Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a significant audience around the world, and China is no exception. The Asian skins market is also thriving, with some of the biggest deals of all time involving Chinese collectors. However, the skins and some other details of the game that users in this country see are different from those available to players in the rest of the world. Sometimes these changes seem expected, and sometimes strange, even taking into account the peculiarities of Chinese censorship.
The first thing that catches your eye – changes in the design of skins, which were supposed to contain images of skulls, bones or skeletons. From the point of view of the Chinese authorities, such pictures are an insult to the memory of ancestors, so they are often removed or replaced.
How they changed the design of skins
Sometimes designers manage to quite successfully play with such changes, so that they do not look artificial. For example, onM4A4 Desolate Space, on the body of which in the global version of the game there is a skeleton of an astronaut in a spacesuit, in the Chinese version there is simply a spacesuit with the helmet visor lowered. Its glass is covered with cracks, so it’s still clear – the astronaut was unable to escape alive.
Often, images of skulls are replaced with gas masks. For example, this is exactly how they “fixed”AWP Worm God. The symbols are being replaced not only on skins for firearms, but also on gloves. For example, on skins associated with Operation Bloodhound. Instead of a skull and crossed knives, an image of a dog's paw appeared. Even on the “Killer” sticker the skulls have been replaced with gas masks, although you have to look closely to see them. And on the Emperor (Foil) sticker, the image of the skull simply disappeared and was not even replaced by anything.
From cards to music packs
Censored edits affected many cards. For example, on Cache, the Soviet coat of arms was removed from one of the walls, leaving instead only outlines that look as if the textures simply weren’t loaded. And on Dust 2 and Mirage, inscriptions in Arabic disappeared from buildings – they were either replaced or simply removed.
It is interesting that the changes also affected the models of some items, and here the logic of the changes can be more difficult to explain. For example, it appears that the image of a dollar sign is also frowned upon. In Danger Zone, instead of wads of money in the Chinese version, just green rectangles are drawn, and there are no clear icons on the bags of money. Even some music packs were fixed – The sound remains the same, but the cover has been changed, again due to the image of a skull or skeleton.
It turns out that although the essence of the game remains the same, the experience that Chinese players get is different in small ways. We can be glad that for other players the variety of skins and other game items is available in all its glory, without any corrections – and on Lis-Skins.com they can be purchased at an affordable price.
