Negative impact of culture and policies on Chinese game industry and cultural output Introduction Since the first computer game in the 1970s, the video game development, running and technology related to games have evolved into a gigantic industry. The development of the game industry has exceeded people’s imagination. However, overseeing the whole development of the Chinese game industry as a whole, the censorship and the traditional ideology and culture have had significant impacts on the Chinese game industry. In this paper, I will try to analyze the negative impact of culture and policies on game industry in China by discussing the differences in game culture and policies in China and the US.
Market Composition According to the 2015 China Game Industry Report (GPC&IDC,2015), the sales revenue of the Chinese game market in 2015 reached 140.7 billion Yuan, an increase of 22.9% over the previous year. In 2008, the sales revenue of the Chinese game market was only 18.56 billion Yuan. (GPC&IDC,2008)This increase in speed has drawn increasing attention, and the development of the game industry has become increasingly important. Looking at the world’s most profitable games in 2016, the research organization SuperData Research released a statistical data showing that the top ten most profitable games in 2016 were the LOL of Riot Games (US), the World of Warcraft of Blizzard Entertainment (US), Smile Gate’s Crossfire (Korea), NEOPLE’s Dungeon & Warriors (Korea), Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch (US), Hero Games’ Unmanned Deep Space (UK), Belarusian Wargaming Tank World, Valve’s DOTA2 (US), NetEase’s Westward Journey 2 (China) and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive jointly developed by Valve Software and Hidden Path Entertainment (US).
It is not difficult to see that only one of the top ten games is from Chinese games. That is to say, the vast majority of players in China play imported games or unoriginal games. This not only affects the spread of Chinese culture internationally but also has a deep-rooted influence of Chinese culture. According to the China Game Industry Report, the audience for the game industry is mostly young. People aged 16 to 28 occupy more than 90% of the game industry audience which will be the next generation of the Chinese population soon.
Why is the game market dominated by western made or the US made games? Culture Effects on Game Concepts Different concepts of games perceived by game players will affect their opinions on the game. Players’ opinions on the games will directly influence the games’ market performance. The development of culture in China act as a significant factor in the difference in the concept of Chinese games and Western games. Chinese games emphasize Yin and Yang reconciliation, fear of nature, and pay attention to fate and rules. Western games are usually different. They promote freedom, value analysis, and reasoning, orientated from individuals, lead people to think and achieve the goal of changing the opinions or thinking or inspiring. For example, many games involve items that restore health. In Chinese games, such as Netease’s self-developed Westward Journey 2, most of these items are flowers and herbs.
These flowers and herbs cannot only be used to restore health, but also can also be refined into a variety of Dan Pills through alchemy, this form is somewhat similar to the traditional Chinese medicine, but its principle is biased toward vagueness, more fantasy, and relatively distant from our daily life. Western games are different. For example, in Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, most of the items that restore health are mostly found in the real world. Compared to Chinese games, it is easier for people to understand and more rational. This difference in concepts is a long-standing difference in cultural development.
The development of Western culture is much simpler than the development of oriental culture. In today’s world, science is the primary condition that dictates world development, and the idea of causal logic is more natural to accept. Chinese games have more supernatural or irrational factors than western games that cannot be explained by scientific principles. People can ride the clouds and fly in the air based on skills acquired from learning theology or legends. While in Western games, flying in the air must rely on something else. These things are usually an airplane or a giant flying animal. This notion of theology is less acceptable to Western players than the notion of science. Therefore, a more understandable culture has its advantages. Since the concepts of original Chinese games are mostly derived from traditional Kong Fu, Xian Xia culture, original Chinese games are performing poorly in the game market.
The content I am referring to here is mainly the story and the images or characters of games. The first is the difference between the Chinese and Western story expressions. The second is the cultural content that the image in the game reflects. The image here mainly includes the character image and the geographical image. Storylines The story of Chinese games always bases on history or a novel. It always uses the theme of Xian Xia. For example, the story of Journey to the West by Netease itself bases on the story of Journey to the West. Zhu Xian is an adaptation of Xian Xia’s novel of the same name. Jian Wang 3 is also the theme of Xian Xia. This background setting is somewhat rigid and lacks flexibility because the development of the story can only go down one line. It lacks some fun for the user experience. For cultural communication, people grow under the influence of Chinese culture can readily accept such storylines, but people who do not understand Chinese culture will very likely to give up such plot settings at first glance. If the game of this genre is limited to people who have received Chinese culture, the effectiveness of cultural export is a problem. It is equivalent to teach fishermen to fish and become self-fettered, which goes against the spread of the product in the international market.
While in contrast, the story of the Western games is abundant. It reflects the attitude of free development and freedom of choice. For example, in the World of Warcraft, there are always times when players need to make a choice. Each time players choose, they will have different choices. As a result, the corresponding story development is different. Besides, the World of Warcraft novel is also open-ended. Through the different background settings of this game, players will have different experiences. This kind of experience directly affects the feelings of the game audience and directly affects the transfer of culture. Chinese games give people a feeling of being more monotonous, though their content. It is entirely an element of Chinese culture. It is not always possible to convey culture further in this way. In contrast, western games are more like free choices, more diverse, and more complex. It is easier to get a large number of users in such form.
This has also played a role in promoting the spread of culture and helped the game to be accepted by more and more international players. Geographical Images In Chinese games, we rarely see the diversity of culture. The background of Chinese games is always confined to things in Chinese culture, such as Zhu Xian, Jian Wang 3, and Westward Journey 2. Chinese culture is reflected everywhere in the game. However, they rarely include elements of other cultures. In these games, they show beautiful landscapes, leisurely courtyards, and ancient streets. The pictures are gorgeous. This may be noticeable for Chinese players, but this style is challenging to adapt to the international market. In Western games, cultural pluralism can be seen everywhere, giving people an all-encompassing feeling. For example, the World of Warcraft game produced by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. has many Chinese cultures.
In Blizzard Entertainment’s fourth issue of the Panda in the world of Warcraft, it depicts a continent named Pandaria. There are many pandas on this continent. The geographical environment also almost mimics the terrestrial environment of China. There are terraces, landscapes, and temples. The English name from this continent is very intuitive. Panda is China’s national treasure, and the giant panda’s image represents China’s image. This is also reflected in the movie ‘Kung Fu Panda.’ However, Chines games in other hands have never implemented anything intuitive for foreign players to understand. Also in Blizzard’s Overwatch, its game maps (Overwatch, 2018) are modeled after famous locations around the world, covering a wide range, including the Lijiang Tower in China, a space city which represents China’s space capabilities. There are also Russia’s Vosskaya Industrial District, Japan’s Huacun, Africa’s Nubbani, South Asia’s Nepal, Britain’s King’s Road, the Mediterranean’s Ilios, Egypt’s Anubis Temple. All of which reflect this regional cultural connotation and influence. The combination of multi-regional culture attracts players from all over the world, allowing them to feel intimacy while seeing their own local culture. In the end, the game also contributes to the export of American culture.
Character Images Another notable example of the influence of cultural communication is the dragon image in Overwatch. For the Chinese people, the Dragon has always been a symbol of China’s five thousand years of civilization, but Blizzard Entertainment has given the dragon’s ability to the two Japanese heroes Genji and Hanzo. In the animation of several CG previews of the game, the animated “Double Dragon” with the theme of these two heroes became one of the most popular ones. Although the image of the dragon is not unique to China, except for the difference in meaning given by the Eastern and Western dragons (generally the Western dragon is evil), since the introduction of the Chinese dragon in the Yayoi era to Japan, a history of more than a thousand years, Japan’s Dragon also has its connotation and meaning.
First of all, in appearance, modern Chinese dragons are originated from the Huanglong period, and eventually, the five-toed dragon image was preserved (XXX,xxxx). The dragons in Overwatch are three-toed dragons, which are the dragons in Japan. The dragon itself is a Japanese dragon rather than a Chinese dragon. Secondly, regarding connotation, the basic connotations of the Chinese and Japanese dragons are almost the same, with the characteristics of harmony between nature and human beings, solidarity and goodness, self-improvement, and dedication. However, the dragons of Japan also have some cultural connotations of snakes. There is a calligraphy writing that says ‘head and tail.’ There is also the relationship between the dragon and the gods.
The Chinese dragon is a mythical creature. Its status is equivalent to the god. The Japanese dragon can be called the dragon. The legendary dragon’s power is a power that can be used by human beings. It is a key factor in games. Therefore, Blizzard eventually assigned the dragon’s image to a Japanese dragon, which is a powerful and profound expression of Japanese culture. Although the Chinese claimed to be the descendants of the dragon, the influence of the Chinese dragon was obviously inferior to that of the panda now. The original ‘Dragon and Kung Fu’ became today’s ‘Kung Fu Panda’ thanks to the US film industry and the image of the panda in the West is also based on the Warcraft’s Pandaren puzzle. It is now pronounced that Chinese culture is hard to promote internationally due to its indifferent context and strong cultural export from neighboring countries like Japan and Korea.
Censorship and Traditional Ideologies Besides the obvious factors I discussed above, there are also many hidden cultures affecting the Chinese game industry. Hidden culture can mainly reflect in social ideology and traditional values. Among all the factors, politics and legislation play a significant role in game developments. The Chinese government has two main policies on the video game industry, the first one is the console band and the second one is the censorship. The console ban started in 2000 for the reason of 3D world generated by consoles will corrupt young generation’s mind. Even though the ban was lifted in 2015, the console ban had some much more profound impacts on the whole Chinese game industry other than “people could not play console games.” As a result of this ban, the original game development experienced a severe decline during the past decade, and there were almost none originally developed console games in China.
The players then seek for other options, pirate disks and illegal copies from local shops and internet. The long existed pirate disk shops and websites evolved into a pirate industry and now becoming an obstacle for both Chinese game developers and foreign developers. The console ban period also prevented game related human resources and capital been devoted into the industry during the past decade. This now resulted in inexperienced developers and story writers because they had no game to work on. According to LinkedIn’s statistics, the US has the highest percentage of game developers with more than ten years of experience, while China has the lowest percentage (LinkedIn, 2015). The lack of experience eventually lead to some low-quality games and had an adverse effect on Chinese games on the international market. Among the Western games imported into China, there are very many contents that are censored due to ideological differences. When players play games, they are usually pursuing stimuli. Therefore, the element of violence is an essential part of the game.
To avoid the influence of extreme violence elements on young players, the effect of splashing blood in the game is removed, or the blood color is changed from red to green, as well as the penetration effect of long-range weapons. Also, all kinds of tragic and devious sound effects are simply deleted, various names with related words such as “blood” are deleted, and most levels related to dead figures or ghosts are removed. The second is the exposed elements of the game. Compared to a more open sex culture abroad, Chinese developers (or the censorship department) will use the method of adding clothing to weak the pornographic content suggested in the game and direct the attention of the player to other aspects. The third kind is the most influential and most profound, i.e., political factors, which will lead to the prohibition of games in China. For example, the “Age of Empires” is a real-time strategy game series.
The game mainly emphasizes the development of players from weak to strong. Players have also evolved into different eras of human society. However, the censorship department in China decided the game is not a game of peaceful development. The expansion between civilizations is through war. The purpose of the game is also to eliminate other civilizations and to make themselves the only civilization in the game. At first glance, this game is not a big problem, but imperialism is not allowed in China. As a result, this series of games was banned in China. It is obvious from the example above, the government legislation strictly restricts the game development focus and game culture in China. Traditional ideology of Chinese public usually consider the video game as electronic heroin. People in China would not respect the job of game developing or consider the job as a very serious job like for example a lawyer or doctor.
Thus, the ideology of Chinese public also served against the development of Chinese game industry. Conclusion As a new medium and art form, the game has many characteristics that distinguish it from traditional media. This has made it unique in all aspects. By making good use of this new medium, game, China’s cultural export can be further expanded internationally through video games. The Chinese game industry used to be poorly developed due to government control, traditional ideologies and cultural limitations. Now as the ban was lifted, more and more young generation developers devoting themselves to the industry and big companies like Tencent and Netease are focusing on original games and copyrights. The adverse effect posed by censorship on the game industry persists even though the Chinese government is easing the restriction and promoting e-sport and video game competitions. Some other obstacles and negative impacts discussed in this paper may also last for a very long time. Changes are happening in the industry, and I would very much like to see Chinese games flourish on the international market and more and more people in the world understand Chinese culture in a fun way.
