Not China.

China still lags behind, but industry executives are feeling more optimistic about the steps that have already been taken, believing that the gap will not only narrow, but also that Chinese games will one day be included among the world's elite.

"Chinese computer games are at a low level at the moment," said Deng Shengqi, a university student and avid gamer. "A couple of the online role-playing games are OK, but most don't measure up to the foreign competition."

Deng, 21, may be only a college undergraduate, but as a member of the main consumer group in a market predicted to be worth 7 billion yuan (US$875 million) this year and 14.3 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) by 2010, he represents a group that increasingly matters to Chinese game developers.

"Most are just foreign games translated into Chinese," Deng said during a break from studying at the University of Shanghai. "Chinese companies buy licences and profit from the operating rights rather than coming up with new ideas themselves."

Despite the criticisms by Deng and many others, China is trying to establish a successful and sustainable games industry to make up for the decades lost to the world's leaders.

In 2004 the Ministry of Information Industry backed online games as an important growth industry, saying they would "promote the development of game-making expertise." It urged schools and colleges to provide training that could translate to the computer games industry.

One result was the establishment of a string of "game colleges" offering courses in how to develop computer games.

"We opened in June 2004 and now have around 6,000 students training with us," said Jin Yong, who works for Game College in Shanghai, helping administer the six- to eight-month courses, which cost students around 17,000 yuan (US$2,100) each.

The game college programme offers three majors: game development, game design and programming. To graduate, students must pass an "examination" that includes making two computer or mobile phone games and working on a team to produce a network game.

Game College President Li Xinke said the school has an 87 per cent placement rate in the job market, partly due to their relationship with gaming companies such as Kingsoft Corp Ltd and Shanda Interactive Entertainment. So far, there have been 2,000 graduates, he said.

But some insiders say schools should be only part of the answer to creating a home-grown gaming industry.

"The game schools are insufficient as training grounds," Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners LLC, a market research firm specializing in the Chinese videogame industry, said by e-mail. "The most critical way to provide training to would-be domestic developers is via on-the-job experience."

Even so, Cosmas Hanson is bullish on the possibilities of the domestic market in coming years. "Within the next 10 years (the game developing market) should shift as the talent pool of Chinese developers matures and creates great games from design to launch," she said.

Study is play

One student who hopes to benefit from the Game College certificate is Liu Taiyu. The 23-year-old has been taking courses for two months and wants a job at a large gaming company. He said making video games is his lifetime goal, and he likes "studying by playing."

Liu said his parents didn't like all the video game playing he did as a young adult. Now, however, "they are fully supportive as I've officially entered the industry."

But Liu may have a harder time landing a job than he thinks. A spokesman for Shanda, one of China's biggest game developers, with whom Game College claims to have close ties, said he knew nothing about the school.

"Our developers come from various backgrounds, including college graduates, experts recruited from other companies and those we have trained ourselves. But I haven't heard of the Game College," Zhu Gehui said from Shanda's Shanghai offices.

"China's computer games industry is growing constantly, with increasing numbers of players and a dynamic market. It is certainly a lucrative industry in which to be at the moment, but we believe it is also one with long-term depth."

Claiming second-quarter profits of 133.6 million yuan (US$16.7 million) this year, Zhu said Shanda's size gives it the ability to compete on a more equal footing with foreign competitors.

"'Massively multiplayer' online games require a lot of creativity and a lot of investment; developing a game is just like making a film," he said.

"It's essential that China's game industry does not just rely on translating foreign games. In the long run, companies that do that cannot be competitive. We need to develop games from the ground up, that way we create games that are original and recognizably Chinese in style and culture."

This lack of a clear Chinese computer game identity is a sore spot with the country's gamers.

Deng, a professed computer games fan for four years since he first saw people playing Counter Strike at his local Internet caf, dislikes what most mainland companies have come up with.

"The mainland's games tend to just copy foreign games," he said. "My favourite game is a role-playing game called Immortal Sword, which is from a Taiwan company and considered a Chinese classic."

Deng's friend Yang Wei, also 21, wishes there were more computer games that were recognizably Chinese.

"I do enjoy playing foreign games, but at the moment, we don't have a lot of choice," he said. "I'd love to see more Chinese-developed games, and I really support the idea of a Chinese games industry. There are certainly enough fans here to support it."

Domestic potential

One clear example of the industry's potential was this summer's ChinaJoy computer games show in Shanghai, attended by far more than 100,000 gamers.

While fans were eager to get a glimpse of the soon-to-be released PlayStation 3, Xbox and Nintendo games, many of the most popular stands were actually those of home-grown companies plugging their latest online efforts.

"China's games industry is extremely fertile, especially for online gaming, where China probably has the largest potential market anywhere in the world," said Macro Chen of Moliyo Online Media & Entertainment Portal.

At the show, Chen's company launched a game called Dragon, Tiger Gate Online simultaneously in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

The industry may be alluring to teenagers and recent graduates who have grown up playing games, but for many computing experts, making computer games is not a proper job. The higher salaries and better social standing offered by business rather than leisure-related computer services cause many to turn away from game development.

"Most of our computing graduates go to work in multinational companies, such as IBM, Intel and Oracle, working as program developers," said Shi Baile, a computing professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.

According to Shi, the average starting salary for Fudan's computer graduates is about 3,000 or 4,000 yuan (US$375-500) per month for those with a bachelors' degree, 6,000 yuan (US$760) for master's degree holders and 10,000 yuan (US$1,260) for doctorates.

"Occasionally graduates go on to work in the computer games industry, but not often," he said. "One of my former students went to work for a big Chinese games company, but he quit because he didn't like the work he was asked to do."

Shi said he thinks the computer games industry is not a good choice for graduates. "Although it is lucrative, it also brings about moral issues," he said. "These games have influenced juveniles a lot, caused them to neglect their studies, and that could be a big problem for China's educational system."

The government, while pushing for a stronger domestic gaming market, also seems wary of what the market might create. It has launched high-profile campaigns against "unhealthy" games and computer game addiction, and fostered intense media coverage of anti-social behaviour and even suicides supposedly triggered by playing computer games.

Many young game developers, however, are hoping for the best of both worlds: a strong domestic market with quality games.

"Developers used to do it for the money," Game College student Peng Chuan said. "Now we want to make games from our dreams and hopes."

Peng, 20, has been playing video games since he was 6. After getting his bachelor's degree in business, he decided to go for a gaming certificate so he could help shape the domestic game industry. His success in this endeavour, however, will rely mostly on his game-playing peers, like Deng.

"I'd rather see a few really good games come out than lots and lots of bad ones," Deng said. "I'd rather see companies develop games properly, think them through and create original ideas rather than just copy what already exists. That's what China's computer game makers should be doing."