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18 May 2011

Next Steps in US-China Relations?

The English-language People's Daily asks "Will this visit compensate for the "shortcomings" and strengthen the military ties between China and the United States?"

Well, not if you're running around behind our backs making videogames where you kill our soldiers.

The latest example? A first-person-shooter video game, developed by China’s Giant Network Technology Co. and backed by the People’s Liberation Army. It’s apparently modeled on the U.S. Army–made shooter America’s Army.

Like its American counterpart, introduced as a recruiting tool in 2002, Glorious Mission begins with simulated basic training before deploying the player to an imaginary battleground to duke it out in close-quarters combat. News reports show scores of Chinese troops dutifully gaming away in front of their computer screens.

“The game itself looks pretty well-made,” one blogger commented. “Graphics definitely on par with at least the [Call of Duty] series.”

But there’s one key difference between the American and Chinese “shooters.” Where the bad guys in America’s Army are generic Middle Eastern or Central Asian insurgents and terrorists, the enemy in Glorious Mission is apparently the U.S. military. A TV report offers glimpses of an American-made Apache gunship crashing in flames.

By: Brant

2 comments:

  1. ...a game where the Chinese kill Americans? Shocking, I can't believe they would do this, after all America has never put out a game where you kill Ch...oh wait, nevermind.

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  2. The big difference is that in the US, that sort of software gets developed commercially, with no government involvement (even if the gov't eventually buys hte code for their own purposes).
    In China, there's no way that got developed / built without the support and encouragement of the government, giving it an official policy imprimatur.

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