Non-MMO CHinese video games

[Squawk 1200]

Why are so few good single player (good RPGs, strategies, FPS games with a plot etc.) made in China? All or majority of titles produced in PRC/Taiwan are either simple online FPS or MMORPGs with the same recurring characteristics (fantasy or mixed historical-fantasy setting, metrosexual characters, generally colorful, candy-like graphics)

 

Take a look at Age of Wushu which is one of better and more "real" Chinese MMOs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjuB4_RZrf4

 

And compare it to The Witcher 3 which is a top western RPG game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjuB4_RZrf4

 

How come Chinese developers are unwilling to create a single thing that could rival The Witcher series or Mass Effect series? Or Assassin's Creed, Far Cry or whatever?

 

[NinKenDo]

Well, it's probably because piracy is so rampant in China tbh. That creates an insentive to create games that have microtransactions or other non-purchase money makers at their core. A single player game can be successfully pirated for the full experience, but an MMO, not so much, even if someone goes to the trouble of putting together a private server.

 

As to the setting. Censorship is big in the Mainland, so if you're targeting the Chinese market, you want something non-controversial. Keep in mind that Science Fiction was outright banned in the mainland until fairly recently.

[yueni]

I work in the Chinese video game industry, mostly on mobile games, but what @NinKenDo states is a very real truth. In speaking and working with a variety of developers and operation teams, I would say the following characteristics are pretty common: complete and utter lack of originality, lack of planning & vision, slavish focus on making money, unwillingness to take on risk & responsibility.

 

Lack of Originality. I don't think anybody is at all surprised about the utter lack of originality in China. If you think about it, they are taught to copy since childhood. Nobody writes original essays, they have to memorize and copy old essays that are proven to be good. Children are actually penalized for being original! This means that to them, piracy is actually a good thing. For the Chinese gaming public, this is what they expect, so it doesn't matter to the developers at all. Every single non-Western inspired Chinese game is basically a copy and/or mishmash of the Three Kingdoms, wuxia, Journey to the West, and every single bit of Chinese history & mythology available out there. There are so many freaking Sun Wukongs and Zhao Yuns in games out there, that I can't even begin to count them. 

 

I know of a brand new mobile game that is a copy of a shitty browser game that was a copy of a very successful mobile game that came out over 5 years ago. Can you even imagine any western developers who would make a copy of a shitty game that was a copy of another game? One of the first games I ever worked on was a pirate game. Since it was a pirate game, it naturally had every single character from Pirates of the Caribbean in it. They told me that there were no IP issues, because they hand painted the images. They didn't directly rip off the official movie stills, guys! They totally copied redrew everything from scratch! And flipped them so they were facing the other direction! And since Jack Sparrow's bandanna was now green and not red, he wasn't Jack Sparrow at all, right? Right? Clearly nobody would know! And when I requested that they rethink this, and perhaps draw a brand new character from scratch, they asked how much they could change the image so they wouldn't get sued while simultaneously ensuring that people knew that it was still Captain Jack Sparrow.

 

Lack of Planning & Vision. When I work with developers on their products, one of the first things I typically ask them are for design documents & for their vision of what the game is going to be like, and their plan for implementing their ideas on their design documents. Of the Chinese development teams I've worked with, I know of only one team that actually has any kind of a game design document at all, and any kind of a plan at all, in terms of what the game will be like. Most Chinese developers I know, don't even have a plan for their next update, even though the update might be due tomorrow. Literally. Games like World of Warcraft, The Witcher, Assassins Creed actually has somebody with a huge overarching vision of what the game is going to be like. There is a specific style to the game, there is an actual storyline that makes sense. There's somebody with a vision for what the game is going to be like, and people actually listen to this person. And this person actually has the power to make sure that the game follows his and/or his team's vision.

 

Not so much with Chinese games. The pirate game didn't just include Jack Sparrow & friends in their merry 19th century sailing escapades, Kylo Ren was there. So was BB-8. Your epic pirate vessel could be upgraded to a Banshee from Starcraft, and that Banshee could eventually be upgraded to... another random 19th century-esque sailing ship. And not only that, your ship can have pets a la World of Warcraft! Most Chinese games I've seen are basically a mish-mash of whatever was awesome at the time. New awesome Star Wars movie? I guarantee you that most Chinese games are going to have BB-8 and Stormtroopers running around in them, whether or not this actually makes sense for the game.

 

Slavish Focus on Making Money. When game design decisions are made (and here I use the words "game design" very loosely), it's based on player and revenue numbers, and they pretty much focus on hot trends and have very short term thinking. If Star Wars happens to be the new in thing, you're going to get Darth Vader and R2D2 running around in your video game, whether or not these characters actually fit the design criteria for the game. If the next new thing after Star Wars is Pirates of the Caribbean, you bet your ass that Capt. Jack Sparrow & Elizabeth Swann are going to make an appearance, even though they have precious little to do with Darth Vader (or even the game itself) at all.

 

Most successful Western (and Japanese) developers actually prioritize a storyline and a good vision, and make plans for their game. Of course they want to make money, but they understand that just because Star Wars is popular today doesn't mean that adding Yoda to their awesome gothic haunted house game is going to make sense in terms of the style of the game or game play. For these developers, the game is the core of their design decisions. For Chinese developers, it's whatever their boss wants, and if their boss typically only cares about income in the short term, they'll do whatever the boss says. Because that's how they roll.

 

Unwillingness to Take on Risk & Responsibility. I had a really long conversation with one of my Chinese friends about this. He told me to think of the typical Chinese person. This is somebody who's basically had their entire life planned out for them: primary school, test into the best middle school, test into the best high school, ace the gaokao, go to Tsinghua/Beida, graduate with honors, continue onwards with a graduate degree from Harvard/Princeton/Oxbridge, return to China, find an amazing high paying job, get married, have a baby... Their entire life's decisions have been practically planned out for them since they were babies. And there's always a penalty for them if they want to do things their way. Don't want to listen to mom & dad/grandma & grandpa and go to university? Oh look, now you're unemployed/dirt poor/worthless/working a shitty job. Life becomes unpredictable. You stand out.

 

If there is a person who wants to design a game, he's going to have to stand out and take responsibility for the game and its performance. If the game he designed flops, he's going to take the blame for it (rightly or wrongly), and there's not very many Chinese people willing to take that risk. It's just easier to listen to your boss, even if you disagree with his decisions, because at the end of the day, if the game flops, it's not your fault. You were the good employee doing what your boss told you to do. If the game does well, you'll get a good bonus at Chinese New Year. Either way you win. Or at the very least, you lose less.

 

I feel like this is already a long enough wall of text. It's extremely frustrating for me, because I feel like there are so many amazing stories that can be told via video games in China about Chinese history/mythology or even just about modern Chinese daily life in general, but there's simply not any developers or Chinese people who have the ability and who are willing to do it. I imagine it will happen at some point, but from where I currently stand, that's going to be a long time coming.

[Lumbering Ox]

Sounds like Dilbert land. In a world of Pointy Haired Bosses I think I would go full Wally.

[yueni]

There was a really good article about LeEco and the problems it faces going international. If I were to replace LeEco with my company's name (or really, any Chinese company's name), it would be a pretty good description of how a Chinese company is run, in my experience. Many of the things in that article had me nodding my head, because it was literally describing my life right now.

 

Here's the article: http://technode.com/2017/05/15/4-culture-and-globalization-lessons-from-leecos-failures/

 

So imagine how that works when you're actually trying to get something done... 

[roddy]

Happened to spot this one when I was seeing what was on sale on Steam. Won't be trying it myself, but looks intriguing. 

[大块头]

The podcast《狗熊有话说》interviewed the Chinese indie game developer who made Candleman, which does sound like an interesting game.