Rinka ZhongTo judge the success of the game industry, we should not only focus on the increase of profit margin, but also consider the scale of its cultural core output.
The China Game Industry Report 2021 shows that the actual sales revenue of China’s game market was 296.513 billion RMB, an increase of 17.826 billion RMB over 2020, with a year-on-year growth of 6.40%. From the data, China’s game industry is growing by leaps and bounds.However, it is a very obvious fact that China’s gaming culture can be described as a puddle of mud. We rarely have the opportunity to spread our game concepts and works. In many well-known game stores, excellent domestic works also fleetingly appear and disappear. Why has the development of domestic game culture stagnated for such a long time? There are several reasons that greatly limit it.
First, the national policy restricts the game topics, which greatly discourages independent creators. Compared to Europe and America, the culture in Asia is recognized as more conservative. While in this region, China is probably one of the most. After the war and liberation, both society and the country have been striving for solid development. Before the formation of its own cultural system and good ways of control, European and American culture was seen as a foreign product that could easily disturb the people, and was even called cultural invasion. Under such circumstances, the supervisors of all social classes, such as the government to the people, parents to children, have gradually infiltrated a deep-rooted old school mentality that resists foreign cultures. Therefore, the state has implemented many policies to restrict the introduction of games and imitation. For example, the dissemination and production of action games involving bloody violence, abstract psychedelia, and expressions of political rebellion have been restricted, and live streaming of such games has been banned, with restrictions on the introduction of copyright numbers and the use of newly introduced policies to cut down on more complete productions. In China, independent studios are a more capable and willing part of exporting Chinese culture than the big companies. And this is certainly a direct denial and dissuasion for them, and also a huge blow.
Secondly, the game quality and aesthetics of Chinese gamers are relatively backward. Since the origin of the Chinese game industry is later than other countries, as well as the influence of social ethos mentioned above, players’ definition and positioning of games are not clear. First of all, the problem of game piracy is more obvious. At the beginning of the last century, many pirated versions were introduced into China, which cultivated a kind of thinking among players. That is, games are actually bought without spending money, and those who are willing to spend money are fools. Even to the point that many people today still hold such a notion. In this case, it is difficult for independent studios to operate, sales simply can not make up for the cost. And the withdrawal of independent work when it comes to the larger game companies provides a little more market share. Such game companies are profit-oriented and can be said to be doing a poor job in terms of game originality and mechanics. With Tencent, Netease as the most, there are countless copied works. And a few original, but also to attract players to spend money, and no connotation of poor quality handicrafts. Under its large-scale placement, even the latter generation of gamers gradually formed a rudimentary and crude view of the game: as long as it is fun to play is a good game,and not in line with the core values of society is a reactionary game, etc. Imagine, in such a situation, how can the healthy development of our game culture?
The progress of Chinese game culture still has a long way to go. Not only does the state need to reflect on whether it interferes too much with creation, but it should also be open and encouraged to create a creative environment where ‘a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend,’ and players themselves should dabble in various types of games to form their own understanding and thinking.
