Fortnite banned in China

 Uh oh, China Blog? Abandon ship now, these tend to get messy... 

Woe and damnation be me, for I have to once again talk about China which means bringing up the CCP and I've run out of imaginative ways to call their 'President' a cuddly teddy boi. Okay, actually I'm lying on two counts there, first for having to do this, my depression might dictate I write something everyday, but it's not specific about what, and my namecalling has never been creative. But I just can't help pondering and posturing about the polices and directorates of a state who's dominance and influence seems like the inevitable progression of modern life. Look at it as the musing of a snail, watching the slow progress of rubber garden boots trodding across the path towards him, yet incapable of doing a single thing to stop them. That's about the level of morbid fascination that sparks between my eyes when I see "oh, another censorship overreach from the Middle Kingdom, how fun!"

Although, I suppose this story could be seen as another example of the classic school yard game "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes", because the Chinese Government haven't themselves done anything far abroad from their previously stated values, it's really Epic Games who tried to wiggle through their fire wall and is now looking at years of wasted development time splattered all over their hands. Epic wanted to tango with the biggest market in the world and I can't help it if I don't exactly feel sad that the whole thing didn't work out for them. It's not like this whole endeavour is going to wound the multibillionaire company too much. I mean, they've had enough capital to comfortably seek lawsuits, that they themselves aggrieved, against Apple and Google in the same year, something tells me that losing China isn't going to sink them just yet. (Although it might lead to some internal groups being shut down, and that does actually suck)

Pointedly, Tencent didn't manage to win a licence for Fortnite and the consequence is a shutting down of operations going forward within China, because of the tight hold that the CCP attempts to hold over their citizens and the entertainment products that are allowed within the great Chinese firewall. Previous games have had to kowtow to pressures to limit depictions of 'sacrilege to the dead', which essentially means no skeletons or skull iconography and probably no Liches from Baldur's Gate either, but maybe if you don't tell them what Liches technically are you might be able to get away with it. (Just say that they're really emaciated people who float) What's more distressing, however, is the fact that the CCP are against excessive depictions of violence, which doesn't mean torture, but just people dying in general. Huh, that's going to be a problem for a Battle Royale game, isn't it?

'Game for Peace', the Chinese version of  PUBG, got around this by having dead players get up and wave before fading away in a somewhat comical display showing how no one is really dying. (And seriously skirting technicality laws, if we're all being honest with ourselves.) Rainbow Six Siege had to make separate versions of maps for their launch in China that cut out some skulls from decorations in one of the levels. (I think they also cleaned up some bloodstains too. They got thorough.) The message is clear, it doesn't matter how big your game is or how much potential revenue it could score for the economy, you either play ball with the CCP or they will kick your ass out of here. Money making it no where near as important as cultural control over there.

But one would think that Fortnite shouldn't be in too much trouble here given everything the game is and how it portrays itself. At it's heart, Fornite is a cartoony shooter with soft edges that doesn't even so much as show blood when people are shot. Bodies are never on the floor for more than a few seconds, no scary skulls are present, (aside from some skins I guess) so the only real point of contention I might imagine would be the total deluge of weaponry available to characters based on very real world guns and artillery. I can certainly see why some parents over here get worked up about seeing their kids seeking out killing implements and seeing them as power-ups, I think it's misplaced fear, but I can at least comprehend how that line of worry is spawned.

Things aren't getting any more lenient over in Beijing, however, as we've seen from the increasingly stringent crackdowns on online free time that's hitting the youth and trickling up into adults. But even then, it is kind of cruel for the CCP to keep Tencent's version of Fortnite in the testing stage for three years before ultimately shutting the whole thing down. Especially since, whilst in the testing phase, the game was totally forbidden from charging players, meaning that the company has literally wasted three years of profits that could have gone anywhere else trying to currying favour with the unknowable whims of a power obsessed dictato- are we allowed to call the CCP 'dictators'? I mean it seems logical but that also sounds very confrontative for what is ostensibly a gaming blog. I'm just going to go ahead and call their methods 'aggressive' and leave it at that. (I can't afford holidays anyway, might as well burn all bridges for a future China visit.)

Some are looking at this as a poor omen for the future of the gaming industry over in China, for if even this hugely popular game can't get a foot in the door over at China, then who feasibly can? I can't pretend to know more about the situation over there then I rightly do, in fact I don't think any outside of the shadowy investor board of Tencent has the privilege of that infomation, but I do know the sort of message that this sends. The headache of breaking into China is only worth it for games companies because of the number of players there that make it the biggest market in the world, but when Epic is screwed around like this on a public stage, it might just be enough to turn off future prospectives. I mean, were I in the sort of position to be making these choices I wouldn't be doing business with China anyway (because I have some sliver of self respect), but where I somehow already in such a relationship, this would be a big spook factor to convince me to look elsewhere.

We've seen some talented developers from Tencent leave the CCP bubble and market their talents to the wider rest of the world, and when you see the sort of evil eye of Sauron control which is being flaunted over there it's easy to see why. Total dominion over entrainment being exercised by a party who, as they've demonstrated historically and spectacularly, have proven at times to be utterly clueless with implementing these sweeping social reform measures, just sounds like a minefield of uncomfortable that no artist wants to have to deal with. Who wants to be toyed around for years and then be told that you're 'morally unfit' by a government body formed of unrepentant genociders? Oh is this blog getting a bit too heavy? You know I get this way when we're talking Chinese government, you can't say you weren't warned. Still, best I wrap this up before I start physically fuming onto my keyboard. This is stupid, it's further isolating Chinese entertainment from the rest of the world, but that's probably the point. Still, Epic suck too, so this story has no silver lining. The end.