CCTV's Topics in Focus has exposed several Chinese websites, including mop.com and tianya.cn, for their provision of gang themed online games.
According to CCTV, tianya.cn offered a kind of game called "Gang" on its website and players of the game can hire a servant to sell drugs in gambling sites, direct a thief to rob banks, allow smugglers to smuggle alcohol around the world, or hire hooligans to assault people. In addition, Oak Pacific Interactive provided a game called Di Guo Zheng Ba which allows players to try several kinds of cruel torture.
CCTV stated that gang themed games glorify blood and violence and they teach warped social values to teenagers by encouraging them to play the role of gangsters and praising the gangster life. CCTV called on the departments concerned to pay great attention to gang themed online games and to work together with the public to eliminate this malignant online tumor and purify the online environment.
China's Ministry of Culture has issued a circular, asking that these kinds of games should be completely sealed and their operators punished.
It is understood that gang-themed games first appeared in the social networking websites of some foreign countries and in recent years they have become popular on Chinese domestic social networking websites most of whose users are young people.
