Hello, games community
I’m 26, born in 1999 in a small Chinese town. Call me French Fry Noob — or just Fry.
In China’s Battlefield community, new players are called “French fries.” Fresh, get eaten alive, but always show up in large numbers. A self-deprecating way of saying: I’m still learning, I’ll die a lot, but I’m here to have fun.
I grew up blowing into Famiclone cartridges, sneaking into arcades, renting PS2 time by the hour, and using a PSP as an MP4 player. Same story, different place.
I don’t work in games. Just a player.
Recently I wrote a long piece about how my generation in China grew up with games — Famiclone to Steam. Console ban, grey market, the Steam tipping point, and why “piracy” was never the full picture. Chinese gamers liked it.
I’m working on an English version now. It’s about why a kid from a small Chinese town bought a physical PS2 copy of Most Wanted years later — just for closure. Not politics. Just games.
Will post it here soon.
I’m new to Lemmy. Still learning etiquette. Feel free to correct me.
Thanks for reading. And if you play Battlefield… sorry in advance.
– Fry
I’ll admit, some of the earliest context I had on Chinese gaming was that they had a lot of cheaters; that there was even a greedy, cultural belief that the ends justified the means, and that if you got the win screen, it didn’t matter what you did to get there. Some game publishers even went so far as to block Chinese IP addresses/VPNs to keep them out of game servers.
I’m curious if you feel that was ever true, or whether that’s changed over time.
However, it’s worth noting that the first generation of Chinese Paladin (or The Legend of Sword and Fairy) is only available in Chinese on Steam, with no official English translation. There are fan-made English patches, but their quality varies. Starting from the fourth generation onward, some later titles gradually added official English subtitle support. For example, Chinese Paladin VI had an international version with English language options. If you want to try a version with English support, it’s recommended to start with the sixth generation."
"The early Chinese game market was indeed quite chaotic, but the situation has improved a lot now.
When it comes to the impact of bad games on the market, I think China’s Blood Lion is a classic example — it was so bad that it made many people lose faith in domestic single-player games for a while.
As for excellent Chinese games, The Legend of Sword and Fairy (Chinese Paladin) truly showcases a unique kind of romance that is distinctly Chinese. This romance is very different from JRPG stories — it’s more about chivalric culture and the emotional ties of the jianghu (the martial world)."
yes