Chinese gamers protest online

There's a lot to protest about in China: ethnic tension in Xinjiang, forced eviction and resettlement, and even gay rights. Now you can add video games to that list as well.

From Telegraph.co.uk:

"Angry fans of Hot-Blooded Legend staged the blockade to disrupt the launch of The Legend Returns, a new version of the popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

The protesters massed their avatars at the gates of cities to prevent new people from entering. They also blocked roads in an attempt to paralyse traffic and bring the game to a standstill.

The unprecedented online demonstration was reportedly co-ordinated in advance on Chinese gaming chat rooms, as it became clear that the makers of The Legend Returns had little intention of preserving the spirit of the original."

It seems the protesters were incensed that the new game allowed players to use real money to purchase in-game items, which skews game play towards the rich and away from the average player - one with a lot of free time. What's funniest was the reaction by the game's administrators, which was eerily similar to real, live protest control in China:

Administrators were forced to take drastic crowd control measures - "flying" protesters to empty parts of the online world, or dumping them out of the game completely - in order to clear access to the cities.

From the countless internet bars we've been in, we know that online video games are taken very seriously here. We guess this is what happens when you chip away at the already tenuous internet freedom and classlessness that exists in China.