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On July 24 2009 02:55 Emlary wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2009 02:42 baubo wrote: normal middle-class salaryman makes around $150 a month. $150 = RMB1000 Are you kidding me? Middle-class salaryman makes RMB1000 a month? To be a middle-class, you have to at least make RMB80,000 a month (around one million RMB = $140,000 a year) in my opinion. First year college graduates make $200 to $1,000 per month in China, depending on what kind of job they take.
......
I honestly don't know how to respond to this. I honestly don't.
It's like trying to tell discuss how normal people live with that spoiled rich kid who went to private school all his life and thinks it's normal for kids to get BMWs on their 16th birthday.
On July 24 2009 03:03 theqat wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2009 02:54 baubo wrote:On July 24 2009 02:44 theqat wrote:On July 24 2009 02:42 baubo wrote:
Btw, using # of subscriptions for WoW is misleading, because Chinese users don't pay the ridiculous monthly fee of Americans. They go by hours. I checked a website that says 30RMB, or ~4 dollars, per 66 hours, which seems about right. The prices are vastly different because, once again, the average Chinese gamer just can't afford the regular monthly subscription. This point was addressed in this thread--even though something like 33% of WOW subscriptions are Chinese, only 7% of WOW revenue comes from China You might want to reread that portion again. Because that's not the numbers I read. The OP assumes China accounts for 5%, with HK, Taiwan, and other Asian countries making up 2% of revenue. I was only questioning this assumption, because I feel it's way too high given my understanding of the economic situation in China. Of course, if the numbers prove correct, I'd gladly take back my statement, since I'd feel that 5% of the total WoW market is relevant. And that given the extreme popularity of DoTA in China, it's not unthinkable that SC2 could make some dough here. Their 2008 SEC filing gives $1,152,000,000 in revenue from MMORPGs (basically, WOW). It's not inconceivable that a mere $57,600,000 of that comes from China 
Maybe not. I didn't say I was definitely correct. But refer to the original post(all of it, no just the portion quoted). Where I stated my reasons for doubting this.
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
Really good article - the only thing i disagree with is the notion that Blizzard wouldn't care about 7%. 7% is HUGE when you consider they had over a billion dollars in revenue last year.
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Ah great article, I wasn't too clear what they meant by removing LAN latency at fist, I thought it was referring to something similar to Chaoslauncher where its LAN on bnet, but its referring to the LAN protocol like Hamachi when choosing to log onto bnet, which won't allow people to have LAN parties? I am sure there is a way to reprogram that into the game though, nothing is impossible. I am sure the Chinese will find a way around it and it just screws us over.
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Great read, thanks for posting this insight into chinese gaming industry from blizzards pov.
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amazing article, never seen so much quality in an esports related article.
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On July 24 2009 03:10 Kennigit wrote: Really good article - the only thing i disagree with is the notion that Blizzard wouldn't care about 7%. 7% is HUGE when you consider they had over a billion dollars in revenue last year. ofc they care. even blizzard doesnt care about chinese market, that doesnt stop chinese to play blizzard's games, pirate and private server will be everywhere anyways.
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Damned interesting.
Every time I read something like this I just get curiouser. I'm well aware it's completely beyond my understanding, but it's nice to know how much you don't know in these sorts of things. Mostly so that when people talk about it at parties you can keep your mouth shut.
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Amazing read. How do people live there without these web 2.0 facilities? Must be really shitty to be so constrained..
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Very good read, I didn't know most of the things that were said, thank you for this.
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im always been curious... can you use proxys? for instance to see youtube?
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On July 24 2009 03:44 Inzek wrote: im always been curious... can you use proxys? for instance to see youtube? ofc, but only 0.01% of chinese knows what proxy means
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I'm always glad when I read these things, as it makes me incredibly happy with where I live and have been raised.
My questions are: Do teens and young adults deal with this casually? Is being complacent a huge part of the Chinese mindset?
I have very distinct memories of not being "allowed" to do things by parents, teachers, and authority figures when I was younger and absolutely hating it. I would imagine that the young Chinese would feel like this is an unreasonable, overbearing parent x100.
On July 24 2009 00:17 Emlary wrote: The third partner NetEase already signed Starcraft II and the new Battle.Net last year. Blizzard chose it because 1) NetEase is willing to pay more royalty 2) NetEase's boss is a member of the national congress. Government relation is important for business everywhere, but especially important in China. If the government don't like you, they can find the most absurd reason you can imagine to kick you out. Last year when Blizzard tried to register Starcraft: Ghost at the Chinese patent bureau. It was rejected because "Starcraft indicates astrology and Ghost is definitely evil." Yeah, we are communists we are 100% materialistic don't try to infect us with your capitalistic evil things.
This infuriates me and I don't even live there. It's completely irrational, enforced incompetency.
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MURICA15980 Posts
Yeah, in the business world, 7% of your revenue's is a very sizable part of it.
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Do teens and young adults deal with this casually? Is being complacent a huge part of the Chinese mindset?
lemme ask you a question: if someone asks you, "are you brainwashed?" how would u answer that? if u answer "yes", how would u know?! you've been brainwashed, so you can't possibly be conscious of that!
if u answer "no", then you have either: been brainwashed or truly not brainwashed.
if u tell a chinese person that he's missing out on Youtube, wiki, google (some parts), twitter, blogspot. he probably wouldn't care. there are chinese programs that do essentially the same thing, just with different names. like tudo.com and the major social networking/gaming/IRC site im.QQ.com
i feel that the average chinese does not mind the presence of the government censoring stuff. "if the communist party doesn't tell us, we don't need to know"
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The rampant piracy in China always amuses me. Even if you're buying seemingly legitimate copies of something, it can be pirated. I remember my dad buying printed, pirated books before.
On July 24 2009 02:29 See.Blue wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2009 00:37 Licmyobelisk wrote: China's like the big brother of the Philippines, just stricter and better economically.
But, can I ask? if the government is corrupt.. why is it that you're country is still economically awesome? It's very contradicting.
LMAO! It's certainly not economically awesome. In fact its far more likely that economic reasons will be the cause of a blow-up in China rather than social woes (read: gov't censorship). GDP per capita (granted only a limited measure of financial well-being) is lower than any first world country's and a socioeconomic divide far greater than America's. Growth is easy in a command economy. Look at Stalinist Russia
China broke away from the command economy after the opening up period in the late 70's. As China embraced more free market elements, it also steered away from using Capitalist as a buzzword. This is why other people in the thread have said Communism is an inaccurate description of China today.
On July 24 2009 03:06 baubo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2009 02:55 Emlary wrote:On July 24 2009 02:42 baubo wrote: normal middle-class salaryman makes around $150 a month. $150 = RMB1000 Are you kidding me? Middle-class salaryman makes RMB1000 a month? To be a middle-class, you have to at least make RMB80,000 a month (around one million RMB = $140,000 a year) in my opinion. First year college graduates make $200 to $1,000 per month in China, depending on what kind of job they take. ...... I honestly don't know how to respond to this. I honestly don't. It's like trying to tell discuss how normal people live with that spoiled rich kid who went to private school all his life and thinks it's normal for kids to get BMWs on their 16th birthday.
Yes, I'm going to have to agree with baubo here. It makes no sense for the Chinese middle class to make 3 times what the median household income in the US is. I suppose there's different ways to define middle class. If Emlary means an American middle class in the sense of being able to own a car and house, then I wouldn't be surprised if it was as much as $140k a year since those are luxury goods in China. The Chinese middle class should either be defined by average or median income or something along the lines of enough financial stability to own an apartment and provide food for your family.
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in my country people can play any games. some games like GTA and counter strike has one 18 years old indication, but no important person cares about it and almost nobody has original games. I never had not one original game during all my life... i started downloading roms on irc in 1994 and i keep doing things like this until today. its a shame but i cannot affort original stuff... i found this article a very interesting one, because i always thought that china was like many electronics stuff everywhere and very tip and people could play anything very easily. now im wondering about that green and dirty thing was said. that must be a boring... brazil had some militar shit on the past. but it finished in 1985 or something like this. now the country still in a complete chaos. we have robery, murders, stupid politicians, stupid people, bad music, drugs war, many poor people, river overflows, much more bad things, but thanks god we dont have this harmonics and disarmonics... harmony is just some mathematics bullshit developed but normal human beings... i think people should not take it so seriously... but i know that asian people thinks harmony is one important thing... i didnt know that the government use people faith to make money in china just like they do in here... thats a bad thing...
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Depressing...China's censorship and constant subduing and manipulation of it's population. (Like when they banned reincarnation in Tibet making it illegal without "government permission" WTF?!)
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On July 24 2009 03:10 Kennigit wrote: Really good article - the only thing i disagree with is the notion that Blizzard wouldn't care about 7%. 7% is HUGE when you consider they had over a billion dollars in revenue last year. It's not worth bending over for, though. Sure, Blizzard would prefer it if China would accept their games so they could all be one happy family- however, consider the following:
1. Revenues are not bottom-line. Profits are bottom-line. The cheaper you sell a product, the lower your profits will be as a proportion of the revenues, assuming fixed costs- in other words, I'm expecting China to represent significantly less than 7% of Blizzard's profits.
2. China is dicking around with Blizzard. The ethical thing to do is to stand your ground and not take the abuse; the other way of doing things is to bend over and take it, offer more bribes and ask them to be gentle.
Truth be told, I only wish Blizzard tried to rally the gaming industry to boycott China until their government starts behaving like grown-ups (no offense to the Chinese community). Giving in only means encouraging the shadiness and corruption in this whole process, and that hurts everyone in the long term (other than the corrupt officials involved).
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This article is a bit extremist, there are some imprecisions.
For example, about site-blocking issue "Blogspot, Facebook, Picasa, Twitter and YouTube ecc.." They are not blocked entirely; but some videos, pictures and sections inside these websites are censored; but all the rest is accessible in normal condition. In "special" situations, they might be closed temporarily.
About the piracy issue, you see it from another point of view. In China, the majority of people, even the poorest farmer, can afford to have a state of the art PIRATED cellphone. The piracy is so well spread because the government allows it to spread. By the way, the government has delayed 3G phones in order to develop its own 3G standard, so that it won't have to pay hundreds royalty to western company. Besides they are also developing the low cost Red-Ray Disk in opposition to Blue-Ray Disk, again they do not want to pay royalties to SONY.
In my opinion they are doing all this for the interest of Chinese people, otherwise few of the 1.3 billion citizens could afford to have a 3G phone or watching HD movies.
By the way, most chinese have already abandoned google in favor of baidu.com which is better in collecting chinese information.
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i just would like to ask one thing... is it true that liu xiaoping was arrested because she was too rich?
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