“Animal Forest Friends” was removed from the game, Chinese players encountered a cold online winter game-BBC News

The Japanese video game “Let’s Gather!”, Released in late March, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (aka Animal Crossing, hereinafter Animal Crossing) will be discontinued in China’s online shopping malls without notice a few days ago, and It has caused an uproar among players in mainland China. Online game review is pressing step by step.

This game is highly sought after by players around the world due to its high degree of interactivity, making it the best-selling game console in March. Dongsen players can freely develop and organize homes on the uninhabited island, inviting other residents to play on the island or transact with players online, and can also interact through dialogue. Various animals can also be invited to the island, and players will also communicate with each other to obtain their own ideal furniture.

It is also due to this high degree of freedom that many Taiwanese and Hong Kong players can freely express their opinions in the game. The game’s unique drawing board feature allows many artistically talented players to brainstorm and make various protests in Hong Kong’s “anti-shipping” campaign, or mock Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Organization’s CEO World Health (WHO), Tan From Portraits of Cypriots and others, and even the creation of “Wuhan Pneumonia” and other propaganda directed against China.

Hong Kong democracy activist Huang Zhifeng also showed Hong Kong’s protest slogan “Take Back Hong Kong, Revolution of the Times” during the game’s live broadcast, which caused many netizens to watch.

Around 6 p.m. on April 10, a large number of merchants selling this game on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com suspend sales of the product. There are rumors about China’s Weibo, saying that Chinese officials are putting pressure on Nintendo in Japan, and Nintendo’s first development department finally decided to stop the online connection feature from China.

In this regard, BBC Chinese contacted Nintendo of Japan and asked about the ban. Nintendo’s official response stated, “You cannot respond to related games and services in foreign markets. Please also consult local distributors in the country of sale.”

How online “moving forest” games hit China’s reef

In fact, “Animal Friends” must be via the Nintendo Switch-produced Nintendo Switch console, which was only listed on Tencent’s list on December 10, 2019, but the Chinese version of previously available games is very low, just 3 Models. , Which does not include “Animal Forest Friends”.

Therefore, Chinese players first buy parallel consoles abroad, and then buy games without local authorization from national e-commerce companies, or connect to Nintendo online stores in other countries to download digital versions.

After the closure of the “Animal Friends” online feature in China, many Chinese players have pointed fingers at Huang Zhifeng, saying that his comments in Hong Kong have prevented all Chinese players from connecting games. An uninformed Chinese netizen on Weibo asked, “Wouldn’t it be Wanwan (referring to Taiwan)?”

The “Animal Mori Club” series, born in 2001, has been a best-selling video game in Japan for many years. The new series, which launched on March 20, has accumulated 1.8 million sales in 3 days and exceeded 3.3 million sales before April 12. The new job also supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese for the first time. Shanghai Fire and Public Security used it as a public service advertising copy. There was also a special article about the Japanese version of the People’s Daily on April 9; however, the game suddenly “disappeared” on April 10, allowing many Chinese players to be caught off guard.

Zhou Weihang, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Fu Jen University in Taiwan who studies game ethics and thinking, noted that the CCP thinks the slogans or propaganda in the game are expressed in images, and there is no way of filtering them with (fire) walls. “It means that there is communication software that successfully overcomes the CCP monitoring system and enters homes in China. This is something that China cannot allow.”

Zhou Weihang noted that, in fact, two or three days after the game’s launch, many Taiwanese and Hong Kong players were creative, targeting Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese government, and the “anti-shipping to China” movement. ” From Hong Kong. Initially, Shanghai Fire and other companies promoted the game because the information did not reach the “wall”, so there was no accident. “It is better to say that the CCP discovered the game’s freedom of communication than the content of the incident. Any form of freedom of communication is now strictly controlled,” he said.

China games need a version number for listing. Zhou Weihang believes that the game does not have a version number to handle, and the server is also in Japan. The CCP cannot remotely control Nintendo to deliver private chat messages. Therefore, if the Chinese Communist Party forces Japanese companies to cut China’s online function, it is not surprising at all.

As for many people pointing fingers at Huang Zhifeng and others to spread the message, Zhou Weihang said that he was just one of the people who interpreted the creative idea: “Huang Zhifeng is the main character and can play anything. If you play any online game in mainland China casually, the game will not be banned. “

Ten Years of Squeezed Online Gambling Circles

Ten years ago, players from mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong could still tease each other in online games, and even make jokes between governments on both sides. During Hu Jintao’s reign, comments from mainland Chinese players were relatively weak. But in the past ten years, while network technology and network speed have been continuously improved, the Chinese government’s control over gaming discourse has also increased.

Zhou Weihang explained that the Central Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has been more involved in artistic creation in the past decade. Including film and television circles, themes like gods, demons, and monsters, fairies, harems, and cross-cutting dramas violate the “moral conscience” bottom line established by the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese film and television company he met previously filmed 10 dramas, and only one was finally approved.

This trend has also spread to the gaming industry: Many Chinese gaming companies have been developing games for the past 5 to 10 years. To request access, they sold the game to free expression areas such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, and established chat channels for them to speak freely. However, all servers are in China. In the unlikely event that the CCP uncovers radical speeches, companies on the mainland may suffer, so many The company is also working hard.

“Chinese gaming companies will move towards a split-minded development in the future, that is, it will develop a version that fits the CCP, and then develop an international version, using Hong Kong or Taiwan as a springboard. Otherwise, games Chinese will never be traded outside the world. ” In the future of the gaming circle production line, Zhou Weihang also predicts that it will be more difficult.

According to media reports, the Chinese Communist Party recently introduced a gambling regulation clause that would prohibit Chinese players from entering foreign servers. Zhou Weihang estimates that in the future it will be difficult for Chinese players to interact with players from other countries. Even if you can break through the wall, at most it’s playing on Facebook and Twitter. When playing, there are more related words that are forbidden to speak, which requires sensitive political awareness.

However, there are countermeasures at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. After the sale was banned, “Animal Friends Club” was also featured in different games and continued to be sold at various online merchants. Zhou Weihang said with a smile, “Chinese players are like this, they will eventually find a way out of their lives.”