Computer game of 2 halves riles China

[roddy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1370644,00.html

I wasn't sure where to put this, but the Sport Forum already has the Lebron James ad, and I thought a computer game topic might be pushing it for Science and Tech.

China has banned the British computer game Football Manager 2005, saying it violated Chinese law by referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other regions claimed by Beijing as separate countries.

So . . .

government departments have been ordered to search for pirated copies at software markets and newsstands and seize any found, according to the culture ministry.

Vendors could face fines of up to £2,000. Internet service providers that fail to prevent subscribers from downloading the game can be fined up to £1,000 and lose their licences.

Sounds to me like you can run a shop selling infinite quantites of pirate software, or a site offering free downloads of copyrighted material and nobody bothers you. But sell a politically offensive game? Then there's manpower to deal with it . . .

I'm a big fan of cheap stuff, but I realise it'll come to an end one day - however the complete lack of will shown in doing anything about it, despite the lip service paid to intellectual property, make me think it won't be one day soon though . . .

Roddy

[PollyWaffle]

the chinese govt are almost as funny as the amikans!!

I thought a computer game topic might be pushing it for Science and Tech.

i won't tell my friend who works in game development

[confucius]

Quote:

China has banned the British computer game Football Manager 2005, saying it violated Chinese law by referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and "other regions claimed by Beijing" as separate countries.

Other regions claimed by Beijing? I didn't know Tibet had a football team!

I hope they don't show monks tripping on their robes. That would disrespect China's culture and create outrage in Chinese internet forums.

[Quest]

Other regions claimed by Beijing? I didn't know Tibet had a football team!

I support the ban 杀鸡警猴

I suspect the original english version might have had:

China

Chinese Taipei

Taiwan

Tibet

.....

Hong Kong

and then "properly" translated into the names above.

Also note: 东德 -- east germany.

So much for football manager 2005

[confucius]

What about Wales and Scotland? They have their own football teams within the United Kingdom area so why can't Taiwan and Tibet provinces have their own teams?

When will the Beijing government ever learn that by banning something you only increase its popularity? Who ever heard of Football Manager 2005 before the free publicity that the ban generated? I think having a Chinese version of the game is brilliant! Go Kolofo'ou!

[Claw]

I don't get it... the screenshot clearly shows 国家／地区 (country OR REGION), so I don't see how this game is elevating any of the regions to country status.

[Quest]

However, publisher SEGA has been quick to step in an attempt to placate the Chinese, arguing that the version of the game in question is the English language product, which "appears to have reached China through piracy or unauthorised means," after reviewing the contents of the Chinese press release with its local partner, Ubisoft.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57368

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau were listed as independent countries in the game, and the Himalayan region of Tibet, which Chinese troops occupied in 1950, is called "Chinese Tibet," which elevated it to the same level as China itself, Xinhua said.

http://www.bdgamer.net/?itemid=15122

as I said, the screenshot above might have been properly re-translated.

[Ian_Lee]

Actually I think the tiny UK has four separate soccer teams that can compete for European Cup and World Cup: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scotland and Northern Ireland had advanced to the World Cup Final Round (though not as often as England did).

Just this summer every English family was hanging the England flag (Not the Union Jack but the Red/White England flag) outside their windows during the European Cup.

IMHO China should be like UK which has at least 4 teams or even more.

And what is wrong with it? The more teams that compete the bigger chance that one of the teams can advance into Final.

So Guangdong, Shanghai, Liaoning,....should all have their own teams. If Beijing insists, then those teams may be called "China Guangdong", "China Shanghai"....etc.

But London does not insist the Northern Ireland team calling itself "N. Ireland, UK" though.

[Cyberian]

Increase the chance of advancing to the finals at the cost of Chinese unity.

What better way is there to fight separatism than promoting the fraction of the nation team!?

Lets give them their own flags too! This way, when the slightest seperatist activity accours, they know which flag to wave and which to burn.

The national team composed of the best players the country can offer cannot even win the Cup. Let alone breaking it all up into fraction teams.

Northern Ireland and Scotland have their own currency and banking system. Let alone play as a united team under the Union Jack.

What about Wales and Scotland? They have their own football teams within the United Kingdom area so why can't Taiwan and Tibet provinces have their own teams?

Er... Because Wales and Scotland does not have a seperatist issue as big as China's.

The West likes to project Taiwan and Tibet as seperate states. China does not project Wales and Scotland as seperate states.

[Yang Rui]

Just a small point: Scotland and Northern Ireland don't have their own currencies. They do have differently designed bank notes though. In Scotland, three different banks (Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank) all issue bank notes, each with their own designs. Add in the fairly common Bank of England notes, and that means for every note, there are four different designs.

The currency throughout the whole of the UK and Northern Ireland is still pounds sterling (GBP).

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

interestingly, the fact that Scotland, Wales and England all have their own football teams is why Great Britain is always (?) absent from the Olympic football tournament. Since competitiors enter other events as "Great Britain", they aren't allowed to enter seperate teams for football, and they all hate each other too much to join hands and make a GB football team (it would probably just be England with Giggs anyway).

Have i got this right, or do they compete in the olympics under UK? I can't remember. either way the point's the same.

and Yang Rui, you are soooooo nerdy.

[Ian_Lee]

But in the world of soccer, every fan cares more about the World Cup than the Olympic.

Actually some countries just send their second-tier team for Olympic. So far I have not heard any South American countries recall their multi-million Euro expatriate soccer players in Europe to come back to play for their national teams in Olympic.

And for practical reason, China should have more than one team.

China's population is about 20 times that of UK. While 44 players from UK can play for UK in the international matches, but only 11 players out of 1.3 billion Chinese can play for China!

How many soccer talents in China are eliminated out of such distorted representation?

Moreover, in reality China now already has two teams: China and China Hong Kong. In some key matches like the China vs China HK in the recently held World Cup Qualifying match, they were already playing in the field against each other.

If there can be two Chinese teams, why can't there be four or more?

[PheonixUK]

er?

Chinese Taibei

HK, China

China

are all team at the olympics