China Bans Gangster Games

[Andy Chalk]

China Bans Gangster Games

China has imposed a ban on online games that feature "mafia-like gangs" and says that anyone who operates, publishes or links to them will wind up sleepin' wit' da fishes.

China's Ministry of Culture put the ban in place because the games "advocate obscenity, gambling, or violence" and "undermine morality and Chinese traditional culture," both in violation of internet administration regulations. "These games encourage people to deceive, loot and kill, and glorify gangster life," a notice posted on the Ministry website on Monday read. "They are a bad influence on youngsters."

Games that were being blocked as a result include Godfather on www.xiaonei.com [http://www.kaixin.com]. A columnist in the Procuratorial Daily wrote that gangster-theme games could easily lead to real-life crime, but some gamers nonetheless reacted with anger at the decision.

"I just stole 3 million yuan in the game when the website suddenly went blank. I just can't take it!" wrote a user with the internet ID number 122.159.233. Another, internet user number 222.133.174, added, "I really felt like our gang was disbanded."

But Chinese companies are unlikely to try their luck on this one: The Ministry has ordered law enforcement agencies to monitor gaming sites closely and has promised to "harshly punish" anyone caught running the games.

Source: Xinhua News Agency [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/28/content_11786763.htm]



Permalink

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Dammit China, you used to be cool.

 

[Curtmiester]

Like that will stop anything. All they are doing is pissing off the people who have played them.

 

[darthzew]

This is different than just banning violent games. It's like they actually put a bit of thought into what they're banning, rather than just saying games are bad as a whole.

But on the other side of this, (unless I'm mistaken) we're talking about China here, the kind of all censorship.

 

[The Great JT]

It should be obvious China isn't a Communist state. It's run by the Triads. And Rockstar has stumbled onto their operation, and now they are banning them so they may continue their underground racketeering and drug rings!

 

[salbarragan]

Why do we all act surprised that China does stuff like this?

 

[wordsmith]

Ah yes, that'll work... Stop people stealing on games, because that'll stop them stealing in real life. More idiocrisy from China.. It's a pity, some of the best future gamers have been wiped from the future history books by this decision.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Ah yes, that'll work... Stop people stealing on games, because that'll stop them stealing in real life.

It's true. Games are like the Matrix, if you die in Grand Theft Auto, you die in real life.

 

[TaborMallory]

While I'm not surprised, they're still being a bit harsh.

As for my personal opinion, I could care less if I had no access to gangster related stuff; I still have yet to see anything cool or interesting that came from it.

 

[TaborMallory]

While I'm not surprised, they're still being a bit harsh.

As for my personal opinion, I could care less if I had no access to gangster related stuff; I still have yet to see anything cool or interesting that came from it.

Saints Row 2

Error 404: Entertainment Not Found

Heh... sorry. But in all seriousness, I thought Saints Row was ridiculous.

 

[smithy1234]

Gangs like the Triads do most of the police work in China! The Triads practically run China, it's quite hypocritical to ban games that promote being in a gang when the Triads are highly involved with the police.

 

[Outamyhead]

Ironic coming from a country that thrives with organized crime.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Dammit China, you used to be cool.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

What's with everyone banning games? Why don't we just ban the government because they use guns and are being a bad influence on children. And everyone knows that if you ban games all violent crimes in the world just suddenly stop.

 

[Plazmatic]

violent people play violent videogames, violent video games do not make violent people. (if you have any brain at all you will note that this does not mean all people who play violent videogames are violent, just the ones who do crimes and are some how connected to them.