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Chinese Gamers Circumvent Anti-Obsession Measures
Turtlewind writes "A survey by iResearch China shows that the Chinese Government's "anti obsession" measures, reported on Slashdot last year, are being bypassed by MMORPG gamers. While the controls - which force operators of popular games such as World of Warcraft to impose penalties on players who play for more than three to five hours a day - were welcomed by almost half of Chinese gamers, a core of around 14% of players admitted to registering multiple accounts to get around the restrictions. Meanwhile, the government seems to be taking a different approach to the problem of gaming addiction, planning a campaign over the upcoming summer vacation to increase enforcement of laws banning minors from internet cafes."
People get addicted to games. It shouldn't be surprising when the really addicted get around the filters. I imagine it was top priority for a lot of them.
But, really, more than 5 hours a day? Doesn't your ass get numb?
Where are there parents while they spend so many hours per day at these places? I think that they should bare some responsibility for their children's actions.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
If this won't start an uprising in China, nothing will.
Man... are they really trying to solve the addiction problem by forbidding
the youngers from playing the games? I have no researches to base my ideas
on, but to me it seems that's the worst possible approach.
Bad habits cannot be eliminated. If you want to get rid of a bad habit, you
must replace it with a good one. The government should be doing some outdoor
activities campaigns or incentive to practice sports, or anything else
(the solution, of course, is not so trivial), but restricting the game
hours allowed, and blocking minors from internet cafes *without*
replacing this activity for something better will *not* solve
the problem.
Hell, it may sound a little pessimistic, but this "solution" may even
aggravate the problem if these kids/teenagers start developing even
worst habits like drugs or alcohol because they have nothing else
to fill their lives with.
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
Addicts find ways to break rules to get fix... Holy Hell my world is collapsing...
I know how the gold farmers among those affected must feel.. I once had a full-time job cut me down to part-time hours.
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I have another suggestion for the Chinese government, why don't they create a squad of Orcs that patrols WoW looking for lazy unproductive Chinese players and executes them in game?
python>>> q="'";s='q="%c";s=%c%s%c;print s%%(q,q,s,q)';print s%(q,q,s,q)
It's fine to work for 8 to 14 hours a day, but not permitted to perform an entertaining, pleasurable activity for more than 3 to 5 hours?
I appreciate that some people have a genuine problem with addiction, but I have to question society's priorities sometimes. People do literally work themselves to death, too.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
From the outside looking in, I can see a couple things going on here:
When life is so force-fed and censored as it can be in China, outlets like MMORPG's are the only form of "freedom" and people flock to them... so much so that it is an epidemic.
On top of this I see a problem where the more people inside playing MMO's are not out pumping money into the economy for goods, services, entertainment, etc.
As an avid gamer, and someone who has worked in this field, I actually find this sad. It is not that WoW is such an amazing game, as it is a sign of how low many people value their lives and free time. Gaming is one thing, _needing_ to spend so many hours inside a virtual world is another. Most MMO's aren't really that great, and force long grinds and tedious gameplay with little reward for the time and money spent. This is not confined to China either, it is just magnified there. MMO's are a bad trend, and one that needs to be channeled in a different direction. Massive online playable games are good, and are very engaging, but they need to become more than long, drawn-out time wasters and overflowing coffers of money... they need to become fun and exciting and to the point even if this comes at the expense of some profit. I'll admit Guild Wars had me hooked for a few months myself, but the endless nerfs and radical gameplay changes that constantly rendered my time and effort useless made me remember why MMO's are a sham. I just think that many people are missing the real story here... WHY are MMO's such a big problem, what is the root of this problem?
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It is interesting to see how kids and adults with ADHD who normally can't focus on anything can hyper-focus on a game. It becomes an addiction much like alcohol or drugs. It is very difficult to overcome by yourself. I have been there. I am grateful to have a wife who gets after me if I play too much now but not everybody has someone looking out for them or even parents that care. What can we do to help them? I don't think it is the role of government but the our role has human beings to help our neighbors.
I have a teen aged punk ass that locks himself in his room with his gaming machine flanked by two laptop's playing Lineage all day -the damn lawn is getting tall and I could sure use a dose of this in my household.
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I always figured that's why it was called "work."
Exactly. We choose to play.
"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. " -- Mark Twain
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There is a difference. Most people don't go fishing every single day. Watching football or tv is usually done with other people around as well. People can easily take a break from either without cause of any mental distress.
A video game addict spends anywhere from 40-80 hours per week playing a video game. Marriages are ruined, children are neglected and people become more and more antisocial as the problem persists. Eventually, when they do wake up they have a very hard time dealing with the real world, getting back into a real social circle of friends and getting out of the house. Some even experience social anxiety.
I know, I was one of them. I was single so I didn't have a problem with marriage or children but some of the people I played with regularly...different story. I knew numerous people who had marriages fail due to gaming. Also, on many occasion after an 8 hour grind session you might hear "I need to feed the 2 year old". WHAT?! You've been sitting here for 8 hours, having barely gotten up to even use the bathroom and you have a toddler doing who knows what!?
College and high school students who become addicted also suffer from grades dropping or even flunking out of school.
Now, your examples might be relevant comparisons in a situation of casual gaming however they are completely at the other end of the spectrum from gaming addiction. Your examples are things that I used to tell myself to justify my problem. "I don't have anything better to do", "I'd just be watching tv", "It's keeping me out of trouble". You know, they all sound like good reasons to continue gaming and very justifiable but in the end, the fact was that I didn't have anything better to do because the addiction had consumed so much of my life that I had lost interest in things that I liked to do (besides gaming). They were all excuses to make sure I got my EQ fix. Since then, I have found new things I like to enjoy. I've made new friends. I actually get out of the house on nice afternoons or weekends. For the 2nd summer since 1999 I actually have a tan!
Gaming addiction is one of those things that is more easily justified in the mind of the addict than drugs. It's also a very tough addiction to break if you've fallen to the point that your self esteem is tied to the characters in game. Every mental social mechanism ends up tied to the game, your sense of reward is tied to the game. When you remove all of that, its a personal rebuilding process from the ground up.