China Pushes Real Name System For Online Games 115
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by
timothy
from the blizzard-was-avant-garde dept.
from the blizzard-was-avant-garde dept.
oxide7 writes "Starting from August 1, Chinese Internet users will have to register using their real names for playing online games, China Daily reported on Saturday. The regulation, issued by the Ministry of Culture on June 22, is said to be part of a nationwide campaign to improve management of the virtual gaming industry and protect minors from unwholesome content. It applies to all multiplayer role-playing and social networking games."
Overblown, maybe? (Score:2, Interesting)
Most American Online Games already have your names (Score:1, Interesting)
Most American online games already have your name or can track the players because they pay with credit cards and use the Internet from home.
In China they use prepaid card which virtually anyone can buy and then play the games at an Internet cafe. I don't agree with the proposal but they are doing the same thing that most counties do by requiring credit card payments.
Public vs Private (Score:2, Interesting)
We are talking about registering for an online game. I see this as a debate of public vs private space, and unfortunately I see many people trying to impose their rights to privacy in public arenas.
For example, if you are walking down the street and a photographer snaps your photo, do you really have a right to expect privacy? When you walk into a store to buy your gimp outfit, do you really expect the cashier to not see your goods as you buy it or your name when you pass them the credit card?
Why are they talking about name registration? Protecting minors from unwholesome content is mentioned. So, yes, to a certain degree they want to impose censorship. You know, maybe to prevent minors from seeing explicit gestures or language like the USA's MPAA rating system does with movies.
Also, it could be used to track down those who are socially unacceptable or political dissidents. I don't know how many times I've overheard these times of conversations in Everquest when I use to play - you know, planning protest marches or talking about the injustice of the communist system while playing dark elf females dressed in all leather armor and using whips. Yeah, if I had a nickle for every time that happened, I'd still be as broke as I am now.
My wife states a good test from private space to anyone with a bit of modesty and manners that I have expanded to the most likely shameless crowd that visits the web - namely do you feel comfortable walking around totally naked, blowing your nose, and farting all while masturbating to your favorite fetish porn? You wouldn't do this in a store, on a public street, in your back yard, or on a video chat site (unless you're on chatroulette I guess - but then you're a criminal deviant who has no respect for public space).
An MMO is not a private space unless you develop the software, buy the server, build your own dedicated network lines, and restrict who can have access to it - it is a virtual RPG store holding events. You should not expect to have any privacy there.
The only issue I would have is if they required you to use your real name for your in-game name. That would defeat the purpose of a MMORPG. However, there is nothing unreasonable about using your real name to register for the game.
FYI (Score:2, Interesting)
And some service providers don't really care about all this real name shit - they just ask for a resident ID in valid format and don't bother to check whether it is associated with the name you provided. There are tools readily available [ip138.com] for creation of fake IDs.
Simply not actually going to happen... (Score:1, Interesting)
Things like this pop up all the time in China...there are multiple gov't groups that vie for "attention" and thus "power". One side says "we are going to protect the children from ______". Then the other group goes "No no no you do not have the power to do that - that is our job"...and nothing ever happens. The last version of this was "ID Card Numbers" which is effectively the same thing...It never came to pass either, before that it was "Time limits on MMO games"....never happened...the list goes on and on.
Re:Excellent news (Score:1, Interesting)
China has an internet "kill switch". Senator Lieberman has made this exact case, America needs this because China has it.
http://www.google.ca/search?q="right+now+china"+internet+kill+switch
kinda funny though if you think about it (Score:2, Interesting)