US gamers eager to break into the Chinese market

US editors and designers were all ears as a representative of China's government addressed the world's biggest electronic gaming industry convention here on Wednesday, answering questions from eager participants looking to enter China's huge market.

Industry at the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo are counting on Beijing not only to halt piracy, but to provide clear guidelines on how they can get their products approved by government censors.

The answers, however, remain vague.

China's government supports both the local production of games developed abroad, as well as new games developed in Chinese studios, said Kou Xiaowei, a top Chinese official in the government office dealing with audiovisual electronics and Internet publications. Kou's appearance here marked the first time a representative of Beijing had attended the industry convention.

China local entrepreneurs to work along with foreigners in joint partnerships "as long as the games are suitable for the Chinese culture and history," Kou said.

After the first government rules regulating video game usage were issued some six months ago, seven Internet online gaming sites were approved as well as the Internet portals NetEase and China.com, Kou said. A game editor was also urged to develop a game baptized "The Legendary 100 Chinese Heroes," he said.

The word "censorship" however quickly popped up during the question-and-answer period. A room filled with US video game editors and designers drilled Kou with questions about censorship in China, and most importantly, where information on the subject could be found in English.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure that we have our rules in English on our Web site," Kou said. "I suggest you go and see the Chinese version."

Jason Della Rocca, executive director of International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a San Francisco-based group that advocates globally on digital game creation issues, says that many American game developers want to export their goods to China.

But the developers are hampered by lack of information on censorship, and the impression that a game can be banned "just because the government says `I don't like what you do,'" he said.

An soccer game was rejected because it had teams from China and Taiwan.

"They thought it was inappropriate," Rocca said.

Another popular in the US, Command and Conquer Generals, produced by Electronic Arts, "was forbidden because one of the enemies [in the game] was Chinese," Rocca said.

In a country like the US, where freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, the Chinese rules may come as a shock to some US gamers. Yet Beijing's desire to control video game content is far from unique: Australia, New Zealand and Germany also engage in video game censoring.

Germany "may be the worst" among the bunch, Rocca said.

Games censored "as soon as they think a game is too violent or is about the Second World War, or shows Nazi signs," he said.

The display of Nazi symbols is forbidden in Germany.

Chinese "are not alone, just the most rigid," said Jay Horwitz with Jupiter Research.

Since the turn of the century, China has experienced an explosion in Internet-based video game playing, usually role-playing games that allow several Internet users from around the world to play in the same imaginary scenario from their personal computers.

According to the market research company IDC, which follows the high-tech industry, online games generated profits of US$297 million in China last year, a 50 percent jump over 2003 figures. IDC predicts growth will remain the same over the next five years.