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Gang Games Banned In China

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

July 28, 2009

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China’s Ministry of Culture has banned online games featuring mafia-like gangs, warning that violators will be "severely punished."

Websites are now prohibited from running, publishing or offering links to such online games, because they "advocate obscenity, gambling, or violence," and "undermine morality and Chinese traditional culture, reports the Xinhua News Agency.

Gang-themed games “encourage people to deceive, loot and kill, and glorify gangster life,” according to a circular posted on the ministry's website on Monday.

Blocked online games include the likes of Godfather, Jianghu (meaning gangster community) and Guhuozai (young and dangerous guys).

China has around 300 million internet users and a rapidly growing online games market. In terms of revenues, the sector grew by over 60 percent in 2007 to generate $1.66 billion and by more than 63 percent in 2008 to hit $2.8 billion, according to Pearl Research, which expects it to exceed $3 billion this year.

AndyLC's picture
On July 29th AndyLC said:

I don't think I've heard of any gang-type game being popular in China, so I don't know how large the impact is.
There are popular TV shows with 20's 30's gangster stories though.
Heck, most original Chinese IP is gangster based (think John Woo films and such)

Most games I see Chinese play are, other than WoW, Wii stuff and PSP

Monster Hunter is really huge.

all pirated though, but impressive player base for having zero marketing

PlyrX's picture
On July 28th PlyrX said:

Maybe we can learn a lesson here. Instead of focusing on China, lets think about this in terms of our countries. In America most stores don't carry AO games and there is a lot of pressure to keep AO games out of the market in general. I think its important to use mistakes we view in other cultures to reflect on the mistakes made in our own.

Jack_'s picture
On July 28th Jack_ said:

That's up to those stores; they're private companies, after all. It's still perfectly legal to buy an AO game. What China is doing just shows what a joke of a country its government is ruling.

Jack_'s picture
On July 28th Jack_ said:

Yes, honorable chairman. Censorship never does the exact opposite of what you want it to do.

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

I see some awsome posts here in this thread.

Also, I've yet to see Dreamhunk on this.

What's up with that?

NickgamertagO1's picture
On July 28th NickgamertagO1 said:

It looks as though he was "let go" from the site.

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

You mean got whacked by the mighty ban hammer?

Bummer, he was entertaining.

I got banned from Gamespot and the Escapist so far.

I'm so proud of myself! :)

NickgamertagO1's picture
On July 28th NickgamertagO1 said:

I think he might have been amusing in the most juvenile sort of way. Similar to people laughing at mentally-challenged people. But when it came to actually trying to communicate with the invalid, that wasn't funny at all.

You were banned? For what?

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

Too true.

I was banned for being funny, really. The mods on the Escapist are the biggest tight arses I've ever met, next to the ones in Gamespot.

I absolutely hated the site. The only thing it had going for it was a nice UI, but that's it.

I got back from a 21 day suspension, then got suspended the next day and shortly after that they decided to ban me.

Don't care really, I set out to push the line with my jokes.

I've been on the site for a few months and the longest time I've been without probation has been three days, and I had about five suspensions or so.

All because I was pretty much a funny guy. My sense of humour has won me life several times, internet points, cookie images and due to my knowledge on games I was even dubbed as the Knowledgable Individual.

One or two suspensions though were alright, but the others was because they couldn't take mah sense of humour.

In all, I'm pretty proud of myself.

It just shows that I'm that much of an important person to "take care of".

Gawd awful site.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On July 28th NickgamertagO1 said:

Is it me or does the story's headline read "Gang Bang" at a glance?

Indrema's picture
On July 28th Indrema said:

Perhaps you were involved in some police action, leading to your own banning from China, that you're not telling us about?

Maybe this story's bringing some memories back to the surface.

Angry face

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

I wouldn't mind police brutality from her!

Heh...

Ha....

Eh....

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

Always with the epic pictures!

First it was the satanist one, and now this!

mentor07825's picture
On July 28th mentor07825 said:

Nope, it's not just you.

I can't help but read that every single time.

Indrema's picture
On July 28th Indrema said:

I wish they would also celebrate games that promote productivity in China.

I had to decimate 3 residential zones in SimCity 2000 so I could put up my Sports Area, real-life experience I could easily take to the Olympic project in China.

Raul23's picture
On July 28th Raul23 said:

In other news, the Chinese government will be offering a free-to-play, browser-based, forced abortion simulator as it '"reinforces morality and Chinese traditional culture."

"The youth of China waste all their time on terrible games that promote violence and criminality. This is something that they can play instead to get a real taste of government service," Lu Bu, Chinese Minister of Culture and Good Stuff, said.

After successfully completing the game, kids are taken to the recruitment page of the Ministry of State Security.