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Being a gamer in China.
Velmeran
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So after graduating last summer with an Asian studies BA and knowing well ahead of graduation its pretty useless unless I get some experiance over seas, I find my self in China. I've been in the beautiful city of Nanjing (well, okay, not exactly beautiful, but theres little air pollution compared to other cities and its got a few nice green areas), for a little over a month and have been having a ball. But I think I should help you guys understand how the gaming scene is over here and why pirated software/dvds are not going away anytime soon here.
First off, digital piracy and whats going on over here. My friend Paul (his english name, he's really Korean) took me dvd shopping my first week here, so we headed into Nanjing from the school I am out thats on the outskirts of town and after wandering around some alleys we came to the little hole in the wall shop. They pretty much had everything, only not organized at all, you just have to sit there and flip through tons of racks of stuff hoping to see something you like. It was all pretty current stuff, new movie releases were there probably sooner then they were in America and lots of TV shows were available too.
Think they are in danger of getting shut down? Well if the two cops that were browsing for stuff and buying things, I don't think anyone is really concerned here about American movie stars who make more then the entire cities working populace. How much did it cost? I got the entire season of "Over There" and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complexe: Movie 3 for 9RMB ($1.20 American). They actually price things by DVD-5 or DVD-9 disc, so its simply the cost to make the disk, probably add an RMB or two and there you go.
Now this doesn't mean I am getting great quality stuff, if you read the subtitles for Over There you basically have to laugh your ass off at the engrish. Paul says he has to preview every movie before he buys since many times the korean subtitles are just terrible. My ghost in the shell movie actually had the english subtitles from Beaverly Hills Cop 2 instead of real english subtitles, luckily I had already watched a fan-subbed version so I was watching it more for the pretty pictures and the little Japanese I understand. Basically, don't buy these dvd's unless you know the spoken language in the films, the subtitles are just BAD.
Now I have been to a Wal-Mart and a few legit dvd stores here, their prices are generally 20-30RMB ($3-4) and would probably have good subtitles. Now the question is, why are you paying $20-30 for a movie in America when they are paying $3-4 here, easy, over here there is actual price competition while there really isn't anything but a monopoly and price fixing in American media stores.
Now the gaming aspect of it all. For the most part computers and such cost identical prices here as they do in America, so your $1000 gaming PC is 7700RMB here. Sucks for me since my laptop died horribly and I need a new machine. But for the most part, everyone here buy's 5000RMB machines that are 2500RMB for the monitor, and 2500RMB for a machine that was crappy 5 years ago. You know why gunbound and maple story are so popular? Its the only thing that works on these hunk of junk cheap computers, one of which I am using now since the school gave me one in my apartment. I've had to amuse myself with Nethack for the time being, but there are only so many times I can stand being knocked into unconcsiousness and then eaten by a kitten.
So lets goto a Net gaming center, those can't be bad can they? Well lets just say of the three I have been too, they spent alot of money getting some border line machines (ever wondered who bought all those Nvidia 7300LE's?) but their plumbing is straight out of the dark ages. For the most part think of a lan party some where in LA for tempature and humidty, a bunch of sweaty unbathed people, and then put them all into the worst smelling latrine you ever experianced in Boy Scouts, and that is why I don't use gaming center's here in Nanjing. Oh, and all the games are illegal, not a single one of them had legit CD-KEY's so your stuck playing LAN, singple player, or some MMO where you need a valid account (hence why MMO's are so huge here, only way to play online since no one has legit copies to play on the internet).
Also, for console gaming, I haven't seen a SINGLE console system or game yet...I've wandered the electronics district and lots of stores, but not a single thing has been found. If I do find a store somewhere I will let you guys know, but its just crazy that I haven't seen even a PS2 here, let alone games for them. Probably going to be another back alley shop like the dvd place was to find something, and then it will probably be pre-modded and the software is all copies. I wonder if the console people don't even think its worth bothering with China since they know all the software will be illegal and such. Which is sad, I would love to get a Wii while I am here since it has games that would be easy to play with my students who'se english isn't really up to par.
BTW, if you want to make donations to the "Get Velmeran a new computer since his laptop died" or just want to read my blog send me a PM and I will throw you the link.
First off, digital piracy and whats going on over here. My friend Paul (his english name, he's really Korean) took me dvd shopping my first week here, so we headed into Nanjing from the school I am out thats on the outskirts of town and after wandering around some alleys we came to the little hole in the wall shop. They pretty much had everything, only not organized at all, you just have to sit there and flip through tons of racks of stuff hoping to see something you like. It was all pretty current stuff, new movie releases were there probably sooner then they were in America and lots of TV shows were available too.
Think they are in danger of getting shut down? Well if the two cops that were browsing for stuff and buying things, I don't think anyone is really concerned here about American movie stars who make more then the entire cities working populace. How much did it cost? I got the entire season of "Over There" and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complexe: Movie 3 for 9RMB ($1.20 American). They actually price things by DVD-5 or DVD-9 disc, so its simply the cost to make the disk, probably add an RMB or two and there you go.
Now this doesn't mean I am getting great quality stuff, if you read the subtitles for Over There you basically have to laugh your ass off at the engrish. Paul says he has to preview every movie before he buys since many times the korean subtitles are just terrible. My ghost in the shell movie actually had the english subtitles from Beaverly Hills Cop 2 instead of real english subtitles, luckily I had already watched a fan-subbed version so I was watching it more for the pretty pictures and the little Japanese I understand. Basically, don't buy these dvd's unless you know the spoken language in the films, the subtitles are just BAD.
Now I have been to a Wal-Mart and a few legit dvd stores here, their prices are generally 20-30RMB ($3-4) and would probably have good subtitles. Now the question is, why are you paying $20-30 for a movie in America when they are paying $3-4 here, easy, over here there is actual price competition while there really isn't anything but a monopoly and price fixing in American media stores.
Now the gaming aspect of it all. For the most part computers and such cost identical prices here as they do in America, so your $1000 gaming PC is 7700RMB here. Sucks for me since my laptop died horribly and I need a new machine. But for the most part, everyone here buy's 5000RMB machines that are 2500RMB for the monitor, and 2500RMB for a machine that was crappy 5 years ago. You know why gunbound and maple story are so popular? Its the only thing that works on these hunk of junk cheap computers, one of which I am using now since the school gave me one in my apartment. I've had to amuse myself with Nethack for the time being, but there are only so many times I can stand being knocked into unconcsiousness and then eaten by a kitten.
So lets goto a Net gaming center, those can't be bad can they? Well lets just say of the three I have been too, they spent alot of money getting some border line machines (ever wondered who bought all those Nvidia 7300LE's?) but their plumbing is straight out of the dark ages. For the most part think of a lan party some where in LA for tempature and humidty, a bunch of sweaty unbathed people, and then put them all into the worst smelling latrine you ever experianced in Boy Scouts, and that is why I don't use gaming center's here in Nanjing. Oh, and all the games are illegal, not a single one of them had legit CD-KEY's so your stuck playing LAN, singple player, or some MMO where you need a valid account (hence why MMO's are so huge here, only way to play online since no one has legit copies to play on the internet).
Also, for console gaming, I haven't seen a SINGLE console system or game yet...I've wandered the electronics district and lots of stores, but not a single thing has been found. If I do find a store somewhere I will let you guys know, but its just crazy that I haven't seen even a PS2 here, let alone games for them. Probably going to be another back alley shop like the dvd place was to find something, and then it will probably be pre-modded and the software is all copies. I wonder if the console people don't even think its worth bothering with China since they know all the software will be illegal and such. Which is sad, I would love to get a Wii while I am here since it has games that would be easy to play with my students who'se english isn't really up to par.
BTW, if you want to make donations to the "Get Velmeran a new computer since his laptop died" or just want to read my blog send me a PM and I will throw you the link.
Velmeran on
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Edit: Okay, maybe that was a bit of a dick way to say it, but honestly..."Gee, someone stranger on the internet needs money...I'll give it him!"
Edit: Also, lets not forget that stupid chick a few years back that got strangers to pay off her $30,000 credit card debit because "she was a good looking person with a good heart". The interwebs are a wierd, strange, and sometimes gooey place.
Maybe he's the prince of Nigeria and needs the funds to move to America and will handsomely reward you if you let him transfer $50,000 to your bank account. CIALIS CIALIS XXXX PROPECIA
I wasn't bothered by the discussion about the effects of piracy -- nobody was discussing how to do it or where to go. Seemed to be a necessary part of the story.
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I know right?
erm..no
Non traditional western politics =/= regime
Those are prisoners who are former terrorist militia. That Chinese guy is just taking a walk.
According to a fair trial or according to what the government decides?
And people work around the clock making sure people in China never see that image. While you have the right to critique the mistakes of your own government.
edit: yeah, sorry for taking this thread off topic, I'm going to stop posting here.
Hope you find some love somewhere...
Now the funny thing is, there are police/gaurds EVERYWHERE, even in the night clubs, some old guys are paid to just kinda stand around and watch, they even got a few beers while there, possibly for free. There are guys that wander around the campus too, but for the most part they are all like 60+ years old and aren't really doing much more then stretching their legs.
I really believe the reason for this is the Chinese mentallity to hire whole crap tons of people to do simple jobs, if only to help make sure everyone has a chance at a job. Need a garden weeded thats about the size of a soccer field, hows 50 people sound? Have a bunch of 60 year old chinese people that need a paycheck but don't have any education, well they can be security gaurds that just walk around. You know how we have banner wavers in America? Here there are banner waving groups of 5-7 people doing the same job one person does in the US.
Right now I think the world is going through a changing of the skin, both in China and America. You have a bunch of old farts in charge that are doing their best to fuck every thing up before they die with their bigotry, racism, and general stupidity, and a bunch of young people who know the whole system is bunk and just waiting for the old farts to die so they can take over and get things as unfucked as possible. The problem is getting rid of the brown-nosers that are eagerly waiting to take over the job of fucking us all over simply because they want power.
The other thing you have to be careful about in China is that the government basically realized they couldn't openly hate America with out it really fucking their economy, so they redirected all of their countries blame onto the Japanese. Seriously, its government supported to hate on the Japanese and blame them for all thats wrong in their country, its pretty fucked up. So far none of my students have said anything directly to me about it, but other foreign teachers have had to deal with the kids giving little propaganda speeches in english about why they hate the japanese, and the kids are like 9 years old and never even seen one. I also have to be careful picking pictures of the world, if Taiwan isn't the same color of China things can get messy, they don't even know that American's believe Taiwan is another country and are miffed when we don't deal with bejing when doing trade talks with Taiwan...
It's all a matter of perspective I guess, I just hope the students that go oversea's aren't given a heart attack when that get all their worldly views back handed across the face.
Needs more pictures.
Good posts though, its like a mini-culture exchange here.
Harder to get some in China than America?
Its a serious question.
Without turning this into D&D, I'll just say that you haven't seen everything over there. Things can get more oppressive for, say, people who don't subscribe to some stuff like the government approved churches.
Anyway, I'm curious about something. Are the places selling pirated stuff actual full blown brick and mortar shops? When I was in Taiwan and the relatives of some friends I was traveling with decided to show us around the commercial district, I saw tons of what basically resembled electronic flea markets. Actually, it kind of resembled the dealer's room at an anime convention but with even more crowding. Large, auditorium style rooms filled with tables and shelves of goods or more permanent glass counters in some cases. The place our tour guide did some shopping didn't even bother with shelves, they just had binders filled with CD covers and produced a CD, case, and cover from behind the counter when he made a selection like from a picture menu. Needless to say, I understood more why the other Chinese kids I hang around with take piracy for granted after that. Some stores looked less seedy, actually being stores resembling the small outfits you'll find in a mall and not stalls but I was still afraid to pick anything up that was a form of electronic media. They didn't make any attempts to hide what they were doing in Taiwan so I'm curious about China.
I do know that Taiwan doesn't seem to be under the same kind of console lockout China is. The families of my friends that I visited all had PS2s and one of them actually had what appeared to be legitimate games, but the region wasn't always consistent. Since most of the kids I was with were high school students, our hosts made attempts to entertain them and at one point one of them produced a laptop with Need for Speed on it . . . in German. The PS2 games at that family's house appeared to be in English. Of course, they send and receive goods to relatives and friends in other countries so that stuff may have all been imported. We were asked to help bring American vitamins to the relatives in our luggage so it didn't appear that the family I was tagging along with for this trip was trying to smuggle them in to sell, I wouldn't be surprised if at another time of the year some of that would be replaced by games for the kids of our hosts.
Side note: This time in Taiwan happened immediately after a short stay in Japan. BIG, big difference in atmosphere right there to say the least.
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First off I am a gamer, aka I know about as much about fashion as the cheerleaders in high school know about C++. As for looks, I'm a slim build with mostly german then some french/irish facial features. I'm no model, but I'm not the guy eating cheato's while saying girls have sharp knee's on fark threads. Truthfully, I probably will be with a girlfriend in a few months if I can help it, two years here with no nookie, well lets just say I'm not a pious enough guy for that.
Second of all, girls here are ALWAYS with a friend, you know how girls goto the bathroom together in America, well here they just go EVERYWHERE together. If I wanted to take a girl out on a date, the first 3-4 would probably be with her girlfriend along. I can't blame them though, it is dangerous to go out alone if your an attractive girl in china, sex-trade isn't anything to joke about.
Third, go ask a doctor about what immunizations you need to get before going to china, its a long list, and a few STD's are on there. So you gotta be careful what you make any attempts at cause you NEVER know whats in there. Funny enough, the major condom brand here in China is called "Jizzbon" and its main add is showing how thin it is since some guys thumb can be seen through it. I would rather just wear and rubber dish washing glove and not fell much of anything until I have a full medical check on the woman.
Fourth, if I do get a girlfriend thats Chinese here, I am basically the trophy boyfriend that is expected to show up, do a little song and dance in my American english for her friends, and then basically stand next to her and smile for any social events. My response to this is "Is the beer cold and the food decent?", I could really careless about this aspect of a relationship, but other guys get all pissy.
Fifth and finally, if I end up getting married or something, it can be a real hassle with the in-laws who usually want you to stay in China, and the misses who is basically "lets get the fuck out of this shit hole and go to America" (America is actually called Mei Guo where Mei = beautiful, and Gui = country).
So hooking up in China, it's easily possible, think of all the guys you know who have Yellow Fever, there are just as many women here who want a piece of the American pie so to speak. You just need to not be a fatty (unless your rich), or a complete ignorant doofus that screws up social gatherings (by saying something when not being told to).
But those are HUUUGE banners, am I rite?
4 bucks for a legit DVD may sound shocking, but you can' work out the "real value difference" based only on exchange rates.
1. The street vendors, these guys/gals have pre-wrapped stuff with labels and everything, they either have a large box you can look through or they carry around 4-5 titles and try to thrust them into your hands. This is were apparently 99% of people get the porn (its illegal in China, all of it, its also what about 95% of the web blocking effects, with the other 5% being political stuff).
2. small little hole in the wall shops like the one I visited, they mostly sell legitamate stuff and I think out of all the material I browsed, I saw two porn dvd's. This is the place for the cutting edge stuff thats showing in America. I could of gotten the first two seasons of BSG, all of FRIENDS (gag), Desperate Housewives, and lots of other shows, pretty much you just have to wait for a season to end and then bam, its on a DVD.
3. Wal-mart and legitamate places. This is where you can find the legit stuff, but even at the wall mart there was a bin with a bunch of pc games in the same wrappings as all the illegal stuff. I think alot of it was still illegal too, but this was all software and such, no DVD's. I haven't really seen music CD's for sale that were pirated, again the legit things are only like 3-4 dollars over here. Most of my students have sent me mp3's of the music they like through the QQ instant messanger, which also has a built in thing to listen to the top 20 songs in China (which are all pop-ish or kenny-G'ish, ugh). So I am guessing they either buy the stuff or just download like Americans.
Considering most families also don't have cars so they don't need gas or insurance, and that its a universal health care system here, 2000RMB can make for a comfortable living so long as you don't try and buy lots of electronics or eat at western/expensive resturants.
Sounds like the mini-mall place I eventually visited when I was without the previously mentioned person acting as a guide. I wound up picking up some stuff from there since they carried stuff from Japan that I didn't have a chance to snag while I was actually in Japan due to poor scheduling, just not games or DVDs since I was afraid by then.
In my experience, the rule has been that eastern Asia's taste in music is about a decade or a bit over that behind the U.S's tastes :P . I dread what will happen if they go through a rap/hip hop explosion there.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
1000 a month is only 12000 a year, which is roughly 1600 dollars (using your math from the first post)
1600 dollars annually can't even compare to american wages.
3-4 dollar DVDs aren't quite so amazing, in that sense.
Also you have to remember the one child rule here makes ALOT of little emperors/empresses that think they own the world since they get everything they want bought for them. Most people my age or younger had 3000-4000RMB cellphones, and 1000-2000RMB music players. When I was in the electronic districts, they were PACKED with people, so I wouldn't say $3-4 is alot to them these days, the middle class is surging in China while its getting strangled in America.
Also consider the cost of getting a pizza and pictur of root beer cost me 140RMB, while those cd's are only 20-30RMB. Think about America, Pizza at a sit down place would probably end up cheaper then the CD, so there are some reversals on things too. On the subject of pizza, always order thin crust, the normal crust here doesn't Rise for what ever reason and isn't worth it, while the thin crust is just fine.