Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: January 19th, 2019
7 Arrested for Cheating at a Game
Video games are now serious business as 7 individuals were arrested in Gifu prefecture in Japan for an unauthorized cheating-app for the game Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle. The app was used to acquire purchasable in-game features for free.
Source: Asahi Shimbun and Article Image: Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle Official Website
Woman Jailed for 10 Years in China Over Boys Love
A woman who writes boys love novels has been jailed for 10 years in China for breaking “Obscenity” laws. Several of her publishing partners were also arrested and handed a similar sentence, though two of them have decided to appeal the sentence.
Source: China Press
China Opens Censorship Board for Games
The Chinese government will open an Online Games Ethics Committe to curate and flag for censorship any new games. 20 games already submitted saw 9 of them rejected and 11 held for censorship before release. While censorship is not new to China, this is yet another censorship body added to the mix and there have also been signs of an increasing crackdown on entertainment by the government in recent years.
To add another dimension to this situation, the international market is more and more looking at China to expand, which led to Rainbow Six: Siege attempting (But later reverting) censorship to secure a Chinese release; censorship they extended to all versions of the game including the Western one. While they did eventually revert that decision and undid the censorship for the Western audience, it does lead one to wonder if China’s censorship will have any adverse effect on the Western industry, an industry already struggling with its own brand of politically correct censorship at home.
Source: South China Morning Post