Some game called Aion hits a mill in China?

Ok, whatever. It's 6 and I'm supposed to get off work now. 6:10 now, fuck. Ok I'm totally going, but I feel it my duty to update this blog once in awhile, especially whenever some exciting or at least relevant news in gaming in China comes along. So here it is. A game, that I have never heard of, called Aion, has hit a million users in China! Break out the bubbly everyone! It's time to celebrate, for some reason:

Within the first four days of launch, Aion pulled in one million players who happily paid for at least one hour of gameplay, reports GI.biz.Shanda Interactive Entertainment began charging users an hourly rate for the MMORPG’s “Yao Sai Pan Long” scenario, but despite the success, Deutsche Bank has told investors to hold off on purchasing stock in Shanda. This was due to player concerns over the cost, high hardware requirements and the current lack of in-game content.

Anyway, I'm sure people might know that MMO PC games are the big thing in China, most likely because it provides them with a sense of social worth that they don't otherwise find in school, home, or the underside of a toilet seat. Sorry that was rude. I don't know why Chinese like MMO games so much, and I don't know why Asians besides Japan but maybe including Japan like microtransactions so much. I mean, accessorizing a character that doesn't really exist? WTF? Anyway, I like to burn field mice so who am I to speak?

(thanks VG247 via GI.biz!) 

There's a gold rush on in China

For virtual gold, that is! Yes, people who play WOW in the West apparently prove that China is correct in instituting restrictions to online gaming to curb addiction, but China should also extend that to include curbing the spread of total stupidity that virtual gold actually has value. It's electrons, people. 1s and 0s. Blizzard's servers go down, your life's true meaninglessness will be exposed, and then you'll have to go play Everquest or whatever it was you played before you lost yourself in the macabre void of WOW. WOW is really such an appropriate acronym for that game. WOW people that play it as if their life depends on it like nothing else are dumb. WOW people have virtual funerals in-game and WOW for the sake of opening my mouth once more.

But as I was saying, virtual gold farming is big business in China. There are, according the report linked here anyway, 1,000,000 people in China engaged in gold farming. Their work earns $2 billion US mind you in revenue. Holy cow patties that's no chump change. And that's just the conservative estimate. As Nicholas Deleon on Crunchgear writes, and he can write it better than I, having never played the game,

In all my days of playing World of Warcraft, though, to be fair, I haven’t played since Christmastime, I never even thought about buying gold; it’s just dumb. You either have a guild that hooks you up with gear, or have a friend who’s 60 levels higher than you who is willing to waste two hours killing mobs and running you though instances. That’s how the game is meant to be played, not by buying success off some kid in Asia who’s half-starving and mining all day. ::shakes head::

(Thanks Gamesindustry.biz via crunchgear.com via technews.am!)