China's state-run TV runs a positive report about Dota 2

While gaming is extremely popular with China’s youth, it doesn’t always get portrayed in a positive light by the nation’s media. And with high-profile gaming-related murder cases popping up frequently in the news, it’s not hard to see why.

(See: Chinese 16-year-old allegedly murders roommate after losing League of Legends match)

But there are signs that China’s media, including the traditionally-conservative state-run media, is becoming more accepting of video games. Last fall, China’s state-run TV network conglomerate CCTV ran a documentary that portrayed gaming in a positive light. Earlier this year, CCTV ran a show about competitive League of Legends and viewership skyrocketed. Now, CCTV has run a piece on China’s Dota 2 TI4 qualifiers that portrays gaming, and particularly eSports titles, as a good thing.

The report, which was titled “Creative development: making a name for the eSports industry”, has gotten attention in the Chinese gaming community thanks to the following line, which opens the brief report:

Unlike other computer games, competitive gaming titles use the computer platform for a competition that tests wisdom, skills, and team tactics and strategies.

That might not seem like much, and the report itself isn’t much longer, but it’s still enough to make headlines on gaming sites and attract hundreds of comments in a country where the media generally refers to gamers as if they were drug addicts, and rarely touts the positives of gaming beyond its contribution to the GDP.

In fact, the most popular comment of the hundreds that have come in to the Netease Games article about this CCTV report says that the report is “worthy of celebration” because it shows that “even this conservative TV station affirms that Dota 2 is a top-quality game.”

Although it seems gamers in general aren’t going to be perceived differently anytime soon, the report indicates that official media may finally be recognizing that competitive team games like Dota and LoL do have some genuine value beyond what they contribute to Chinese companies’ bottom lines. Progress!

(via Netease Games)