I’m at a salon in Shanghai getting my hair cut for the summer when I start up a game of Arena of Valor on my cellphone. “Oh, you play that game, too?” my hairdresser asks. “I play that game a lot, anytime I have free time.” Arena of Valor is the Western port of a... Continue Reading →
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has reached 30 million players worldwide, according to data released by producer Bluehole, with Chinese players accounting for 46%. However, PUBG’s anti-cheating tech provider, BattlEye, also released data showing that 99% of accounts banned for cheating are from China. Programmers, sales platforms, and agents who promote and sell illegal mods make up... Continue Reading →
Voting is now open for users to pick their favorite games of 2017. Voting closes on December 29th and the awards ceremony will take place on January 18. Check out the video below to see some of the categories and the nominees that are currently leading.
Hearthhead, a site that focuses on all aspects of the online TCG Hearthstone, has started running a regular Chinese meta game analysis column that takes a close look at how players in China are playing the game. The site outlines the most popular and successful classes for the major competitive game types (Standard, Wild, and... Continue Reading →
The problems that came up during the Dota 2 Shanghai Major are best summarized by Weibo user 国际部歌王_Storm: Game delays, equipment failure. The orchestra under suspicion of being fake, and now it’s coming out that teams’ personal equipment was pulled out of their rooms for cleaning. The most upsetting thing is that all the Chinese... Continue Reading →
In the past couple months, video game streamers have been the focus of some concern. As a result of the rise in streaming video platforms (such as twitch.tv), and a trend of hyper-competition, the worth of many professional streamers has soared so that annual salaries of a million or tens of millions of RMB isn't... Continue Reading →
Guys paying girls to play video games with them isn't a totally new idea (see: GameCrush). The idea is, you pay a girl or an intermediary company a certain amount and in return you get a girl to play video games with you (usually an online game), including full text/voice chat. In China, this service... Continue Reading →
We've all heard the stories of "harmonization" (the euphemism for censorship) of western games imported into China, like skulls in World of Warcraft turning into sacks of flour, or skeletons into straw-men. However, censorship of games in China goes beyond censoring dead bodies, and guidelines exist that developers must follow in order for the government... Continue Reading →
LMQ is a competitive League of Legends eSports team (a sister team to Royal Club) that moved from China to the US in December to play in US sanctioned tournaments. They secured a spot in the League Championship Series by going undefeated in the Challenger Series and finishing the Challenger playoffs 5-2. They then went... Continue Reading →
With over 67 million people playing League of Legends worldwide per month, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some Olympic athletes competing in Sochi rank it among one of their favorite hobbies. Han Tianyu, who placed silver in this year’s 1500m speed skating competition in Sochi and won China their first medal of the... Continue Reading →
