China - War of Internet Addiction

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/the-chinese-matrix-and-the-war-of-internet-addiction/

The following is an English translation reprinted with permission by Kaiser Kuo and Jean Shao.

When we work hard for a whole day come home to an apartment with a monthly rent of 2000 RMB, we face such a distorted version (of the game as the fight for interests lingers on), all we can feel is helplessness. You make no mistake, yes, we are indulging, but not in the game itself. It’s the feeling of belonging, and four years’ friendship and entrusting (in this virtual community we cannot give up)…We persevered no matter what …

We know it’s impossible, but we still swim tirelessly to the North Pole, to the edge of the (global) map, to the place where there is no water, but we still can’t see that icy land! In the past year, I, just like others who love this game, diligently go to work on a crowded bus, diligently consume all kinds of food with no concern of whatever unknown chemicals (they may contain). We never complain that our wages are low, we never lose our mental balance due to those big townhouses you bought with the money you took from my meager wage. We mourned and cried for the flood and earthquake, we rejoiced and cheered for the manned space flight and the Olympics. From the bottom of our heart, we never want to lag to any other nations in this world, but in this year, because of you, we can’t even play a game we love whole-heartedly with other gamers all over the world.

We swallowed all the insults (as we are forced to go to overseas servers and caused other gamers’ inconveniences). Why can’t we be entertained at the cheap rate 40 cents an hour? Just because we are here?”

You taught me since my childhood that a house of gold or silver is never as good as my own tumbledown home, but what’s the reality? You forced me to live temporarily in my own country. Why is it so hard to grant me to simply dwell in my own country spiritually?

Thanks to all you so-called Brick Owners (砖家, a homophone for 专家, expert) and Shouting Beasts（叫兽, a homophone for 教授, professor), aren’t there enough eulogies, cosmetics and anesthetics? Everyday, you have nothing else to do but enjoying your prestigious social status, and pointing at us from an ethical high ground. Have you ever wondered why five million gamers are collectively taking this Net poison (as you so describe our addiction to the virtual game), and the deep-rooted social reasons that are covered?

We naively believed that here there are only gardens, that we can touch the ideal if only we work hard enough. When we look up to those servers on the top of the pyramid, we are forced to hold the Happiness bestowed from you. We retreat into the so-called freest Internet on earth, communicate at low cost, and salve the pains in daily life with the game. It’s just like this, but they, for the sake of interests, they are exploiting in every possible way…we are so accustomed to silence, but silence doesn’t mean surrender.

We can’t stop shouting simply because our voices are low; we can’t do anything simply because our power is weak. It’s okay to be chided, it’s okay to be misunderstood, it’s okay to be overlooked. But it’s just I no longer want to keep silent.

Although there have been many other machinimas and remix videos released in China in the past few years, this video differs in that it is in some ways a call to arms, or more precisely a call to not remain silent, as a protest to current conditions.

Although flashmobs may technically be illegal in China, flash mobbing in games has proved to be an outlet by Chinese netizens for expressing dissatisfaction in the past. The winning of this particular video at the Tudou Video Festival this year in China is a window into this growing sentiment against staying quiet when it comes to internet censorship in China.



Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/18/the-chinese-matrix-and-the-war-of-internet-addiction/#ixzz0lYfnfd2n

Video http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=137397&stream=&h=8267fcb0891e593f5326740dc02b5275