Holy shit the Chinese Parents game having a New Years minigame balancing refusal and acceptance of the red pouches is so fucking hilarious and accurate
The sole fact of someone even willing to create a game with such concept reads to me as a working through childhood trauma. 高考, complicated culture of parenting in China. All of that is quite a surreal experience through the game lol
45:10 for your information, localization isn't usually done or even tested at all through actually playing through the game. Localization is basically you send a team a .resx file (basically an xml) and they translate every element in that file, which the game exe will then pull through at runtime. Easy for a typo to slip through.
It also removes all the context of text which can lead to errors, for example Europa Universalis German translation had vassals send their taxes to Liege, the city in Belgium (Which to be noted was independent at the time so the city exist as country, instead of their overlord.
I have to say that your reporting is not only really accurate but also endearing to see that someone cares enough to report about both the struggles of gamers and accomplishments/failures of developers in the region. I was really surprised you even attempted to learn Mandarin (I struggle with tones also), the history of gaming there, and the culture that has developed around it as a result of government intervention and wealth inequality. Thanks for taking so much time to do your research because regardless of the government there are lots of passionate and dedicated developers who deserve some recognition. Hope you have a great day man.
As a gamer who speaks both English and Chinese, I have to say that some of the best Chinese indie games are unbelievably difficult to translate into proper English. For example, The Scroll of Taiwu, which you mentioned at the beginning of Part 4, is basically considered by Chinese gamers to be the pinnacle of "ancient Chinese style writing". And that means a load of insurmountable cultural barriers for almost all non-Chinese speakers. For example, one of the skills in the game is called "巨阙千钧剑". Where "巨" means huge; "阙" can refer to both an ancient Chinese building and "broken"; "千" refers to a thousand; "钧" is a rather large unit of weight used in ancient China; "剑" is a sword. And even if you fully understand the meaning of each character in this name individually, you are still far from getting its real meaning, so it's time to go to the second level: the first two characters "巨阙" together are a new word, the name of an "acupuncture point". - This is a mysterious concept in ancient Chinese medicine, and to explain it would probably require a monograph. To keep things simple, it is only necessary to understand that the "巨阙" point is located approximately in the concave area between the human chest and abdomen. At the same time, "巨阙" is also the name of a famous ancient sword in China, and there are many legends surrounding the casting and use of it. In short, "巨阙" as the name of the sword roughly means a "large and broken" sword. "千钧" together is also a special ancient word, but fortunately it is not that complicated. It is generally used to refer to an unstoppable and enormous force, and can also refer to a very critical and dangerous moment. Thus, the five simple Chinese characters "巨阙千钧剑" together have a very rich multi-layered meaning in the eyes of a player who grew up with a standard Chinese education experience (which contains a great deal of basic knowledge of those pieces of knowledge) - a legendary broken heavy sword without a blade, one of the most vulnerable points of the human body, a huge and unstoppable force, a critical moment of life and death...... and such "highly compressed" textual information is literally present in every corner of this game. It's simply unimaginable to translate such kinds of texts into another language without losing their complex connotations.
I wouldn't put an early access game on such a pedestal yet. Maybe Chinese gamers are new to the phenomenon of early access and don't know how poorly things can end up despite a glorious beginning. I am fluent in Chinese and can understand literary Chinese just fine, but I've held back on this game because it's still in early access. I don't play early access games. EDIT: 太吾绘卷 The Scroll Of Taiwu still in early access on 14 April 2022, recent reviews are poor at 42% positive. No surprise here I guess?
To add to the point about Steam, one of the other aspects I've found strange (as a user in China who buys and plays games from the Chinese store) is that a lot of the games that are allowed are also not modified in any way from the original. For example, many games are modified for sale in certain countries by toning down or totally removing certain aspects (Fallout 3 springs to mind because, assuming I'm recalling correctly, the German version of FO3 had most of the gore removed for it to be legally available there). However, on Chinese Steam - assuming the game wasn't straight up banned from sale in the first place, such as those featuring pornographic content - these games aren't censored at all. Full gore, nudity, the lot. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example, none of it has been edited from the standard version for sale on Steam in China. My assumption is that they're able to get away with it because the game isn't openly advertised as including this kind of content (well, violence certainly is but that seems to be an inconsistency in Chinese media, because fairly graphic violence IS a feature of some mainstream Chinese films, shows, etc., but nudity isn't front-page marketing material for it). Thus the only people who will likely be made aware of this kind of content in games like Cyberpunk would be the consumers, who aren't going to say anything because they wouldn't see it as an issue in the first place, nor is it particularly unusual/taboo content for some of them anyway (particularly when I think of Chinese friends, colleagues, etc. who I know played the game). Still, even on a platform like Steam that is quite the mystery in how it is allowed to exist here, I do find it odd how little censoring is done with respect to the games that are allowed, particularly as there clearly IS some level of censorship in terms of which games are allowed to be sold at all on the Chinese store. Anyway, excellent video on a topic that really isn't well understood, both inside and outside of China. Props to you for putting so much effort into educating people on it! :) also glad someone else has been converted to the religion of 叉烧包!
❤️叉烧包！ Steam's blocked games, other than pornographic content (which guys uses VPN to buy anyway), are mostly politically sensitive games that gained traction. Like Red Candle Games for example. Those politically banned games, if they are small studios, has a process where negative reviews spam and online harrassment to the developers. That's a few example I thought of when Steam has games being censored usually have developers releasing an addon to patch the uncensored content back in. Just a fun thing about censorship and steam to think about.
Probably some kind of backdoor deals with Tencent, like they allow Steam to have a very lax and tolerant take on their current video games publication, while allowing Tencent a percentage of the remuneration from the ongoing trading of virtual content, which probably is a gold mine in China due to how popular pay-to-win is, so they surely saw it as an opportunity to make mad dosh. Like imagine the TF2 hat or item trading community, but in China, I cannot even imagine the insane prices some item would get to, especially the weapons, if they don't straight up add more for the express purpose of favoring pay-to-win mentality. Like for exemple there was a MMO where the sole iteration of a really over powered sword was sold for the equivalent of 50 000 dollars, and like not even a real sword, but the ability to use it in game...
Neither Fallout 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 were approved by the Chinese government (and knowing their criteria, it's basically impossible especially Fallout 3 no matter how much modification were to be made). You can buy them on steam or even some other stores in China (杉果 perhaps) but that doesn't change the fact that they are in a legal grey area (read illegal) as far as the Chinese government is concerned. They just never bothered to shut them down since there are always bigger fishes to catch.
I know “gamers are oppressed” is a joke about gamer entitlement, but man Chinese gamers are the real oppressed gamers. Hearing how Chinese game developers suffer while chasing after their dreams made me really sad…
Think of China like working for Bethesda/Activision/Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft, only they're the CCP. And their idea of "firing" you may include sending you off to an indoctrination camp where they abuse you into conforming.
Imagine having your country literally research and create a bioweapon since 2018 and due to their ineptitude have it leak and infect its own citizens then send those infected citizens to random countries worldwide by the millions and by doing so dooming countless random people who had nothing to do with you in the process and leaving countless families grieving. The sheer fact yall diabolists are still considered human astounds me 👍
It always shocks me just how little people in the West think of China, describing it as backwards in terms of gaming, when i lived there, as recently as 2016, they had degrees for running Gaming events.... its just how big gaming already was there long before MiHoYo's Genshin Impact. I played Xuan Yuan sword and Chinese Paladin: Sword and Fairy and they were dealing with philosophical issues and concepts nearly 2-3 years before the big games like Planescape Torment shook up the western RPG market about how games could explore dense and topical issues and explore what it means to be human and not just be dungeon crawlers. Also I have to say the Chinese industry is HEAVILY mobile based. Due to the high cost of consoles and gaming rigs (and despite its economic boom Chinese people still struggle with disparity of income). Also relative obscurity of consoles due to their being banned for a long time. It is common to see people playing mobile games... well.. nearly everywhere, from street corners, to Metro. PUBG was massively celebrated in China as their first international success... not Genshin Impact. China's rise in gaming will be commensurate with mobile gaming.
I don't think it's fair to say that 'people in the West think little of China'. There is a bias, yes, first for historic reasons, because it often takes at least a generation to fully realise that the state of things have changed, and 'made in China' doesn't mean low quality knock-off anymore. Secondly, people move production to China, or import Chinese primarly based on price. Every country will be protective about its own industry, and prefer to do business with countries both allied geopolitically and with a long history of smooth cooperation. For the most part, it doesn't make sense to pay a comparable amount for overseas production to what you would pay locally, especially that setting up production in China is always a logistical nightmare unless you are a giant corporation. This means that people tend to see much more poor quality Chinese products, but those more aware know well that it is not because everything Chinese is bad, just because it makes the most financial sense to import poor quality. Yes, a lot of 'muricans are completely uninformed about the real China, but they are completely uninformed about all countries other than USA, so what do you expect? It's not a 'western' issue, it's an american one. The rest know that half a decade ago 'made in Japan' was also a synonym of poor quality, while today it's probably the highest reputation, and that China is quickly following the same path.
I was hoping for him to bring up Sword and Fairy or Xuan Yuan Sword, even though they're Taiwanese and I'm not sure how big or small Softstar was in the 90's. I was always fascinated by these games and I'm glad they're finally being brought over to the west, even if their translations don't do them justice. The history of Chinese-language RPG's is great and is missing in most history of RPG videos.
As a gamer myself, I've been wanting to learn a lot more about what gaming is like in China and this video has been... Great for that. Honestly it was Arknights of all games that opened my eyes to the ideas of Chinese games being actually really good and having lots of passion in them. I fell in love with the story and characters in Arknights and it made me interested in the Chinese gaming scene and the Chinese independent gaming scene in general.
It's so relaxing just sitting back and letting you take me on a 2,5 hour ride through a topic I didn't know I had any interest about! Really well done!
if you werent chainsmoking in a dimly lit room with no ventilation in 90 degree heat eating barbecue duck neck snacks, you werent fully immersed in chinese gaming
Comments on Part Four: - Watching up to this point in the video has really made me far more appreciative of the Chinese games. I feel that I should really give them more of a chance. - When I tried Gujian 3 a few months ago, I had an opposite reaction to yours. - - Unlike you, I loved the story, characters, and cutscenes. The thing is I am ethnic Chinese and a lot of the themes in the narrative of the game can be more deeply appreciated if one were already familiar with aspects of Chinese culture, especially the idea of Xiayi (vaguely translated as honour). Xiayi is a lot about character and conduct, and the appropriate use of martial ability for helping others, not solely for self-benefit. Chinese culture as a huge tradition of respecting authority and seniority, yet this aspect is also often juxtaposed in situations where the authorities or seniors are corrupt or misguided, and the right course of action is uncertain. The best Xiayi stories rarely have clear-cut good or evil, they often present problems that challenge the audience's views, and leave them thinking and interpreting. What I saw in Gujian 3 so far (I only got through a few maps) wasn't outstanding, but the underlying Xiayi theme was certainly present, and I was happy to see them a video game brought to life for once. - - However I found the gameplay to be very janky and unsatisfying. It never feels like you are truly in control. For the hard fights the best strategy seemed to be to play like a coward and occasionally take a jab or two and then retreat. This essentially made the greater part of the moveset redundant. And the alternative playstyle is to spam potions, and given that potions are more more abundant in the later half despite the bosses in the earlier half being mechanically more difficult it makes the difficulty very poorly tuned. - - I didn't complete if after running into an infamous very difficult boss in the early third of the game. Yet, I feel that I really should give it another chance. With a better idea of what to expect, I can prepare better this time. - The comparison of Chinese games to JRPGs is very apt. The main appeal of Chinese games is because they are Chinese. They have something unique to say, something different in the culture that can allow them to make games unlike anything else in the world. They don't have to make Western games, because we already have plenty of them. And like JRPGs, although there is something lost in translation, there are still much to be gained from the ways the games are presented, set thematically, narrated, and designed mechanically. - Made in China for China is only partially accurate. Chinese themes like Xiayi are popular and well received in other parts of Asia such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and parts of Southeast Asia. (Gujian 3 received a Japanese translation!) That's not to mention also Hong Kong and Taiwan (which are outside the great firewall and reside in the same internet as the rest of the world), and the increasingly growing population of Chinese descendants living outside of China. I am myself not from China. I am ethnic Chinese, but live in Southeast Asia. My first language is English, and my source of gaming content is RUclips and Reddit. While I am fluent in Chinese, I only sporadically read/watch things on the Chinese internet because they really feel so disconnected from the rest of the world's internet and I have to actively seek them out. So in some sense, to reach people like me, they need to put their games on Steam and promote them on RUclips and other Western media channels.
At 1 hr 27 min without realizing.. didn't think I'd be watching this whole thing, looks like I'm here for the long haul. Right on. Getting the Chinese indie gaming scene some love
Damn to paraphrase something you said into a more generic form: "For everything lost in translation, something is gained in being lost." I really like that a lot and am actually clapping. This video is awesome.
This took me a few weeks, but I believe this is one of the most important videos you've made. I've definitely learned a lot, and I feel like I'm walking away with a new perspective and sense of appreciation for something I once dismissed.
Didn't expect to watch this whole thing in one go, especially right after finishing the last hour of your Genshin video, yet here I am. I am quickly becoming very fond of your work, and leave this comment in hopes that it pleases the algorithm and brings you more views.
'There's a difference between a country's government and it's people'. THIS. This is something so many people forget, and today it's more relevant than ever be it gaming related or not. I have never watched a youtube video that's longer than an hour without fast forwarding or listening on 2x speed until I found your channel. The multifaceted way you explore the topics in these videos and the research you do is amazing. The entire video is very engaging (I'm not even a hardcore gamer!). Thank you so much for creating videos like this when the most of the internet is hopping on the fast food-esque style of short videos and trends . Cheers mate!
Thanks, very interesting analysis, as always! I find the Russian gaming industry to be quite interesting too - even more interesting since they're high-quality games and have taken the lead in CRPG games. An incentive to look further into this is update #53 of the Kickstarter Encased, "History behind Russian Fallout" (unfortunately we can't paste URLs here), which is one interesting view on the phenomenon. It's not only the CRPG genre, but flight sim, development tools and other domains. And they don't have game dev schools, but they could tap into that potential and find what appealed to both the Eastern and Western public.
Man, Russian gaming industry in the 90s and early 00s was so lit. You had your K-D Labs with Vangers and Perimeter, your Katauri with Space Rangers 1 and 2, your Nival with absolute bangers such as Etherlords 1 and 2, Rage of Mages 1 and 2, Blitzkrieg and Silent Storm with an addon. And of course you had your Ukrainian GSC's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with a couple of sequels for good measure. And that's just the popular stuff. And these days the incredibly talented Nival guys went on to establish Owlcat Games (on Cyprus) to create the amazing Pathfinder: Kingmaker and are currently working on the sequel. Putin's regime really hates entrepreneurship though and now it's mainly scams, trashy MMOs and mobile games.
@@FairyRat I recognize a few very good games, indeed! I have no idea how they make it through the current regime over there, but fortunately there are still great teams like Owlcat Games, Dark Crystal Games, AtomTeam, and so on.
@@TheCoolCore It's been delayed quite a bit (which happens in indies) and has not left Early Access yet, so you may still find a few bugs, but it's very playable. It's certainly worth checking it out.
I planned to watch 10 mins, then I watched 2 hours of it. It's not just amazingly detailed, but at the same time, the self deprecating humor and off the wall comments are incredibly interesting. I hugely appreciate this kind of video. I might actually consider supporting the channel on patreon for the first time in my life. Great job!
So the massive chinese market Steam has monopoly on explains all those Chinese localizations of various Steam workshop mods you find for Paradox games. I finally found the answer!
"Something may be lost in translation, but something may also be gained in being lost." Awww, this was such a good line! I recently read a lot of xianxia/wuxia and I agree, the unfamiliar tropes make things more exciting. The new folklore on which the stories are based on seem refreshing and trying to place everything is a joy.
Thank you for opening the xianxia genre for me! I've bought Amazing Cultivation Simulator even before finishing the video. And googled some novels as well. How have I never known that such a thing exists??! And thank you for the video in general. I watched most of your works, but left that one behind for some time, and kept postponing to watch. Maybe something is with the thumbnail or the topic of Chiese videogames industry didn't seem appealing? But, man, I am happy I've finally given it a try. Wonderful job! 👌Wish you the number od subs you deserve, which is much much more than it's now.
Your videos are always great, but this one is truly incredible. I appreciate the well-researched deep dive into a topic that gets little attention on RUclips and in the West in general. Thank you for making such an informative video, and for your empathy towards the Chinese developers.
Just coming back and realizing how relatively small this channel is in comparison to the quality and I’m both shocked and honored to be around for a great channel that will soon grow to be huge.
A small but important correction about the removal of Devotion on steam: While Devotion was removed (delisted) from Steam, this was due to the publisher requesting Steam take it down, not censorship from Steam itself.
I assume China made them an offer they couldn't refuse? Otherwise why not just patch the game? Oh, according to wikipedia, "Red Candle removed the game from Steam globally to fix technical issues, as well as to confirm that no other hidden messages remain." Yeah it wasn't Steam taking it down.
@@TheAssassin642 Yeah the publisher who ultimately has the rights over how the game is handled abandoned ship quickly after it blew up for fear of retaliation from the CCP. Devs were caught in the crossfire and Steam doesn't take kindly to already approved and for sale games asking to be delisted so there was probably no chance of them accepting it back.
What a beautifully in-depth and poignant analysis, the level of research you did is incredible. Have you considered turning on community contributions for subtitles/translations? I feel like the video would be able to reach a larger audience in Chinese speakers if they could understand what the video is about. I'd love to be able to send this to some Chinese friends of mine who work in the gaming industry, and would also be willing to contribute to the subtitles.
Im not sure if you're aware but... RUclips shelved Community Contributions for captions months ago. one of the worst things they've done to the site, in my opinion. but now, the only way to add subtitles is for the uploader to do it directly. some youtubers have a system where translators can send their srt file to them through email or etc; hopefully you can reach out to NeverKnowsBest in some way
You're the best person talking about video games on youtube man. Mandalore, bunnyhop and skillup are all great, but you've genuinely never made a point I disagree with. Keep it up!
I know this isn't a super hot topic but I really appreciate the effort you've put into this video. The care you've dealt the subject with makes me care, too, and in the future I'll be sure to keep my eye out for Chinese indie games to support them!!
If you ever find a way to get this game called Crazy Tao... this video just unlocked a memory I had of playing it obsessively when I was younger. It's a Chinese MMO and I feel like it must have been popular because I played with a decent number of Americans and they sold cards for it in Game Stop!!
Great work, as always : informative, synthetic, well-written. I am loving this new-ish format of yours, with broad scope themes or series, although I do hope you keep up with your in-depth analyses of some single games. Thanks a ton.
This is a very sweet video. I really like that you made an effort to learn about Chinese culture and history, and that you shared that knowledge with the viewer as well. Some of these games I'm really interested in installing now! Also very sad to hear what happened with your other video. I'm even more glad I subscribed to your patreon now.
I'm 19 minutes in... the way about you you have, to go about describing information to us about your process of studying and learning, and then weaving all of that into an educational, personal, intimate, factual, touching on your own subjectivity and biases, is SO. EFFING. FUN. to listen to. Please PLEASE always create, always write, always spin your prose. I'm sure you have haters (everyone does, especially the best) but never listen to them. Listen to us quiet folk that more often than not are too enchanted by your speaking to interrupt you and tell you how good you are, how important your work is. Keep up your wonder for this spectacle-deprived world. It needs it. Sending endless positivity your way.
Loved the video as always. You are creating some of the few long form content on RUclips that i actually watch without doing something else in between, so please keep it up. Also, i fully agree with your ending statement.
Thanks for the video. Was a great documentary into a developer culture I had no idea about. The huge amount of effort you put into your script, fact-checking, and the humor were really apparent. I had a good time watching this.
I don't always have 2+ hours to watch one of your videos, but whenever I do get that time I always feel like it's time amazingly spent. Thank you for your artistic integrity and incredible passion; it comes through in every paragraph.
this video prompted me to wishlist/buy several of these games so thanks. and as someone with a degree in mandarin im not surprised you gave up immediately but there are a lot of harder to pronounce sounds than 你
I'm curious why you didn't talk about Tale of Wuxia? It's fully translated, complete, and in my opinion one of, if not, the best Chinese RPG out there.
to be fair its pretty difficult to find much information about the industry and the gaming culture there because of the firewall on the countries internet
With your point about Tencent having its fingers in so many pies. A LOT of universities in the UK receive funding from Chinese companies, including Tencent. Cambridge recently received a hefty funding package for research.
There are two important context I'd like to clarify. First, originally the ban did not target specifically home consoles but in fact arcades; home consoles were simply a collateral damage. Second, later on the government attempted to crack down the addition problem cause by online gaming but not games in general. That should explain why Steam is not banned - it's a retail platform that focuses primarily on single player games, which usually max out at a few hundred hours of play time rather than thousands for an online game.
Did not expect Amazing cultivator simulator. As I really enjoyed Chinese fantasy novels it was really great find. But you kind of have to have some basic knowledge of Chinese fantasy and game is confusing at start with no good tutorial so you kind of need guides to play it. Discord was really helpful.
In fairness, plenty of successful games out there aren't well-tutorialized and still find an audience, if a niche one. Such as Amazing Cultivator Simulator Western-counterpart Dwarf Fortress.
I found Gujian 3 because I had come from Mo Dao Zu Shi (both novel and donhua). If you want to better understand cultivation better I recommend reading Xianxia light novels, the context really helps.
I spent 11 hours straight playing power wash simulator while listening to your videos and it felt like I walked out of a movie theater after I finally turned my computer off
I absolutely loved this video. Very educational and insightful, even if it's 2 years later and I'm sure so much more has changed. Thank you so much for making this. ❤
I'm so happy I discovered this channel. This is really high quality stuff. I'd never imagine this topic would interest me, but here I am, 2.5 hours later.
The many games you couldn't play because they are only available in Chinese on Steam are most if not all been translated by fans in english. The translations can often be hard to understand but you get used to it, especially if you're used to reading machine translation. I really recommend giving it a try. I understand it's not for everyone but if you can bear with it you will discover some amazing games.
I came back to this video after a long time and I can feel and hear such a strong "Action button" vibe from your Dyson Sphere Program moments. It was uncanny.
I got Tale of Immortal a couple weeks ago when it launched with a partial translation to english. Game is absolutely made with heart and despite the obvious budget limitations and weird translation, it's hands down one of the best sandbox experiences I've ever played.
I think I've watched every one of your videos (along with many other long form video game critique creators) and this was probably my favorite. I know it didn't get the views that a popular game critique will - but this was an absolute masterpiece. You threaded the needle perfectly between an entertaining and informative video around a very touchy real-world issue. Thanks for making this, because many others wouldn't have.
So many people wouldn't touch this topic with a 10 foot pole out of fear of being jumped on by people going "Nurrr China apologist! China is 100% awful!". I'm glad he did make this video though. Bringing attention to some really important stuff and a growing but important scene in a wonderful way. Totally gonna check some of these games out
I found your Channel thanks to your Dragon Age video and i loved it. I didn't know anything about these chinese games and now i want to play them so thank you and i Hope that this video becomes the most popular on your channel
To be fair though, the reason why Icey blew up was that it was in an insanly cheap bundle with the Steam controller, like buying it with icey was 20 bucks instead of 50. I've bought the game with the controller, but never played longer then half an hour, but I still played it since it was essentially free.
Devotion was such a loss, but it was not the government who exerts power in banning the game on Steam. prior to the game's release, China was very welcoming about the game and made many positive coverage about the game. in the first week of release, most mainlanders played the game and was very satisfied .... until the "controversial note" is found. it wasn't the government who decides to ban it, but the netizen who did it. they spammed the game's review and made a whole fuss, until you-know-what happened.
I've heard many stories about how when things like what happened with Devotion happen a lot of the reason developers react is not because of the government but because of the sheer intense backlash from Chinese people on social media and in reviews and such. It's a common thing apparently although I don't know too much about it, I can't read Chinese and all so this is going off what I can find in English
@@wongminglang3142 Something similar happened in the Vtuber sphere with Akai Haato getting cancelled in China due to mentioning Taiwan. While the Chinese government might not be directly to blame for the bans, the fact that there are so many people who are so deeply indoctrinated by the state to go ahead and... snitch? That's the most saddening part of it all. It's a problem that I don't think there is any solution for.
Great video, very balanced approach to the more touchy subjects, I hope and honestly believe that the censorship laws of China will become more lax in the future, and that the government will even subsidise video games, if not solely for culture war/export purposes.
Was led here after the Genshin Impact critique. Your opinions are comprehensive and detailed! I’m glad to see people talking about the CCP censorship also give credit to the well made Chinese indie games. Btw WOAH this video is seriously underrated. YT is just really shady and disappointing when it comes to monetisation. You did impressive jobs with your videos!
Great video! Haven’t played any of these games myself, or really plan to, but the explanation was very good, and the in-depth research was clearly high quality. Subbed after watching this. Keep it up!
I've grown a bad habit of listening to your vids before I sleep and thus associating your voice with a comfortable, good time... Making me go very tardy, or in another words... Bit too sleepy and would go to sleep as soon as I hear your voice.
I finally realised after watching your video about elden ring, that it is your personal emotion you bring into your videos, what makes them sooo good and satisfying to watch. You're a legend. I need to check your patreon.
There are English Fan Patches for Scroll of Taiwu and the Immortal Game, both are quite good. Great Video (even if I already one almost all of those Games). A really in depth glimpse into an often overlooked area of gaming. As an avid Xianxia reader I really liked your attempt at trying to sum up what the hell cultivation is supposed to be. Gunfire reborn is quite good too.
Subscribed based on this video. It was very well done and your mixture of knowledge and humor was well balanced. I've been to both China and Taiwan, and my husband is Taiwanese born which contributed to my interest in this topic. I also just love video games, and the rise of Genshin Impact really peaked my interest in what else we may be missing from these interesting, beautiful, and culturally rich (and politically complicated) countries. This was the perfect video to listen to as I started my work day. Much thanks! Side note- I related so hard to your comment about Chinese not having an easy mode. The tonal system is infuriating at times. "This word is this tone, but if it's combined with this word that's this tone then it changes to this tone..." 🙄 It's unforgiving.
Glad you're not making videos over an hour anymore, I like these short and not too in-depth style of videos. In all seriousness tho this was great and very informative, glad you made this altho I feel like the statement of separating a country from it's people was a little black and white even if that was unintentional. There are a lot of cases of chinese gamers lashing out at westerners for defending criticism of their government or censorship like recently when Mihoyo censored character in their game Honkai Impact 3rd and chinese twitter accounts were telling westerners to shut up and that their opinions don't matter. Now of course this is twitter which is a haven for dumb arguments and writing before thinking and I don't want to imply that everyone in china is indoctrinated or anything but I feel like it is important to also state that there are very many people supporting this kind of government, censorship and silencing of people who stand against cultural ideals. Again this might not have been the intention but I did feel a "Government bad, Citizens good" message from the last third of the video which felt a little to simplistic.
I don't know how many people found this video because of any algorithm, but I found it through the discord of a chinese indie game. I really loved this video as a fan of cultivation/xiūxiān games and learned a huge amount because of this video. Thanks so much for your diligence, fascinating video and citations. This video was clearly a work of love and I look forward to watching more of your content.
Wonderful video, again. I found you via your elder scrolls trilogy. That was mostly nostalgic for me, but I have now watched many of them, and they're so informative. Thank you. It's over two hours of my life I don't want back.
I have no interest in Chinese indie games, but I still watched the entire video and enjoyed it! Actually made me add detention to my wishlist, even though I generally dont like horror games. But you're videos are always interesting and chill to watch, so here I am; watching and enjoying myself, per usual! Wish you made more videos, but with how thorough and long your videos are(which is what I enjoy about them), I understand that that can't really happen. So keep up the good work and try and not let the youtube overloards' algorithm get you down!
My apologies for not having found you earlier so I could vote for you in the 2021 Game Salesman of the Year contest. Keep it up and you'll get my vote next year -- maybe!
wow this video is so fun to watch for me as a chinese person (living in the west). i rly hope chinese games will be acknowledged more in the future (genshin is a good start) and that the regulations in china concerning games are loosened up a bit. thank you for your thorough research!
This is easily the longest RUclips video I have ever watched. I deeply appreciate your efforts into getting to know Chinese games. It’s sad that the division between the western world and China is as it is and that certain cultural implications are lost in translation. I wish people got to know the good Chinese games, the unique take of the Chinese people, and beauty of its culture, regardless of the game developers’ nationality. Your video is definitely a good starting point. For that, I am grateful. I like your voice by the way. And your scripts are so genuine. It’s almost as if talking to a friend.
Take it from someone who just discovered your videos yesterday, your newer videos are much better than your Dragon Age reterospective. If that video was all I had to go by, I wouldn't have just hit the subscribe button.
man, it took me a while to see this video but it was really worth it. i found you because of your Disco elysium video and your content is way to good for it to be buried under the algorithm.
Holy shit the Chinese Parents game having a New Years minigame balancing refusal and acceptance of the red pouches is so fucking hilarious and accurate
The sole fact of someone even willing to create a game with such concept reads to me as a working through childhood trauma. 高考, complicated culture of parenting in China. All of that is quite a surreal experience through the game lol
I need this game in my life. Lmao
can yall put the timestamp please, gonna watch this video later but realy curious
@@drewinsur7321 16:50
Can we also talk about how this game is literally Growing Up but with more personality and cultural references?
45:10 for your information, localization isn't usually done or even tested at all through actually playing through the game. Localization is basically you send a team a .resx file (basically an xml) and they translate every element in that file, which the game exe will then pull through at runtime. Easy for a typo to slip through.
It also removes all the context of text which can lead to errors, for example Europa Universalis German translation had vassals send their taxes to Liege, the city in Belgium (Which to be noted was independent at the time so the city exist as country, instead of their overlord.
I have to say that your reporting is not only really accurate but also endearing to see that someone cares enough to report about both the struggles of gamers and accomplishments/failures of developers in the region. I was really surprised you even attempted to learn Mandarin (I struggle with tones also), the history of gaming there, and the culture that has developed around it as a result of government intervention and wealth inequality. Thanks for taking so much time to do your research because regardless of the government there are lots of passionate and dedicated developers who deserve some recognition. Hope you have a great day man.
im sorry to say but you are wrong ! i like how you dont use any argument to back up youre story. nice try wolf warior.
@@MrKubben90 what?
@@MrKubben90 what
@@MrKubben90 what
@@MrKubben90 when even the propaganda is badly translated lmao
As a gamer who speaks both English and Chinese, I have to say that some of the best Chinese indie games are unbelievably difficult to translate into proper English. For example, The Scroll of Taiwu, which you mentioned at the beginning of Part 4, is basically considered by Chinese gamers to be the pinnacle of "ancient Chinese style writing".
And that means a load of insurmountable cultural barriers for almost all non-Chinese speakers. For example, one of the skills in the game is called "巨阙千钧剑". Where "巨" means huge; "阙" can refer to both an ancient Chinese building and "broken"; "千" refers to a thousand; "钧" is a rather large unit of weight used in ancient China; "剑" is a sword.
And even if you fully understand the meaning of each character in this name individually, you are still far from getting its real meaning, so it's time to go to the second level: the first two characters "巨阙" together are a new word, the name of an "acupuncture point". - This is a mysterious concept in ancient Chinese medicine, and to explain it would probably require a monograph. To keep things simple, it is only necessary to understand that the "巨阙" point is located approximately in the concave area between the human chest and abdomen. At the same time, "巨阙" is also the name of a famous ancient sword in China, and there are many legends surrounding the casting and use of it. In short, "巨阙" as the name of the sword roughly means a "large and broken" sword.
"千钧" together is also a special ancient word, but fortunately it is not that complicated. It is generally used to refer to an unstoppable and enormous force, and can also refer to a very critical and dangerous moment.
Thus, the five simple Chinese characters "巨阙千钧剑" together have a very rich multi-layered meaning in the eyes of a player who grew up with a standard Chinese education experience (which contains a great deal of basic knowledge of those pieces of knowledge) - a legendary broken heavy sword without a blade, one of the most vulnerable points of the human body, a huge and unstoppable force, a critical moment of life and death...... and such "highly compressed" textual information is literally present in every corner of this game. It's simply unimaginable to translate such kinds of texts into another language without losing their complex connotations.
You just discouraged me from learning Chinese :D
@@k_e_K_e___ In fairness, learning Chinese often discourages people from learning Chinese.
I wouldn't put an early access game on such a pedestal yet. Maybe Chinese gamers are new to the phenomenon of early access and don't know how poorly things can end up despite a glorious beginning. I am fluent in Chinese and can understand literary Chinese just fine, but I've held back on this game because it's still in early access. I don't play early access games. EDIT: 太吾绘卷 The Scroll Of Taiwu still in early access on 14 April 2022, recent reviews are poor at 42% positive. No surprise here I guess?
What a beautiful language.
You just encouraged me to learn Chinese.
To add to the point about Steam, one of the other aspects I've found strange (as a user in China who buys and plays games from the Chinese store) is that a lot of the games that are allowed are also not modified in any way from the original.
For example, many games are modified for sale in certain countries by toning down or totally removing certain aspects (Fallout 3 springs to mind because, assuming I'm recalling correctly, the German version of FO3 had most of the gore removed for it to be legally available there). However, on Chinese Steam - assuming the game wasn't straight up banned from sale in the first place, such as those featuring pornographic content - these games aren't censored at all. Full gore, nudity, the lot. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great example, none of it has been edited from the standard version for sale on Steam in China.
My assumption is that they're able to get away with it because the game isn't openly advertised as including this kind of content (well, violence certainly is but that seems to be an inconsistency in Chinese media, because fairly graphic violence IS a feature of some mainstream Chinese films, shows, etc., but nudity isn't front-page marketing material for it). Thus the only people who will likely be made aware of this kind of content in games like Cyberpunk would be the consumers, who aren't going to say anything because they wouldn't see it as an issue in the first place, nor is it particularly unusual/taboo content for some of them anyway (particularly when I think of Chinese friends, colleagues, etc. who I know played the game).
Still, even on a platform like Steam that is quite the mystery in how it is allowed to exist here, I do find it odd how little censoring is done with respect to the games that are allowed, particularly as there clearly IS some level of censorship in terms of which games are allowed to be sold at all on the Chinese store.
Anyway, excellent video on a topic that really isn't well understood, both inside and outside of China. Props to you for putting so much effort into educating people on it! :) also glad someone else has been converted to the religion of 叉烧包!
❤️叉烧包！
Steam's blocked games, other than pornographic content (which guys uses VPN to buy anyway), are mostly politically sensitive games that gained traction. Like Red Candle Games for example. Those politically banned games, if they are small studios, has a process where negative reviews spam and online harrassment to the developers.
That's a few example I thought of when Steam has games being censored usually have developers releasing an addon to patch the uncensored content back in.
Just a fun thing about censorship and steam to think about.
Probably some kind of backdoor deals with Tencent, like they allow Steam to have a very lax and tolerant take on their current video games publication, while allowing Tencent a percentage of the remuneration from the ongoing trading of virtual content, which probably is a gold mine in China due to how popular pay-to-win is, so they surely saw it as an opportunity to make mad dosh. Like imagine the TF2 hat or item trading community, but in China, I cannot even imagine the insane prices some item would get to, especially the weapons, if they don't straight up add more for the express purpose of favoring pay-to-win mentality. Like for exemple there was a MMO where the sole iteration of a really over powered sword was sold for the equivalent of 50 000 dollars, and like not even a real sword, but the ability to use it in game...
How are you commenting on RUclips. RUclips is blocked in China. You use a VPN that’s why.
Neither Fallout 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 were approved by the Chinese government (and knowing their criteria, it's basically impossible especially Fallout 3 no matter how much modification were to be made). You can buy them on steam or even some other stores in China (杉果 perhaps) but that doesn't change the fact that they are in a legal grey area (read illegal) as far as the Chinese government is concerned. They just never bothered to shut them down since there are always bigger fishes to catch.
Valve must have the hookup with some Chinese official. I would be intrigued to look at an investigation.
"My entire life is "bad design" and I will NEVER start over"
~NeverKnowsBest, 2021
54:25
They hit me hard, man. That hit me hard.
I know “gamers are oppressed” is a joke about gamer entitlement, but man Chinese gamers are the real oppressed gamers. Hearing how Chinese game developers suffer while chasing after their dreams made me really sad…
Think of China like working for Bethesda/Activision/Blizzard/EA/Ubisoft, only they're the CCP. And their idea of "firing" you may include sending you off to an indoctrination camp where they abuse you into conforming.
@@onecalledchuck1664 wow this is a crazy assumption here. unless u criticise gov online u shit on ur boss u get fired normally.
@@earlhujewa628 wow, thanks! You know, I’m actually Chinese. :P sure does feel good to think some ppl out there think you’re subhuman ;)
Imagine having your country literally research and create a bioweapon since 2018 and due to their ineptitude have it leak and infect its own citizens then send those infected citizens to random countries worldwide by the millions and by doing so dooming countless random people who had nothing to do with you in the process and leaving countless families grieving.
The sheer fact yall diabolists are still considered human astounds me 👍
@@earlhujewa628 i gont get ur logic here. so chinese gamers are evil? or the government? peek a side dumb dumb
Sir, your dry humor is just gold. Rare, but precious, I'm always get caught off guard.
It always shocks me just how little people in the West think of China, describing it as backwards in terms of gaming, when i lived there, as recently as 2016, they had degrees for running Gaming events.... its just how big gaming already was there long before MiHoYo's Genshin Impact.
I played Xuan Yuan sword and Chinese Paladin: Sword and Fairy and they were dealing with philosophical issues and concepts nearly 2-3 years before the big games like Planescape Torment shook up the western RPG market about how games could explore dense and topical issues and explore what it means to be human and not just be dungeon crawlers.
Also I have to say the Chinese industry is HEAVILY mobile based. Due to the high cost of consoles and gaming rigs (and despite its economic boom Chinese people still struggle with disparity of income). Also relative obscurity of consoles due to their being banned for a long time. It is common to see people playing mobile games... well.. nearly everywhere, from street corners, to Metro. PUBG was massively celebrated in China as their first international success... not Genshin Impact. China's rise in gaming will be commensurate with mobile gaming.
I don't think it's fair to say that 'people in the West think little of China'. There is a bias, yes, first for historic reasons, because it often takes at least a generation to fully realise that the state of things have changed, and 'made in China' doesn't mean low quality knock-off anymore. Secondly, people move production to China, or import Chinese primarly based on price. Every country will be protective about its own industry, and prefer to do business with countries both allied geopolitically and with a long history of smooth cooperation. For the most part, it doesn't make sense to pay a comparable amount for overseas production to what you would pay locally, especially that setting up production in China is always a logistical nightmare unless you are a giant corporation. This means that people tend to see much more poor quality Chinese products, but those more aware know well that it is not because everything Chinese is bad, just because it makes the most financial sense to import poor quality. Yes, a lot of 'muricans are completely uninformed about the real China, but they are completely uninformed about all countries other than USA, so what do you expect? It's not a 'western' issue, it's an american one. The rest know that half a decade ago 'made in Japan' was also a synonym of poor quality, while today it's probably the highest reputation, and that China is quickly following the same path.
I was hoping for him to bring up Sword and Fairy or Xuan Yuan Sword, even though they're Taiwanese and I'm not sure how big or small Softstar was in the 90's. I was always fascinated by these games and I'm glad they're finally being brought over to the west, even if their translations don't do them justice. The history of Chinese-language RPG's is great and is missing in most history of RPG videos.
I really appreciate that someone took so much time and effort to learn and understand about our situation.
As a gamer myself, I've been wanting to learn a lot more about what gaming is like in China and this video has been... Great for that. Honestly it was Arknights of all games that opened my eyes to the ideas of Chinese games being actually really good and having lots of passion in them. I fell in love with the story and characters in Arknights and it made me interested in the Chinese gaming scene and the Chinese independent gaming scene in general.
@@AstralPhnx Türk oyunlarını tanıtan videoda yapın lütfen...
Title and thumbnail probably need work for the Algorithm's sake. But this is your best god damn video so far.
It's so relaxing just sitting back and letting you take me on a 2,5 hour ride through a topic I didn't know I had any interest about! Really well done!
if you werent chainsmoking in a dimly lit room with no ventilation in 90 degree heat eating barbecue duck neck snacks, you werent fully immersed in chinese gaming
Comments on Part Four:
- Watching up to this point in the video has really made me far more appreciative of the Chinese games. I feel that I should really give them more of a chance.
- When I tried Gujian 3 a few months ago, I had an opposite reaction to yours.
- - Unlike you, I loved the story, characters, and cutscenes. The thing is I am ethnic Chinese and a lot of the themes in the narrative of the game can be more deeply appreciated if one were already familiar with aspects of Chinese culture, especially the idea of Xiayi (vaguely translated as honour). Xiayi is a lot about character and conduct, and the appropriate use of martial ability for helping others, not solely for self-benefit. Chinese culture as a huge tradition of respecting authority and seniority, yet this aspect is also often juxtaposed in situations where the authorities or seniors are corrupt or misguided, and the right course of action is uncertain. The best Xiayi stories rarely have clear-cut good or evil, they often present problems that challenge the audience's views, and leave them thinking and interpreting. What I saw in Gujian 3 so far (I only got through a few maps) wasn't outstanding, but the underlying Xiayi theme was certainly present, and I was happy to see them a video game brought to life for once.
- - However I found the gameplay to be very janky and unsatisfying. It never feels like you are truly in control. For the hard fights the best strategy seemed to be to play like a coward and occasionally take a jab or two and then retreat. This essentially made the greater part of the moveset redundant. And the alternative playstyle is to spam potions, and given that potions are more more abundant in the later half despite the bosses in the earlier half being mechanically more difficult it makes the difficulty very poorly tuned.
- - I didn't complete if after running into an infamous very difficult boss in the early third of the game. Yet, I feel that I really should give it another chance. With a better idea of what to expect, I can prepare better this time.
- The comparison of Chinese games to JRPGs is very apt. The main appeal of Chinese games is because they are Chinese. They have something unique to say, something different in the culture that can allow them to make games unlike anything else in the world. They don't have to make Western games, because we already have plenty of them. And like JRPGs, although there is something lost in translation, there are still much to be gained from the ways the games are presented, set thematically, narrated, and designed mechanically.
- Made in China for China is only partially accurate. Chinese themes like Xiayi are popular and well received in other parts of Asia such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and parts of Southeast Asia. (Gujian 3 received a Japanese translation!) That's not to mention also Hong Kong and Taiwan (which are outside the great firewall and reside in the same internet as the rest of the world), and the increasingly growing population of Chinese descendants living outside of China. I am myself not from China. I am ethnic Chinese, but live in Southeast Asia. My first language is English, and my source of gaming content is RUclips and Reddit. While I am fluent in Chinese, I only sporadically read/watch things on the Chinese internet because they really feel so disconnected from the rest of the world's internet and I have to actively seek them out. So in some sense, to reach people like me, they need to put their games on Steam and promote them on RUclips and other Western media channels.
At 1 hr 27 min without realizing.. didn't think I'd be watching this whole thing, looks like I'm here for the long haul. Right on. Getting the Chinese indie gaming scene some love
Damn to paraphrase something you said into a more generic form: "For everything lost in translation, something is gained in being lost." I really like that a lot and am actually clapping. This video is awesome.
thank you based kageaki
This took me a few weeks, but I believe this is one of the most important videos you've made. I've definitely learned a lot, and I feel like I'm walking away with a new perspective and sense of appreciation for something I once dismissed.
Didn't expect to watch this whole thing in one go, especially right after finishing the last hour of your Genshin video, yet here I am. I am quickly becoming very fond of your work, and leave this comment in hopes that it pleases the algorithm and brings you more views.
'There's a difference between a country's government and it's people'. THIS.
This is something so many people forget, and today it's more relevant than ever be it gaming related or not.
I have never watched a youtube video that's longer than an hour without fast forwarding or listening on 2x speed until I found your channel. The multifaceted way you explore the topics in these videos and the research you do is amazing. The entire video is very engaging (I'm not even a hardcore gamer!). Thank you so much for creating videos like this when the most of the internet is hopping on the fast food-esque style of short videos and trends . Cheers mate!
Thanks, very interesting analysis, as always! I find the Russian gaming industry to be quite interesting too - even more interesting since they're high-quality games and have taken the lead in CRPG games. An incentive to look further into this is update #53 of the Kickstarter Encased, "History behind Russian Fallout" (unfortunately we can't paste URLs here), which is one interesting view on the phenomenon. It's not only the CRPG genre, but flight sim, development tools and other domains. And they don't have game dev schools, but they could tap into that potential and find what appealed to both the Eastern and Western public.
Man, Russian gaming industry in the 90s and early 00s was so lit. You had your K-D Labs with Vangers and Perimeter, your Katauri with Space Rangers 1 and 2, your Nival with absolute bangers such as Etherlords 1 and 2, Rage of Mages 1 and 2, Blitzkrieg and Silent Storm with an addon. And of course you had your Ukrainian GSC's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with a couple of sequels for good measure. And that's just the popular stuff. And these days the incredibly talented Nival guys went on to establish Owlcat Games (on Cyprus) to create the amazing Pathfinder: Kingmaker and are currently working on the sequel. Putin's regime really hates entrepreneurship though and now it's mainly scams, trashy MMOs and mobile games.
I thought you where talking about Atom RPG for a sec there, thanks for your recomendation I'll check Encased out.
@@FairyRat I recognize a few very good games, indeed! I have no idea how they make it through the current regime over there, but fortunately there are still great teams like Owlcat Games, Dark Crystal Games, AtomTeam, and so on.
@@TheCoolCore It's been delayed quite a bit (which happens in indies) and has not left Early Access yet, so you may still find a few bugs, but it's very playable. It's certainly worth checking it out.
Ya I remember Metro series, it is quite some work
I planned to watch 10 mins, then I watched 2 hours of it. It's not just amazingly detailed, but at the same time, the self deprecating humor and off the wall comments are incredibly interesting. I hugely appreciate this kind of video. I might actually consider supporting the channel on patreon for the first time in my life. Great job!
So the massive chinese market Steam has monopoly on explains all those Chinese localizations of various Steam workshop mods you find for Paradox games. I finally found the answer!
"Something may be lost in translation, but something may also be gained in being lost."
Awww, this was such a good line!
I recently read a lot of xianxia/wuxia and I agree, the unfamiliar tropes make things more exciting. The new folklore on which the stories are based on seem refreshing and trying to place everything is a joy.
You're a SSS+ list RUclipsr to me.
Thank you for opening the xianxia genre for me! I've bought Amazing Cultivation Simulator even before finishing the video. And googled some novels as well. How have I never known that such a thing exists??!
And thank you for the video in general. I watched most of your works, but left that one behind for some time, and kept postponing to watch. Maybe something is with the thumbnail or the topic of Chiese videogames industry didn't seem appealing? But, man, I am happy I've finally given it a try. Wonderful job! 👌Wish you the number od subs you deserve, which is much much more than it's now.
Your videos are always great, but this one is truly incredible. I appreciate the well-researched deep dive into a topic that gets little attention on RUclips and in the West in general. Thank you for making such an informative video, and for your empathy towards the Chinese developers.
Just coming back and realizing how relatively small this channel is in comparison to the quality and I’m both shocked and honored to be around for a great channel that will soon grow to be huge.
“Life isn’t about starting over, it’s about continuing forward.”
Deep.
A small but important correction about the removal of Devotion on steam:
While Devotion was removed (delisted) from Steam, this was due to the publisher requesting Steam take it down, not censorship from Steam itself.
I assume China made them an offer they couldn't refuse?
Otherwise why not just patch the game?
Oh, according to wikipedia, "Red Candle removed the game from Steam globally to fix technical issues, as well as to confirm that no other hidden messages remain."
Yeah it wasn't Steam taking it down.
@@TheAssassin642 Yeah the publisher who ultimately has the rights over how the game is handled abandoned ship quickly after it blew up for fear of retaliation from the CCP.
Devs were caught in the crossfire and Steam doesn't take kindly to already approved and for sale games asking to be delisted so there was probably no chance of them accepting it back.
Didn't red candle games put devotion up on their own site if you want to buy the game?
What a beautifully in-depth and poignant analysis, the level of research you did is incredible. Have you considered turning on community contributions for subtitles/translations? I feel like the video would be able to reach a larger audience in Chinese speakers if they could understand what the video is about. I'd love to be able to send this to some Chinese friends of mine who work in the gaming industry, and would also be willing to contribute to the subtitles.
Im not sure if you're aware but... RUclips shelved Community Contributions for captions months ago. one of the worst things they've done to the site, in my opinion. but now, the only way to add subtitles is for the uploader to do it directly. some youtubers have a system where translators can send their srt file to them through email or etc; hopefully you can reach out to NeverKnowsBest in some way
He said to @ him on Twitter to get his attention. Try it.
You're the best person talking about video games on youtube man. Mandalore, bunnyhop and skillup are all great, but you've genuinely never made a point I disagree with. Keep it up!
Mandalore is my fav, but this guy is pretty good and has nice long videos.
I know this isn't a super hot topic but I really appreciate the effort you've put into this video. The care you've dealt the subject with makes me care, too, and in the future I'll be sure to keep my eye out for Chinese indie games to support them!!
If you ever find a way to get this game called Crazy Tao... this video just unlocked a memory I had of playing it obsessively when I was younger. It's a Chinese MMO and I feel like it must have been popular because I played with a decent number of Americans and they sold cards for it in Game Stop!!
Great work, as always : informative, synthetic, well-written. I am loving this new-ish format of yours, with broad scope themes or series, although I do hope you keep up with your in-depth analyses of some single games. Thanks a ton.
Synthetic? Succinct perhaps?
@@brettvv7475 Succinct :)
Never knew that I wanted to listen to a 2.5 hours long video about Chinese Indie Games. Welp, guess never knows best what I want...
Fuchs you witty bastard
This is a very sweet video. I really like that you made an effort to learn about Chinese culture and history, and that you shared that knowledge with the viewer as well. Some of these games I'm really interested in installing now!
Also very sad to hear what happened with your other video. I'm even more glad I subscribed to your patreon now.
I was hoping someone would make a video exactly like this, thank you for the unique insight
I'm 19 minutes in... the way about you you have, to go about describing information to us about your process of studying and learning, and then weaving all of that into an educational, personal, intimate, factual, touching on your own subjectivity and biases, is SO. EFFING. FUN. to listen to. Please PLEASE always create, always write, always spin your prose. I'm sure you have haters (everyone does, especially the best) but never listen to them. Listen to us quiet folk that more often than not are too enchanted by your speaking to interrupt you and tell you how good you are, how important your work is. Keep up your wonder for this spectacle-deprived world. It needs it. Sending endless positivity your way.
10 minutes in and this is genuinely the most interesting video i've seen in a while
I love how unusual the topics on this channel are. And how thoroughly they are explored and how entertainingly they are delivered. Astonishing work.
Loved the video as always. You are creating some of the few long form content on RUclips that i actually watch without doing something else in between, so please keep it up. Also, i fully agree with your ending statement.
Thanks for the video. Was a great documentary into a developer culture I had no idea about. The huge amount of effort you put into your script, fact-checking, and the humor were really apparent. I had a good time watching this.
I hope you can review Outward at some point. Love to hear your take on that game.
Amazing gem for sure!
I don't always have 2+ hours to watch one of your videos, but whenever I do get that time I always feel like it's time amazingly spent. Thank you for your artistic integrity and incredible passion; it comes through in every paragraph.
this video prompted me to wishlist/buy several of these games so thanks. and as someone with a degree in mandarin im not surprised you gave up immediately but there are a lot of harder to pronounce sounds than 你
wow this full dive deserve more views, youtube really tanked this
I'm curious why you didn't talk about Tale of Wuxia? It's fully translated, complete, and in my opinion one of, if not, the best Chinese RPG out there.
probably didn't want to make the video longer than it already is lol.
Does not look indie to me, correct me if im wrong
@@HelloOnepiece A games graphics have nothing to do with it being indie or not.
@@Pat315 That certainly doesnt, but the steam page describing dev and publisher does
A lot of effort put in. I can appreciate the sheer amount of work that went into this. Good on you.
NeverKnowsBest
: There are no reviews of Gujan3 on youtube.
Iron Pinaple: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?
Was it in one of his Souls-like compilation reviews?
That may be why it was missed
Phenomenal video.
I cried at the end.
Thank you.
This is very interesting! I haven't seen any videos covering gaming in china...
to be fair its pretty difficult to find much information about the industry and the gaming culture there because of the firewall on the countries internet
hmmmmm, i wonder why 🤔🤔🤔
I have to say, honestly your channel is pure gold
With your point about Tencent having its fingers in so many pies. A LOT of universities in the UK receive funding from Chinese companies, including Tencent. Cambridge recently received a hefty funding package for research.
There are two important context I'd like to clarify. First, originally the ban did not target specifically home consoles but in fact arcades; home consoles were simply a collateral damage. Second, later on the government attempted to crack down the addition problem cause by online gaming but not games in general. That should explain why Steam is not banned - it's a retail platform that focuses primarily on single player games, which usually max out at a few hundred hours of play time rather than thousands for an online game.
That said. China recently passed its rating system (finally) and games on Steam are now in a whole new gray zone.
Fantastic video, I really hope the Chinese indie scene is able to keep on producing games like these without any hinderance.
Keep an eye out for eastward :)
Did not expect Amazing cultivator simulator. As I really enjoyed Chinese fantasy novels it was really great find. But you kind of have to have some basic knowledge of Chinese fantasy and game is confusing at start with no good tutorial so you kind of need guides to play it. Discord was really helpful.
In fairness, plenty of successful games out there aren't well-tutorialized and still find an audience, if a niche one.
Such as Amazing Cultivator Simulator Western-counterpart Dwarf Fortress.
I am writing a Chinese fantasy novel, thank you for your love👍👍👍i'm chinese
I found Gujian 3 because I had come from Mo Dao Zu Shi (both novel and donhua). If you want to better understand cultivation better I recommend reading Xianxia light novels, the context really helps.
I spent 11 hours straight playing power wash simulator while listening to your videos and it felt like I walked out of a movie theater after I finally turned my computer off
Man, (all) your videos are what I would call an herculean effort. You've got my respect!
I absolutely loved this video. Very educational and insightful, even if it's 2 years later and I'm sure so much more has changed. Thank you so much for making this. ❤
I laughed hard, I thought hard. Hope this blows up soon.
I'm so happy I discovered this channel. This is really high quality stuff. I'd never imagine this topic would interest me, but here I am, 2.5 hours later.
Fantastic video, love the part at the end addressing the people versus the government of china.
Thank you so much for your hard work.
13:34 the real answer why steam wasn't blocked is because jiang zemin is a fellow gamer, he is the leader of the world gaming federation
of course, he actually starred in the classic arcade game Frogger
And now steam is banned in China :(
The many games you couldn't play because they are only available in Chinese on Steam are most if not all been translated by fans in english. The translations can often be hard to understand but you get used to it, especially if you're used to reading machine translation.
I really recommend giving it a try. I understand it's not for everyone but if you can bear with it you will discover some amazing games.
I came back to this video after a long time and I can feel and hear such a strong "Action button" vibe from your Dyson Sphere Program moments. It was uncanny.
I got Tale of Immortal a couple weeks ago when it launched with a partial translation to english. Game is absolutely made with heart and despite the obvious budget limitations and weird translation, it's hands down one of the best sandbox experiences I've ever played.
My dad walked in and thought i was watching a BBC documentary
I think I've watched every one of your videos (along with many other long form video game critique creators) and this was probably my favorite. I know it didn't get the views that a popular game critique will - but this was an absolute masterpiece. You threaded the needle perfectly between an entertaining and informative video around a very touchy real-world issue. Thanks for making this, because many others wouldn't have.
So many people wouldn't touch this topic with a 10 foot pole out of fear of being jumped on by people going "Nurrr China apologist! China is 100% awful!". I'm glad he did make this video though. Bringing attention to some really important stuff and a growing but important scene in a wonderful way. Totally gonna check some of these games out
crazy how almost the entire chinese market is so overlooked
I found your Channel thanks to your Dragon Age video and i loved it. I didn't know anything about these chinese games and now i want to play them so thank you and i Hope that this video becomes the most popular on your channel
To be fair though, the reason why Icey blew up was that it was in an insanly cheap bundle with the Steam controller, like buying it with icey was 20 bucks instead of 50. I've bought the game with the controller, but never played longer then half an hour, but I still played it since it was essentially free.
This hour long video showcases high intellectual capacity of yours and the openness to new territories of information.
1:48:30 "I really hoped common sense would do a solid for me" :D
your sense of humor is impeccable. and this video made me want to play games again.. something i literally havent felt in years. thank you. subbed
Devotion was such a loss, but it was not the government who exerts power in banning the game on Steam.
prior to the game's release, China was very welcoming about the game and made many positive coverage about the game.
in the first week of release, most mainlanders played the game and was very satisfied .... until the "controversial note" is found.
it wasn't the government who decides to ban it, but the netizen who did it.
they spammed the game's review and made a whole fuss, until you-know-what happened.
I've heard many stories about how when things like what happened with Devotion happen a lot of the reason developers react is not because of the government but because of the sheer intense backlash from Chinese people on social media and in reviews and such. It's a common thing apparently although I don't know too much about it, I can't read Chinese and all so this is going off what I can find in English
@@AstralPhnx ya, that's what happened
@@wongminglang3142 Something similar happened in the Vtuber sphere with Akai Haato getting cancelled in China due to mentioning Taiwan. While the Chinese government might not be directly to blame for the bans, the fact that there are so many people who are so deeply indoctrinated by the state to go ahead and... snitch?
That's the most saddening part of it all. It's a problem that I don't think there is any solution for.
I think this might be your best video, a shame it does not perform as well as some of your other videos
Great video, very balanced approach to the more touchy subjects, I hope and honestly believe that the censorship laws of China will become more lax in the future, and that the government will even subsidise video games, if not solely for culture war/export purposes.
Incredible video! This one landed you on my recommended and I've watched like 6 or so of your videos in the last few days. Keep it up man!
Was led here after the Genshin Impact critique. Your opinions are comprehensive and detailed! I’m glad to see people talking about the CCP censorship also give credit to the well made Chinese indie games.
Btw WOAH this video is seriously underrated. YT is just really shady and disappointing when it comes to monetisation. You did impressive jobs with your videos!
The REAL Reason Facebook is banned in China! ruclips.net/video/f2srfDwM2sQ/видео.html
this overly long videogame documentarytube was fire pls make more
As a fella who just found your channel, I’ve been binging your videos for the past week, and you deserve to blow up. Your content is amazing.
i find him VERY insuferable
Great video! Haven’t played any of these games myself, or really plan to, but the explanation was very good, and the in-depth research was clearly high quality. Subbed after watching this. Keep it up!
Neat topic. Can't watch for a bit but here's the algorithm booster
I've grown a bad habit of listening to your vids before I sleep and thus associating your voice with a comfortable, good time...
Making me go very tardy, or in another words... Bit too sleepy and would go to sleep as soon as I hear your voice.
I finally realised after watching your video about elden ring, that it is your personal emotion you bring into your videos, what makes them sooo good and satisfying to watch. You're a legend. I need to check your patreon.
There are English Fan Patches for Scroll of Taiwu and the Immortal Game, both are quite good. Great Video (even if I already one almost all of those Games). A really in depth glimpse into an often overlooked area of gaming. As an avid Xianxia reader I really liked your attempt at trying to sum up what the hell cultivation is supposed to be. Gunfire reborn is quite good too.
Subscribed based on this video. It was very well done and your mixture of knowledge and humor was well balanced. I've been to both China and Taiwan, and my husband is Taiwanese born which contributed to my interest in this topic. I also just love video games, and the rise of Genshin Impact really peaked my interest in what else we may be missing from these interesting, beautiful, and culturally rich (and politically complicated) countries. This was the perfect video to listen to as I started my work day. Much thanks!
Side note- I related so hard to your comment about Chinese not having an easy mode. The tonal system is infuriating at times. "This word is this tone, but if it's combined with this word that's this tone then it changes to this tone..." 🙄 It's unforgiving.
Glad you're not making videos over an hour anymore, I like these short and not too in-depth style of videos. In all seriousness tho this was great and very informative, glad you made this altho I feel like the statement of separating a country from it's people was a little black and white even if that was unintentional. There are a lot of cases of chinese gamers lashing out at westerners for defending criticism of their government or censorship like recently when Mihoyo censored character in their game Honkai Impact 3rd and chinese twitter accounts were telling westerners to shut up and that their opinions don't matter. Now of course this is twitter which is a haven for dumb arguments and writing before thinking and I don't want to imply that everyone in china is indoctrinated or anything but I feel like it is important to also state that there are very many people supporting this kind of government, censorship and silencing of people who stand against cultural ideals. Again this might not have been the intention but I did feel a "Government bad, Citizens good" message from the last third of the video which felt a little to simplistic.
Incredible work as always, I wish this one got as many views as relative to the amount of work you clearly put into it.
I don't know how many people found this video because of any algorithm, but I found it through the discord of a chinese indie game. I really loved this video as a fan of cultivation/xiūxiān games and learned a huge amount because of this video. Thanks so much for your diligence, fascinating video and citations. This video was clearly a work of love and I look forward to watching more of your content.
Wonderful video, again. I found you via your elder scrolls trilogy. That was mostly nostalgic for me, but I have now watched many of them, and they're so informative. Thank you. It's over two hours of my life I don't want back.
I have no interest in Chinese indie games, but I still watched the entire video and enjoyed it! Actually made me add detention to my wishlist, even though I generally dont like horror games. But you're videos are always interesting and chill to watch, so here I am; watching and enjoying myself, per usual! Wish you made more videos, but with how thorough and long your videos are(which is what I enjoy about them), I understand that that can't really happen. So keep up the good work and try and not let the youtube overloards' algorithm get you down!
My apologies for not having found you earlier so I could vote for you in the 2021 Game Salesman of the Year contest. Keep it up and you'll get my vote next year -- maybe!
wow this video is so fun to watch for me as a chinese person (living in the west). i rly hope chinese games will be acknowledged more in the future (genshin is a good start) and that the regulations in china concerning games are loosened up a bit. thank you for your thorough research!
So many hidden gems are waiting to be discovered
This is easily the longest RUclips video I have ever watched. I deeply appreciate your efforts into getting to know Chinese games. It’s sad that the division between the western world and China is as it is and that certain cultural implications are lost in translation. I wish people got to know the good Chinese games, the unique take of the Chinese people, and beauty of its culture, regardless of the game developers’ nationality. Your video is definitely a good starting point. For that, I am grateful. I like your voice by the way. And your scripts are so genuine. It’s almost as if talking to a friend.
Take it from someone who just discovered your videos yesterday, your newer videos are much better than your Dragon Age reterospective. If that video was all I had to go by, I wouldn't have just hit the subscribe button.
man, it took me a while to see this video but it was really worth it. i found you because of your Disco elysium video and your content is way to good for it to be buried under the algorithm.
You are the only one beside SuperEyepatchWolf (/LFAB) that I heard talking about Detention and Devotion. Thank you for including them!