How can you use up nine mobile phones in 10 months and blow 7,000 yuan (US$840) on phone bills in five days?

You could, if you were addicted to mobile games like Malaysian Hulana.

Last August, she got a special birthday gift when she was about to fly back to her country from China - a friend bought her "Fight for Treasures in the Middle Kingdom." For the uninitiated, it is a mobile MUD (multi-user dungeon) game, in which players play roles, read written descriptions on scenarios, objects, events, other players, and computer-driven creatures, and combat and interact with others.

She was attracted to the game immediately because of the excitement of acting a character in the novels of the Hong Kong martial-arts novelist Louis Cha and experiencing the spirit of chivalry in ancient times.

She calls herself Princess Zhao Min, a resourceful, beautiful and kind princess in a novel by Cha.

"I love the feeling of playing the character of Princess Zhao Min in my own way," says Haluna.

Also, she got to make many friends. At first, her friends were mainly foreigners who love Cha's novels. Later, her community expanded to Chinese people.

Haluna invited them to a villa in South China's Guangdong Province last year to exchange notes on the game.

The Chinese Malaysian, who is in her 20s, soon won their respect for her skill in playing the game. She and her new friends set up the School of Metaphysics, a martial-arts school based on the doctrines of Taoism with Haluna as the headmistress.

Her school now has 120 members, the most influential in the player community of "Fight for Treasures in the Middle Kingdom."

"I don't like being overtaken by other players or schools in the game, neither do I allow them to insult or bully my apprentices," says Haluna.

Haluna, who wants to maintain her school's position as the No 1 in the virtual world, spends a large amount of money.

She usually plays for more than 10 hours at a time; and sometimes, she asks the security guards in her brother's company to play for her, as she plays several characters at the same time and has no time for low-level exercises.

She also buys "data" from other players, because with the skills and weapons of such characters, her school will maintain its dominance. The most expensive costs her 8,500 yuan (US$1,000).

Because it is online, players need to pay the operator China Mobile for data transmission. Haluna, who lives with her brother, who runs a company in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has used nine mobile phones, all of which are high-end models like Sony Ericsson P910C, Motorola A768 and E680 and usually cost at least 4,000 yuan (US$480).

On her trip to the United States last year, she continued to play the game and the cost was 7,000 yuan (US$840) in five days due to the high international roaming service charge.

Her contribution to China Mobile is so significant that she has three diamond VIP memberships from the firm, which give her three high-end phones for free.

Haluna estimates she has spent about 60,000 yuan (US$7,200) in the past 10 months on mobile phones and buying data.

While Haluna leads the No 1 martial-arts school in the gaming community despite being a relative novice, veteran Pang Shujun is no longer as passionate.

Pang, whose name in the game is Xiaoyuer - a clever, adventurous and humorous character in another well-know novel by Cha - started to play "Fight for Treasures in the Middle Kingdom" two years ago.

The happiness of playing a character that is impossible in real life was one reason that Pang played the game for such a long time.

Convenience was another.

"It just fits the quick pace of modern life and I can use it to kill time on business trips," says the 29-year-old marketing professional in Northeast China's Jilin Province.

Like with Haluna, playing mobile games is a very expensive hobby for Pang, as well as a channel to know people with similar interests.

In the past two years, Pang spent as much as 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) on mobile phones and data transmission and used up three Nokia 7650 phones.

After spending too much time on the game and strong complaints from his girlfriend and relatives, he has stopped fighting and now acts as an adviser to his own School of Tahucheng, named after the relic of an ancient fortress in his city.

"I do not regret the past, because I have tasted that life," says the 29-yar-old Pang.

"Now, I need to work and live my life," says Pang, who spends more time with his girlfriend.

According to Beijing-based domestic marketing consulting firm Analysys International, the sales in the mobile game market rose to 804 million yuan (US$97 million) in 2004, from 320 million yuan (US$39 million) in 2003.

The firm estimates the growth this year will slow down to 79 per cent year-on-year.

Leo Liu, a mobile game industry veteran, also points out that the industrial chain is not complete at present, which prevents the development of mobile games.

"This is a very promising market, but its maturity will also be a very long process," says Liu.

China now has more than 350 million mobile subscribers, but only a little more than 100 million Internet users, so the potential of mobile game business in theory should be much bigger than online games on the Internet.

However, the attitude of China Mobile, with more than 200 million subscribers, is critical to the business.

Since China Mobile has many concerns at present, such as competition, preparation for the third-generation mobile communication system, and focusing on other more profitable businesses, it has not been as active in developing mobile games.

Liu adds that although there are some hard-core fans like Haluna, they form just a small fraction of the total mobile game player population and most of people are just casual players who want to kill time.

(China Daily 07/11/2005 page8)