Football Manager 2005 was banned in China

[Lord_Sidious]

EIJING (Reuters) - China, sensitive about issues of national sovereignty, has banned a computer sports game that classifies Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet as countries and has threatened to fine Web sites that supply the game and net cafes that let patrons download it.
The game, "Soccer Manager 2005," contained content that harmed China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and violated Chinese law, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

It did not say who made the video game, also called "Champion Soccer Manager 2005," but said it had yet to be released nationally. Any Web site that offered downloads of the game would be fined up to $1,210, Xinhua said, quoting an order from the Ministry of Culture.

Cybercafes that failed to prevent players from downloading, installing or playing the game would be fined as much as $1,815, it added.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau were listed as independent countries in the game, and the Himalayan region of Tibet, which Chinese troops occupied in 1950, is called "Chinese Tibet," which elevated it to the same level as China itself, Xinhua said.

Taiwan and the mainland have been politically separate for 55 years but Beijing considers the democratic island of 23 million people a rebel part of China's territory and has vowed to unite it with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Hong Kong, a one-time colony of Britain, was handed back to China in 1997. Macau, a former colony of Portugal, came back to the Chinese fold in 1999.

Online gaming exploded in China in recent years, and is hugely popular among urban youth. An estimated 13.8 million online games spent $240 million on their hobby last year and annual revenues are expected to reach $1.5 billion by 2008.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.


http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticl...storyID=7015547 ]

Anyone knows anything about games banned in china?

 

[Stapel]

A game named "soccer manager" should indeed be banned.

China

 

[amadeus]

China bans games that feature anything related to the KMT. For example, Hearts of Iron is banned in China.

China doesn't want it's history known by anyone in their country.

 

[LBPB]

The Chineses have baned this game because Tibet and Taiwan are present as independant states.

 

[Lord_Sidious]

China bans games that feature anything related to the KMT. For example, Hearts of Iron is banned in China.

China doesn't want it's history known by anyone in their country.

Well so they shoud ban Civ3, EU2, AoE, RoN and may other games

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Well so they shoud ban Civ3, EU2, AoE, RoN and may other games

I don't recall Civ3 mentioning Taiwan or Hong Kong as independent nations.

China bans anything that may lead to people wanting independence in the occupied areas. It's almost that simple.

 

[Suppersalmon]

why would they ban a football management game the only thing they can find out is that their player are'nt the best in the world but surely most Chinese football fans no this already

 

[Lord_Sidious]

I don't recall Civ3 mentioning Taiwan or Hong Kong as independent nations.

China bans anything that may lead to people wanting independence in the occupied areas. It's almost that simple.

Well but eu2 for example features chinese history and very well, and tibet is an independent country and the province of lop nor is from chagatai khanate

 

[Nobody]

i wonder if they banned jonah lomu rugby, you could play as chinese taipei. but they were real crap, maybe china let that game in as it shows taiwan as weak.(although my freind can win the world cup with them)

 

[Dell19]

So essentially they have banned the game because player nationalities can be things that China doesn't agree with? Its not as if they have separate leagues for those countries I assume...

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Any game with "soccer" in it's title should be banned. Football is football. Denying it will just give the US more encouragement in their ongoing pretence that their little rugby-alike sport is the real football.

 

[Dell19]

Its called football manager when sold in football countries...

 

[Shabbaman]

Playing CM online, that must be pure boredom. I wonder if Great Britain will follow this example and ban it as well, since the game also contains teams like Wales, Scotland and Engerland. If that doesn't harm sovereignty and territorial integrity...

 

[Stapel]

Any game with "soccer" in it's title should be banned. Football is football. Denying it will just give the US more encouragement in their ongoing pretence that their little rugby-alike sport is the real football.

Wise words !

 

[blindside]

13.8 million online gamers, gah what a market for companies.

 

[Lord_Sidious]

I don't like the word "soccer" but I didn't want to modify reuters article.

 

[Dann]

I agree with Stapel and ~Corsair#01~ regarding football vs soccer.

Now, on the subject, China bans any game that touches on the sovereignty issue regarding it's territory. It's that simple.

Banning isn't that efficient anyway. It's not like gamers won't find this being sold locally sometime soon, pirated and underground of course.

I'll admit banning C & C Generals just because the opening cinema showed Tiananmen being blown away was shallow though.

China bans games that feature anything related to the KMT. For example, Hearts of Iron is banned in China.

China doesn't want it's history known by anyone in their country.

Not true. There's TV series about World War II that show units of the KMT in a favorable and heroic light.

 

[Dell19]

Playing CM online, that must be pure boredom.

Yet you play other online football management games

 

[nonconformist]

I back up the claim that there is no such thing as "soccer".

 

[allhailIndia]

China, like so many other Asian nations is a bit touchy about its past and its sovereignity. I remember reading that Windows 95 was banned for a while in India because it showed Kashmir as part of Pakistan as well, without the customary "disputed region" tag, usually found in most International publications in India.
NOthing new really...game developers I guess need to have a better PR team with some knowledge of how Asian countries would react to their games..