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.
Maybe when they say the character is crippled, they actually mean all characters under the same account name. Although the real hardcore players can easily have multiple accounts at the same time, probably 99% of the MMORPG players play with a single account, thus the discouraging effect should work on them. But on the other hand, those 99% of the players don't kill themselves by playing 40 hours straight to start with.