Chinese Version of Civ4

Thunderfall

Thunderfall

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2K Games' Jason Bergman made an interesting post in his blog today about the Chinese version of Civilization IV, which recently became available in China:

It took a while, but Civilization IV is finally available legitimately in China. Localizing it brought with it a number of problems…there were several gameplay changes that were necessary to get it past the governmental censors (I won’t go into them here, but if you play Civ, it’s not hard to guess what they might be).

In any event, as a way to steer people towards the legitimate version of the game, the Chinese edition is really, really cool. For the low, low price of 元139 (that’s about $18), you get the game, a soundtrack CD, a tech tree, manual (slimmed down from the original English version…a fully translated Chinese language manual would probably have been enormous), a t-shirt, and a statue. Yeah, a statue. And it’s a really nice one, too. It’s hand painted, and has some really nice touches, like the string on the warrior’s crossbow. Anwyay, I’ve put some photos up, so check ‘em out. It’s really cool.
Click to expand...
That's lots of goodies for $18! :eek:
 
While the extra goodies that come with the package gives it an incredible bang for the bucks, I wonder how the "gameplay changes" they made would play out in the end? Let me take some guesses. Patches for the Chinese version have to be released separately and Chinese gamers can't join games hosted by others and vice versa. Even if I can read Chinese (which I can), burdened with all these I'd probably end up getting the English version anyway.

BTW, I can't wait to see what their civilopedia entry for Mao is. Have to be good for a laugh.:lol:
 
Hahahah i would really like to know what they changed in order for it to get past the gov. censors......
 
Me too, and the "gameplay changes" sound ominous. Changing a few civolopedia entries is fine, china is a different civilization and maybe they see things differently. Be interesting to read. But basic gameplay changes?

So long as things are compatable I wouldn't mind going head to head with some chinese fellow, but he has to be playing under the same basic rules! lol

Different rules make a different game.
 
Wow, Fraxis was quite smart with the $18 price tag + statue. It is the only way there is any chance of the game being bought legally.
 
As someone who lives in China I can tell you two things.

1/No one will buy this for $18, which is a fortune here. Also you can get the game anywhere for about $1.50.

2/Game play changes will be the removal of democracy or the extreme watering down of it. It will also glorify and change the characteristics of the Chinese.

This culture is juvenile, I will try to get a copy and let you know.
 
$18 for this crap? Let me tell you, no one but the most rich and fanatic civ fans will ever buy this. It is funny that this guy was "for a low low price of just $139 Yuan...." $139 Yuan is a lot of money, especially for those teenagers who's most likely to buy games, especially considering that they can get the same game, without any government censor for about 3 or 4 Yuan.
The thing that I have noticed since doing business in China many years ago, is that the government can censor whatever it wants, and people can still get the uncensored version, with little or no effort.
 
This is absurd. Any nation which censors any material, be it art, movies, games, whatever, needs to have their people revolt against their government. Watering down of democracy / glorifying communism / china? This is a game, not a propaganda tool.

Doesn't really matter in the end I suppose. Like others have said, that's a lot of money in China, especially when you can find it for much cheaper (or free?)
 
This is absurd. Any nation which censors any material, be it art, movies, games, whatever, needs to have their people revolt against their government. Watering down of democracy / glorifying communism / china? This is a game, not a propaganda tool.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. I'd add to that list, imprisonment without trial, death penalty, using news programs as propaganda, trying to destroy the reputation of those that don't agree with you, invading other countries because you don't like the leader, getting lied to by your leader and starting a war for oil.

Hang on, what country are we talking about here?
 
^ :lol: I want to move to China. :D
Click to expand...

You won't want to anymore if you know what happened on Civ4 Chinese Version.
China was renamed Jiu Ding Guo (Nation of Nice Tripots) with the Great Leader Mao and Qin changed to imginary leaders called Master Tang and Master Qin (Both with new avatars and intruductions). And no human player can use China (or Nine Tripots) without triggering a serious error that shuts down the game.
Mongolia was renamed Wala with Genghis and Kublai replaced by two leaders that I didn't even know who they are (Avatars remines).
"Three Gorges Dam" was damnedly renamed "Aswan Dam".
"Forbiddoned City" was renamed "Imperial City".
"Confusion" was renamed "Religion of the truth".
"Communism" was renamed "Perfectism".
All about China was changed, removed or renamed.
No Warlord Expansion yet.
And the worst, civ4 is the best PC game of 2005, but now it`s 2007.

I've got a Chinese Version Copy and have deleted it and reinstalled the pirated vision downloaded from the internet, at least, it`s fully supported Warlord 2.08 and has no Interminating Error.
 
Moon Pine said:
You won't want to anymore if you know what happened on Civ4 Chinese Version.
China was renamed Jiu Ding Guo (Nation of Nice Tripots) with the Great Leader Mao and Qin changed to imginary leaders called Master Tang and Master Qin (Both with new avatars and intruductions). And no human player can use China (or Nine Tripots) without triggering a serious error that shuts down the game.
Mongolia was renamed Wala with Genghis and Kublai replaced by two leaders that I didn't even know who they are (Avatars remines).
"Three Gorges Dam" was damnedly renamed "Aswan Dam".
"Forbiddoned City" was renamed "Imperial City".
"Confusion" was renamed "Religion of the truth".
"Communism" was renamed "Perfectism".
All about China was changed, removed or renamed.
No Warlord Expansion yet.
And the worst, civ4 is the best PC game of 2005, but now it`s 2007.

I've got a Chinese Version Copy and have deleted it and reinstalled the pirated vision downloaded from the internet, at least, it`s fully supported Warlord 2.08 and has no Interminating Error.
Click to expand...

I guess you mean Confucianism. :)

BTW, I wasn't being serious. It was just a joke, and I do know that $18 is much there, considering it's a sum here too (though not regarded as "much", nobody will buy it when they can buy it for $2 on the streets, from gypsy pirates).
 
Moon Pine said:
You won't want to anymore if you know what happened on Civ4 Chinese Version.
China was renamed Jiu Ding Guo (Nation of Nice Tripots) with the Great Leader Mao and Qin changed to imginary leaders called Master Tang and Master Qin (Both with new avatars and intruductions). And no human player can use China (or Nine Tripots) without triggering a serious error that shuts down the game.
Mongolia was renamed Wala with Genghis and Kublai replaced by two leaders that I didn't even know who they are (Avatars remines).
"Three Gorges Dam" was damnedly renamed "Aswan Dam".
"Forbiddoned City" was renamed "Imperial City".
"Confusion" was renamed "Religion of the truth".
"Communism" was renamed "Perfectism".
All about China was changed, removed or renamed.
No Warlord Expansion yet.
And the worst, civ4 is the best PC game of 2005, but now it`s 2007.

I've got a Chinese Version Copy and have deleted it and reinstalled the pirated vision downloaded from the internet, at least, it`s fully supported Warlord 2.08 and has no Interminating Error.
Click to expand...

Surely you're joking.
 
Moon Pine said:
You won't want to anymore if you know what happened on Civ4 Chinese Version.
China was renamed Jiu Ding Guo (Nation of Nice Tripots) with the Great Leader Mao and Qin changed to imginary leaders called Master Tang and Master Qin (Both with new avatars and intruductions). And no human player can use China (or Nine Tripots) without triggering a serious error that shuts down the game.
Mongolia was renamed Wala with Genghis and Kublai replaced by two leaders that I didn't even know who they are (Avatars remines).
"Three Gorges Dam" was damnedly renamed "Aswan Dam".
"Forbiddoned City" was renamed "Imperial City".
"Confusion" was renamed "Religion of the truth".
"Communism" was renamed "Perfectism".
All about China was changed, removed or renamed.
No Warlord Expansion yet.
And the worst, civ4 is the best PC game of 2005, but now it`s 2007.

I've got a Chinese Version Copy and have deleted it and reinstalled the pirated vision downloaded from the internet, at least, it`s fully supported Warlord 2.08 and has no Interminating Error.
Click to expand...

Or it is a joke, or Firaxis is accomplice to the censorship of the Chinese government.. and this is only for money :thumbsdown:
 
I would hope to see a picture of the statue.

As for "only for the money" -- I'm pretty sure that's why they sold it here.
 
Moon Pine said:
You won't want to anymore if you know what happened on Civ4 Chinese Version.
China was renamed Jiu Ding Guo (Nation of Nice Tripots) with the Great Leader Mao and Qin changed to imginary leaders called Master Tang and Master Qin (Both with new avatars and intruductions). And no human player can use China (or Nine Tripots) without triggering a serious error that shuts down the game.
Mongolia was renamed Wala with Genghis and Kublai replaced by two leaders that I didn't even know who they are (Avatars remines).
"Three Gorges Dam" was damnedly renamed "Aswan Dam".
"Forbiddoned City" was renamed "Imperial City".
"Confusion" was renamed "Religion of the truth".
"Communism" was renamed "Perfectism".
All about China was changed, removed or renamed.
No Warlord Expansion yet.
And the worst, civ4 is the best PC game of 2005, but now it`s 2007.

I've got a Chinese Version Copy and have deleted it and reinstalled the pirated vision downloaded from the internet, at least, it`s fully supported Warlord 2.08 and has no Interminating Error.
Click to expand...
How on earth can a government call itself "perfectionism"; be called the "Nation of Nice Tripots"; and rename "Confusionism" to the "Religion of Truth" and actually expect itself to be taken seriously! If their leaders had a more level headed approach to leadership, they wouldn't need to enforce their views.

For the record, I don't believe that democracy is any better. I see this as an insecure leadership issue rather than a government system issue - and all forms of government suffer from it, especially in this day and age. I am surprised that with all the awesome Chinese historical leadership lessons they have from their past, that their leaders become this... silly.

My attitude with regards to leading is that if you cannot let those with whom you're leading speak freely, then it's your insecurity that needs to change, not the people around you. That's stuff I learned from religions like Buddhism and Taoism. Simply amazing!
 
@Watiggi; I absolutely agree with you! Democracy is not perfect (and not "perfectionist"!!) but the freedom of speech is unvaluable!

@SewerStarFish: To make money selling games is good; to accept compromises with a dictatorial regime only for making MORE money is debatable for me..
Sorry.. it's hard to me explain better this concept in english..

By the way, this is a link of an image of the statue ;) :
http://loonyboi.com/gallery//main.php?g2_itemId=2559
 
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