I was recently in Shanghai for ChinaJoy, arguable Asia’s biggest gaming conference and exhibition. It is an extremely vibrant event and showcases China’s imminent dominance in the online game developing arena even more so with China surpassing the US as the world’s largest internet market.

If you plan on attending the event next year make sure you turn up on industry day, which is typically the first day of China Joy. Otherwise you’ll have to queue up along side everyone else in a line which stretched for hundreds of meters, no joke.

At China Joy not only do you have to queue up to buy the tickets, you also will need to queue up for a security check before rejoining the queue to enter the dam venue. Once you’re inside the expo, be prepared to queue to buy water and food, to dispose of water (toilet), to take pictures with the booth babes and to collect premiums from exhibitors.

Be prepared for the heat – 38 degrees is hot even for Malaysian standards, so wear light clothing and bring along a hat and a portable fan. Bring EAR PLUGS unless you used to take E in your hay days in which case you should do okay.

The exhibitors at ChinaJoy all seem to employ the similar marketing tactics to woo the crowd:

- 1) Huge colorful booth structures – true to Chinese values – the larger the booth, the more “face” an exhibitor is perceived to have. It is a symbol of a publisher’s success in the industry and probably explains why Tian City is rumored to have spent close to 1 million RMB on their booth structure.

- 2) Exciting stage performance accompanied by ear shattering music.

- 3) Cute and sometimes scary looking Mascots to help with brand identity, perhaps?

- 4) Babes. Perhaps the most important and most over used marketing strategy for a Chinese game developer is to employ girls to create positive and sticky brand association.

Some pictures of girls dressed up a game characters

Babes posing with exhibitor’s product – I am sure many would remember the girls but how many would remember the brand?

Booth babes posing for excited onlookers armed with cameras

Unlike our snobbish Malaysian booth babes, the girls here are very obliging and would often change their pose to entertain the cameramen.

After an exciting, hot and tiring day at the expo be prepared for another long and unruly queue at the taxi stand. I was so glad I made the right choice of wearing my reliable Nikes.

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