The Chinese gaming market is a very complicated and confusing one. Not only is it chock full of problems, but it is also one that is full of a lot of rumours and scams. Chinese internet portal NetEase has put together a list of 10 of China’s biggest gaming lies.
The following are translated excerpts from NetEase.
10. The Domestic Made Game Console
This one isn’t exactly a rumour as we’ve seen domestically produced game systems before. China’s unable to create its own domestically manufactured game systems in part because of regulations and because China doesn’t have the technological know how.
9. Video Games Make Children Smarter
This lie was built upon greed using the guise of edutainment to scam hopeful parents. Maybe these things are feasible in a foreign country, but with the backwardness of the Chinese imperial examination system for selecting and education system, there is no use.
Learning machine? They all end up looking like some kind of deformed NES’s.
8. The Perpetual Continuation of Zhao Li
Paladin’s Story was a must have game to play in China in the 90’s. The game was heavily counterfeited with people copying the game via floppy disks. In the game, the character Zhao Li would *spoilers* die. Supposedly to prevent her from dying, the player has to talk to every non playable character in the game multiple times. This only turned out to be a ruse and the ending was still the same.
7. Diablo Monster Screams in Mandarin
It’s unknown where this backwards rumour came from but there was outrage of Diablo 2 in China in the 1990’s. In certain areas in the game there are monsters which speak in Mandarin. Supposedly these monsters roared in Mandarin and many local scholars and newspapers called for the banning of the game. Chances are this rumour only came about from stupidly bigoted youth.
6. Invincible forces in Namco’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Supposedly like Konami’s famous Contra code, there is a code in the game that allows the player selected character to become invincible. The code, pretty much exploitation of a bug, only happens when certain factors are met, factors which are next to impossible to achieve. This rumour may just be pure rumour.
5. China’s First Domestically Made Game Is the Secret Red Flower Society
In the early days of game development in China, one game was thought to be awesome. The awesome game however did not exist.
4. Chinese Gaming Magazines
Chinese gaming magazine Electronic Gaming Software was a huge publication in China, and it still has many fans now. Back in the day they would publish stories that were critical of the government and domestic companies. They also pointed out problems such as plagiarism and counterfeiting. In 1995 the magazine was ordered to stop publication. It is back now but only a shallow shell of its original self.
3. Publishing Badly Translated Games
In early 2000, computer games were taking off in China. Games such as The Elder Scrolls and Grandia 2 were very popular. Unfortunately for Chinese players and fans, the games were poorly translated. So much so that they nearly made the game unplayable.
2. Hilton Hotel Branded Cigarettes Can Be Traded For Game Consoles
This must’ve been a rumour created by children. Supposedly if one collected 200 packs of Hilton branded death sticks, they could then trade them for a video game console. Nothing ever came of this rumour, save for loads of children convincing their parents to smoke more.
1. Underwater Levels in Contra
This is a rumour that has long perplexed me. Supposedly there are underwater levels in Contra. However this proved to be false as the “underwater levels” were found through exploiting a texture bug. To this day, I still have friends tell me that the levels are real.
国内游戏史上十大惊天骗局 游戏机提高学习成绩 [NetEase]
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