Thank you for your long‑form question. I will try my best to answer.

First set of questions: What would a brand‑new game console made in China look like?

​ 1. The biggest problem is not hardware specifications or R&D capability, but its small target audience. Despite high spending from Chinese players on Steam, home‑console gaming in China is tied strongly to a sense of ritual. Console games are typically meant for the living‑room, yet this kind of living‑room gaming culture is largely absent here.

Some Chinese cultural content is hard to convey to overseas players through translation. Take Chinese Paladin (Xianjian Qixia Zhuan) for example. It has excellent writing and is fairly well‑known. Its gameplay experience is quite different from typical Japanese JRPGs, and it poses big challenges for translation.

Black Myth: Wukong has earned great reputation both domestically and internationally, and its Journey to the West theme is easy for foreign audiences to accept.

​ 2. Back before widespread internet access, we valued art‑style a lot. We appreciated games made with care despite limited hardware power. Pixel‑art retro aesthetics remain popular among Chinese players today. It is also a major consideration for independent developers, balancing gameplay and production cost.

When the PS4 generation arrived, game graphics improved dramatically. A segment of Chinese players grew fond of cinematic storytelling. Player preferences are simply diverse.

That is not to say we only care about visuals. A game’s popularity comes from many factors. Beyond gameplay, players appreciate good developer‑publisher attitudes, or warm real‑world stories behind the game, as well as games that showcase Chinese culture. These can attract us even more than graphics and art.

​ 3. Chinese gamers mostly use modern‑day devices. Old games are largely a collector’s hobby. There is nonetheless a group of people who are deeply into nostalgia. They want dedicated devices built for their purpose, free from constant internet distractions. ​ 4. We do not support a game merely because it is domestically‑made. A bigger question is: besides games in the vein of Chinese Paladin, what other distinct kinds of content can we create?

The Chinese games that reach international players are mostly highly‑acclaimed stand‑outs. If you look at the broader domestic game industry, you may get a different impression. Home‑grown console game development started late in China. Historically we have been stronger as publishers rather than original developers.

When a Chinese game banks entirely on nostalgia but has poor quality, it leaves players disappointed. Blood Lion (Xue Shi) is one such example, comparable to the infamous E.T. the Extra‑Terrestrial for the Atari — it dealt a serious blow to the whole domestic game industry.

Second set of sharp‑edged questions 5. About hostility between domestic and overseas player‑bases. It is not like fans defensively protecting something. I suspect the root is mutual misunderstanding. Some players seek recognition within games, getting instant gratification from heavy in‑game spending.

There are also younger players who have not been exposed to diverse perspectives. I do not agree with their viewpoints, yet this kind of phenomenon naturally occurs.

​ 6. Hostile player dynamics stretch back to the early MMO era. One notable example is Legend of Mir, published by Shanda. It was not originally a Chinese title, but it became huge in China. Chen Tianqiao, founder of Shanda, once became China’s richest man. Personally I do not approve of this game’s business design, which was adept at monetizing competitive human impulses, and this is one possible source of in‑game friction.

Later countless copy‑cat games popped up, alongside viral pop‑up web‑advertising. In many of these titles paying money gives you powerful advantages while free‑to‑play users have a rough time. Many players who value pure gameplay disliked this Legend of Mir‑style design.

Of course some players genuinely enjoy Legend of Mir. Its core audience included small‑business owners: they had disposable income but were not interested in learning complex gameplay mechanics, treating games purely for fun rather than cultural exploration.

A little‑known fact: Shanda released a handheld console 20 years ago that could run Legend of Mir. Few Chinese even know about it, and most owners mainly showed it off rather than playing it. I disagree with Chen Tianqiao’s business style, but cannot deny his industry influence.

​ 7. I haven’t played Helldivers 2. My guess is players there value pure gameplay competition over tight‑knit sub‑community drama.

Genshin Impact players in China suffer widespread stigmatization — this is not because the game itself is bad; plenty of its players are admirable. The stigma comes from a minority of young users posting poorly‑reasoned, anti‑intellectual remarks online, which triggers resentment toward the whole group.

Third set of questions 8. Talking about cheating: CrossFire actually has far more cheaters on its Vietnam server, though I do not know the exact reason. Chinese players have very low tolerance for cheaters. Early‑era CrossFire had terrible anti‑cheat systems, and players hated cheating intensely. Later Tencent built powerful anti‑cheat solutions, with relatively few innocent players getting wrongfully banned.

We call cheaters “Big Brother” online, it is purely a sarcastic nickname, not a term of respect. Nowadays when we spot cheaters, many people just watch it for amusement.

Some anti‑cheat systems will ban player accounts.

Skill versus cheating can sometimes be hard to tell apart in CrossFire. We are not all pro‑players, the cheating ecosystem here is just very complicated.

​ 9. The stereotype claiming Chinese gamers are prone to cheating spreads mainly via internet hearsay. In China, creating or widely distributing game cheats carries legal consequences. Game developers and operators take this matter very seriously.

Old‑era MMO cheats were mostly used to automate repetitive dungeon‑grinding. Modern cheats exist only to ruin the multiplayer experience.

Lu Benwei, former world‑champion League of Legends pro‑player, was caught cheating while streaming PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. He did not apologize immediately, which drew strong backlash from Chinese gamers. He apologized years later, though I have not followed the rest of that story.

Disclaimer: These are only my personal observations, they do not represent all Chinese‑speaking gamers. Feel free to point out anything that might be ambiguous, so we can avoid misunderstandings.