News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by realusername on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:33AM (#18653736)
It's probably all bullshit reasons as usual with the CCCP to let their local market to compete with local stuff.

> Fortnite by Epic Games/Tencent (Blood and gore, vulgar content.)

This has to be the most ridiculous reason, Fortnite banned for blood and gore? It's just a cartoon game.

Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by throwaway2048 on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:35AM (#18653739)
Should be noted Tencent is a Chinese company, several of their games appear on this list.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by realusername on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:37AM (#18653751)
I'm pretty sure they will give Tencent's games a way to comply by changing some petty stuff and keep the others banned.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by chillacy on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:12AM (#18653879)
As someone else mentioned, Fortnite is tencents game, they’re a 40% stakeholder in epic and this is a huge upset for them. So maybe this is like you said temporary.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by toine_toine on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:41AM (#18653764)
Including the mobile version of PUBG (it was created completely in-house by Tencent).
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by dole on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @12:44PM (#18657077)
There's actually multiple branches of PUBGMobile, a Chinese version (called TIMI) and the rest of the world (Lightspeed/Quantum.) Both were begun and developed in parallel, are pretty close in gameplay and mechanics but each has their nuances. The TIMI version notably has most of the premium clothing and items for free since lootbox systems are considered gambling in China. Also, green blood.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by duchenne on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:39AM (#18653758)
It is probably a mistranslation, they obviously mean that the "battle royale" theme is too violent: a bunch of strangers are gathered and have to kill each other until the last one.

Personally, I enjoy that kind of games, but the fact that they display smiling cartoon characters killing each others can make some people even more uncomfortable.

On steam, a game where you play a school shooter was recently banned. Can cartoon graphics and absence of blood make a school shooter acceptable?

Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by yorwba on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:33AM (#18653953)
The Chinese source says 追求血腥, which I'd translate poetically as "pursue the smell of blood". So there wouldn't have to be any blood visible on screen, as long as you can "smell"/imagine it. Essentially "overly violent", as you guessed.

This is really targeted at China's domestic game industry and various tendencies the Party disapproves of because they believe those games to "corrupt the youth" or something like that. The leadership is full of very conservative people for whom a chainmail bikini verges on pornography.

Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by realusername on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @02:54AM (#18653817)
You could argue about that but what about blood and gore? There's not even any blood in the game.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by danbruc on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:02AM (#18653854)
Maybe it is not meant to be taken too literally and just means violence, may even be an artifact of the translation.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by tokyodude on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:16AM (#18653894)
So rename it "paint" tag, color all explosions and blood in green and blue. Claim it's just 100 tag you're out.
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by majani on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:31AM (#18653948)
Letting the local market compete is "bullshit" now? I'm guessing China should be "fair" and let US gaming companies take billions out of their economy without hiring a single Chinese person or paying a cent in Chinese taxes?
Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by RaleyField on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @06:33AM (#18654632)
> Letting the local market compete is "bullshit" now?

It was bullshit before too. This is nothing but another form of candlemaker's petition.[1] Why is welfare of corporations more important than free choice of consumers? Why not let consumers voluntarily decide where they want to take their business?

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/candle-makers-pe...

Re:Rumor: China's ethics board reviews 20 popular online gam... by wisdomoftheages on Tuesday December 11, 2018 @03:41AM (#18653979)
“Letting the local market compete” is not among the listed reasons, so if that were the true reason the listed reasons would indeed be “bullshit”