Excellent article posted on Danwei about the online game Zhengtu, a wildly popular history-based RPG. The post, which is quite long and extensive, is a great read for a variety of reasons.

I was particularly struck with the article’s discussion about money and its effect on the interaction between players. I’ve always thought that online games were a way to level the playing field, that merit was the most important factor in success. Sure, subscription-based games priced a lot of people out of the market, but at least for everyone who paid that monthly fee, your progress in the game was just based on your talent and willingness to spend oodles of time grinding away at combat and gold farming.

As I’ve written quite a lot about recently, business models have changed, and there is now a decided shift away from subscription-based gaming towards advertising and asset purchases. This is perhaps a smart move for companies that are mostly interested in traffic, but what happens to the game dynamic?

Consider this. In a subscription-based game, let’s say it takes you 100 hours of game play to obtain that nifty sword that allows you to inflict serious damage on your enemies. That’s quite an edge, and it is not available to that lazy guy sitting next to you in the Internet cafe who only shows up on Friday nights for two hours. You got your edge because you are diligent and have no life. That should be rewarded, right?

Contrast this with the new system. You play for 100 hours, but since you have no life, or job, you can’t afford to buy that sword. Maybe you’ll get it eventually, but that guy next to you who only comes in on Friday nights? He’s got piles of cash and can buy new weapons whenever he wants. He can now kick your (avatar’s) ass, all because he has more disposable income that you do.

Not exactly good for society, I think. It also reinforces a lot of tension and frustration between the classes that Beijing is trying to minimize.

If you could see out of my office window right now, with its depressing smoky view, thoughts of the death penalty would most likely be bubbling somewhere in your brain. Or maybe it’s just me?

Apparently a lot of Chinese bloggers are also thinking about the death penalty these days, what with international debate in the UN and around the U.S.

Not much to discuss, here. It’s the law here until it isn’t, but certainly there seems to be an international trend away from capital punishment in recent years. Why it has taken so long for the international community to get to this point, I don’t know.

The one thing that I think would be interesting would be China abolishing the death penalty, and being in line with the EU and almost all other developed countries, and at the same time you have the U.S. and a couple of rogue nations out there maintaining the policy.

Always nice to have people think that you come from a bloodthirsty nation. Gives all the American expats some street cred, right?

Things are still incredibly quiet in Beijing, there is a paucity of news, and blogging remains unwarranted.

With one exception. Writing from Europe (he claims), Danny tells us that Xianzai.com has just hit its 10-year anniversary. This is certainly a milestone to point out for a variety of reasons. For me, the best reason is that, at least in part, I owe my career to Xianzai.

True story. When I first got to China and started looking for legal jobs, one of the only contacts I had in the country forwarded me the Xianzai newsletter. In the advernews was a classified ad run by Lehman, Lee & Xu. I contacted LLX to see if I could get some job leads, ended up being hired, and the rest is history.

Back in 1998, Xianzai was run by Blair Burns, and it was one of the few ways that expats could share information. It was a valuable resource back before a lot of us even had Internet access. I still fondly remember Blair coming in to LLX during the Internet bubble in 2000 and claiming that if he didn’t set up a Cayman Islands company immediately, he would never get the chance at that IPO. Those were silly times.

Under Danny’s guidance since he took over at the age of 15 (something like that), Xianzai has successfully ventured into territories that would probably surprise even Blair (I wonder if he still gets a cut of profits?), and the navigation of China’s bizarre and challenging Internet market has been a source of endless fun for Danny over the years, causing premature baldness, bouts of veganism (is that spelled right?), and rapid weight gains/losses — and these are the things disclosed to the public. With all that stress, Danny’s only recreational outlets are apparently purchases of electronic gadgets and being ripped off by shady local marketing agents (e.g. airport lounge deals). Whatever floats your boat, though.

OK, seriously, Danny is healthy, happy and having fun in Turkey (at an airport lounge). He has a lot more hair than I do and is enjoying his status as Internet entrepreneur.

Congrats to Xianzai.