GarageGames and China
by Benjamin Bradley · 07/27/2005 (11:54 am) · 17 comments
So what happens when you cross a 30 hour plane flight with an accused CIA spy with hundreds of half-naked dancing girls and a series of "maotai GANBEI's"? You get Benjamin's trip to China. That's right, this past week I traveled to Shanghai, China to take part in "ChinaJoy" as a speaker about Casual Games and also spoke at an invitational evening dinner cruise on the "Bund" about game development.
The skyline of Pu Dong - a new industrial - high-tech part of Shanghai.
Anyway, back during GDC, I had started to develop a relationship with Zhan Ye, a man who publishes the only Game Developer magazine in China. And things started looking good to talk with many different universities in China about using Torque to teach game development and programming. So I headed off to China to try and throw one rock at three different birds.
1. ChinaJoy - The biggest game conference in China. Think of it as a cross between E3 and CES and then open it up to the public and you're starting to get the picture. Now I knew that I would stand being a foreigner with blond hair, but I wasn't expecting to be personally greeted by the mayor/provincial leader of Shanghai while just standing up against the wall. During ChinaJoy, I was able to meet with many different companies that are wanting to develop their own games and own their own IP, something indies at GG know all about but in China owning your own IP is a fairly new idea. One of the companies was 'the9" that wants to expand into the casual gaming market, by the way, they are the ones who do World-of-Warcraft in China. While at ChinaJoy, I also spoke on the Casual Games market at how during the next few years the market worth of casual games is going to go through the roof so that by 2008 it will be worth several billion dollars.
At ChinaJoy, there were many stages instead of booths and they all had MMO play-acting taking place. Tons of people gathered round to see their favorite MMO or Anime acted out
Haven't you ever wanted to dress up as your favorite warrior and stand for 10 hours a day for three days?
LineageII is still super popular. They had a LineageII / Jeopardy competition going on during ChinaJoy
Everquest II showcased some upcoming secret info in their hidden theater... I signed some sort of NDA, but I have no idea what it said... It was in Chinese. I probably ended up becoming the first foreign human to contractually marry some exotic elf or something.
Bubbles and half-naked dancing girls... ahhhh now the gaming conference is complete.
I personally enjoyed the Chinese Boy Band that came up after this group and covered nSync and the BackStreetBoys. Now that was funny. Not sure what it had to do with games.
3. The third reason I was in China was to speak to universities about Torque and educational opportunities. Not only did I get some time to sit down with the man who created the first game development degree in China but I also got to teach Torque 2D on Sunday to a game development club at a division of Shanghai University.
This was a picture of the university building where I was teaching
1. Many of the Chinese gamers still love Tribes and several nights we were toasting Tribes late into the night. GANBEI Tribes (I don't know how many times I had to say ganbei and then drink this crazy 75% proof firewater called maotai or something like that.)
2. Be very careful when walking through seldom traveled areas and encountering drunk cops, because they like to start shouting "CIA - SPY" at you.
3. Chinese gamers like dancing girls. (plus Pat wanted me to bring him back a date)
There you go Pat, I hope you're happy.
Next up.... IndieGamesCon... stay tuned for some cool updates about what's happening this year.
The skyline of Pu Dong - a new industrial - high-tech part of Shanghai.Anyway, back during GDC, I had started to develop a relationship with Zhan Ye, a man who publishes the only Game Developer magazine in China. And things started looking good to talk with many different universities in China about using Torque to teach game development and programming. So I headed off to China to try and throw one rock at three different birds.
1. ChinaJoy - The biggest game conference in China. Think of it as a cross between E3 and CES and then open it up to the public and you're starting to get the picture. Now I knew that I would stand being a foreigner with blond hair, but I wasn't expecting to be personally greeted by the mayor/provincial leader of Shanghai while just standing up against the wall. During ChinaJoy, I was able to meet with many different companies that are wanting to develop their own games and own their own IP, something indies at GG know all about but in China owning your own IP is a fairly new idea. One of the companies was 'the9" that wants to expand into the casual gaming market, by the way, they are the ones who do World-of-Warcraft in China. While at ChinaJoy, I also spoke on the Casual Games market at how during the next few years the market worth of casual games is going to go through the roof so that by 2008 it will be worth several billion dollars.
At ChinaJoy, there were many stages instead of booths and they all had MMO play-acting taking place. Tons of people gathered round to see their favorite MMO or Anime acted outHaven't you ever wanted to dress up as your favorite warrior and stand for 10 hours a day for three days?LineageII is still super popular. They had a LineageII / Jeopardy competition going on during ChinaJoyEverquest II showcased some upcoming secret info in their hidden theater... I signed some sort of NDA, but I have no idea what it said... It was in Chinese. I probably ended up becoming the first foreign human to contractually marry some exotic elf or something.Bubbles and half-naked dancing girls... ahhhh now the gaming conference is complete.I personally enjoyed the Chinese Boy Band that came up after this group and covered nSync and the BackStreetBoys. Now that was funny. Not sure what it had to do with games.3. The third reason I was in China was to speak to universities about Torque and educational opportunities. Not only did I get some time to sit down with the man who created the first game development degree in China but I also got to teach Torque 2D on Sunday to a game development club at a division of Shanghai University.
This was a picture of the university building where I was teaching1. Many of the Chinese gamers still love Tribes and several nights we were toasting Tribes late into the night. GANBEI Tribes (I don't know how many times I had to say ganbei and then drink this crazy 75% proof firewater called maotai or something like that.)
2. Be very careful when walking through seldom traveled areas and encountering drunk cops, because they like to start shouting "CIA - SPY" at you.
3. Chinese gamers like dancing girls. (plus Pat wanted me to bring him back a date)
There you go Pat, I hope you're happy.
Next up.... IndieGamesCon... stay tuned for some cool updates about what's happening this year.
About the author
I run WebDesign.com
#2
GANBEI Tribes! (and dancing girls)
07/27/2005 (12:27 pm)
I tire of your banter. Bring the Asian equivalant of Laura Croft to my desk on the double!GANBEI Tribes! (and dancing girls)
#3
07/27/2005 (1:03 pm)
@Pat: It is Lara Croft.
#4
07/27/2005 (1:32 pm)
Yeah - Tomb Raider heathen. =P 
#6
07/27/2005 (2:16 pm)
Yeah yeah, Pat, the tragedy of Lara Croft still remains: if Lara Croft was real, she'd beat the crap out of you for looking at her like that! ;-) 
#7
07/27/2005 (2:49 pm)
anybody have contacts for chinese localisation ? :) 
#9
I am no prude, though one employee posting babe images and another making lewd comments are potentially alienating to members of your community.
It is my opinion that this stuff is for personal blogs and not for blogs on your company website. This is the equivalent of allowing employees to have pin-ups in their cubes.. in this case, they are more so in your lobby.
It's not cool.
-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games
07/27/2005 (3:16 pm)
You know guys... I am no prude, though one employee posting babe images and another making lewd comments are potentially alienating to members of your community.
It is my opinion that this stuff is for personal blogs and not for blogs on your company website. This is the equivalent of allowing employees to have pin-ups in their cubes.. in this case, they are more so in your lobby.
It's not cool.
-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games
#10
07/27/2005 (4:06 pm)
Cool! Lineage 2 rocks! And girls!! :) 
#11
Lighten up a bit! The girls were there to be photographed and bring punters to the booths. I do agree about the comments though. They are a little much even if meant totally in the spirit of fun.
07/27/2005 (4:20 pm)
@JoshLighten up a bit! The girls were there to be photographed and bring punters to the booths. I do agree about the comments though. They are a little much even if meant totally in the spirit of fun.
#12
07/27/2005 (4:38 pm)
The images are very tame by E3 standards. The issue isn't the amount of skin. The "offensive" images have been shrunken and the crazy nipple image removed... I probably wouldn't have commented on the modified blog. Though, I still think it's inappropriate and potentially alienating to some community members.
#13
07/27/2005 (4:40 pm)
There were never any "nipples". Not sure what you were looking at. There was folds in clothing, but no "nipples". The "offending image" has been examined by many people, and no one saw anything.
#14
Edit: ... and look... me... myself... personally... I have absolutely no problem with total frontal nudity... In fact, I like it. I'm not offended by ANY of the images you posted. I think they are quite tame.
If this is your personal blog, good for you. I am simply saying that the unmodified blog could have been offensive to some of the Garage Games community members.
I have zero patience for the "boy's club" mentality of this industry. It's furthered in subtle and not so subtle ways.
07/27/2005 (4:43 pm)
Well, that particular image was removed... probably due to the nippleness of the custom.Edit: ... and look... me... myself... personally... I have absolutely no problem with total frontal nudity... In fact, I like it. I'm not offended by ANY of the images you posted. I think they are quite tame.
If this is your personal blog, good for you. I am simply saying that the unmodified blog could have been offensive to some of the Garage Games community members.
I have zero patience for the "boy's club" mentality of this industry. It's furthered in subtle and not so subtle ways.
#15
07/27/2005 (5:53 pm)
You have a mighty high horse you ride on there Josh.
#16
You missed the wings.
I wouldn't have commented on the modified blog. The original had 3 large images of "Booth Babes". The first reaction being: "Girls!!! Oh, you went to China?" ... anyway, the point I was trying to make is that material like this could alienate some members of the GG community. My guess is probably not...
I wonder why so few females are in the games industry? It has to be with them not being cool enough. It couldn't have anything to do with intimidation on multiple levels? Nah! Look at the credits for World of Warcraft, it's literally unbelievable!!!
07/27/2005 (5:55 pm)
Quote:you have a mighty high horse you ride on there Josh.
You missed the wings.
I wouldn't have commented on the modified blog. The original had 3 large images of "Booth Babes". The first reaction being: "Girls!!! Oh, you went to China?" ... anyway, the point I was trying to make is that material like this could alienate some members of the GG community. My guess is probably not...
I wonder why so few females are in the games industry? It has to be with them not being cool enough. It couldn't have anything to do with intimidation on multiple levels? Nah! Look at the credits for World of Warcraft, it's literally unbelievable!!!
#17
Be sure to let me know next year and I'll meet up with you there. I'm looking for contacts in china too.
It looks like the chinese market is very similar to the korean and japanese markets.. no surprise there really. Things are definitely hotting up in that area of the world though. As I'm out here in Singapore right now, I get the feeling that for a few good contacts, I could really get some interesting work lined up.
Just so's you know Ben, I'm big into the asian market. I think china has a lot of potential and I love the korean willingness to embrace games at a universal level.
Hmmm, things are definitely moving on.
Incidentally, how if you have any good contacts at chinese uni's for game development kind of stuff, please pass them on. I'm hell bent on trying to get our game course started out there in china (Bolton has a few links with chinese universities out there already).
I had hoped that chinajoy would be later so I could go this year, I guess I forgot about it. Ahh well.
See you at IGC!
Phil.
07/28/2005 (1:39 am)
Hey Ben!!! you should have said, I'd have joined you at chinajoy..Be sure to let me know next year and I'll meet up with you there. I'm looking for contacts in china too.
It looks like the chinese market is very similar to the korean and japanese markets.. no surprise there really. Things are definitely hotting up in that area of the world though. As I'm out here in Singapore right now, I get the feeling that for a few good contacts, I could really get some interesting work lined up.
Just so's you know Ben, I'm big into the asian market. I think china has a lot of potential and I love the korean willingness to embrace games at a universal level.
Hmmm, things are definitely moving on.
Incidentally, how if you have any good contacts at chinese uni's for game development kind of stuff, please pass them on. I'm hell bent on trying to get our game course started out there in china (Bolton has a few links with chinese universities out there already).
I had hoped that chinajoy would be later so I could go this year, I guess I forgot about it. Ahh well.
See you at IGC!
Phil.
Torque Owner Prairie Games
Prairie Games, Inc.
The fine tradition of the stinky locker room continues!!!
-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games