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How should be the future Oriental Adventures.
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<blockquote data-quote="Count_Zero" data-source="post: 8027829" data-attributes="member: 40164"><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px">That's up to the people who write the book, and making those changes isn't going to be what gets someone to change their mind and buy the book.</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>(<em>sighs and turns his chair around backwards</em>)</p><p></p><p>WotC isn't getting the Chinese market. It's not happening. I tap-danced around things to avoid getting into modern politics, but there's no avoiding it when it comes to getting into the Chinese market. You've already mentioned the previous stories about not being able to depict Ancient China, or ghosts and the undead, or time travel, and that sort of thing. However, you've missed the three big ticking timebombs in the middle of the room that WotC will have to contend with when it comes to the Chinese market, and in particular, dealing with Chinese censors.</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53230391[/URL]</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/asia/hong-kong-security-law-intl-hnk/[/URL]</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53220713[/URL]</p><p></p><p>In short - the new Chinese security law has a vast scope that can leave people who aren't Chinese citizens subject to incarceration by China if we criticize the Chinese government for things like their crackdown on the Hong Kong Protests, or their treatment of the Uighur population. Are they going to request the US or Spanish or Canadian government extradite us for doing those things? No, not likely. However, if we go through a Chinese airport, or take a trip to China, could they decide to arrest us? Yes. This would apply to the staff members of WotC who would need to go to China in order to get government approval to sell the book there. Even if those staff members themselves had not said anything wrong, if someone else at WotC had been too open in their criticism of the Chinese government, that could open those staff members for retaliatory arrest - and could put the staff at their Chinese publisher at risk for getting disappeared in retaliation as well.</p><p></p><p>Additionally, this could actually end up conflicting with WotC's efforts to get rid of "evil races" from D&D as well - if the Chinese government objects to, for example, a culture that's a little too close to the Uighur getting depicted respectfully, and the censors ask them to depict them in a more... traditionally Orcish manner, the authors of the book now end up stuck in a bad situation. Similarly, if they just do a different edition in China with the D&D Trade Dress and the bigoted content that the Chinese government wants, that's still something that people outside of China will find out about, and will get upset about.</p><p></p><p>In short - right now - actively seeking to make a Wuxia setting for the express purpose of attempting to appeal to the Chinese market (as in the market in China) could potentially put WotC in more hot water than Paradox and NuWhiteWolf got in for the section about Chechnya in the Camarilla Sourcebook for Nu-Vampire. Hasbro's staff may not pay full attention to the rest of the RPG industry, but WotC definitely does, and when you have a land mine <em>that clearly marked</em> it would be an act of negligent stupidity, from a business standpoint, and from an ethical standpoint, to go jump on it to see if it goes off.</p><p></p><p>If WotC were to put a wuxia inspired sourcebook out as part of a new Asian Adventures initiative, the smart option would be to bring a bunch of writers of Chinese ancestry on board from the US, Canada, UK, or wherever, and ask them to write a setting book for wuxia themed campaigns, give important bullet points (what tonally they're looking for, the balance of setting to crunch, etc), and put them in positions of authority on the project, from art selection to writing and editing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Count_Zero, post: 8027829, member: 40164"] [SIZE=4] That's up to the people who write the book, and making those changes isn't going to be what gets someone to change their mind and buy the book.[/SIZE] ([I]sighs and turns his chair around backwards[/I]) WotC isn't getting the Chinese market. It's not happening. I tap-danced around things to avoid getting into modern politics, but there's no avoiding it when it comes to getting into the Chinese market. You've already mentioned the previous stories about not being able to depict Ancient China, or ghosts and the undead, or time travel, and that sort of thing. However, you've missed the three big ticking timebombs in the middle of the room that WotC will have to contend with when it comes to the Chinese market, and in particular, dealing with Chinese censors. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53230391[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/asia/hong-kong-security-law-intl-hnk/[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53220713[/URL] In short - the new Chinese security law has a vast scope that can leave people who aren't Chinese citizens subject to incarceration by China if we criticize the Chinese government for things like their crackdown on the Hong Kong Protests, or their treatment of the Uighur population. Are they going to request the US or Spanish or Canadian government extradite us for doing those things? No, not likely. However, if we go through a Chinese airport, or take a trip to China, could they decide to arrest us? Yes. This would apply to the staff members of WotC who would need to go to China in order to get government approval to sell the book there. Even if those staff members themselves had not said anything wrong, if someone else at WotC had been too open in their criticism of the Chinese government, that could open those staff members for retaliatory arrest - and could put the staff at their Chinese publisher at risk for getting disappeared in retaliation as well. Additionally, this could actually end up conflicting with WotC's efforts to get rid of "evil races" from D&D as well - if the Chinese government objects to, for example, a culture that's a little too close to the Uighur getting depicted respectfully, and the censors ask them to depict them in a more... traditionally Orcish manner, the authors of the book now end up stuck in a bad situation. Similarly, if they just do a different edition in China with the D&D Trade Dress and the bigoted content that the Chinese government wants, that's still something that people outside of China will find out about, and will get upset about. In short - right now - actively seeking to make a Wuxia setting for the express purpose of attempting to appeal to the Chinese market (as in the market in China) could potentially put WotC in more hot water than Paradox and NuWhiteWolf got in for the section about Chechnya in the Camarilla Sourcebook for Nu-Vampire. Hasbro's staff may not pay full attention to the rest of the RPG industry, but WotC definitely does, and when you have a land mine [I]that clearly marked[/I] it would be an act of negligent stupidity, from a business standpoint, and from an ethical standpoint, to go jump on it to see if it goes off. If WotC were to put a wuxia inspired sourcebook out as part of a new Asian Adventures initiative, the smart option would be to bring a bunch of writers of Chinese ancestry on board from the US, Canada, UK, or wherever, and ask them to write a setting book for wuxia themed campaigns, give important bullet points (what tonally they're looking for, the balance of setting to crunch, etc), and put them in positions of authority on the project, from art selection to writing and editing. [/QUOTE]
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