Video Games in China

[Mike N]

I'd like to bump this topic and check in with folks on the board. What games are y'all playing these days?

I'm still playing League of Legends (英雄联盟) but I'm actively on the look-out for new games. Also, I picked up 古剑奇谭 from Gleaves a while back but I never got into it so I might take another crack at that.

I'm also hesitantly excited (as I often am about games these days) about the Chinese launch of Korean developer NCSoft's next big MMO Blade & Soul. There is no official launch date as of yet but I'll be keeping a casual eye on it as things progress.

Lastly, here's a link to Gleaves' post about his and others' adventures in Chinese gaming: The Grand Gaming Project.

[andysun731]

Only play WoW, never play games from Korea.

[Mike N]

I'll join the CPC before I play WoW again.

That being said, I already have purchased all of the WoW games up through Cataclysm. Can I use my existing purchases in China or do I have to buy new Chinese versions of the game?

If yes, that's a deal breaker. If no, I might consider playing WoW again but I'll hate myself for it. ;)

[andysun731]

WoW will update to 5.0 soon, maybe in about a month, which is called Mists of Pandaria with highest-level 90. So if you want to play wow again, you might wait till the new version is online.

To play wow in China, you should install the game client of China-mainland version. You can download it from the internet or buy a installing disk. See details in http://www.battlenet.com.cn/features/zh/landing/wow.

[Mike N]

Yeah I'm just really not sure I can go back to playing WoW. The thought of it makes my toes curl!

In other news, are you on weibo at all andy? Do you follow any good gamer news accounts on there? I follow @新浪游戏频道 but frankly they don't have much good stuff on there.

[imron]

Relevant Penny-Arcade

[andysun731]

I have an account of sina-weibo, but I never follow any game news account. I only play games that my friends recommend to me. A few days ago, we wanted to find a new game to play till wow5.0 start. We tried some games on a few ranking lists, but none was OK. It's too hard to find a game better than or as good as wow. A lot of Chinese games imitate the Korean games' mode, in which playing-time is free while other factors cost a lot. If you don't pay any, your game character will be fragile when playing in those games. That's why we insist on wow.

[Mike N]

I know exactly what you mean. In English we call those "Free 2 Play" games, but a much more 口语 way of referring to those games which make you spend money to be strong is "Pay 2 Win".

Do you have a guild on WoW or just a group of friends you play with?

[murrayjames]

Mike, have you checked out The Grand Gaming Project? It hasn't been updated recently, but there's still lots of info there....

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/32078-the-grand-gaming-project/

[andysun731]

Yes, I am the president of my guild, members of which are my classmates, schoolmates and colleagues. When not playing wow, we chat in our guild QQ group.

[Mike N]

Hey murray, thanks for the link. I actually just linked to that thread a couple posts up. ;)

Andy, I seriously considered playing WoW again in China these last couple days but I think my final answer is still a no. I'm willing to endure a lot to improve my Chinese but I don't know if I could take the double torture of learning Chinese while playing WoW!

Enjoy your gaming.

[andysun731]

Are you going to improve your Chinese through playing games?......

[Mike N]

That is the the primary goal, but the secondary goal is to have fun while learning Chinese! If I don't enjoy the game, I won't have fun learning either.

[andysun731]

TVs and movies may be better than games for your Chinese study.

[rahxephon]

PC games are good for reading. RPG's in particular. I managed to get through Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age playing in Chinese I definitely felt there was some improvement in vocab and reading speed. Played D3 a bit too with traditional characters. Though it can be a bit of a pain and take away from the experience in some cases. MMO's can work if you find a group of social people, but I find after several hours of play it just gets tiring.

TV's and movies are of course good for vocab and listening, but most Chinese TV shows and movies are truly horrid. Recently, I've just been watching American shows/movies with Chinese subs, which is also a decent way to improve reading speed/vocab.