Virtual World Chinese Second Life?

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"Swords and sorcery" gamemaker to expand horizons

Undeterred by the online gambling-related visits of the FBI to America's "Second Life" virtual world the Chinese online games operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment is poised to start a Chinese equivalent, says Chairman Chen Tianqiao.

Chen intends to expand his Nasdaq-listed company beyond the swords-and-sorcery gameplay milieu that has made it China’s biggest Internet company, reports The Financial Times.

It also highlights international interest in the style of play offered by Second Life, founded in 2003 by San Francisco-based developer Linden Labs.

Second Life encourages players to develop and trade virtual property and to live an internet version of modern life, far  beyond the "shoot 'em up" and racecar standard game offerings.

“We are moving to diversify our games,” Chen told the Financial Times. “The only thing we care about is what users like, so we are also having a try at this Second Life kind of direction.”

The Shanda chairman declined to comment on when the Shanghai-based company might release such a title or offer any further details.

A Second Life-style title from the Internet giant could be bad news for HiPiHi, a Beijing-based start-up that is also developing a Chinese copy of the US game. HiPiHi has already begun limited testing of its game with about 2 000 registered players.

Chen remains confident, saying that the success of a game like Second Life depends on the rapid creation of a large “virtual community” of players, giving Shanda – which already boasts millions of players on its online games – a key advantage.

“Shanda has a huge user base,” he said. “We are also among the strongest on the technical side.”

Two major elements of Second Life’s virtual world could be difficult to replicate in China: online sex and gambling. Beijing has been stepping up efforts to control the Internet, with the ruling Communist party Politburo recently calling for more online promotion of Marxism and a crackdown on what it termed “decadent” content.