Every weekend, Xinbo, who lives in Hefei, Anhui Province, has a fixed "schedule"-about three or five friends to come to a game of "script killing".
He is in his early 20s and has just started working. Although Xinbo has no social experience, he can be regarded as a senior person in the local "script-killing" gamer circle.
"Almost played with nearly 300 books." Xin Bo proudly told the reporter of "Rules of Law Daily" that it is a bit difficult to find new books in the city. If economic conditions permit, she and her friends will go to other places. Book.
With the popularity of "script killing", more and more young people are immersed in the "social + game" experience like Xin Bo.
However, the rapid expansion of this emerging market has also been accompanied by industry chaos, such as low entry barriers, lack of review and control, and insufficient copyright protection. The controversy remains high.
The gaming experience is favored by young people
Just a week ago, Xinbo received news from the boss of the script agency that he often went to, and he had just arrived at a hardcore reasoning book about murder in a secret room.
"This book is very popular." With his excitement, Xin Bo and his boss finalized the Saturday afternoon show, played with friends for 5 hours, and successfully restored the truth of the case.
"It feels so cool to catch the'True Murder'," Xin Boyi said before he could finish.
Hard core reasoning book is one of the script types.
"Script Kill", also known as "Murder Mystery" game, the basic form is that players on the field need to secretly play the role of a murderer without others knowing, while other players need to find the murderer through investigation and reasoning.
With the development of the market, "script killing" is no longer limited to case reasoning. It has developed into a game where players use text scripts or other information carriers to perform real-time role interpretation, forming a reasoning book, a happy book, a camp book, a mechanism book, and an emotional book. , Horror, Deduction, Immersive and many other script types.
Some need to restore the story or find out the truth of the case, some have few reasoning elements, and focus on the atmosphere to set off or deduce the scene, and some focus on emotional elements and horror elements, seeking emotional and emotional stimulation.
"'Script' not only has different gameplay, but also has different restrictions." Xinbo told reporters, for example, boxed books can be bought by any store, and the city limit book is that only a few stores in a city can buy it, exclusive This is owned by only one store in a city.
Because the degree of limitation is different, the pricing is also different. "The boxed book only costs tens of dollars a time to play, and the limited book and the exclusive book will be much more expensive, ranging from 100 yuan to 200 yuan."
For Xin Bo, whose monthly salary is not high, the cost of playbooks is not low, but she has never been "soft".
"'Script Kill' is a multiplayer game. Not only can you immerse yourself in reasoning and improve your logic skills, but you can also make friends and exercise your expressive skills." Xinbo believes that many young people like this "social society" The "+game" experience is more fun to play and can benefit from it.
Good and bad scripts are mixed and chaotic in the industry
Although "script killing" is a new industry, its development momentum is swift and violent, and game venues have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain.
According to the data from Tianyan Check, there are currently more than 10,000 related companies whose name or business scope includes "script killing" and "board game".
IiMedia Consulting’s "2021 China Script Killing Industry Development Status and Market Research Analysis Report" shows that the market size of China’s “Script Killing” industry exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 68.0%. The market size affected by the epidemic in 2020 will remain Growth bucked the trend, but the growth rate fell back to 7%.
It is estimated that by 2021, the market size of my country's "script-killing" industry will increase to 17.02 billion yuan.
Accompanied by the market craze, there are more and more chaos.
The owner of a "Script Killing" real-world museum in Hefei told reporters that the entry threshold for "Script Killing" is relatively low. As long as there are starting funds, there are basically no industry restrictions. There are more than 100 counterparts in Hefei alone.
"Generally, stores will choose places with low rents such as apartments and office buildings. Because many players pursue real-life effects, the investment is relatively large, followed by the purchase. The price of a book ranges from a few hundred to several thousand yuan. "The owner said that the initial investment is about three to five million yuan to set up the store.
Due to the low entry barriers, competition among venues is also fierce.
In order to attract customers, some unscrupulous merchants will provide some pornographic and violent scripts, playing a "side ball".
"The'script-killing' industry currently lacks a review mechanism, content creation lacks supervision, and screenwriters are mixed. Some people write game books with pornographic content for profit, and merchants sell them offline to players, forming a gray area." Xiao Meng, a contract author of the "Script Killing" distribution company, told reporters.
Xin Bo has seen "Little Yellow Book" in the "Script Killing" venue.
"The characters are set to take the pornographic route, many explicit plot descriptions, and even the content of'destroying the three views'." Xinbo said that some players have different purposes and will ask the store to look for the opposite sex when organizing the game. .
If novice players or young people are unknown so joining it, it will have a very bad effect.
In addition to the vulgar plot, there are scripts that promote eccentricity, deceit and deceit, and tamper with history indiscriminately.
Some horrors will set up real scenes such as "cemetery" and "ghost marriage", adding real NPCs to play ghosts, not only to create a world of horror, but also to guide players to believe in the existence of ghosts and gods during the game.
Some mechanics and camps require the use of inducements, fraud, and scolding to make their camp win. Many players share their "after-playing feelings" when they say that they "don't trust anyone anymore."
There are also scripts that wantonly tamper with history and maliciously discredit heroes.
The script of "Script Kill" is a consumable item. For many players, it will only be played once. After the mystery is revealed, it will not be attractive.
Therefore, the "script-killing" market has an urgent demand for scripts, especially high-quality original authors.
"The plagiarism phenomenon in the market is serious now." Xiaomeng explained to reporters that drama authors are generally divided into contracted authors and freelance authors. After creating a book, the publishing company or studio can review, test, modify, and package the manuscript until it is released. After you are satisfied, you can choose to participate in the "Script Killing" exhibition to attract stores to buy.
However, during the creation process, some playwrights will copy other "script-killing" works, some will copy novels, film and television works, and others will dispute the copyright ownership between the author and the publisher, which leads to copyright disputes and leads to the original author. It is difficult to protect the rights and interests of people.
Strengthen industry supervision and return to rational development
Nowadays, "Script Killing" has formed a complete industry chain. Script creators, distributors, venue store owners and other entities have participated in promoting the continuous expansion of the industry, and the calls from all walks of life to strengthen supervision and regulation have become stronger.
"Although the world in the script is fictitious, it cannot be done arbitrarily, let alone a place outside the law." Kong Hua, a lawyer at the Bank of China (Hefei) Law Firm in Beijing, believes that if some scripts contain explicit and detailed plots of pornography For dissemination and sale, once a certain amount or amount is reached, those who are identified as obscene articles may be suspected of making, copying, publishing, selling, or disseminating obscene articles for profit, and the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
After the public security organs identified the obscene materials, the relevant personnel were suspected of constituting the crime of spreading obscene materials.
Some scripts that add content that violates public order and good customs may fail the standards of obscene materials. However, frequent exposure to such games by young people will have adverse effects on their physical and mental health. Although the game is over, the negative consequences will continue.
Kong Hua suggested that in order to resolve the chaos in the industry, it is necessary to clarify the responsibilities of the competent departments and units, strengthen the audit and control of the content of the script and the standardized management of the industry's main body, guide the healthy development of the market, and eliminate violations of laws and regulations from the source, and "skimming". This phenomenon occurs, especially for young people. It is possible to explore the establishment of a hierarchical and classified management system. According to the content of the script and the age of the players, businesses are prohibited from selling scripts containing violence and terror to young people, so as to avoid physical and mental harm to young people.
Regarding the issue of piracy and infringement in the drama market, Yang Yong, a researcher at the Institute of Intellectual Property Law and Policy of East China University of Political Science and Law, issued an article that from the perspective of the definition of works involved in the copyright law, whether the rules, gameplay, scenes and plot involved in "Script Killing" are original Sexual expression content is a prerequisite for constituting a work, and relatively universal rules, gameplay, and plots may not constitute original expressions and are not protected by copyright law.
However, the specific rules, gameplay, plot and other ideological elements related to the content of "Script Killing" plus some expression elements make it copyrightable when it appears in the form of original expression, and the existing judicial practice may be identifiable Without the permission of the right holder, plagiarism of the specific rules, gameplay, and plot of the content of "Script Kill" constitutes an infringement of reproduction rights or adaptation rights.
For infringement disputes involving complex content such as "script killing" rules, gameplay, scenes, plots, etc., specific issues can be analyzed specifically within the scope of copyright laws and regulations, or relief can be sought within the scope of unfair competition laws and regulations.
The reporter noted that on October 29, the China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association issued an initiative of "Stick to the bottom line of industry development and establish a correct value orientation", emphasizing that the immersive entertainment industry must have a deep understanding of the importance of content safety and production safety issues, and require immersive entertainment. The majority of operators in the entertainment industry conduct comprehensive content safety, production safety self-inspection, and self-management work, do not step on the red line, and cultivate an immersive entertainment culture that is upward and positive.
Actions are being taken in the industry to rectify the chaos.
(The names of players and writers should be pseudonyms at the request of "Script Kill")