire a 'specialist' to oversee content, and you need to 'enhance socialist values' in your game. They also want to limit in-game marriages and how many player-versus-player combat sessions one can engage in. The circular issued from China's Ministry of Culture contained all the vague verbiage giving them easier reign over who operates and who doesn't. It's a large market, but is it worth the gamble to game developers?"
Bribes (Score:4, Informative)
The funny thing is, by reading Slashdot, one gets the impression that the CCP (and thus the gummint) has clamped down on everything.
Yet, I know people who travel there regularly and they state, you can get anything you want as long as you know where to go or who to talk to. Much is readily available in stores which is supposedly banned.
China may pass laws, but the enforcement is a whole different matter.
Re:Best Plan Ever? (Score:4, Informative)
I disagree with your assertion. China, with its definite nationalism and its growing corporatism, really is starting to look a lot more National Socialist than socialist. There are some facets of historical fascism that China does not match, but not even all of the reputedly fascist regimes had all of those facets. For instance, strong racism was more of a specialization of Nazi Germany. Fascist states likely Italy and Vichy France, pretty much followed the German lead on racism. Spanish fascism was much less racial and more of a religious/corporatist alliance.
The great hallmarks of fascism are totalitarianism, nationalism and coordination of the economy by cooperating with big business instead of taking it over. There is also a concept of strength being its own goal. China does not really have a long history of corporations like the West does, but once it does have this sort of basis, it could well turn into something very close to the structure of the fascist countries of the 20th Century. Certainly, China is very much looking to increase its strength in as many ways as possible, and is certainly not against doing so at the expense of other nations.
Needless to say, with a country as big as China and the fact that it is rapidly becoming a gigantic market that the old fascist countries could never dream of being, China's system may well merit its own label, but I think fascist is certainly a more accurate term than communist, or even socialist. After all, as someone pointed, there are socialist states and parties that are democratic and not overly nationalist.
Re:Bribes (Score:3, Informative)
There's a few sad exceptions I know of - all to do with the British arms industry. Last year, BAE was being investigated for bribery to a Saudi Prince (well known corrupt tosser [wikipedia.org] Prince Bandar, but the British Government intervened directly to halt the investigation. Everybody and their dog knows that BAE are guilty - and the bribes amount to US$2bn [independent.co.uk]. TheNew Labour government would eat poo if BAE Systems told them to. They have no pride where that company is concerned.
Re:That's the China fallacy (Score:3, Informative)
Someone else knows Chinese history!!!
Yes, to everything you said. Just a little low-hanging fruit that you missed (but probably know), though:
China doesn't just believe they are the center of the Earth; that's what the country is named. Westerners often wax quaint and endearing to the "Middle Kingdom," but that first character can mean "middle," but here it means "central." It isn't "Middle Kingdom;" it's "Central Nation!"
The emperor used to make Western envoys dance for his pleasure to secure trade contracts. All these European trade ministers in the court, trying to dance around and amuse the emperor more than the last... And we're still doing it.
The only chance the West would have ever had to have fair dealings with China would have been if we let Japan take it over. Now, I'm not saying we should have done that (we were right to stop them, of course), but it might have made more sense from a business perspective.
Re:nuts (Score:3, Informative)
China is just getting back to it's historical place as #1 in the world.
They never were #1 in the world, they were #1 in China. They simply don't care about the rest of the world, everyone who is not Chinese and one of God's chosen people is a barbarian. Even referring to China as a single nation is disingenuous.
Re:Best Plan Ever? (Score:1, Informative)
No concept of folk? No concept of a rich history, a long period where the nation was powerful and respected, of golden ages long past, and conservative philosophy to be rediscovered and put into action once more? No movement against liberal thinking (ahem, Tienanmen Square?).
China not trying to mold its citizens, "except to the extent that it wants to maintain the current political order?" Good grief, that's the whole problem, RIGHT THERE. The social conservatives are more deeply entrenched and more widely accepted there than any AM-radio blowhard could dream of in the West. Plus, anti-establishment activists there get to go to jail. Their search engines block, among other things, searches for the word "democracy" as if it's something worthy of censure.
If you want to talk about glorious freedom, you've got to be talking about freedom for the rich, not the masses; the peasant class is massively repressed, and the working class is kept in strict control as well. Due process isn't any sort of a reliable thing, and executions, which are at the very least three times more common per capita than in the United States -- the accurate figures are a state secret -- usually get pushed through in local courts in very short order.
You, sir, are a loon. Call China whatever you want, but it's doing everything it can to expand itself via an authoritarian regime. Calling it a free place to live is outright madness. You bet your incisors it's "differently free." As in, not very much.