Apparently, some people are calling this the first great Chinese film of 2010 and it's a machinima. The video, which has already gained a million hits in the various locations its been put up, is called "War of Internet Addiction" and made almost entirely from the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.
As the name implies, the video is a parody of China's ongoing crusade against "Internet Addiction" (and Terminator) a loosely interpreted term for a societal problem in which too many youth are spending their time doing things other than studying. The above Youtube video has English subtitles - if you can read Chinese though, it's on Youku as well. The creators also provided a handy reference guide:
This video contains a lot of Chinese history and pop culture references along with a lot of internet memes known only to Chinese since this video is targeted at the Chinese audience only. This movie is a dramatization of real life events. If you wish to understand this movie a bit more, you should read this list of real life events first.
- The9 is the original WoW carrier in China. - NGA is a popular Chinese WoW forum. After it was commercialized in 2009, it has become very conservative. - Release of Burning Crusade was delayed a year in China. - EA became a major shareholder of The9 in 2008. - After contract with The9 expired, Blizzard gave the contract to Netease as the next WoW carrier in China in May 2009 - The9 sued Blizzard several times. - Bureau of Publication and Department of Culture has been fighting over jurisdiction over MMO for years. - Bureau of Publication want Netease to resubmit BC and WotLK for inspection. - Department of Culture allowed Netease to operate BC servers but still need to inspect WotLK. - State-controlled mainstream media in China routinely demonize mmo players as addicts. - A slew of professors and doctors claim that such addictions are mental illnesses. Professor Yang Yongxin was one of the most famous and successful professors in this area due to his infamous shock therapy. - Later 2009, using shock therapy on MMO addiction was ruled illegal. - Professor Tao Hongkai emerged at this time and started attacking Yang Yongxin for his shock therapy. However, he believes that MMO addiction is a mental illness as well. - At the beginning of 2010, the Bureau and the Department seems to came to an agreement, and the Bureau is drafting punishment to Netease for opening WoW servers without its consent. - WotLK is still not open in China at the moment I'm writing this.
Speaking of internet addiction and World of Warcraft, the newest edition of Wired magazine has a long feature on Deng Senshan, the teenager who was beaten to death last year just a day after he entered an unregistered internet addiction camp. The thing that first got his parents panicked: the hours he would spend playing World of Warcraft. It's very much worth a read.
