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Thailand Imposes Gamers Curfew

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the they-can't-take-away-local-lan-gaming! dept.

bg writes "How addicted can you be? According to this article, Thailand will install a curfew to "protect" their childern from the addiction from Gaming. "Game servers, both local and overseas, will be blocked from 10.00pm to 6.00am daily from July 15 to Sept 30, while Internet cafes will also have their hours curbed to those times". Under particular attack is Korean role-playing game Ragnarok, which was introduced to Thailand seven months ago."

9 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I can't stand Ragnarok by Nakarti · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you'd ever played RO, you would know that there are no voices. The biggest problem is increasing numbers of misspelled words.

  2. Some kill for gaming... some die for it by SoSueMe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Quick comparison. "Kill" & "Die"

    Kill

    "One of the boys was seen on Chinese television telling police interrogators that he had started the fire in an act of revenge because staff at the cybercafe had refused to let him play computer games there."

    Die

    "A South Korean man died yesterday after playing computer games at an Internet cafe for 86 hours nonstop, reports the Associated Press."

    I have no point, just an observation.

  3. Re:Interesting record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'm from Singapore, there is no such law. And btw, since your American (I guess) you did not understand that Singapore IS a developed nation and not to be compared against Thailand. Thailand does have a similar law, but anything to do with drugs in thailand is death (but it's a slow process.. no country has any lawys that says punishment without due process -- that's gainst International law (to which America is not a party to) -- ).

    Then again you might be just flamebaiting.

  4. Like this will work... by mbkkelsey · · Score: 2, Informative

    Having lived in Thailand for a long time and having seen that laws are enforced less-than-vigorously, I can't see this really changing anything.

    Thailand is the kind of place where I can go to Pantip Plaza and have my choice of five floors of pirated software for $2.50US/CD. When the police come to crack down, you throw a sheet over your stall - if you can't see it, apparently it's not there (with the aid of a bit of a kickback, of course). Get pulled over? Shell out a few hundred baht to compensate the officer for his time, and you're on your way.

    On the other hand, there was a crackdown on nightlife a year or two ago and they're forcing everyone to close their bars at 2am, this seems to be largely followed. But even if Internet Cafes are forced to close, I'm sure that today's enterprising young children will find some way around that, and they shouldn't be up that late, anyway. As for adults - they have better things to do between the hours of 10pm and 6am, believe you me.

  5. UDP != TCP by molo · · Score: 2, Informative

    TCP is not UDP. Games run on UDP. Blocking UDP port 80 will not interfere with TCP port 80.

    -molo

    --
    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:UDP != TCP by rockmanac · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was discussing this with one of my co-workers and we get the impression that it depends on WHAT game you're playing on whether it uses a TCP or UDP connection. AC

    2. Re:UDP != TCP by molo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Quake? UDP.

      Halflife? UDP.

      Starcraft? UDP.

      Anything with a real-time pace is going to need to use UDP so that the whole stream doesn't block when one packet is dropped. By the time the packet would get resent, the information is no longer pertinent.

      -molo

      --
      Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    3. Re:UDP != TCP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It is safe to assume that a vast majority of games work using UDP. However, stating that all games use UDP is dead wrong. There are some TCP games out there.

  6. Kids hanging out at game shops by FRiC · · Score: 2, Informative

    I live in Thailand...

    One of the reasons this was put into effect is because broadband access is way too expensive for non-businesses to afford. Registered game shops and cybercafes get special discounts otherwise they also can't afford to get broadband. So people who play online games never play at home.

    Hmm, come to think of it, I guess this is also the reason broadband prices suddenly dropped.