Chinese 'Online Ethics Review Committee' Bans PUBG, Fortnite, Paladins & Ring of Elysium - MMORPG.c

SBFord

Chinese 'Online Ethics Review Committee' Bans PUBG, Fortnite, Paladins & Ring of Elysium - MMORPG.com News

Earlier this month, the Chinese government revealed the formation of the "Online Ethics Review Committee" that would determine if games published in China violate current legislation with regard to social norms and ethics. The committee has reviewed and banned several games and indicate that several others "need corrective action". The list of banned games include PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Ring of Elysium, Paladins, Fortnite, H1Z1 & Alliance of Valiant Arms.

Read the full story here

SBFord

The astonishing thing is that they are targeting their own publishers and game makers. I'm also curious as to what "game missions include fraud" means? Meaning that there's theft in a game mission or...?

But talk about draconian...

Kyleran

Definitely taking a hard line on gaming when it comes to excessive or overly graphic violence and sexuality.

Perhaps their researchers have come to the conclusion such things are detrimental to society in general, which istrangely enough is what the religious community has long said.

Too bad they don't show the same moral concern when it comes to ripping off designs of famous products such as Dyson vacuums and selling very cheap knock offs to Korea and elsewhere.

Weird.

k61977

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

donpadrex

I'd die of laughter when Blizzard releases Diablo:Immortal in China only to get it banned the next day.

Kyleran

k61977 said:

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

Wait, there's such a place, what's it called, Shang ri la?
  

Wizardry

Yet again i see bull shit here.
Ever watch a Kung Fu movie,LOADS of gore blood.
Example the 5 Deadly Venoms,one my all time faves,they put the Toad into the Iron Crucifix,i am quite certain that is worse than ANYTHING in these goofy Battle Royale games.

ALL Kung Fu movies have people kicking others in the head.How about maybe one the most famous Kung Fu movies ever,the IP MAN,tons of brutal scenes,including and capturing children and putting them in cages.
Now obviously there is a difference from online gaming and the movies that is a different entity that controls that.

I could go even deeper like real deep,they allow underage girls to perform in night clubs and have them dress provocative,so yeah they have some VERY sub par standards to be pointing fingers at video games.I could even worse and deeper yet,has to do with meat and how they treat animals before they kill them,yeah imo they should straighten up their act as a nation before pointing any fingers at virtual stuff.

kitarad

k61977 said:

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

Point out it is not the same result if one government is communist and the other democratic. 

k61977

kitarad said:

k61977 said:

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

Point out it is not the same result if one government is communist and the other democratic. 

I do not live in a democracy, I live in a republic, even though 2/3 of the population don't know the differences. Even our own politicians and media use the wrong word to describe our country. God knows I never want to live in a true democracy either. With that said a good point is brought up, in a communist country the common people do not have a say really in anything in reality, only the ruling power has has any say, which is similar to a true democracy actually. At least in some countries if I want to play games online, look at porn, hell do anything the government may watch and monitor me, but they don't actively stop me as of now, but who knows what the future holds.

JeroKane

Kyleran said:

Too bad they don't show the same moral concern when it comes to ripping off designs of famous products such as Dyson vacuums and selling very cheap knock offs to Korea and elsewhere.

Weird.

That is because members of the government either outright own or have a high stake in those companies and profiting from it.

Iselin

kitarad said:

k61977 said:

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

Point out it is not the same result if one government is communist and the other democratic. 

This goes well beyond politics and forms of government. The Chinese have always had their own special brands of govt with few shits given about individual rights and freedoms.

I mean they don't exactly have a history of democratic government before Mao. Some type of autocratic rule has been the norm there for centuries.

Slapshot1188

Do they not have phones?

mcrippins

League of Legends (Riot) | Overly revealing female characters, rewards given based on rank, inharmonious chatroom. | Corrective action

Rewards given based on rank? I assume they won't be participating in the Olympics as well..

Slapshot1188

k61977 said:

I hate to bring politics into gaming, but this is what happens when the government gets the last word on what is good for you and what is not. Pray to god I never see this type of government in my own country, even though it is trying it's hardest to come.

It's even scarier here. At least in China it's done to have the government keep control of the people. Here it is the people doing it to themselves.

Utinni

I'm more curious how these companies will react. I assume they will modify their games for the chinese market as it's such a large market. Issue I see is that the government will just do it all over again down the road. I wonder where the breaking point for game publishers is of "oh well, guess we're not selling in china." For the larger companies it's probably worth it to spend the resources for completely different game versions.

3dom

Last time I've commented on article like this my MMORPG.com account was suspended for a week. Why is this article even here?

SBFord

Utinni said:

I'm more curious how these companies will react. I assume they will modify their games for the chinese market as it's such a large market. Issue I see is that the government will just do it all over again down the road. I wonder where the breaking point for game publishers is of "oh well, guess we're not selling in china." For the larger companies it's probably worth it to spend the resources for completely different game versions.

What I find interesting is that some already take special measures for China -- World of Warcraft, for instance, that already has a graphically different version of the game than is present in the rest of the world. 

Given that nearly every game out there has violence or skimpily-clad females or questionable "ethical decisions", one has to wonder how many games will survive the legislation?

celtwulf

chambordin said:

I wonder if this is any way related to the on going us china trade war, and this is just chinese retaliation against western companies for us measures.

No because some of the games also being reviewed are Korean games & if I'm not mistaken 1 is from a Chinese company. It definitely has to do with politics but more-so with their internal politics. China has been building a virtual wall around itself for several years now.

ConstantineMerus

I want to share my opinion, but then I'll get banned.

SBFord

ConstantineMerus said:

I want to share my opinion, but then I'll get banned.

3dom said:

Last time I've commented on article like this my MMORPG.com account was suspended for a week. Why is this article even here?

It's not impossible to speak about the issue without delving too far into the nitty gritty politics of the matter.

ConstantineMerus

SBFord said:

ConstantineMerus said:

I want to share my opinion, but then I'll get banned.

3dom said:

Last time I've commented on article like this my MMORPG.com account was suspended for a week. Why is this article even here?

It's not impossible to speak about the issue without delving too far into the nitty gritty politics of the matter.

Well, that was my point. And I stand corrected.  

WargfootYV

So those games will be free of Chinese hackers, exploiters, and gold farmers?
Looks like I've a new shopping list.

Utinni

SBFord said:

Utinni said:

I'm more curious how these companies will react. I assume they will modify their games for the chinese market as it's such a large market. Issue I see is that the government will just do it all over again down the road. I wonder where the breaking point for game publishers is of "oh well, guess we're not selling in china." For the larger companies it's probably worth it to spend the resources for completely different game versions.

What I find interesting is that some already take special measures for China -- World of Warcraft, for instance, that already has a graphically different version of the game than is present in the rest of the world. 

Given that nearly every game out there has violence or skimpily-clad females or questionable "ethical decisions", one has to wonder how many games will survive the legislation?

Yea I've seen that WoW has removed bones/skulls etc from the chinese version. When league started in china they changed a lot of splash arts also. What the government seems to be asking for now would be seemingly impossible for most games to do currently. This could have implications far beyond just the games themselves. Tons of money is poured into the esports side of these as well. There is a chinese league team sponsored by HP, Mercedes-Benz, and a newly inked $150M deal with Nike.

I wonder if the review committee has seen Lost Ark yet? I bet they'd poop their pants.

Kabulozo

WargfootYV said:

So those games will be free of Chinese hackers, exploiters, and gold farmers?
Looks like I've a new shopping list.

no chinese gamers will just flood western servers with vpn. China will likely close chinese servers. But with vpn, they can (and will) play on western servers.

Slapshot1188

Kabulozo said:

WargfootYV said:

So those games will be free of Chinese hackers, exploiters, and gold farmers?
Looks like I've a new shopping list.

no chinese gamers will just flood western servers with vpn. China will likely close chinese servers. But with vpn, they can (and will) play on western servers.

How long will VPN be allowed in China?

Hard to have a social score if you can hide your identity...

3dom

Hopefully, this (and other) episode will teach Western companies to stop their futile endeavors to please Chinese government by censoring their games globally (Ubisoft tried to do this). And/or waste resources to get into Chinese market at all (DE/Warframe, CCP/EVE tried and failed miserably, GGG/PoE is about to repeat their story).