Video games are a small window into Chinese life, but they're a window nonetheless, and video games themselves, in China, are huge. China accounts for more than half of the entire planet's PC gaming revenue. In fact, despite it being smaller than mobile gaming there, China's PC gaming market alone made over $15bn in 2018; more than half the entire amount of revenue made in the US gaming industry overall, including consoles, mobile, the lot. Going by the numbers of analyst firm Niko Partners, as of 2018 there were a total of about 630 million gamers in China - a little over 8 percent of humans on the planet.
Huge. But we know there are lots of people in China, and we know lots of them play games. What's really interesting is that these people are playing games in what is, on paper, the most aggressively censored system around. I suspect this sort of thing is why economists love visiting China, even if doing so is a risk: everything is a case study.
Games are no different. Under Chinese law, video games can't contain anything that "threatens China's national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity". They can't harm "the nation's reputation, security or interests". They can't promote cults, or "superstitions". They can't "incite obscenity, drug use, violence or gambling" - although loot boxes are, of course, fine (in fact Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad reckons a Chinese game may have invented them as far back as 2003) - and they can't include anything that "harms public ethics" or China's "culture and traditions". They also can't include any "other content" that might violate China's constitution or law, whatever that may be, and they have to be published in China by a Chinese company.
After the soothing dampness of Washington, American Truck Simulator will depart for Utah in its next expansion. Developers SCS Software have now announced that will launch in November, and celebrated the news with a 17-minute video showing one Utah journey. That trucks from the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, over the river, across the border, through a small town, to the desert, and into the night to reach Salina. I prefer the moister zones of ATS, and have said Utah looks so dry it makes me feel physical discomfort, but I can’t deny that damn, the desert looks lovely at dusk.
I am a damp person. I was born by the sea, I was raised by the sea, I live by the sea, I swim in the sea, and if I’m lucky I’ll die in the sea. I would describe myself as a bin bag full of sea water. I am still surprised to feel physical discomfort looking at American Truck Simulator‘s upcoming Utah expansion. One screenshot in particular shivered my spine and goosed my pimples. South of Salt Like City, a row of houses sit atop a lump of big red rock. Just there. Regular houses. People live there. In that arid environment. Like that’s fine. Oh god.