Usually we hear about some credit card company or another having some hackers come in and swipe their database of users. This time the hackers were Chinese and the hackee was the online game “Lineage” in South Korea. About 4000 accounts were stolen through the use of malware installed by some suspicious websites. No you will not get free nude pictures of Britney Spears if you click on that link!

Taking the “thief” character class to the next level, the hackers obtained both personal and account information of those affected. The information is not easily used for identity theft, but the virtual identity of the person is easily whisked away.

Another aim of these hackers was to steal the “virtual items” of the players. Yes, we are at a point in this world where people go to great lengths to steal items that don’t exist. There are even full scale “farming” operations where people are paid to play the game to obtain rare items that can be sold for a profit.

One way or another, online gaming is becoming it’s own industry, even it’s own world with benefits and pitfalls. More and more we are seeing online games emerge with their own communities and even economies. Many people are even making a living off trading in these games as well, especially in such socially oriented games as Second Life.

It seems that Internet cafes have been deemed as “unfit and potentially corrupting environments” for China’s youth. Yes, it seems they are right down there with the illicit massage parlors, gambling mahjong houses and unfiltered search engine results. It seems China’s Government is going insane over elevating computer games to the level of tobacco and alcohol. In short, these “dens of villainy and corruption” are no longer open to teenagers. Yes, we have finally reached the day, when the bouncer IDs you at the door so you can go in and play Bubble Bobble.

This is of course hot on the heels of the major net companies coming under fire for seceding to government demands and blocking certain content within the mainland. China is a stickler for controlling what their citizens see and do:

…the establishments will be prohibited from displaying “audio and video products and electronic games” that threaten national security or disparage other nationalities or races. Specifically, the entertainment may not “damage China’s unification, sovereignty, or territorial integrity,” referring to the dispute over the status of nominally independent Taiwan.

Does this sound like big brother to you? I am sorry how my control over fictitious characters slaying monsters and demons using magical powers threatens the very basis on which the motherland of China was founded.

The next targets of threat to the state we can expect to be McDonalds restaurants, old age homes, and churches. Yes, Big Macs are a threat to national obesity! You must be an adult to realize the consequences of ingesting such food!

We are in a modern world where there are always new and innovative ways of getting your high. It seems Crack, Heroin and Ecstacy are no longer the drug of choice for todays Chinese youth. This time it is the internet. Yes, about 15% of Shanhai’s teenagers are addicted to the internet. Touted as “cyber addiction” they say that it puts teenagers into a “trance-like state”. On a side note, I think Trance music might be involved, what with all those free illegal music downloads and all.

This addiction includes online games as well. You might remember the 3 hour play limit that was imposed by the government to stifle the amount of time youths spent playing online games. This was of course sparked by gaming deaths.

All I have to say is that, where are the parents? Are computers replacing TVs as the automatic babysitter? If you have a child, live up to your responsibility and take care of him or her!

Tom.com recently held the 2005 TOM Online Internet Entertainment Awards in Beijing. Contrary to what we might believe as the most entertaining sites, there were no porn related businesses in contention. They are actually celebrating the consolidation of all sorts of entertainment such as music and video onto a digital platform. This is driven by the trends in mobile and Internet technologies, as they become more multimedia capable.

The voters were made up of millions of (Chinese) Internet users voting by Internet or mobile phone for their favorite artist. There were award from best Flash animation to best song, to best Internet video.

It does help that Tom.com is a heavyweight in terms of internet and mobile applications. They are in the top 3 for every segment of the internet enabled entertainment market. With their sway, they brought in over 60 media organizations and more than 20 popular entertainers.

CEO of Tom Online Leilei Wang had this to say:

”2005 was a great year for the China digital entertainment industry. We have seen the rise in popularity of music, Flash and DV content on the Internet and over mobile phones, driving the adoption and mass market appeal of the digital entertainment in China. As the leading integrated entertainment portal and wireless Internet operator in China, TOM Online is proud to be the organizer of this major Internet Entertainment Awards event to honor the people who help shape the future of digital entertainment in China”

The underlying statement is probably, we want to dominate this market, so get on board or get out of the way. Of course they want their business to be a success, and with this sort of behavior, they are well positioned to be the market leader. One has to wonder that how soon it might be before anti-tom.com sentiment starts creeping in, in reaction to their market dominance.

Not suprisingly, there was also a simultaneous webcast of the entire event. You can find the online coverage here(in Chinese): http://ent.tom.com/hero/index.html