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PK'ing Banned in China For Minors
Evoluder writes "Just saw this over on worldofwar.net as it appears to apply to WoW as well. A story at interfax.com says China just passed a law prohibiting minors from playing games that allow players to kill each other (i.e., player killing)." From the article: "Minors should not be allowed to play online games that have PK content, that allow players to increase the power of their own online game characters by killing other players...Online games that have PK content usually also contain acts of violence and leads to players spending too much time trying to increase the power of their characters. They are harmful to young people."
;) Seriously, this is ludicrous. You might as well ban dodgeball be....oh....nevermind..
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
...that this leads to a new period of enlightenment in China where Hot Coffee is okay, but the rest of GTA:SA is disdained. ;)
There goes BZFlag.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
China has a declaration of independence?
At least we see how they will check for age. Citizen ID Card. That just makes me shudder.
Regardless though, will they have seperate servers for 'minors'? Or will those who are minors (based on the authentication) be unable to be flagged as PvP? Either idea has advantages and disadvantages, but it does sound like it will create difficulties for Blizzard and its competitors that operate in China.
After this and their enormous profits on China, there goes a big part of their WoW revenue... I guess it won't be a BIG problem for them, but it may be a "big" one...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
One of few things in their censorship thing they got right.
I really don't understand why boobs are so no-no and killing is okay.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Gold farmers!!!
I'm really curious... Why do the Chinese leaders have the self-restraint to not ban games altogether, but they don't have the self-restraint to ban games with PK elements? Obviously they have the power to do either of these things. Are some of the chinese leaders avid gamers, and therefore recognize the value of games? Does the lure of foreign investment provide at least some influence on the leaders to not be so heavy-handed, but at the same time the leaders think that banning minor-PK isn't heavy handed? It's just kind of a weird decision to make, IMHO.
Ban noobs.
Chess, Checkers, Mahjong, etc. etc.
The goal is to beat or kill your opponent, 'nuf said.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
In other news, China denied that Chinese society's emphasis on having male children was harmful to the future of the country. It's so obvious that PK'ing is so much more harmful to society than not having enough women for men to marry and reproduce with. I believe the last figures I saw put the male:female ratio at 4:1.
Letting the Chinese government dictate morality and what is best for children is like saying the engineers for the Yugo could teach all of the other car makers how to make a better car.
"Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." --Barry Goldwater
It's interesting that we find censorship of boob'age or swear words to be completely socially acceptable, but we balk at the idea of censoring PK'ing in games.
Who gets punished for breaking the law - the person playing the game, or the company who let it happen?
First off , We don't want those Nuts in Europe (we already have a fair few) ,Second I don't believe Chairman Mao passed any Free speech legislation , nor have his successors
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Please, oh please, tell me this is a joke.
itadakimasu
Perhaps this is due to my lack of understanding of Chinese culture, but I find this to be completely bizarre. Who writes these laws? Are there a bunch of bureaucrats in China who are former gamers that are making up these laws? Is China making stuff up in order to meet some kind of a quota for new laws? Where do they come up with stuff like "Online games that have PK content usually also contain acts of violence and leads to players spending too much time trying to increase the power of their characters. They are harmful to young people." Would there also be a problem if kids were playing online tennis, and their tennis character would gain increased stats by beating other players in tennis matches?
I'm reading that acts of violence in video games are marginally OK (because it's OK to kill NPC's), but spending too much time trying to increase the power of a character is what pushes the issue over the edge. Am I missing something huge here? Did I just wake up in the twilight zone?
-Turkey
A lot of people saying this is ludicrous, and as much as I agree, the game ratings boards, PEGI - BBFO etc all rate PK games above 15 years of age usually, unless its non graphic and isn't violent
Business Voyeur
I'm glad China is making sure the outrageous practise of killing people in online computer games is being stopped. This sick practise leads people to perform disgusting acts like firing polygons at another polygon in order to cause them to die with a burst of red sprites! If people do too much of this they may feel the need to let people express their own spirituality, sexuality and have acceptable human rights. Thank goodness they have their priorities in order! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
The frightening thing is it may or may not be a joke.
Does it get more communist than this? :^P
"They are harmful to young people."
They drove tanks over those young people only years ago when they protested, and now they suddenly care about their well being? Oh please. This has "hidden agenda" written all over it in big fat neon sign letters.
If they care so much, are they going to make a certain square a tank-free area?
Makes sense. From my understanding of how the Linage ][ Chinese (or was it Korean?) servers work, there's an age limit. If you're over 18, you get to play on the adult servers (includes PvP); everyone else can play on the kiddie servers (PvE only!). In another slightly-interesting note, they recently took out a simple in-game dice game as folks were using it to gamble real world money.
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
... or college. Everywhere I've gone to school uses my SS number to identify me.
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
PK'ing banned in Peiking!
Funny that a country that a country that kills demonstrators would have such a problem with virtual killing.
Latewire
In America, violent content will eventually get you sued for making people shoot other people etc.
:-D
Companies are attacked by stupid legislation.
In China, such content is censored/regulated to prevent this from happening in the first place.
Consumers are attacked by stupid legislation.
Here in Europe, well, everything seems to be trundling along nicely.
Mayhaps the reason the Chinese government does not just ban all video games, or video games with pk elements, is because they know there is a significant influx of foreign money due to gold/item farming in mmorpgs which are a significant portion of games with pk elements.
The laws of probability forbid it!
More boobs less bombs
Comply. Take out the advancement for PKing. Add a big advancement for joining the secret Falun Gong guild. That'll piss off the bureaucrats nicely.
If PvP is the only problem and they do desperately want to cater to under 18 year olds, all they'd need to do would be to not implement the PvP servers (or the Battlegrounds) and remove the flag that you get when you attack a city guard (or similar NPC) that normally makes you targetable by players. That should be very simple indeed to do.
I'll say this though, I'd pay good money never to have to play with some of the evil brats I've met in MMOG's.
Please, oh please, tell me this is a joke.
Ethno-Centric GeoPolitical Ignorance (TM) is Bliss.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
So this pretty much bans any multiplayer game other than Dr. Mario?
No comment.
The day killing someone in a game becomes illegal will be the day developers introduce the ability to teleport another player's soul to hell.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
Sounds like from reading the article the government is enforcing (or trying to) how long you play these games with builtin timers. Sure we might have some crazy law's on this side of the pacific, but man. Imagine being a game developer having to put in "government issued code" like this... yesh.
China is not entirely the "Evil Communist Empire" it is made out to be. As with any communist society or decocratic for that matter you get people in power who are "out for their own agenda".
Corrupt politicians are possibly the ones behind these bans, though we may not know the reasons why they want these games banned. China has always had a strong belief in Confuciousism, and Buddism (in some parts) .
The idea of banning this type of game perhaps is thought to undermine the morality and identity that the Chinese people would like to teach the next generation.
As the world evolves and China presses forward into the technological future, it must be struggling to retain some of it's traditional beliefs and ideals. This is also a country that for centuries kept it's ways and traditions secret to the outside world until Chairman Mao took over around the 50's.
The country and it's people have a rich history, I'm am sure that this is just a step that those in power within the Chinese government see as a way to protect Chinese identity, and preserve thier culture for the future.
Without a history, we have no future.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
For those of you who don't know what PK'ing is...
PK'ing usualy takes place in MMORPGs (Massively Multyplayer Online Role Playing Games), although there are several other genres in which this happens (FPS, Tps, Paper and pencel RPG, et al), this article is mostly aimed at MMORPGs, WOW(world of warcraft), Ever quest, et al. PK'ing is when you kill a virtual character, with your virtual character, and the virtual character that you killed is controlled directly by a human.
and he said pwnt n006, and it was good
who doesnt see this as a big deal or even worth writing about.
that is what is known as a community standard.
i think its kind of stupid. but honstly. who gives a rats ass?
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
It had to be done. Those Asians were too good at Counter Strike for their own good!
~ Mooga
Don't have mod points, but you have points here that are valid.:-)
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Adding a "limited play timer" to just about any game would probobly not be a difficult task (especially given that you wouldnt need millisecond precision for it)
Heck, I am sure that if they started doing it for western countries (with a parental lock password to unlock it), many people would be happy.
How do you decide tied soccer games?
You have some people in the US that would like to pass laws to have Intelligent Design taught in schools but there are 0 posts on there about how this is trying to maintain "tradition" or preserve "US culture"
But we're "misunderstanding" China?
I don't think so.
This has nothing to do with morality, this has everything to do in making sure their next generation of citizens are not addicted to video games. They want their sheep..err.. citizens productive and happy with working for $1 an hour in a chip pre-fab plant, not thinking about how to get their shaman to lvl 60.
Having just seen Vo0k's comment above, I read that as "Nan boobs".
I need to get out more.
Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
rang rang.
They showed that kid who's the boss in China, didn't they?
This article would still be believable if it was the US, not China.
That is truly scary.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
When I glanced at the headline, I first thought it said "TK'ing Banned in China For Minors." I thought, "Finally, some videogame legislation that's actually useful!"
A second decade of excellence
I didn't know they played to actually play these games anyway. I just thought they were all sweatshop players mining the gold for the rest of the world so we don't have to... or to practice our language skills with... hmm must have been my misconception or something.
According to a poll today, 66% of Americans think everyone should be required to carry a mandatory federal ID card.
With the current bunch running the government, I'm sure that's only a matter of time.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
It's one thing for a game to add this (your right, it's easy I'm sure), it's another to have a law stating "tho shalt not play game xyz for longer then 2 hours per day, otherwise face a penalty of zyx"
Seems like people are most interested in the disparity between censoring boobs and censoring guns. I think they're missing the point
"...that allow players to increase the power of their own online game characters by killing other players...Online games that have PK content usually also contain acts of violence and leads to players spending too much time trying to increase the power of their characters."
It sounds to me like it's not the violence that the Chinese gov't is concerned about. It is about the youth learning to empower themselves. Learning that competition among their peers leads to becoming a more powerful person. This sounds more like an attempt to prevent a future Tienneman (sp) square by making sure children don't feel too independent. This is more about oppression and culture than people realize.
...Oppressive Communist Régimes!
In Communist China, Game bans you!
So how about MPK'ing another player? Seems to be a serious lack of understanding about...oh...the government is doing this...nevermind.
I seem to remember that in most of the earlier Final-Fantasy type games your characters would technically not be "killed" but rather would "swoon" (pass out) or something similar. I suppose this was so that when a character was permanently offed from your party then you couldn't use a 'life' potion or something similar...
The online games could probably do something similar. You're not dead, just 'injured' until you can be recuperated. In fact, a military-game with more focus on Dr-Dodgeball style gaming could be rather fun...
Finally a case that is not from australia
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> "Minors should not be allowed to play online
> games that have PK content, that allow players
> to increase the power of their own online game
> characters by killing other players..."
Yes. Children should learn to increase the power of their real-world character by killing other real-world people the good old fashioned, dictatorial way: by being the best at murdering and jailing your political enemies and rising to power, until, eventually, with excellent skills at murdering enemies and, hey, just a little luck, well over one billion people are under your thumbbbbbbbbbb!!!!!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
That's the way the USA is headed. Just a heads up. What sound ludicrous now, sounds normal later.
I was a bit worried that the phrase 'evil brats' was inflammatory but it was immediately what popped to mind.
/maturity is not the only factor - there are some great younger players and some socially backwards older players (but I still think it would be a good start, as regrettable as it would be for the more mature younger players).
The behaviour of these kids astounds me, but I suppose revulsion at the errant behaviour of younger generations is not a new thing. I still can't imagine ever behaving the way some of them do though.
Something like a '+18' flag on accounts (i.e. where someone has to enter a valid credit card number for the purposes of proving their age and certifying that the holder of the account is entitled to access adult content) and then allowing only them to play 'adult only' servers would not cure the problem of playing with 'lusers', but it would certainly reduce the scope of it.
Obviously (before someone points it out) age
A more difficult to implement, but fairer and theoretically more effective approach would be to have some sort of in-game rating system, where players can rate the other behaviour of others. Perhaps this could be done in a way that ties it to the game - something like a 'faction rating' as in SWG (though that rated your popularity with a faction, rather than with other specific players).
OT: As with quite a few other things (such as it's free market implementation) EVE online does this really well IMO. It gives you multiple ratings for others - based on your guilds and alliances rating of them (and their guild/alliance), the ratings of others against them and your own personal rating of that individual. You also get their ratings against NPC factions and their over all security rating.
This sounds like a lot of information, but it's presented very clearly and concisely and leaves the player open to make a judgement about them based on available evidence and the circumstances (e.g. you might choose to be more cautious if they look a bit dodgy and you are out in low-security 'deep space' with a fat cargo hauler and you come across them when they are in a battleship or frigate).
Will this stop the chinese Gil sellers in FFXI from MPK'ing everyone in sight......?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
that allow players to increase the power of their own online game characters by killing other players...
I know not all games are like this, but WoW doesn't 'increase the power of their own online game character' by killing other players. You get nothing directly from killing another player. No experience, no items from their body, no money. The only thing that you DO get is a kill point (an Honorable Kill (HK) point for players that are within a certain number of levels from you). Your contribution in that players death earns you Contribution Points. Those points are used to determine your rank (Private, Corporal for Alliance; Grunt, Scout, etc. for Horde).
Advancing rank gives you access to items that other players normally don't have, like special insignias, weapons, armor, and some relatively useful trinkets.
Also, some WoW servers are PvP, which means opposing factions can kill each other at any time, and some servers are PvE, which means PvP participation is strictly voluntary. If you don't want to PK, then you don't turn your flag on or attack another flagged player. (The only exception to this is when you have to kill a flagged NPC for a quest, and get flagged yourself, but that doesn't happen a lot.)
Personally I think that private companies/organizations and the government need to stop regulating what the children see, and put that responsibility where it should be, on the parents. If you don't know what your child is doing with their time or money, then you're a bad parent. Get involved, get the facts. Don't jump to conclusions, yelling and screaming. Treat them like you'd want to be treated, with respect. As a parent myself, I've seen this work more often than it fails, and it has brought my children much closer to me than yelling and grounding them would have.
(Don't get me wrong, there is still yelling and grounding, but not over stupid things like video games.)
And they said zombies weren't real!
I've been mudding since the original MUD in the mid 80s. All I have to say about this is that by the time I went to college in 91 I had PKed more mudders than could possibly be healthy according to this article.
And hey - I turned out just fine!
Maybe they are drawing a distinction that graphic games which remove the need for imagination can cause impressionable kids to imitate them. Of course by the line referencing them spending too much time to increase the power of their characters maybe they're equally concerned too many Chinese kids will grow up and try to create power hungry empires, drive fast cars, sleep with the female minority, and eat big macs . . .
Screw you guys, I'm going home.
What point does the violence matter? Is Mortal Kombat blood bath worse than pokemon, or chess?
God spoke to me.