Internet - Ban, ban, ban the game

(Monday on Tidbits)

One of the more hapless ministries in China is the ministry of culture. While other ministries have real power, the ministry of culture has to attract attention by announcing bans that hit the world media. They banned the Rolling Stones, will ban performances of Britney Spears and have last week set up a new censorship commission to screen foreign games for unhealthy content. In their desperate struggle to justify their own miserable existence they only get generous support of the Western media, since the bans issues by this dying dinosaurs of the ministry fit perfectly the Western media agenda.
So from Wired to AP, everybody was up in arms, yet again. The rest of the Chinese bureaucracy seemed to ignore the struggle of their poor colleagues to makes sense out of their existence. The foreign producers of online games should hope it remains like this, since compared to the Rolling Stones and Britney Spears, online games means real money for Chinese producers. Finding a good excuse to set up a new trade barrier for this multi-million industry might appeal to many more ministries. But that story might not be sexy enough for western media.