Girl Power 2

To the Editor: Fantastic! I had just left Barnes and Noble with a few books on learning Mandarin Chinese and I was wondering what the implications for marketing (my MBA emphasis) and video games (my hobby) would be as China continues to advance in these areas. After reading your articles in this week’s issue (#49), I’m very excited for the possibilities. Great work, keep it up!

– Benny

To the Editor: I just recently discovered The Escapist … and I have to say I’m hooked.

I was wondering though, what are the chances of an upcoming issue focusing on getting into gaming as a profession? With the industry’s current growth trends more and more jobs are surely being created. Shining a little light on how people land those jobs seems like it should be an interesting topic.

– Eli

In Response to “电玩世间” from the Escapist Lounge: I’m actually quite glad that The Escapist did a China issue. They’re a bit overlooked in the videogame scene, but will have enormous pull in future decades (they already do in cellphone and PC games). That said, piracy didn’t start with China, nor was it made popular there. You can find, back in the mid- 80s, pirated Atari 2600 carts in Brazil and pirated NES in Hong Kong. I can’t think of *any* country at China’s level of development who strictly enforces IP law – it would be nonsense for their citizens! The markets of Kazakhstan and East Africa have as many pirated GBA carts and DVDs as China (to say nothing of countries like Malaysia and Russia, which are far richer). I’m all for articles discussing the role of piracy in videogames, but we ought temper them with some background on how Western countries treated IP when they were (relatively) poor, and how the rest of the world outside China handles the piracy issue.

– Kevin Bryan

In Response to “电玩世间” from the Escapist Lounge: The essential philosophy of any pirate is ‘if it’s big enough to be pirated, it can afford to be pirated’.

Nobody pirates indie videogames, it’s always Madden sports, Metal Slug or some other junk. Your entire argument is moot, piracy hurts nobody. Never, in the history of commerce, has a business been shut down due to rampant piracy.

This fearmongering is baseless. Nobody loses a dime. Not one. Nobody has lost a job to piracy, the only people who care about piracy is the people who stand to lose a few shareholders.

There’s more to games than the CEOs at EA managing how they exploit the next big market overseas.

The industry has always been this fat and greedy. What would you rather have? The oppressive Chinese government imprisoning bootleggers for ludicrous periods of time? Or just letting it go?

Please, these types of articles are just as sickening and unreasonable as the ‘video games make kids violent’ ones.

– Andrew

In Response to “Chris Crawford Surfaces, Trolls” from the Escapist Lounge: I have to say I disagree with him on a key point. He states that the games industry doesn’t support upcoming talent like Hollywood does at all. I’d agree up to the ‘at all’ point. There are counter-examples – a big one being the annual mod competitions Epic sponsor. They’re not industry-wide or common, but there are examples of that sort of support emerging.

– King Jackal

In Response to “Chris Crawford Surfaces, Trolls” from the Escapist Lounge: The revolution is coming, however, Storytron will probably not be the primary champion. I think Chris Crawford should be remembered as the first person to pursue the dream in earnest, even if his personal efforts don’t prove worthwhile.

– Patrick

In Response to “Self-Regulatory Generals” from the Escapist Lounge: I have to disagree with you.

My problem is that in Oklahoma where I live, I could be put in jail for the same charge as someone who shows their child pornography. But mostly I am worried that legislation that is so clumsily executed as the farce that is Oklahoma’s “Games=Porn” law will dry up the local retailers.

My largest concern is the pressure exerted on all businesses to make a profit create games that can be sold to anyone. This will squeeze out the funding for games that I might enjoy in order to get a better return on their investment. Thus I am forced to play Barbie Horse Party 5 instead of Half-Life 4 or Resident Evil 5 as they will have a harder time securing proper funding.

If you were worried about “carbon copy games” before just wait until developers are forced to work within the narrow guidelines of the “contemporary community standard” the Oklahoma law sets down.

– GlennZilla