Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Government to Put a Time Limit on Gaming
Flyph writes "The Chinese Government unveiled a new online gaming timer mechanism that will try to prevent gamers from playing online games for more than three hours at a time. From the article: '"This timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," Kou Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual and Internet Publication Department of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said during a press conference.' Maybe this is a way to prevent the goldfarming that goes on in MMORPGs." Of course, China may just want to avoid a tragedy similar to the recent South Korean man's death covered on Slashdot.
I am astonished that it was suggested that China is doing this to prevent a death from game addiction. Was this serious? When I think of a government protecting the health, safety, and rights of their citizens I don't really think of the Chinese government.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Of course, China may just want to avoid a tragedy similar to the recent South Korean man's death covered on Slashdot.
That's not a tragedy, it's natural selection at work.
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
Polution laws? Maybe next year.
Internet-gaming-related death? We'll get on that right away.
Example: in WoW, you de-level from 40 to 20. What happens to all your kit that requires level 30 to equip? Conditions like that could make the China WoW code quite a pain in the ass to maintain.
-EvilMagnus
Actually, I'm pretty sure the Chinese government already does this with a lot of books.
As much as a "westerner" would laugh at this, for the Chinese this is probably appreciable (to a degree). Some context:
- China is host to a lot of conversative thinking. This includes suspicion of videogames, which are strongly associated with 1) Japan, 2)western excess, and 3)isolated youth. Korea and Japan have an obsession with games, which many Chinese find disconcerting.
- Youth, despite being routinely used for hard work, are considered important to the degree that they should stick with the familiy. A cultural gap, as societies (there's more than one in China) modernize, has appeared that includes new elements like pop culture and urbanization. Chinese parents are concerned about this new future for their children. It might also be shameful for a youth to be idle, disassociated with the family, and over-enthusiastic about videogames.
- The PRC has recently been pressed to provide more services and better responsiveness to popular worries. It started with lip service by Jintao and Jaibao, but the presence of strikes and media decentralization has forced the need for good press. This flimsy "service" is a gesture.
- HCI (human computer interaction) is new to many Chinese and the government's help in softening the introduction (including addressing addiction) may be seen as a good-will gesture. We don't like Big-Brother, but it's common for a government to assist in the spread of "new" technology and allay worries of adoption. Control can be comforting.
- Health is a very important concept in China. Often it is linked to a religious/philosophical notion of balance. Obviously, too much of anything like videogames will distort balance. Good familial relations also ties into this concept of balance. Until videogames become cross-generational and respected, they won't neatly harmonize with traditional views.
That's true. Without a centralized system you cannot effectively discourage the common players. But on the other hand, I don't think that majority of the casual MMORPG players subscribe to more than one game at a time. It's simply cost-prohibitive, well, except for games like diablo II and guildwars.
They are about individual accomplishment and usually materialistic gain. Even most non-MMORPGs are about individual accomplishment in the way of score.
Plus, heaven forbid, you might meet someone who doesn't toe the party line.
Addiction my ass. They are protecting their addiction to exploiting their own people under the guise of socialism. Some are more equal than others.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
This may also put a stop to the sweatshop-like use of outsourced labor in China, in regard to harvesting gold and weapons from multi-player online games.
See this article, linked to from Slashdot a while ago: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
Parent wrote:
;)
;^) (I'm only half joking here; I played games at least 60 hrs/week when I was in college, but then again, it took me 8.5 years to get an undergrad degree. hehe. :P).
> That's not gaming. That's business.
If that's true, then it's probably illegal for kids under 16 to play WoW/EQ/UO/etc in the US without a special work permit.
Seriously though: Once the various world governments pick up on the fact that you can make money on a MMORPG, they'll pass laws saying kids can't do it, and they'll also limit the number of hours you can spend per day|week. Count on it. This will happen in our lifetime.
On a much less serious note: Then suddenly it will become a violation of Federal Law (i.e. offenders go to Federal Pound Me in the A__ Prison) to play videogames more than 40 hrs/week. Well... WTF are college students supposed to do then? Study? Bah!
How in the world will it be enforced? And what is to stop somone from leaving there (think of the monitary loss) and going to another place and playing 3 more hours? The determined will find ways around this.
Not really. Gold farmers use a US version of the game on US servers that do not have this issue.