◎ Text Yao Yao, all-media reporter of "Legal Person" magazine
In the dimly lit room, several players sat around a round table. They held electronic candles in one hand for lighting, and the other kept flipping through the script on the table. Music that adjusts the atmosphere sounds from time to time, and the host next to him quietly watches everything. Ten minutes later, the players finished reading the script and began to interpret and discuss... This is the scene of the entertainment project "Script Kill" that has swept the country in recent years.
▲ Many players experience script killing in a dimly lit room Yao Yao/Photo
In layman's terms, script killing can be understood as a role-playing game with a reasoning nature. Several players play different roles in a certain script, and discuss the positioning of the characters through the clues collected, and finally interpret and restore the stories of different characters in full.
iMedia consulting data shows that in 2021, the market size of China's script killing industry will reach 17.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.0%. Driven by market demand, China's script killer stores have expanded rapidly, and the market scale of the industry has continued to grow. It is estimated that by 2025, the market size of China's script killing industry will increase to 44.81 billion yuan.
The investigation by the reporter of "Legal Person" found that as the script became popular, chaos in the industry followed: the script was uneven, the age range was vague, the place environment was dirty, and pirated scripts were rampant - behind the popularity of the industry, there are many problems that urgently need legal regulation and rectification.
The script is uneven, hard and hurt
Lulu (pseudonym), born in 1994, is a veteran script killing enthusiast, and a year ago, she began to check in at different script killing stores to find script experiences that she had not played, which is commonly known as "script playing". In Lulu's view, participating in a script kill is like watching a great movie or reading a wonderful novel, and the player himself is the character in the story.
On February 18, Lulu said in an interview with reporters that as long as the script is wonderful and the DM (host) and NPC (non-player characters) are in place, players will get a great game experience. However, according to her description, there are many problems with the infrastructure of some script-killing stores. "Some stores are located in office buildings, and players can only go to the public toilets of the building if they want to use the toilets, and the public toilets are not cleaned and are very dirty." Not only that, the scripts provided by individual stores are badly damaged and seem to have been read many times. There are stores that provide players with shabby clothing, which affects the experience.
In late February, the reporter visited a number of script killing stores in Beijing and found that many stores were located in remote locations. Some are opened in office buildings, but there is no publicity and signage guidance in the building, and many shops have no signs or signs at the doors.
On March 2, Liu Chu (pseudonym), the person in charge of a script killing store in Beijing, said in an interview with reporters that in order to reduce the cost of rent, many script killers set up stores in office buildings, and some office properties or homeowners are more shy away from script killing, and do not want tenants to post signs on the porch. In addition, the script killing game usually opens in the afternoon and evening, when most office cleaning staff have left work and no one has cleaned the public restrooms, making the public toilet environment poor and affecting the customer experience.
Compared with the dirty environment and broken props, the uneven script is also an important factor in destroying the player's game experience. Player Yingcheng (pseudonym) told reporters that many scripts have obvious plot loopholes, incoherent content, complicated clues and confusing logic.
"Not only the script, but also the level of reasoning of the DM and the same group of players is sometimes more important than the script. I've encountered situations where a DM can't get off the script when hosting, or even doesn't understand the plot, which causes players to go cold halfway. I've also met players in the same group who were 'pure newbies' and read scripts too slowly, resulting in old players being forced to wait. Ying Cheng told reporters.
For the quality of the script, Liu Chu analyzed that some scripts are in place in the early stage of publicity and have high popularity, even if the store knows that the quality of the script is average, but at the request of customers, it has to be put on the shelves. After the experience, the player thinks that the script is poor, directly has a negative impression of the store, and the store is caught in the middle.
There are loopholes in the supervision of minors
When the reporter visited, I learned that the script kills the script like a novel, and each script has a different background and character setting. The script is divided into joy, emotion, horror, camp and other types, and the story background includes ancient style, Republic of China, modern, Japanese style, etc.
In an offline store, the reporter found a recently popular "horror book". The person in charge of the store told reporters that the script belongs to the "micro-fear" script. To the question of whether the script is suitable for the experience of elementary school students, the other party gave an affirmative answer, and emphasized that the script is not actually scary.
Through experiencing the script, the reporter found that the content involved multiple homicides, and through clues, he could deduce a variety of ways for different characters to die. During the game, the room is dark for a long time, and the player can only rely on the faint light of the electronic candle to check the card clues, which is full of horror and very troublesome. In the second half of the game, there are more live NPCs breaking in from outside the door to interpret the violent murder process. On March 4, the reporter searched for the above script on a well-recognized authoritative script sales platform in the industry and found that the appropriate age range was 18 years old or older in the script filing information.
In June 2022, five departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Scripted Entertainment Business Venues (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which unified offline script killing as a new format of scripted entertainment business venues into the supervision, and clearly required that script scripts used in scripted entertainment business venues should set age-appropriate prompts and indicate the age-appropriate range. At the same time, the notice stipulates that where the scene is not suitable for minors, a reminder shall be given in a conspicuous position, and minors must not be allowed to enter. Among the nearly 10 script killing stores investigated by the reporter, more than ninety percent did not indicate the appropriate age range in a prominent position in the store or in the script.
The person in charge of a store told reporters that in the actual operation process, the store does not receive many underage customers, and if minors insist on experiencing the script, the operator will generally recommend a script suitable for their age. However, Liu Chu analyzed that strictly speaking, the script killing on the market is not suitable for minors to experience.
In reality, minors are only immersed in the "horror book" when they experience it. However, "horror books" almost always involve homicide, and generally require players to reason about the murderer's way of committing the crime. Liu Chu believes that minors are not mature enough to be exposed to such information. He said that even the "Joy Ben" is not entirely suitable for minors. Individual "joyful books" have suggestive "adult jokes". The "emotional book" mainly tells lingering love stories, and due to the limited reading ability of minors, many children cannot understand such scripts.
Minors buy scripts online in the blind area
The reporter found that in addition to some offline stores lax supervision of minors, it is difficult for minors to effectively supervise the purchase of scripts online. The reporter found on an e-commerce platform that many electronic versions of the same script as offline stores were sold on a large scale.
On March 1, the reporter searched for a store that sold script killing collections. The store also sells multiple digital script collections such as emotional immersion, blind date matching, and horror thriller. When the reporter asked the store's customer service whether "the horror thriller collection is suitable for children", the customer service replied "14 years old or older".
The reporter immediately purchased the collection and found that the names of many scripts in the collection were very scary. A horror script fully describes the motive, time, place, murder weapon, and modus operandi of the character in the first person. In its accompanying audio file, it contains the eerie sound of doors opening, footsteps, and men's whispers, etc., which is full of horror. In another video file attached to the script, the reporter saw a certain NPC vaguely interpreting the whole process of the character's crime from a third-person perspective. At the same time, at the end of the video, a terrifying face suddenly appears on the screen, which is heart-palpitating.
Recently, Jiao Yanyan, partner of the Hangzhou office of East & Concord Law Firm, said in an interview with reporters that script killing, escape room, etc. have greatly attracted minors due to their strong entertainment. However, if these places are implanted with some obscene, terrifying and other elements that are not conducive to the healthy physical and mental development of minors, it will undoubtedly be detrimental to the protection of minors' growth and will also run counter to the principle of the most beneficial for minors determined by the Law on the Protection of Minors. Therefore, the relevant laws and regulations provide all-round protection for minors from social, family, judicial, legal responsibility and other aspects and perspectives, forming a network system in which families, schools, society and the state work together to protect minors, so as to ensure the healthy and safe growth of minors, protect the physical and mental health of minors, and protect the lawful rights and interests of minors.
Pirated scripts are rampant, and it is difficult to defend rights
In the script killing stores visited by the reporter, the person in charge of the store generally reported to the reporter that the phenomenon of selling pirated scripts in the industry is extremely serious, and the store has no other way when encountering unequal competition, all lamenting that "it is too difficult to protect rights."
The reporter learned that some stores recklessly sell pirated scripts in order to reduce costs and increase revenue. Due to the low level of store service, the DM interpretation is not in place, which directly leads to poor player experience and negative impression of the script. Liu Chu told reporters that the store's scripts are purchased from the distribution company, which is equivalent to a book publishing house. "Piracy continues to be banned, and there is nothing we can do. It is inherently difficult to protect the rights of books, let alone this kind of script without a version number. Liu Chu said.
On February 17, Wang Ning (pseudonym), the operator of a script killing store in Beijing, introduced to reporters that the scripts purchased in stores are usually divided into boxed, city-limited and city-exclusive types. The boxed set is a script that can be purchased in all stores, and the city limit means that the distribution company only licenses the script to a few stores in a certain city, while the city exclusive refers to the script that the distribution company licenses to a store in a certain city. Depending on the type of purchase, the price of the script varies greatly. Compared to ordinary boxed scripts, city-limited and city-exclusive scripts are more expensive. "Some stores buy pirated scripts and sell them to players at low prices, which affects normal operations, but there is nothing we can do." Wang Ning said.
The script killing store operated by Liu Chu mainly sells city-limited scripts. He found that some stores were selling pirated city-limited scripts, upsetting the balance of the industry. "We tried to give feedback to the issuing company, but the issuing company usually just told us that the store was not authorized and there was no follow-up. In my opinion, the unauthorized sale of pirated scripts by individual operators is an act of bad competition and undermines the healthy development of the industry. ”
On March 4, Xu Hao, a lawyer at Jingshi Law Firm, told reporters that the main reason for the rampant piracy in the industry is the high cost of copyright owners to protect their rights and the low illegal profits. He believes that the long prosecution period, the difficulty of investigating and presenting evidence, and the low amount of compensation in the end are all factors that make it difficult for copyright owners to protect their rights.
Xu Hao further said that the store does not have the copyright of the script, only the right to use, and cannot claim more rights. In this case, the store operator may lock in the issue with the issuing company through a contractual agreement. When signing a contract, the terms should be more comprehensive and clear. For example, exclusivity can be stipulated, that is, in a certain city or region, only a few script killer stores can be authorized to operate. If other stores operate the script, the distribution company will handle it, and if it is not handled or is not handled properly, it will be liable for breach of contract.
According to Article 49 of the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, if a copyright or copyright-related right is infringed, the infringer shall compensate the right holder according to the actual losses; Where the actual loss is difficult to calculate, compensation may be given in accordance with the infringer's unlawful gains. The amount of compensation shall also include reasonable expenses paid by the right holder to stop the infringement. Where the actual losses of the right holder or the unlawful gains of the infringer cannot be determined, the people's court shall, based on the circumstances of the infringement, award compensation of not more than RMB 500,000.
E-commerce platform becomes a pirated script "old nest"
The reporter's investigation found that the e-commerce platform provides a large number of pirated scripts, and hundreds or even thousands of electronic collections can be purchased for a dozen yuan, and the audio and video are complete. At the same time, the electronic version of the script is mostly scanned copies of the original paper script. Although some stores issue a disclaimer "for self-play only, not for commercial use", if consumers purchase and color print for commercial use, the store will not be able to reach it. There are also shops that provide professional script printing services.
On March 2, the reporter found that an online store sold 5,000 scripts for 14 yuan, and it was continuously updated every month. The reporter checked the catalog and found that these pirated scripts included a large number of boxed scripts that were selling in offline stores and limited scripts in multiple cities. Offline, the price of a boxed script store experience is about 130 yuan per person, and the price of a city-limited script store experience is about 260 yuan per person.
At another online store, the store offers a "1:1 copy of the script", that is, the script purchased at the store is no different from the original script operated by the offline store. The reporter found that the price of a recent popular boxed script sold by the store was 199 yuan, and the product promotion page was proudly marked "reproduction 1:1 for opening a store". Subsequently, the reporter searched in the genuine script sales platform and found that the store would pay 588 yuan to buy the genuine script, a difference of nearly 400 yuan.
In recent years, script killing has emerged as a new form of entertainment, which has instantly exploded among young people. At the same time of the rapid development of this industry, there are loopholes and blind spots in industry supervision, business self-inspection, and supervision of minors' families. In June 2022, after the five departments issued a notice to fully incorporate script killing into supervision, many cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing in Guangdong issued local management regulations to further supervise the business premises and content of script killing. As the new entertainment industry matures, multi-party regulatory measures will be further improved.
Responsible editor|Wang Qian
Editor|Cui Xiaolin
Proofreader|Zhang Bo Zhang Xuehui