War of Internet Addiction
Encyclopedia
War of Internet Addiction is an anti-censorship
machinima
advocacy
production on behalf of the mainland Chinese World of Warcraft
community, aesthetically notable for being made entirely in in-universe style. A protest against internet censorship in China, it was first uploaded by video creator nicknamed "Sexy Corn" onto Tudou.com, within days of its release it was banned from a few PRC
video sites such as Youku.com, but has since struck a chord with the wider public beyond the gaming community, eventually becoming more popular on-line than Avatar.
The 64-minute video expresses the frustrations of mainland Chinese WoW players being restricted to mainland servers and presents their grievances and normal feelings to the real world, inasmuch they are often marginalized as being Internet addicts dwelling inside virtual worlds. While the video was considered to be bold and rebellious by the Chinese government, it won the Best Video award in the 2010 Tudou Video Film awards.
. The numerous conflicts and issues addressed include: electroshock therapy for purported internet addiction; the Chinese government’s attempts to censor the internet with mandatory installations of the Green Dam Youth Escort
filter; the corporate battle between the PRC's two primary game servers, The9
and Netease
, over licensing renewal rights; and finally, the bureaucratic in-fighting between the governmental organs General Administration of Press and Publication
and the Ministry of Culture
over control of the game. Along the way the video also satirizes and/or parodies numerous Internet trope
s, meme
s, in-joke
s, running gag
s and clichés which are specific to, and endemic to, Chinese net culture as well certain elements of American pop culture. (Obvious take-offs on certain aspects of the Terminator franchise
, for example, bookend the main action of the story, but at one point major characters engage in poetic battle by doing the dozens
in Chinese couplets
.) Furthermore, given its production of political satire by game engine
, War of Internet Addiction counts, not only as an heir to the roman à clef
tradition, but as an influential machinima à clef in its own right.
During an interview the producer Corndog (Chinese:性感玉米) stated that up to 100 people were involved in the production and that it took three months to make and cost zero dollars, as all the staff were volunteers.
Corndog elaborated that because the production team were all born in the 1980s, they all grew up playing computer games. They had specifically chosen on-line games as their medium for economic reasons, since outdoor activities involve higher costs. World of Warcraft
's superior quality plus the emphasis on team co-operation all gave them a sense of belonging.
In another interview Corndog remarked that he had made the video for fellow WoW players and that he hadn't expected it to resonate with a wider audience. That said, "The last part of the video moved many people, including those who do not play the game, since we actually live in the same society and we are facing the same Internet environment," he said in an emailed response to questions from a Phoenix TV reporter last month. The strong response "should make decision-makers ponder."
The entire video uses the graphics and characters of the on-line version of World of Warcraft
(WoW) and includes audio (theme music from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
and BonJovi's Bells of Freedom)
added by the game's fans from Taiwan and mainland China.
of the electro-shock therapy offered by Yang Yongxin
, who ultimately proves to be the archvillain of the piece.
would apply electric shock therapy to WoW players to cure them of their "Internet addiction."
, gives a long and impassioned speech (in effect breaking the fourth wall) about the hostile censorship environment facing WoW players, a speech which actually moved some gamers to tears. A selective translation:
"When we work hard for a whole day come home to an apartment with a monthly rent of 2000 RMB, we face such a distorted version (of the game as the fight for interests lingers on), all we can feel is helplessness. You make no mistake, yes, we are indulging, but not in the game itself. It’s the feeling of belonging, and four years’ friendship and entrusting (in this virtual community we can not give up)... We persevered no matter what.
"We know it’s impossible, but we still swim tirelessly to the North Pole, to the edge of the (global) map, to the place where there is no water, but we still can’t see that icy land! In the past year, I, just like others who love this game, diligently go to work on a crowded bus, diligently consume all kinds of food with no concern of whatever unknown chemicals (they may contain). We never complain that our wages are low, we never lose our mental balance due to those big townhouses you bought with the money you took from my meager wage. We mourned and cried for the flood and earthquake
, we rejoiced and cheered for the manned space flight
and the Olympics. From the bottom of our heart, we never want to lag to any other nations in this world, but in this year, because of you, we can’t even play a game we love whole-heartedly with other gamers all over the world.
"We swallowed all the insults (as we are forced to go to overseas servers and caused other gamers’ inconveniences). Why can’t we be entertained at the cheap rate 40 cents an hour? Just because we are here?
"You taught me since my childhood that a house of gold or silver is never as good as my own tumbledown home, but what’s the reality? You forced me to live temporarily in my own country. Why is it so hard to grant me to simply dwell in my own country spiritually? Thanks to all you so-called Brick Owners (砖家, a homophone for 专家,expert) and Shouting Beasts(叫兽, a homophone for 教授, professor), aren’t there enough eulogies, cosmetics and anesthetics? Everyday, you have nothing else to do but enjoying your prestigious social status, and pointing at us from an ethical high ground. Have you ever wondered why five million gamers are collectively taking this Net poison (as you so describe our addiction to the virtual game), and the deep-rooted social reasons that are covered? We naively believed that here there are only gardens, that we can touch the ideal if only we work hard enough. When we look up to those servers on the top of the pyramid, we are forced to hold the Happiness bestowed from you. We retreat into the so-called freest Internet on earth, communicate at low cost, and salve the pains in daily life with the game. It’s just like this, but they, for the sake of interests, they are exploiting in every possible way…
"We are so accustomed to silence, but silence doesn’t mean surrender. We can’t stop shouting simply because our voices are low; we can’t do nothing simply because our power is weak. It’s okay to be chided, it’s okay to be misunderstood, it’s okay to be overlooked. But it’s just I no longer want to keep silent."
After this cri du cœur Kannimei reverts to in-game style and calls for other WoW players to signal their defiance by raising their hands to add their energy to his against the robot-like archvillain Yang Yongxin
(who had dismissed the appeal in ironic flanged
tones with "Nice speech —but useless.") Kannimei again addresses his fellow players throughout the World of Warcraft: "Please raise your hands up. I need your strength," he says. "When they blocked YouTube, you didn't act. When they blocked Twitter, you didn't act." The climax is thus a mixture of Dragonball-Z and Martin Niemöller. Uncle Yang is killed, but his spirit of repression lives on; in the epilogue
the fictional Skynet
is, in a final crossover
, strongly hinted to be analogous to the real-life PRC Green Dam Youth Escort
.
placed the film on their list of the best ten Chinese films of 2010.
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
advocacy
Advocacy
Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...
production on behalf of the mainland Chinese World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
community, aesthetically notable for being made entirely in in-universe style. A protest against internet censorship in China, it was first uploaded by video creator nicknamed "Sexy Corn" onto Tudou.com, within days of its release it was banned from a few PRC
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
video sites such as Youku.com, but has since struck a chord with the wider public beyond the gaming community, eventually becoming more popular on-line than Avatar.
The 64-minute video expresses the frustrations of mainland Chinese WoW players being restricted to mainland servers and presents their grievances and normal feelings to the real world, inasmuch they are often marginalized as being Internet addicts dwelling inside virtual worlds. While the video was considered to be bold and rebellious by the Chinese government, it won the Best Video award in the 2010 Tudou Video Film awards.
Major themes and players
The video agit-prop vigorously satirizes the travails of mainland Chinese WoW players over the latter half of 2009 using the technique of personification; the game itself serves as both stage and a framing deviceFraming device
The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.The...
. The numerous conflicts and issues addressed include: electroshock therapy for purported internet addiction; the Chinese government’s attempts to censor the internet with mandatory installations of the Green Dam Youth Escort
Green Dam Youth Escort
Green Dam Youth Escort is content-control software for Windows developed in the People's Republic of China . Originally under a directive from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to take effect on 1 July 2009, it was to be mandatory to have either the software pre-installed, or...
filter; the corporate battle between the PRC's two primary game servers, The9
The9
The9 Limited corporation is a Shanghai-based online game operator which had the exclusive license to operate and distribute World of Warcraft in China , a license they secured after successfully aiding Webzen Games in distributing Mu Online in China...
and Netease
NetEase
NetEase is a Chinese internet company that operates 163.com, a popular web portal which received over 546 million page views in June of 2005. The company has grown rapidly since its founding in June 1997, thanks in part to its investment in search engine technology and massively multiplayer...
, over licensing renewal rights; and finally, the bureaucratic in-fighting between the governmental organs General Administration of Press and Publication
General Administration of Press and Publication
General Administration of Press and Publication is the administrative agency responsible for regulating and distribution news, print and Internet publications in China. This include granting publication licenses for periodicals and books...
and the Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Culture is a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which is responsible for culture policy and activities in the country, including managing national museums and monuments; Astroturfing and promoting government policies; promoting and protecting the arts The...
over control of the game. Along the way the video also satirizes and/or parodies numerous Internet trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
s, meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s, in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s, running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
s and clichés which are specific to, and endemic to, Chinese net culture as well certain elements of American pop culture. (Obvious take-offs on certain aspects of the Terminator franchise
Terminator (franchise)
The Terminator series is a science fiction franchise encompassing a series of films and other media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race....
, for example, bookend the main action of the story, but at one point major characters engage in poetic battle by doing the dozens
The dozens
The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a...
in Chinese couplets
Duilian
In Chinese poetry, a couplet is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules . Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people's homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior...
.) Furthermore, given its production of political satire by game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
, War of Internet Addiction counts, not only as an heir to the roman à clef
Roman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
tradition, but as an influential machinima à clef in its own right.
Oil Tiger Machinima Team
This is the third movie by Oil Tiger Machinima Team, released on Jan 21st, 2010. Two days later it was banned on all major Chinese video sharing websites.During an interview the producer Corndog (Chinese:性感玉米) stated that up to 100 people were involved in the production and that it took three months to make and cost zero dollars, as all the staff were volunteers.
Corndog elaborated that because the production team were all born in the 1980s, they all grew up playing computer games. They had specifically chosen on-line games as their medium for economic reasons, since outdoor activities involve higher costs. World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
's superior quality plus the emphasis on team co-operation all gave them a sense of belonging.
In another interview Corndog remarked that he had made the video for fellow WoW players and that he hadn't expected it to resonate with a wider audience. That said, "The last part of the video moved many people, including those who do not play the game, since we actually live in the same society and we are facing the same Internet environment," he said in an emailed response to questions from a Phoenix TV reporter last month. The strong response "should make decision-makers ponder."
The entire video uses the graphics and characters of the on-line version of World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
(WoW) and includes audio (theme music from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr.. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong...
and BonJovi's Bells of Freedom)
added by the game's fans from Taiwan and mainland China.
Blue electric lighting
Near the beginning (and in some later scenes) there is blue lighting accompanied by low-pitched transformer humming sounds, a foreshadowingForeshadowing
Foreshadowing or adumbrating is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story.-Repetitive designation and Chekhov's gun:...
of the electro-shock therapy offered by Yang Yongxin
Yang Yongxin
Yang Yongxin or Uncle Yang is a controversial Chinese psychiatrist who advocated and practiced electro-shock therapy as a cure for Internet addiction in teenagers...
, who ultimately proves to be the archvillain of the piece.
Room 13
In the video there is discussion about a torture chamber by the name of Room 13, where the suave and evil Uncle YangYang Yongxin
Yang Yongxin or Uncle Yang is a controversial Chinese psychiatrist who advocated and practiced electro-shock therapy as a cure for Internet addiction in teenagers...
would apply electric shock therapy to WoW players to cure them of their "Internet addiction."
Kannimei's speech
Near the end of the video rebel leader Kannimei, a blue-skinned minotaurMinotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
, gives a long and impassioned speech (in effect breaking the fourth wall) about the hostile censorship environment facing WoW players, a speech which actually moved some gamers to tears. A selective translation:
"When we work hard for a whole day come home to an apartment with a monthly rent of 2000 RMB, we face such a distorted version (of the game as the fight for interests lingers on), all we can feel is helplessness. You make no mistake, yes, we are indulging, but not in the game itself. It’s the feeling of belonging, and four years’ friendship and entrusting (in this virtual community we can not give up)... We persevered no matter what.
"We know it’s impossible, but we still swim tirelessly to the North Pole, to the edge of the (global) map, to the place where there is no water, but we still can’t see that icy land! In the past year, I, just like others who love this game, diligently go to work on a crowded bus, diligently consume all kinds of food with no concern of whatever unknown chemicals (they may contain). We never complain that our wages are low, we never lose our mental balance due to those big townhouses you bought with the money you took from my meager wage. We mourned and cried for the flood and earthquake
2008 Sichuan earthquake
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or the Great Sichuan Earthquake was a deadly earthquake that measured at 8.0 Msand 7.9 Mw occurred at 14:28:01 CST...
, we rejoiced and cheered for the manned space flight
Shenzhou 5
Shenzhou 5 — was the first human spaceflight mission of the People's Republic of China , launched on October 15, 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions since 1999...
and the Olympics. From the bottom of our heart, we never want to lag to any other nations in this world, but in this year, because of you, we can’t even play a game we love whole-heartedly with other gamers all over the world.
"We swallowed all the insults (as we are forced to go to overseas servers and caused other gamers’ inconveniences). Why can’t we be entertained at the cheap rate 40 cents an hour? Just because we are here?
"You taught me since my childhood that a house of gold or silver is never as good as my own tumbledown home, but what’s the reality? You forced me to live temporarily in my own country. Why is it so hard to grant me to simply dwell in my own country spiritually? Thanks to all you so-called Brick Owners (砖家, a homophone for 专家,expert) and Shouting Beasts(叫兽, a homophone for 教授, professor), aren’t there enough eulogies, cosmetics and anesthetics? Everyday, you have nothing else to do but enjoying your prestigious social status, and pointing at us from an ethical high ground. Have you ever wondered why five million gamers are collectively taking this Net poison (as you so describe our addiction to the virtual game), and the deep-rooted social reasons that are covered? We naively believed that here there are only gardens, that we can touch the ideal if only we work hard enough. When we look up to those servers on the top of the pyramid, we are forced to hold the Happiness bestowed from you. We retreat into the so-called freest Internet on earth, communicate at low cost, and salve the pains in daily life with the game. It’s just like this, but they, for the sake of interests, they are exploiting in every possible way…
"We are so accustomed to silence, but silence doesn’t mean surrender. We can’t stop shouting simply because our voices are low; we can’t do nothing simply because our power is weak. It’s okay to be chided, it’s okay to be misunderstood, it’s okay to be overlooked. But it’s just I no longer want to keep silent."
After this cri du cœur Kannimei reverts to in-game style and calls for other WoW players to signal their defiance by raising their hands to add their energy to his against the robot-like archvillain Yang Yongxin
Yang Yongxin
Yang Yongxin or Uncle Yang is a controversial Chinese psychiatrist who advocated and practiced electro-shock therapy as a cure for Internet addiction in teenagers...
(who had dismissed the appeal in ironic flanged
Flanging
Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, with one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and notches are produced in the resultant frequency spectrum,...
tones with "Nice speech —but useless.") Kannimei again addresses his fellow players throughout the World of Warcraft: "Please raise your hands up. I need your strength," he says. "When they blocked YouTube, you didn't act. When they blocked Twitter, you didn't act." The climax is thus a mixture of Dragonball-Z and Martin Niemöller. Uncle Yang is killed, but his spirit of repression lives on; in the epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
the fictional Skynet
Skynet (Terminator)
Skynet is the main antagonist in the Terminator franchise—an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators...
is, in a final crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
, strongly hinted to be analogous to the real-life PRC Green Dam Youth Escort
Green Dam Youth Escort
Green Dam Youth Escort is content-control software for Windows developed in the People's Republic of China . Originally under a directive from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to take effect on 1 July 2009, it was to be mandatory to have either the software pre-installed, or...
.
Reception
China DailyChina Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
placed the film on their list of the best ten Chinese films of 2010.
Sources
Background info and list of references to Chinese pop culture and contemporary eventsGoogle docs:Complete Info 凤凰卫视：《网瘾战争》说出了玩家的心声 南方都市报报道《网瘾战争》 采访作者玉米 2009国服总结视频：看你妹第三部之《网瘾战争》 最震撼大片不是<阿凡达> 网友自制史诗<网瘾战争> www.people.com.cn 80后来了，80后在这里 作者: 南方周末评论员 戴志勇 2010-02-03 推荐一个令人致敬的视频：《看你妹--网瘾战争 凯迪社区 猫眼看人External links
- Background of the production
- War of Internet Addiction Video:With English subtitle
- War of Internet Addiction, translated segments on the China Digital Times
- Web addiction shock therapy banned. Reported by Jane Chen | 2009-7-15
- Net addicts need help from school and home
- Chinese hospital gives internet addicts shock therapy
- Cure your Children’s Internet Addiction with Electric Shocks Aversion Therapy May 14th, 2009
- Shock therapy for Internet addiction halted. Posted by Eric Mu, July 14
- Part of the dialogue
- 网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction — Are World of Warcraft’s Travails In China Much More Interesting Than Google’s?January 24 2010
- Baidu Encyclopedia