Slashdot Mirror
Malaysia Gamers Face Night Curfew
Nanook writes "A Malaysian city have issued a midnight curfew for online games to curb the growing addiction problem. From the article: 'Gaming areas will need a separate entertainment license and will be required to close at midnight, even at weekends. Local lawmakers say they plan to deploy teams of officers to check on popular internet spots. Those found playing games after midnight will be told to leave, while cafe owners who ignore the rules face having their licenses withdrawn.'"
First the Renaissance Age, then the Imperial Age, then the Age of Reason, and now -- The Age of (Enforced) Morality.
Aw, hell. Let's just not have a civilization anymore.
why governments are so intent to control video gaming culture? would you ban people from watching films after a certain time? how about listening to music after midnight? it's all about control.
Next in the news : all casinos, bar, entertainmment centers of ANY kind, including opera, theater and cinemas, and also discos will be closed at midnight under pain of prison.
We are the Early risers. We have to wake up early, so we have to go to bed early.
And we didn't get invited to those parties anyway.
Feel our wrath !
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Too many games give huge benefits to people who can play longer hours instead of rewarding skills.
e nt types. Only people with 16 hours a day have a chance to reach rank 14 and even skill less people have been able to do so just by having more time on their hands.
Take world of warcraft pvp ranks for example. It's the worst bloody time sink ever. Everyone is up in arms about how little skill it takes to get to high warlord except that jobless-27-year-old-live-at-home-in-parents-basem
As a married man with a job and a social life I'd love it if I could play with skills and get rewarded. Instead may games reward time spent.
If we were limited to 2 hours a day of gameplay (or at least no advantage whatsoever to play more than 3 hours in a day) the pvp ranking system would be way less skewed in favor of people with more time.
Instead of patrolling popular internet hotspots, wouldn't it be simpler and more effective to have ISPs block all traffic on popular gaming ports after midnight? I suppose that would disrupt game servers too though, and I imagine the curfew doesn't cover that. I bet if I had an "internet curfew" of midnight, I'd be a much healthier man today. :P
Expectations are for the unprepared.
A curfew won't stop hardcore gamers from gaming - ever - nor will it enourage gamers to spend less time on their choice game. The only thing such a law will accomplish will be to encourage an underground network of gamers to find new alternative to the open cafe atmospheres.
"Boss" Key turns into "Cop" Key?
Uh-oh, call the whaaambulance!
Seriously, there is a concept here called "sometimes others like different things." Some people like the grind -- because it gives them an opportunity to participate in an arena where they are not skilled, but can become just as powerful if they work hard enough. That's the way MMORPGs are. Sounds like you'd be more comfortable with an FPS or RTS.
The Slashdot summary gives a false impression. It's only Internet cafes they're cracking down on, not people playing games in their homes. The summary really blows it out of proportion.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Instead of playing online games after midnight, the gamers could play loud games in the neigbourhood of anyone who was for this law. I suggest paintball. A few weeks of that should solve this stupidity.
Depends what you mean be rewarded. I mean.. isn't the fun of playing the game the reward? Who cares what level you can achieve.
.plan!! what plan?
in RPGs your character level and his gear determine a huge amount of your chance to beat challenges. In PVP (player vs player) someone with rank 12 gear does better than someone with rank 6 gear 99% of the time. Unless the rank 12's keyboard batteries die on him at the same time the pizza arrives and the mother tells him he needs to wash. If you play against higher level players you get a bit more honor. In the grand scale of things the added bonus you get gives you next to nothing if you don't have the 16 hours required a day to get anywhere. Playing just for fun works but losing consistently because you have crappy gear becomes old. It's like racing a car with a bicycle. Sure the ride might be fun but the result will always be the same.
Personally, I think that companies (like Blizzard) that produce MMORPG games should be providing more variety in their server setup; ie. not just Role-Playing, PVP and what not. It would not be that difficult to create some 'Casual' servers that (after a person obtained level 10 or what not) only allowed a person to get their Rested XP plus 1 level per day. By doing this it lets all the people, who don't want to play 24 hours a day to keep up, play on a server which is far more balanced for play-time.
but why are you playing a level 6 against a level 12? Just play against other level 6 players who haven't been playing for 16 hours a day. No MMORPG that I've tried lets a much higher level player just gank you when they feel the need (at least without you exposing yourself somehow to it)
You'll eventually get to a higher level; just not as fast. That is Ok though since you had fun playing at your own pace.
There is no end game for an MMORPG. The point of the game is the journey itself.
.plan!! what plan?
Games are as fun as you make them. IOW, WoW is fun to a lot of people (some like the role-playing, others enjoy the grind), but if you don't find it fun because you can't grind, that's your fault, not Blizzard's.
Sorry, I don't mean you the parent poster. I mean you the grandparent poster and all of his ilk. It bothers me to no end when people claim they can't have fun because someone else is having more fun, or is better than them. That's a real sad life you live.
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
So if you can't play 16 hours a day, play 4 hours a day and it will take you 4 times as long. Or are you afraid Blizzard is going to go bankrupt and shut down all of the WoW servers in less than a year. Don't get yourself into challenges you know you can't win if you are going to complain about it. How hard is that?
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
"No MMORPG that I've tried lets a much higher level player just gank you when they feel the need (at least without you exposing yourself somehow to it)"
New to MMORPGs are we?
So...basically you are saying you want the same rewards as people who invest more time and effort...? As for two hours, I play with people who play 80 hours a week, I don't think we're talking about the same game here.
the pvp rank system doesn't work in such a way as normal RPGs do. It sets the mantra of RPGs that whenever you do something good with your char it gets some benefit. Here the rank system is capped and it doesn't matter if you play for 12 years @ 2 hours a day. If someone can play 3 hours a day he'll keep your rank lower because you don't have as much honor as he does. It is a horrible system and it's pissing people off. Check this thread (might only work if you have a wow account): http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=w ow-pvp&t=333822&p=1&tmp=1#post333822
No, he's saying that he wants a game that rewards skill over time spent. There's a difference.
The way it works now, let's say a good player with '100' skill spends 2 hours per day playing, vs a crappy player with '20' skill spends 12 hours per day playing. The crappy player will get more rewards.
I've seen this personally on my server. The #1 alliance PvP player is easily one of the worst mages I've ever played with, but she spends close to 16 hours per day playing.
There simply aren't enough rewards (or challenges, even) for skilled players.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Wrong game. Try an Adventure Game. Or if you insist on multiplaying, an FPS, it doesn't have to be Quake, tactical shooters can be less boring. In those you can be good just be playing for 5 minutes, if you're good at it.
no Grind, 100% Skill.
All PvP-Characters are on the same level, only the wise use of Skills make you a victor.
For one WoW does give benefits like rested xp for though who don't play the game all the time. This makes it so you can actually level faster per hour spent on the game than a person who plays all the time.
When it comes to skill take school for instance. If you study more (spend more time on it) even if you aren't the best student you can get better grades. This makes sense that WoW is set up this way. It more so reflects the real world. The more time you spend typically in the real world the better more skilled you get at them. For example playing an instument you get more skilled with time.
You don't need to be the top rank in WoW to enjoy the game. If you wanted that top rank wouldn't you assume you'd have to put more time into the game to get better at it.
There are other aspects of WoW that actually DO award naturally skilled players. I for one was a level 41 warlock on a PVP. A lvl 42 and lvl 43 tried to "gank" me because I was leveling in one of the best places to gain experience and they wanted the spot. I was able to kill both of them and continue gaining xp. While they had to run across the map to get their corpses before they could try to kill me again. Effectively they wasted more time because they were not as skilled.
I'd also assume in battle grounds, which I haven't played yet, that since you're working with a team that skill would be awarded as you'll have a higher chance of winning in the battle ground.
No one becomes the best by being lazy. No one becomes the best with out practice and time. So maybe there are certain skills you have in WoW and you gain benefits like killing harder things and gaining xp quicker. But certain skills in the game reward time and you already stated you don't spend enough time in the game. So shoot for the rewards you can get with out sinking your time into it. Also don't be jealous of those who have time. You've choosen your life of marriage and knew that it takes time too. Honestly I'd be happy you're not in your parents basement and worry less about a random rank in a video game.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
So, net cafe's are being closed at midnight to curb gaming addiction.
Why aren't casinos closed at midnight to curb gambling addiction (something far more damaging to individuals and to families)?
Why aren't public bars, nightclubs and bottleshops closed at midnight to curb alcohol addiction?
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
apparently malaysia is taking a page from this pamphlet.
/. is what happens when geeks talk. get used to it.
I'm pretty sure a lot more people play games at cyber cafes in Malaysia than in America. It's an big thing in Asia. They're even popular (at least relative to the U.S.) in Japan, despite just about everyone owning a pc and having god-like broadband. So if you want to stop people from playing MMOs at night, cracking down on net cafes is the way to do it. Now what they're missing here is that stopping people from playing at night isn't what they want to do. By "addiction problem", they mean that MMOs are distracting people from their real lives. By restricting play to only hours when they SHOULD be doing something else, it's only going to make things worse for a good number of people. People will ditch work to catch a few hours of WoW fix. I know a bunch of people like that here, so in a city with some sort of chronic problem already this is not the way to go.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
More time more money spend more for me honey.
Of course they reward length of play.
The longer you have to play, the longer you will have to subscribe, the more money they get from subscription fees!
Maybe they should move subscriptions from a flat monthly fee to some kind of hours-played tarrif.
You buy packs of gaming hours so if you only play 1 hour a week your subscription lasts 'longer' than someone who is playing 14 hours a day. After all, that 14 hour a day player is using the server resources a great deal more than you. Shouldn't they pay more?
I have no sig yet I must scream.