BEIJING - A patriotic Internet game featuring heroic Chinese and designed to
wean the young off their addiction to violent foreign games is still not ready
for release a year after development begun, state media said on Tuesday.
Unlike the more popular games, where players have to slay dragons, fight
aliens or beat up bad guys, in "Chinese Heroes" players "click on statues to
learn about their experiences and carry out tasks like moving bricks", Xinhua
news agency said.
"We hope the game will teach players about Chinese ethics," it quoted Kou
Xiaowei, an official with China's General Administration of Press and
Publication, which is organising the game's development, as saying.
Some of the heroes will include Lei Feng, a Mao Zedong-era model soldier, and
Zheng Chenggong, a general also known as Koxinga who seized Taiwan from Dutch
colonial rule in 1661.
"Five heroes have been developed, but we have not yet decided the launch
date," Zhuge Hui, a spokesman for Shanghai gaming company Shanda, which is
designing the game, told Xinhua.
Online gaming has exploded in China in recent years, with an estimated 13.8
million people taking part. Chinese media have expressed concern with more and
more young people getting hooked, taking a heavy toll on their studies.
But the official news agency expressed doubt the new game would even appeal
to China's youth of today.
"Teenagers seek adventure and fulfilment in dramatic and skill-demanding
games," it quoted Tao Ran, director of the Beijing Internet Addiction Treatment
Centre as saying.
"If hero games do not focus on killing and domination, gamers will definitely
not play them."