There is no question over the last 10 years the quality and production level of Chinese developed games has seem to sky rocket. Many of these games even being free to play. But honestly I haven’t played a single one. For the same reasons I refused to download TikTok.
China is a well known surveillance state. I worry downloading and playing these games especially on a PC or mobile phone would just be a huge privacy risk.
Am I being to paranoid ? Are there some regulations I’m not aware of that might protect me anyway ?
I feel like I’m missing out on some really high quality visually striking games because of it
Am I being to paranoid ?
No, you are not enough paranoid if you don’t have the same or worse concerns about games developed in western countries. e.g. five eyes alliance.
I think this is true for all games that access the internet. However, it seems an especially large number of Chinese games that make it to the West require an internet connection to function. Sometimes it makes sense (multiplayer mechanics, gacha, etc.), sometimes it doesn’t at all (some relatively popular single-player RPGs with no online play require a connection just to make a save file, for example).
This is just to say I understand people being concerned if all they see are these Chinese online-required games everywhere when they can also find some random completely offline game made in America, Europe, Japan, etc. just as easily (or even a game with an optional online mode that can be disabled without the game breaking).
Western games do this tol, though, even where it doesn’t make sense to. It isn’t a China specific thing, and China has less of an ability to do anything malicious with that data than your local governments and corpos.
The Chinese government should be no more a concern for privacy than any other government. The only one worse than any other for you specifically is the one in which you reside, which would be able to make the best use of that data. The only exception is if you’re a dissident or target of a foreign country.
Security and economic contribution are a different beast.
Worse for an western gamer that big western companies logs their data, than that China do it, in China nobody gives a fuck of personal data from western users. Different for Chinese gamers.
There’s always the risk of spying if a game requires an internet connection, no matter who published it, but unless you plan to be in China later on, there’s not much that Chinese companies (or authorities, if that is of concern) can do with the data collected on you.
I suppose some company could sell that data back to a US firm in a roundabout way. Anyway, take what I say with a grain of salt since I’ve hardly played or looked into any games requiring an internet connection.
China isn’t any more of a surveillance state than the US and Europe already. Why would a Chinese game be any worse than the ways you’re spied on by people that can actually do something with your data? Wherever you live, assuming it isn’t China, your data is already being collected by people far more capable of doing something about it if they found something they didn’t like, and far more interested in doing so.
Let’s face it, the CPC almost certainly doesn’t care about you, and it would be better for the PRC to have your data than your local government and corporations, that do care far more about you. I don’t see why fearing a developing socialist state so much makes any sense.
My question for the yankees who worry about “Chinese technology spying” on them: Can the CPC send death squads to your house?
China isn’t going to spy on you any more than American games. Not saying they won’t, but like, you have a phone? That’s more of a privacy issue by itself than almost any game you could play.
It’s crazy to trust any closed source software.
yes, you are
But not just China…
US is also surveillance state
They have CIA they have espionage they have all sorts of things. They don’t have full state owned media. They don’t get by default access to your data. Companies can and have refused.
To say China and the US are the same for their citizens is just stupid …
Oh you sweet summer child. The US government is the preeminent surveillance state. Just last week they reauthorized warrantless wiretaps for US citizens. After 9/11 they began collecting all digital communication and storing it forever. Look up Edward Snowden like the other comment suggested.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/fisa-warrantless-spying-renewal-congress
Keywords: NSA, Edward Snowden, United States v. Moalin
They aren’t the same, the US is far worse. Why is it bad for media to be publicly owned, in a country where the working classes control the state? In the US Empire, the CIA and NSA already spy on everyone, and capitalists control all media and the state.
Why would it matter if they’re not the same?
Both can be surveillance states, but in different points on the spectrum.
Just because country A is worse than country B doesnt make country B good.
Both countries are surveillance states that shouldnt be trusted.
I don’t disagree that centralization of information gathering is a bigger concern of many fragmented data collectors. Sure the US is a large surveillance state, but it takes a lot of energy and coordination to integrate all these disparate systems. The risk of China is that by having state involvement in all businesses, that integration can happen at all stages of development. But generally I think fighting for data privacy is worth it regardless of company/country.
As for Chinese games, I generally avoid them because they’re gatcha games or heavily astroturfed. I still feel burned from “My Time at Portia”. It had so many positive reviews and was compared to stardew Valley, but the game was janky and felt like a poorly implemented single player mmo.
Do you not trust American made games?
I don’t trust anything that goes online
I should not say crazy so much as racist. The idea of a westerner calling China a “well known surveillance state” without irony is farcical. What exactly are you worried will happen?
yes
I remember when tiktok was being advertised as something to fill the vine vacuum and it looked cringe as hell and just obvious spyware and I thought there’s no way anyone would install that.
Here we are.
Also it’s hilarious that Microsoft were finally on a winner with vine and they just scrapped it.
Yes you are crazy. China doesn’t give a shit about you, if they really want your data they can just buy it from your government or one of the many corporations that are all verifiably spying on you and selling your data.
I would say you are not paranoid, but the reasons you have equally apply to non Chinese Games and social networks.
So to be consistent, either not play Games and get off of social networks, or do it.
Ummm if you’re really serious about privacy wouldn’t you have already switched to GrapheneOS and Linux? Like people who actually care about this stuff avoid Google, Microsoft… and proprietary software like the plague
If surveillance is the worry shouldn’t that same skepticism apply beyond just China? I dunno it kinda feels less about privacy and more about a specific distrust, you know?
Proprietary software is fine (if sandboxed)
