Zhang Qian, Chan Manqi

zhqcindy@163.com

DON’T be surprised to see groups of young people, even school students in uniforms, clustered together with their phones playing the Tencent-produced mobile game “King of Glory,” nearly everywhere on the streets. But now the smash hit has also gained some foreign players in China.

Aleksander, from the United States, has been a fan of the mobile game for about two years. His zest for the game has led him to spend at least 4,000 yuan (US$588) on the game.

“One of my Chinese friends showed me the game and downloaded it for me,” said Aleksander, “ever since then I’ve been playing this game.”

The player described himself as addicted to the game and said he sometimes would play it for two days straight. In only about 20 minutes, Aleksander led a team to start a fight on the mobile game and won. In the game, he had “killed” most of the enemies in his team.

“I like the game because it’s competitive and I can play with many friends,” said the gamer, “just better than any other game I have played in China.”

Like Aleksander, Americans Curtin and Brennan have also started to play the game after having it recommended by their Chinese friends.

“The game is easy to play for a few moments on a commute or waiting in line. But the storyline keeps it meaningful unlike smaller games,” said Curtin.

Despite the fact that there is only a Chinese version of the game and all of the information about the characters, or heroes as they are labeled in the game, is in Chinese, the foreign players find the game operable.

Curtin said that most of the necessary communication is visual and basic. “Learning a few specialty characters was like unlocking secrets for us foreigners,” said Curtin. Most of the characters in the game are historical or legendary characters from Chinese history.

However, a player from Canada, known as Joshua, said the game is a little bit difficult for him sometimes because he cannot fully understand each character’s special skills when in combat.

The foreign players believe that if there were an English version of the game, it would get more popular among expats who don’t speak Chinese.

“I do not see people outside of China playing the game because it is not appealing to people who cannot read Chinese or live in China. It’s too foreign for them. If it had an English version, then I believe it would be very popular,” Brennan said.

Apart from some foreign players who are living in Shenzhen, some heated discussions about the game have also unfolded on Reddit, a famous overseas forum.

“I play this, find it’s at least partially similar to League (of Legends), but there’s tons of stuff I don’t understand, mostly items, and hero abilities,” shared user Voile. “I’m pretty sure I know attack damage and ability power on items, but that’s about it. Not sure about critical chance, or attack speed.”

According to Voile, he is trying to create an online wiki to help non-Chinese speakers like him navigate the game.

In fact, not being able to understand the characters is one of the biggest obstacles foreigners face if they want to play the game. “I usually take screenshots and upload them to the Google translate app,” said a player named Leifdaniel. “I can make out the different tiles and equipment.”

Others say they are able to play the game without understanding Chinese, due to its similarity to the popular MOBA game League of Legends. The PC game, commonly referred to as LoL, was acquired by Tencent in 2011. “I can play because I’m an LoL player and it has a lot of similarities,” said a player identified as Dabsian.

The popularity of the game has become uncontrollable this year as many young people, even minors, spend hours and huge sums of money on the game. Some extreme cases were reported in recent months in which children would steal their parents’ money to buy characters for the game or become sick from playing it for too long.

In order to “ensure children’s healthy development,” as Tencent framed the issue, the Internet giant began limiting the hours children could play several of its online games Tuesday. Users under 12 years old are now limited to one hour of play a day, and will not be permitted to sign in after 9 p.m., while those between 12 and 18 years old are limited to two hours per day.