Unbelievable? Yes, I know. It’ll be easier to believe the figure if you consider China’s population of about 1.3 billion and the number of titles its online games industry churns out and publishes every year.
According to China-based online games portal 17173, quoting news website Sina and statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center, China has 69.31 million players of online games, a figure that is 24.8 percent higher than last year.
The report said large-scale casual game and massively multiplayer online role-playing game users account for 67.9 percent and 61 percent, respectively, of the total.
What may come as a …read more

That is the question. Apparently, the government of China is asking the same thing, and the question is enough to merit a memorandum to online game developers and operators to stop accepting real or virtual payment for contests and other random selections that offer virtual currency or items.
Thanks to this new government regulation, a China-based online games operator, Giant Interactive, has decided to shelve a “prize draw” in its in-house developed massively multiplayer online role-playing game ZT Online.

Here’s an excerpt from the story on online games portal 17173:
Giant Closes ZT Draw Citing Regs
Shanghai-based online game company Giant Interactive announced on …read more

If online games portal 17173 and iResearch, a professional organization specializing in in-depth studying of customer behavior in Internet media, e-commerce, online games, wireless value-added services and other new economy fields, are to be believed, China may soon become the world’s largest online games provider.
But wait! Where does South Korea, long acknowledged as the massively multiplayer online games capital of Asia, if not the world, fit into this picture?
Let’s check out what 17173 has to say about this:
China Became (sic) World’s Largest Online Game Provider
According to the latest survey of iResearch, China will probably exceed America to be the largest …read more

No surprise there, considering the Chinese government already has safeguards in place to reel in what it perceives as harmful to its more-than-a-billion youths. Take, for instance, its regulation early last year of online video.
This time around, China is setting its sights on regulating foreign online games, including the highly popular World of Warcraft, operated in the mainland by The9.
Here’s the lowdown on the plan for stricter censorship from China-based online games portal 17173:
China’s deputy director for general administration of press and publication (GAPP), in a recent interview, said that his office will enhance censorship on foreign online games, including …read more

Yes, there you have it. China cracks the whip again, this time against what it suspects as soft pornography in online games. Here’s the lowdown from online games portal 17173:
China’s administration department has launched a campaign against erotic content on the Internet. Recently, the Ministry of Culture released a notice warning players about erotic content in some online games.
The list includes Red Light Center and Rexue Sanguo. In the notice, the administration department said it would take action against games that feature erotic content or those using suggestive pictures and vulgar language to attract players.
Hey, yeah, we’re all for that. …read more

Gee, why am I not surprised? Seriously now. I’m really not surprised that massively multiplayer online role-playing games is still the preferred genre of online games fanatics despite the fact that popularity of online fighting or battle games and music and dance games is picking up.
Here’s the lowdown from China-based online games portal 17173:
According to The Eighth China Online Game Market Survey, most Chinese players rated MMORPG as their favorite game genre, no matter their ages. For players whose age fall between 19 and 25, the percentage is lower, at about 78.3 percent. They are more for online battle games.
As …read more