China Clamps Down on Online Gaming

The BBC reports on new restrictions on online gaming. Specifically, they'll be monitoring some virtual worlds more closely, after some were found to be carrying 'anti-government' messages. Examples include religious and political material, although there are very few details on either the content or what exactly they'll be doing to monitor it. From the article: "Distributors must now obtain approval before releasing new games, reported Xinhua news agency. Companies must also submit monthly monitoring reports, confirming developers have not added forbidden content. The latest round of enforcement was prompted by 'a rash of problems with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes', Xinhua said. " Relatedly, in Gamasutra's regular 'China Angle' column, they look at gaming-related TV ads, why those are dicey, and requirements that players not cross-dress in MMOGs.

Re:Wow...

[techpawn]

These Bra and earrings give me +50 in my mana... the panties is just a comfort thing...

What's left?

[Rob T Firefly]

So China doesn't want to play games with controversial religious messages, territorial disputes, or suspect political commentary. They must have loved it 21 years ago when Super Mario came back to life after death, lowered a flag outside a castle, and rescued a kidnapped princess from an evil king.

Tapping nodes

[Clever7Devil]

Now if we could only show the Chinese government just how gay gold farming is...

Re:What's left?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, they must have loved it even more 10,000 years ago when chessmen advanced across a board on a mission to kill a king, while pawns struggled to reach the other side and transform into queens.

Re:Big Sebastion?

[silentounce]

A government that is not paranoid is not a government at all.

Getting rid of farmers the easy way?

[argStyopa]

...Let China do it?

So if I get this right, if in WoW I reguarly /yell "FREE TIBET" and "DOWN WITH THE FASCIST OPPRESSORS OF TIANAMEN SQUARE!" China will step in and prevent any logins from China to my server?

That's quite a tragedy.

Sounds like I need to program some macros.

Take my freedom, but leave me my WoW

[StephenW]

I'll be interested to see how people take it the day that Blizzard puts out some unacceptable patch and the Chinese government attempts to completely remove World of Warcraft. I can see the headlines now. "Chinese government overthrown by gold farmer revolt in a single night," followed shortly by, "Azerothan gold piece replaces the yen as official Chinese currency."

In Soviet Russia....

[kalirion]

But at least we're allowed to gripe about our government. Or change things via democratic means, if we don't like it.

In Soviet Russia, there was a joke:

An American dog asks a Russian dog, "So, how's this 'glastnost' thing working out?"
The Russian dog replies, "It's great! They made my chain one meter longer, moved the food two meters further away, and I can bark to my heart's content!"