China's Game College Seeks to Foster Innovation
When Nan Li graduated from college and told his parents he wanted to develop computer games, they said they didn't think it was a viable career. Luckily for the young Beijing man, the Chinese government does.
China's policy makers have taken on the improbable role of patron to the nation's hordes of online-game junkies, blessing a nationwide training program called Game College to groom tomorrow's game creators. Besides bolstering the small industry -- and helping to create a handful of jobs for Chinese graduates, amid scant opportunity -- China is nurturing homegrown game developers in a sector rife with foreign competition.
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China's online-games industry was in the spotlight last week with the disclosure that Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., the nation's biggest maker of online games, had snapped up a 19.5% stake in Web-portal leader Sina Corp. for $230 million. Shanda's move focused new attention about where online games played on the Web -- usually with a host of distant co-players -- fit in China's Internet economy.
Clearly, Beijing sees a role for the game sector. China's Ministry of Information Industry issued a public notice last year declaring that online games were an important growth industry in China and that the country needed to "promote the development of game-making expertise." It urged companies and schools to "embark on recruitment and training schemes to make sure that the training courses offered would provide qualified game-making professionals."
It isn't unusual for the Chinese government to try to put its stamp on a particular technology, as it has with leading-edge cellular protocols. The sector also offers a nation legendary for its industrial mimicry and cheap knockoffs the chance to prove itself as an innovator, wielding control over game content, often rich in symbolism.
Chinese-devised games make up only half of all the offerings in China, with the balance devised mostly in South Korea and Japan. Using foreign-made games costs Chinese Internet portals licensing fees of $1 million to $5 million a game, along with royalty fees of 15% to 30% a subscriber.
"This was an industry that was very much dominated by imported products," says Ted Dean, managing director of research firm BDA (China) Ltd. "Supporting game development is the other half of Beijing's policy, as they tighten and clamp down on imports."
China has offered tax incentives and government funding to domestic companies to foster game development, while tightening regulations on foreign game makers. In 2003, the government launched the China Game Publisher Association, a trade group of about 80 businesses.
Beijing wants to sustain the industry's growth and foster Chinese-conceived games in the face of the Korean and Japanese onslaught, say information-technology entrepreneurs Clifford Lung Yan Chu and Xinke Li, who approached the government last year with the idea of a national certificate program. Beijing helped subsidize the launch, at an undisclosed cost, though the government doesn't receive any revenue from the program, Mr. Chu said.
"We saw students who did not have very high academic qualifications but were seeking jobs," Mr. Chu said. "In some cases, these students had over 10 years of videogame [playing] experience."
The industry is hungry for game-designing talent. Shanda, which operates an Internet portal in addition to its business as a game maker, says it is in talks with Game College to set up an internship program. Online-game developer and operator Kingsoft Corp. already has a system by which it recruits graduates from the college into its work force.
China's online-games sector is small at present, taking in $238 million from players last year, according to research firm IDC. Participants pay to play through subscriptions or prepaid cards.
But those revenues have been growing rapidly, up almost 50% since 2003, IDC reports. It predicts that China's industry, which drew 21 million players last year, will outstrip No. 1 Korea by 2007 as more Chinese consumers go online and visit Internet cafés.
Chinese players like online games partly because Web games don't require the expense of dedicated player consoles. And for would-be players without access to a personal computer, games are moving into mobile phones where moves are made through the handset.
For a Chinese Web portal, online games can be a growth area. Last week, NetEase.com Inc. reported fourth-quarter online-gaming revenue soared to $23.8 million, from $13.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. Online gaming accounted for 75% of the company's total revenue.
Meanwhile, the industry is looking for ways to reignite this growth. Analysts at DBS Vickers report that while "massive multiplayer" games will continue to dominate the online-games market this year, their growth rate may be down from last year. So-called casual games, such as digital versions of chess or simplified multiplayer games, eventually could help pick up the slack, along with mobile-phone games.
If Beijing has its way, the majority of China's online games will be designed by the Chinese. Nan Li, the young Beijing man, is one of more than 2,000 students at Game College, all graduates of college or junior college, who will pay about $2,000 for the six-month course, offered at 42 Chinese universities. Now 25 years old, Mr. Li says he is studying hard to create the next blockbuster.
"I want to design a game which is liked by every Chinese person," he says. "This is my destination, my life goal." 中国大力扶持网络游戏产业
李楠（音）大学毕业时对父母说，他想从事电脑游戏开发工作，但他的父母表示，这种职业今后恐怕难以养家糊口。不过这位北京男孩很幸运，因为政府似乎并不这么认为，而且，政府甚至已将电脑游戏确定为需要大力扶持的重要产业。
为此，中国政府资助了一项造福全国众多游戏发烧友的全国性培训项目──游戏学院 (Game College) ，为中国培养未来的游戏设计开发人才。
这项计划不仅是为扶持这项尚显幼嫩的产业，在中国目前就业岗位严重不足的情况下，它还有助于创造一定数量的就业机会，而且，在这个国外竞争对手实力强大的领域，上述计划还将培养中国自己的游戏开发人员。
中国的互联网游戏行业上周突然引起人们的极大关注，起因是中国最大的互联网游戏开发商盛大互动娱乐有限公司 (Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd.) 宣布，已收购国内著名门户网站新浪网 (SINA Corp.) 19.5% 的股份，除了有关公司收购的话题之外，盛大此举还不禁让人们思考这样一个问题：这种通常由分散各地的大批玩家共同参与的网络游戏在中国的互联网经济中处于怎样的地位。
很显然，中国政府认为这个产业大有可为。
中国信息产业部 (Ministry of Information Industry) 去年曾发布通知，称网络游戏是中国一项重要的朝阳产业，国家需推进游戏制作技术的发展。信息产业部敦促企业和学校著手制定招聘和培训计划，确保所提供的培训课程能培养出合格的游戏专业人才。
过问某些特殊技术的发展对于中国政府来说并非什么稀有的举动。比如中国一直在干预建立尖端无线通讯协议的问题。游戏产业还为仿冒和盗版产品盛行的中国提供了一个证明其发明创造能力的机会，设计者还能对常常蕴含很多象征意味的游戏内容掌握控制权。
中国市面上能见到的游戏产品中，中国自己开发设计的只占半数，其余大多来自日本和韩国。每采用一部外国游戏，中国的网络门户网站需支付 100 万美元至 500 万美元不等的许可使用费，另外，每家特许用户还要支付 15%-30% 的特许费。
咨询公司 BDA (China) Ltd. 董事总经理泰德?迪恩 (Ted Dean) 说，中国的游戏业很大程度上被进口产品占据著。中国政府在压缩游戏进口的同时，也在实施扶持游戏开发的政策。
政府规定，积极参与游戏开发的国内企业可享受政府税收优惠和资金支持，同时，政府也加紧了对外国游戏开发商的管制力度。 2003 年，政府成立了中国出版工作者协会游戏工作委员会 (China Game Publisher Association) ，有 80 家企业加入了这一行业组织。
信息技术企业投资人士 Clifford Chu 和李新科说，中国政府希望保持游戏产业的增长势头，并且要在韩国和日本产品的强大攻势下，发展出自主开发的产品。他们去年向中国政府提出开办一个全国性的培训认证项目。 Chu 表示，中国政府为该项目提供了部分资金支持，虽然政府从这个项目中不会取得任何收入。他们拒绝透露资助金额。
Chu 说，我们看到很多学生没有很高的学历但也在试图找工作。这些学生中有些人玩游戏的经验甚至在 10 年以上。
游戏业急需有天赋的游戏设计人才。门户网站暨游戏开发商盛大公司说，它正在跟游戏学院商谈设立一项实习计划。金山公司 (Kingsoft Corp.) 也已建立了一套招募毕业生进入公司工作的体系。
目前，中国的网络游戏产业规模较小。据国际数据公司 (IDC) 提供的数据，去年的总收入仅有 2.38 亿美元。游戏玩家通常用预付费游戏卡或上网付费申请的方式来参与网络游戏。
不过 IDC 说，中国网络游戏产业的收入规模正在迅速增长，目前水平较 2003 年已增长 48.9% 。 IDC 预计，到 2007 年，中国的游戏玩家数量将超过目前位居第一的韩国。去年中国的玩家共有 2,100 万。这些中国人之所以喜欢在网上玩游戏，部分是因为网上游戏不需要昂贵的专用游戏机。没有电脑可用的人还能在手机上玩游戏。
对于中国的门户网站而言，网络游戏有可能是一个极具成长性的领域。网易公司 (NetEase.com Inc.) 上周三公布了 2004 年业绩，称四季度的网上游戏收入达到 2,380 万美元，较 2003 年四季度的 1,320 万美元有大幅增长。网络游戏收入占到公司总收入的 75% 。
与此同时，中国网络游戏业也在寻找新的业绩增长点。据 DBS 唯高达 (DBS Vickers) 认为，虽然“大型多玩家”参与游戏今年将继续主导网络游戏市场，但这类游戏今年的收入增幅可能会开始走下坡路。而所谓的休闲游戏──比如网络象棋或者简单的多人游戏──以及手机游戏最终有可能会帮助改变这种疲软局面。
如果政府能实现其设想，那么中国网络游戏中的很大部分将会由中国人来设计。我们前面提到的那位北京男孩李楠就是游戏学院的 2,000 名学员之一，他们都是大学里的低年级学生或者毕业生。目前，全国有 42 所高校提供游戏学院培训课程，学员要为为期 6 个月的培训支付约合 2,000 美元的学费。李楠说，他学习很刻苦，他希望下一部能引起轰动的游戏是出自自己的设计。
他说，他希望能设计出每一个中国人都喜欢的游戏，这是他的理想，甚至是他的生活目标。
