Video game lets players fight Diaoyu invaders
Print Edition
A VIDEO game backed by China’s military that lets players fight enemy forces on the Diaoyu Islands and encourages young people to join the army made its official debut yesterday.
“Glorious Mission Online,” China’s answer to “Call of Duty,” marks the 86th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
The game, developed by Nanjing Military Area Command and Shanghai-based Giant Interactive, is an FPS (first-person shooter) game formerly used by the military to train troops. It features scenes of the East China Sea islands where tensions have been mounting between China and Japan.
A press release says: “Players will fight alongside Chinese armed forces and use weapons to tell the Japanese that ‘Japan must return our stolen territory!’”
Images from the game’s website are labeled “Guard the Diaoyu Islands,” and an online trailer features shots of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It also shows planes taking off from a computer-generated version of China’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.
Authentic weapons
The game became available at 5pm yesterday and by 8pm more than 2.1 million users had registered as “new soldiers.”
Giant cooperated closely with the PLA while working on the game to ensure that the weapons looked authentic and the soldiers’ voices were accurate, according to Gu Wen, Giant’s vice president.
“Our relationship with the military is like the relationship between the US army and Hollywood,” Gu told AFP.
“Through the game we want to allow ordinary people to gain an understanding of the army, which is often seen as closed-off and mysterious,” Gu said.
“In Western games the People’s Liberation Army is always the enemy, this is the first game where it is on the good side.”
The game is free to install and start but players are charged for advanced items and weapons.
Before its debut, the game was tested by military personnel in Lanzhou, Shenyang and Chengdu.
“On one hand it’s a training tool, on the other hand it’s about army recruitment,” Gu told AFP. “The army aims at recruiting university graduates, and gaming is the most popular culture among students.”
By the end of June, China’s game industry revenue had reached 33.9 billion yuan (US$5.5 billion), a 36.4 percent growth year on year, according to officials at the recent ChinaJoy digital entertainment event in Shanghai.
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