Despite the country's comparatively recent history of isolation from the international and resistance to the influences of western capitalism along with all its popular entertainment trappings, China's emergence as a rapidly growing economic power has come hand in hand with a new acceptance of previously shunned or unavailable forms of entertainment. In the main, it has been the spread of the Internet that has awoken the People's Republic to the joys of gaming, fuelled in part by the alarming frequency of and the resulting easy-availability of games that would otherwise have been beyond the means of most Chinese citizens.

Of course, east Asia has a proud and ever-growing gaming tradition; most famously through the world's number one games market, - but more recently as well through the world's most nation, South Korea, where literally millions log-on to play the country's most popular MMOGs on a daily basis. It was inevitable then that some of this highly infectious gaming culture would find its way into China, and now analysts inform us that the Chinese gaming market is on the brink of an explosion, with online gaming leading the way.

With the world's largest population of an astounding 1.4 billion people, China's industries have long been viewed with glittering-eyes by western firms looking to expand their profit margins, but their advances and tentative enquiries have been met with endless red-tape, bureaucracy and unfriendly market conditions - at least until more recently, with China's begrudging and ever-so gradual acceptance of a more capitalist economic model, which has generated a booming economy which every company that dares is eager to cash in on.

Of course, is still in many ways what we would term an oppressive, even 'totalitarian' regime, and whilst the ruling bodies may have done much to encourage business and economic growth, in the eyes of the powers that be there are still moral and cultural to be addressed - particularly with regards to games and internet access. This was demonstrated aptly recently, by the that the Ministry of Culture are to crack-down on internet cafes, imposing standards of dictated via the software and systems cafes must use (it is impossible to imagine similar occurrences across the sea in the 'baangs' of South Korea). There is also talk of CCTV cameras in cafes, and a new law just passed in the country that now requires all games to be verified by the Ministry before they can go on sale. Some 16,000 cafes are also reported to have been closed for failing to comply with new procedures.

The new ruling applies in particular to imported titles - many from Korea and Japan - and whilst it can be seen in part as a move by China to encourage and foster a home-grown games industry, it is also a way in which the government can keep tabs on unwanted foreign influences entering the nation. With the new 'morality' laws in mind, a number of titles have already been banned in China, some upon grounds which from the outside seem quite ridiculous and more than a little draconian. What has to be remembered, of course, is that China is still a state in which those in control rule with an iron fist, and in which freedom of information and speech is still an unknown concept: the State still knows best.

The morality laws were brought in to curb a rise in violent crimes among China's youth, with the influences of western media blamed to a large extent in some cases. Businesses caught selling games deemed inappropriate by the Chinese censors will face punishment. Naturally excessive violence and sexual content are the contentious issues, but in addition to this some titles are even deemed a risk to national security. One such title axed on these grounds was Codemasters' Project IGI2: Covert Strike, a title featuring a spy plying his trade in China, which was accused of 'discrediting the national image.'

However, perhaps the greatest risk to both foreign and home grown titles in China comes not from the state censors but from the very people selling and playing the games, for piracy is rampant throughout the State. PC games are the easiest to copy, but console games are hardly deemed immune; a fact emphasised by Nintendo's foray into China with the iQue - a new gaming system available throughout the country, which combats theft by making gamers download titles onto flash cards from licensed retailers. Such copies only function on the original flash card, and therefore (in theory) cannot be copied.

The has also made it out the door, but the world's number one console's debut was marred by all the problems a games company can expect to face in China. A launch was delayed by red-tape and concern from the authorities that the console wasn't made in China, a last minute panic from about software piracy, pricing problems - the 1,988 Yuan (200 Euros) price-tag is awfully expensive by Chinese standards, but did provide Sony with a safety net to protect against software piracy (Sony often sell consoles at a loss in other regions, in the hope of making up profits on software sales) - and a low-scale initial launch only in the Shanghai and Guangzhou provinces were among the problems faced by the electronics giant.

It is ironic to note that despite the being built in China due to low manufacturing costs, the console cannot yet be purchased in the country because of Microsoft's concern over the low level of anti-piracy laws and their lack of enforcement. But whilst piracy has troubled and deterred many of the major global players, even online games are not immune from the devastating effects of copyright theft, so reports MSNBC which takes the example of popular online game 'Mu' - an import from South Korean firm The9 Online, whose planned stockmarket listing has been damaged by the copying of their online game in China, where 'hundreds, possibly thousands' of servers offer the opportunity to play the 'subscription only' Mu totally free.

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