The game fair cover-up: will it work?
July 27, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S biggest annual game fair opens in Shanghai tomorrow and it may be the showgirls that say more about trends in the industry than the computer games themselves.
The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference 2011, hosted by the General Administration of Press and Publication in Shanghai since 2004, has become notorious for scantily clad hostesses who dance around and pose at booths in bras and hot pants.
The show, dubbed Chinajoy, is now under threat of becoming more joyless where sexpots are concerned.
The number of showgirls and the amount of flesh they are allowed to show are now under tighter regulation, according to an administration notice to game companies obtained by Shanghai Daily.
"The most important thing is to prevent vulgarity and pornography," the notice said in the first paragraph.
According to the regulator, the 33 billion yuan (US$5.07 billion) games industry needs to move forward in a more "healthy" way that adheres to the norms of decency expected by parents and society.
It is a bit of a tightrope for the government, which wants to promote an industry that has become an important part of the Chinese culture industry, comparable with the music and film sectors.
Chinajoy is limiting the number of "performers" for each game company according to booth size, allowing up to 50 for the biggest exhibitors. That contrasts with past practice, where game giants like Shanda Entertainment and Giant hired 100 to 120 young women to perform during shows.
Bikinis are out, and female performers are restricted to costumes that expose "no more than two-thirds in back," according to the notice. Male performers, too, have been ordered to show less flesh.
Game fans who have enjoyed past fair "performances" tinged with sadomasochistic elements may be disappointed at this year's fair fare.
"Games and girls are both favorites of male players," said a game company official who declined to be identified. "You cannot separate them, otherwise the fair will become dull."
Indeed, some fans have taken umbrage at the prospect of this dullness. "We do not want to see office ladies at a game show," said one online complaint.
Personally, I agree with them. Online games are not dull. Why should an exhibition highlighting this lively industry be dull?
But at the same time, I can understand the necessity for the new regulations. The government does not want the thriving game sector to become a detrimental influence on public morals.
Anti-addiction initiative
That stance is already evident in steps by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to block or shut down games containing subversive or pornographic content. The government has set up special funds to support "green and healthy" game development.
Another milestone for government regulators is the launch of the "anti-addiction" program to prevent children spending inordinate amounts of time on computer games.
The nation's more than 300 million players now are required to register using their real identities instead of fake names, and game companies are required to install "anti-addiction systems."
Under the system, teenagers get only half their game experience points after three hours of consecutive play. They lose all their points, or virtual weapons, after five hours.
The computer games sector has been championed by government because it has served as a strong catalyst for other industries, including culture, information technology and telecommunications. The most popular games require the latest in computer technology and the fastest Internet access speeds.
Last year, revenue in China's game industry rose 30 percent to 33 billion yuan and is estimated to have boosted the revenues of the information technology, publications and telecommunications sectors by more than 60 billion yuan, according to the administration.
Game industry revenue was more than three times China's total film industry box office take, which reached about 9.8 billion yuan last year.
The booming size of the games industry has even created a bit of a bureaucratic turf war between the culture and information technology ministries.
Each claimed rights of review and approval of Blizzard-developed World of WarCraft when it came out. The online game became the nation's most popular, with more than a million players in China.
The Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, the local branch of the national administration, is charged with promoting this year's Chinajoy fair. With just a day to go, many are wondering to what extent the ruling on showgirls will be enforced, and to what degree it will influence the exhibition's popularity.
Or maybe we will discover that the ever-rapid march of technology is making the computer games industry less relevant, showgirls or no, as new technologies such as digital reading and online video supplant the old.
The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference 2011, hosted by the General Administration of Press and Publication in Shanghai since 2004, has become notorious for scantily clad hostesses who dance around and pose at booths in bras and hot pants.
The show, dubbed Chinajoy, is now under threat of becoming more joyless where sexpots are concerned.
The number of showgirls and the amount of flesh they are allowed to show are now under tighter regulation, according to an administration notice to game companies obtained by Shanghai Daily.
"The most important thing is to prevent vulgarity and pornography," the notice said in the first paragraph.
According to the regulator, the 33 billion yuan (US$5.07 billion) games industry needs to move forward in a more "healthy" way that adheres to the norms of decency expected by parents and society.
It is a bit of a tightrope for the government, which wants to promote an industry that has become an important part of the Chinese culture industry, comparable with the music and film sectors.
Chinajoy is limiting the number of "performers" for each game company according to booth size, allowing up to 50 for the biggest exhibitors. That contrasts with past practice, where game giants like Shanda Entertainment and Giant hired 100 to 120 young women to perform during shows.
Bikinis are out, and female performers are restricted to costumes that expose "no more than two-thirds in back," according to the notice. Male performers, too, have been ordered to show less flesh.
Game fans who have enjoyed past fair "performances" tinged with sadomasochistic elements may be disappointed at this year's fair fare.
"Games and girls are both favorites of male players," said a game company official who declined to be identified. "You cannot separate them, otherwise the fair will become dull."
Indeed, some fans have taken umbrage at the prospect of this dullness. "We do not want to see office ladies at a game show," said one online complaint.
Personally, I agree with them. Online games are not dull. Why should an exhibition highlighting this lively industry be dull?
But at the same time, I can understand the necessity for the new regulations. The government does not want the thriving game sector to become a detrimental influence on public morals.
Anti-addiction initiative
That stance is already evident in steps by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to block or shut down games containing subversive or pornographic content. The government has set up special funds to support "green and healthy" game development.
Another milestone for government regulators is the launch of the "anti-addiction" program to prevent children spending inordinate amounts of time on computer games.
The nation's more than 300 million players now are required to register using their real identities instead of fake names, and game companies are required to install "anti-addiction systems."
Under the system, teenagers get only half their game experience points after three hours of consecutive play. They lose all their points, or virtual weapons, after five hours.
The computer games sector has been championed by government because it has served as a strong catalyst for other industries, including culture, information technology and telecommunications. The most popular games require the latest in computer technology and the fastest Internet access speeds.
Last year, revenue in China's game industry rose 30 percent to 33 billion yuan and is estimated to have boosted the revenues of the information technology, publications and telecommunications sectors by more than 60 billion yuan, according to the administration.
Game industry revenue was more than three times China's total film industry box office take, which reached about 9.8 billion yuan last year.
The booming size of the games industry has even created a bit of a bureaucratic turf war between the culture and information technology ministries.
Each claimed rights of review and approval of Blizzard-developed World of WarCraft when it came out. The online game became the nation's most popular, with more than a million players in China.
The Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, the local branch of the national administration, is charged with promoting this year's Chinajoy fair. With just a day to go, many are wondering to what extent the ruling on showgirls will be enforced, and to what degree it will influence the exhibition's popularity.
Or maybe we will discover that the ever-rapid march of technology is making the computer games industry less relevant, showgirls or no, as new technologies such as digital reading and online video supplant the old.
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