Legal Niches

Vietnam Using Games to Lure Users to State-Owned Social Website

By pete_gallagher

Vietnam has been implementing a series of measures aimed at attempting to curb what it believes is an overenthusiastic reliance on online gaming, but it isn't above using games to lure the populace to a new government-backed Facebook competitor.

The state-owned Vietnam Multimedia Corp. launched a beta version of a social networking website called go.vn earlier this year. As detailed by the Wall Street Journal, the website requires prospective users to register using full names and government-issued identity numbers.

To help lure younger Vietnamese, the site features 'several state-approved videogames, including a violent multiplayer contest featuring a band of militants bent on stopping the spread of global capitalism.'

The Journal piece mentions a university student named Pham Thanh Cong, who was waiting for 'his turn to play an online shoot-'em-up game at a street-side Internet café.' When asked about go.vn, Cong replied, 'I didn't even know it existed.'
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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on October 05, 2010 (boomark / email).