By Lin Zidong and Gong Yucong
BEIJING, Mar.4 -- China’s national lawmakers and political advisors are gathering for the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), commonly known as “two sessions”, in Beijing. Professor Li Xiang from the College of Military Culture of the PLA National Defense University (NDU), also a CPPCC member, talked about the research he conducted last year in an interview on developing online army games with independent intellectual property rights and featuring Chinese military characteristics.
Speaking of the inspiration of this research, Prof. Li recalled his personal experience when he was waiting for the train at the Beijing South Railway Station last year. In the waiting room reserved for military members, several cadets from military academies next to him played an online army game. As a teacher having long engaged in painting teaching, Prof. Li was greatly impressed by the exquisite pictures of the game. Learning that the game was developed by a foreign company, he sighed lamentedly.
According to Prof. Li, in recent years, western countries have peddled their values enveloped in online army games under the banner of "democracy and freedom" and promoted them to other countries worldwide. The number of such games that gain popularity in China has exceeded hundreds and is increasing year by year. “Most online army games are developed by foreign countries. Their contents, values, and military thoughts are different from those of the Chinese military, which may mislead Chinese military members in the long run,” said he.
Prof. Li thereby suggested strengthening funding and policy support so as to attract domestic leading gaming companies to get involved in rolling out high-quality military games with Chinese military characteristics.
Besides, in the development of games, more attention should be paid to explore the rich historical and cultural resources of the Chinese military and highlight realistic scenario of building a stronger military, Prof. Li suggested.
In Prof. Li’s view, online army games are a multi-functional military culture carrier integrating the elements of ideological dissemination, image shaping, entertainment and military training. “With the advent of informationization, it has indeed become an indisputable fact that online games will get involved in and promote the transformation of military training patterns.” Foreign militaries have already introduced online games to assist military training and even developed “tailor-made” products, as told by Prof. Li.
After investigations in the Army Academy of Armored Forces, a unit of the PLA Air Force and some other military units, Prof. Li found that some troops have been verifying the effectiveness of applying online army games to facilitate tactical training as an auxiliary method, and the development and application of the games are gaining momentum.
“It is necessary to advance the independent development of online military games in a step-by-step and planned manner. And what is even more important is to intensify the exploration on how to apply these games to assist military training in a scientific and reasonable manner,” said Prof. Li. He is busy revising and improving relevant research results to submit the proposal to the upcoming "two sessions".
