Abstract
This study critically assesses the Chinese online games industry through problematizing the creativity of Chinese games. I find that between 1995 and 2001, Chinese online games were mostly developed by amateurs, noncommercial, and considerably creative. Between 2002 and 2005, industrial growth allowed some room for local creativity despite commercialization and dominance of imported games. Current scholarly, business, and media discourses unfairly ignore creativity in these first two periods and yet praise the Chinese game industry’s commercial success since the late 2000s. I challenge these discourses by illustrating that between 2006 and early 2009, a new, ethically dubious, and uniquely Chinese business model emerged, became domestically dominant, and quietly and profoundly impacted on global online game design. From mid-2009 to 2015, there is ongoing corporatization based on the dubious Chinese business model on the one hand, and a reemphasis on creativity motivated by browser and mobile game formats on the other.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 195-215 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Games and Culture |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 11 Aug 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by the Strategic Public Policy Grant offered by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong (grant number 4001-SPPR-09) and a Faculty Research Grant I offered by Hong Kong Baptist University.Keywords
- creativity
- cultural localization
- free-to-play
- game design
- online games
