Firm eyes State media tie-up for positive game

The Chinese server of the hit game Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds vowed to cooperate with mainstream media in China to “build a positive social influence.”

To create better user experience and build a sound brand impact, Chinese tech giant Tencent, the game’s Chinese server, is cooperating with China’s regulators to optimize the game, news magazine Vista reported.

Tencent said that it has reached a primary intent of cooperation with apps of mainstream media, including the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) flagship newspaper, PLA Daily, Communist Party of China’s (CPC) flagship newspaper People’s Daily, and other State media outlets, to promote more positive values, the game said on Sina Weibo on Tuesday. The post was removed on Wednesday.

The game, in which players kill each other and the last man standing wins, has nearly 2.9 million players at peak hours.

Moreover, the tech firm will inject more Chinese traits into the game after being introduced in China.

“Online games have become part of people’s lives and have an especially profound impact on young people,” said Qin An, head of the Beijingbased Institute of China Cyberspace Strategy. “Positive guidance is important from which people are expected to build cooperation and military consciousness while playing the game,” Qin noted.

The firm said last year that it would make the game in accordance with core socialist values and Chinese traditions and moral codes, after given exclusive operating rights to the game in China.

In November, Wildness Action, the mobile game known as the Chinese imitation of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, replaced violent elements with red banners and slogans such as “safeguard national security, safeguard world peace” in the game.

In 2017, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee said it will use the internet to promote core socialist values. “Core values should be observed in online publicity campaigns, online culture and internet services,” it said, the Xinhua News Agency reported.