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China bans 'gangster' games

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jul 28, 2009 1:09 pm PT

Ministry of Culture shuts down online "godfather" and "mafia" games because they promote "violent culture."

Though China has been all too happy to embrace elements of free-market capitalism, it is a long way off from a free society. Today, the official government news agency, Xinhua, announced that the Chinese Ministry of Culture has outlawed online games with "gangster" themes or featuring "mafia-like gangs."

Dang, it feels good not to be a gangsta...

"These games encourage people to deceive, loot and kill, and glorify gangster life. They are a bad influence on youngsters," read a statement issued by the Ministry. The statement went on to say that games embracing "mafia" and "godfather" culture are forbidden because they "advocate obscenity, gambling, or violence" and "undermine morality and Chinese traditional culture." A column condemning the "violent culture" of such games also ran in Tuesday's issue of the Procuratorial Daily, one of many Chinese government-controlled newspapers.

Though Electronic Arts' Godfather games, 2K's Mafia series, and Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto franchise might seem like obvious targets, so far, only Chinese-language massively multiplayer games have been shut down. These include (with official Ministry of Culture translations): www.kaixin.com's Godfather, www.mop.com's Jianghu ("gangster community"), and www.xiaonei.com's Guhuozai ("young and dangerous guys"). Further violators face undefined "severe punishment" from the government.

Xinhua quoted the outrage amongst several users of the game. "I just stole 3 million yuan in the game when the Web site suddenly went blank," complained one reported player only identified by his Internet ID number. Another unnamed gamer was quoted as saying, "I really felt like our gang was disbanded."

Today's move comes less than a month after China nearly required all new computers sold in the country to come with special net-screening software preinstalled. Though that mandate has since been delayed, the Beijing government still requires the software, the heavily criticized Green Dam application, be installed in all PCs used in schools and Internet cafes. Internet access inside China is also monitored and strictly controlled by the government, which blocks sites referring to such events as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre or last year's unrest in Tibet.

306 Comments

  • Rx_Nightmare

    Posted Nov 27, 2009 7:30 pm PT

    In communist China shooting is saved for people who speak out against great leader! Not wasted on silly electronic light machines.

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 7:41 am PT

    I honestly am lost for words.

  • DarkDante_sw

    Posted Nov 4, 2009 1:50 am PT

    I'm afraid anyone 10+ that may mistake things like GTA for reality is either mentaly disturbed, or didn't have a mommy or daddy to teach them the difference between reality and fiction.

  • icey05

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 10:36 pm PT

    @KillerWabbit23 Australia only tried to ban those games because we don't have a rating above MA15+

    those games had things in them, that werent suitable for 15 year olds. thats fair enough. we wouldnt have stuff like that happen if we had an R18 rating.

    at least australia doesnt openly give guns to just about anyone who wants them. when we have high school shootings on a yearly basis, you can call us idiots.

  • Darth_Ultima

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 8:58 am PT

    umph. Everyone knows that the Chinese government has a monopoly on corruption over there and they just don't like competition. If you want to talk about violence then lets talk about Chinese political prisoners, who's only crime was disagreeing with the government, being executed so their organs can be sold on the black market.

  • KillerWabbit23

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 8:56 am PT

    If what China thinks is true, then the U.S. would be populated by millions of violent children, wielding AK-47s and murdering pedestrians.
    But it's not. Let's see Australia do something even more boneheaded than this, however, I don't think that it's possible to top banning L4D2 or Fallout 3. Idiots.

  • Dreamerdude26

    Posted Nov 2, 2009 7:38 pm PT

    This is one of the reasons I'm glad I live in the US. I don't know what I would do if stuff like this started happening over here.

  • Shadowflame291

    Posted Nov 2, 2009 7:01 pm PT

    S*** man, it's like 1984 in real life in China...

  • steve22_3

    Posted Nov 2, 2009 6:21 pm PT

    oh yeah sure.. ban games depicting gangs and killing n looting games.. but it's perfectly ok to make more of them Romance of three kingdoms games.. I mean ya killing for the fun of it is bad but killing cuz your leader orders you to is ok

  • TwistLock

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 12:05 pm PT

    I can see where their government is coming from, but this has been an antiquated fear ever since its conception. Violent gaming is violent gaming, nothing more. The fact that a game may portray structured criminal activity is just part of the setting for its story. In the end, it's just another means of entertaining oneself.

    On the plus side, this allows us to more easily draw parallels between politicians lobbying to ban violent games and Chairman Mao when we feel like being mean to them. That's right. Jack Thompson is a communist now. Someone tell Fox News.

  • cityslicker202

    Posted Sep 3, 2009 8:59 pm PT

    Thats insane! You would think their government would be smarter then that.. If your playing gta or another gang related game then your commiting crimes in a game, not in real life. Which kinda is the point right? stop crime? ive watched rated 4 movies since i was 4 and my parents always let me play M rated games. And i turned out perfectly fine, Im 19 years old and well was about to say never been to join but it wasnt for a violent crime. ive never been in a fight.

  • jarofdirt882

    Posted Aug 26, 2009 12:05 pm PT

    So China, what about films like the Godfather and Scarface? Do they or do they not depict the same kind of things?

  • St0Ne4Ge

    Posted Aug 24, 2009 2:57 am PT

    They need to realize that the gangs, drugs and violence was there before games were, the games are just a form of media showing these elements of society, just like films and books do. The games arent the cause of these problems they merely highlight them and we all know sweeping things under the rug never makes them go away. Games dont kill people, People kill people.

  • Amauris96

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 5:07 pm PT

    This is totaly bull crap give the people some freedom you chince people...after all it is just a game. ; )

  • cash_chabuk

    Posted Aug 22, 2009 4:13 am PT

    The chinese government fears from its people..

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