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Games Entertainment

Chinese Government to Put a Time Limit on Gaming 117

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.
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Chinese Government to Put a Time Limit on Gaming

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  • by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:40PM (#13392392)

    From TFA:
    The new system, developed under the guidance of the GAPP, stops individuals from playing online games for more than three hours by cutting the abilities of game characters. The new system cuts the ability level of a player's online game character by half after he or she has played for more than three consecutive hours. Once a player has played for more than five consecutive hours, the system cuts the ability level of that player's character to the lowest level allowed by the game.

    Furthermore, the system keeps track of hours of play. Individuals who immediately log back onto a game after three hours of consecutive play will continue to have the ability of their game character lowered by the system. Players must be logged off for a minimum of five hours before the system resets.
    Mabye I'm missing something here, but it seems to me that your average gaming young person will simply switch to another chracter in the same game, or failing that, another character in a different game.

    Again from the TFA:
    In addition, seven of China's largest online gaming firms pledged Tuesday to "sacrifice short-term revenues" to create a "healthy" environment for young internet users. Companies signing onto the "Beijing Accord" were Shanda, NetEase, The9, Optisp, Kingsoft, SINA, and Sohu. These seven companies also pledged to deploy the system when development is completed.
    Seems to me that the members of this "Beijing Accord" aren't as concerned with the welfare of young people as they are with insuring that the average gamer must have accounts on two or three different games to keep playing as much as they'd like.
    • In communist China...

      I think it's more likely that the companies are pledging their support because it's not a good idea to argue with the Chinese goverment. Greed is secondary to survival. On the flip side, corruption from either side will enable the existence of loopholes in the laws or implementation where multiple accounts may allow gamers to bypass the time limit with multiple accounts. Just as likely would be (for WoW,at least) where rewards for killing specific NPC's (i.e. The last boss of any
    • goddam idiot. The government wants this regulation! Not the firms, they just play nice so they don't loose all their business.
  • Avoiding deaths? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:44PM (#13392418) Homepage Journal
    I am astonished that it was suggested that China is doing this to prevent a death from game addiction. Was this serious? When I think of a government protecting the health, safety, and rights of their citizens I don't really think of the Chinese government.
    • Your not trying to imply that a communist system is trying to activly encourage their people to become productive are you?
      • Can we just skip the political flame war and get right to the ultimate and ugly use of an Adolf Hitler analogy? That might save some time for everybody I think.
        • In fact, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Labour Party opposed communism. Communist states became Teh Enemy only after the transition from World War II (the Allies vs. the Axis) to World War III (the West vs. the Soviet Bloc, fought in such places as Korea and Vietnam, often called the Cold War because it didn't go nuclear as expected, nor was there any armed conflict on USA or USSR soil).

          • The Allies at the end of WW1 (US/UK/Canada/Japan) invaded Russia and held sections of Russia against the Communists into 1920. There were spirited armed conflicts between the Allies and the Red Government through this period.

            So it's kind of misleading to say that Communist states weren't the enemy until after WW2 when in fact there was fighting agains Communism at home and abroad throughout the interwar period.
          • actually the nazis introduced the best working socialism in history. Granted, they could only archieve this be draining occupied countries of all their goods and ressources. Aside from that, Hitler could easily be every marxist/communists/socialists poster boy.
      • imply that a
        communist system is trying to activly encourage their people to become productive


        Daylight savings [wikipedia.org] could be viewed having a similar goal...maybe we all have planks in our eyes?
    • Will someone please think of the farmers??!? Don't they have a right to make 50 cents an hour collecting Lineage II thorns or thistles or whatever the fscle they collect and sell for real money?
    • I am astonished that it was suggested that China is doing this to prevent a death from game addiction

      I agree. Even though, communist governments are always being accused of being nanny states, I have to question the rationale behind whether the loss of one person in 48,422,644 (population of S. Korea per cia.gov) justifies any governmental action. Seriously, do they really want to expend any effort ($$$$) on what has got to be a rather rare occurrence?

      They have to see it as a palatable justificatio

      • Not only that, but that 1 in 48 million person is going to find a way to kill himself. If a person is so obsessive as to die of exhaustion from playing a game online, I'm sure he could do the same with a boardgame, or heck, twiddling his thumbs. You can't protect a person from themselves.

        Doesn't WoW have something similar, to a lesser scale, built in with character exhaustion after playing many hours at once?

        Despite how unfair I think this is, I would welcome it as a chance to see some of my friends that go
      • Well, for every person who dies after spending 48 hours playing EverQuest, there are 100 others still alive (and getting no work done) who only play it for 44 hours straight...
  • Not a tragedy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by psavo ( 162634 ) <psavo@iki.fi> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:47PM (#13392438) Homepage

    Of course, China may just want to avoid a tragedy similar to the recent South Korean man's death covered on Slashdot.

    That's not a tragedy, it's natural selection at work.

  • by tktk ( 540564 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:49PM (#13392446)
    Human rights? We'll pass.

    Polution laws? Maybe next year.

    Internet-gaming-related death? We'll get on that right away.

    • by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:51PM (#13392471) Homepage Journal
      The explanation: Are you having fun yet? Well, we'll see what we can do about that. You can't have too much fun, is what I've always said.

      No, really. You CANNOT have too much fun. It's forbidden.
    • by Bios_Hakr ( 68586 ) <xptical@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @04:04PM (#13392556)
      Human rights and environmental concerns slow the economic growth of any country.

      It is extremely hypocritical of Europeans and Americans to point a finger at China. Much of the European growth came from the fact that they raped Central America of gold. The US railway system was built on Chinese slave labor.

      If you are living in the US or EU, you are reaping the benifits of hundreds of years of human and environmental plunder.

      I'm not saying it isn't wrong. I just think that China will see it for what it is and tell us to get stuffed.
      • Don't leave out my Irish brothers working on that railway. We get jipped on all the oppression stuff.
      • 1. Human rights do not slow the economic growth of countries. Unstable political governments slow economic growth. There are a number of highly successful 1st and 2nd world countries that did not abuse human rights. Although limited exceptions can be found, countries like Canada, Greenland, Italy, and Switzerland did not need to resort to the systematic violation of human rights.

        Furthermore, calling the Chinese slaves is a bald faced lie. It merely demonstrates Bios Hakr's complete lack of knowledge o

        • The United States fought a war for human rights.

          Watch out. It's become very En Vogue to say that the Civil War had NOTHING to do with slavery. Am I going to propose that it was 100% for blacks'/slaves' rights? Of course not. There were many economical and political reasons. But slavery was a KEY issue, despite many neo-revisionists.

          • Most histographers would call the States Rights / Economic Conflict argument the Consense Argument, and the Free the Slaves Argument Revisionist.

            The cool historians are saying again that the Civil War was about slavery. It's one of those things. Texas buys it's history books enmasse. Guess which argument they want to buy.

            • Most histographers would call the States Rights / Economic Conflict argument the Consense Argument, and the Free the Slaves Argument Revisionist.

              "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." - Abraham Lincoln, 1862

              I think that

              • I think that pretty much says it all.

                Whatever personal "paramount object" Lincoln had, doesn't change the fact that the war was about slavery.

                If the Civil War was really about state's rights, then it's equally logical to say that a burglar killing a homeowner was acting in self-defense.
            • It was about grammar. Specifically, whether it was correct to say "The United States is..." or "The United States are..."
          • There were many economical and political reasons. But slavery was a KEY issue, despite many neo-revisionists.

            Yes, it was a key issue, but it was a key economic and political issue. Oh, human rights had something to do with it, too, but even raising those issues had only become possible once it had become economically unnecessary and politically expedient for the north. If human labor were still as important for economic success today as it was back then, we'd still have slavery, human rights be damned.

            Unp
        • Heh.

          Canada was built by grabbing land from the indians. They're still whining about it, I'm sure they consider it a human rights abuse.

          Oh, and our railways were also built with Chinese labour, but I don't know how well/poorly they were treated.
        • Italy took part in the raping of the "New World". They are also boosted by the Catholic Church; known as one of the most evil orginizations to ever be allowed to propigate. Even today, the their stance on African AIDS is helping the disease to spread and potentially kill millions.

          Would that be the same Switzerland that took Nazi gold? No human rights violations there...

          As for the "coolies", they weren't technically slave labor. They were, however, subjected to the most difficult jobs and as soon as thei
    • More people die from other entertainment like sking, swimming, amusement park rides, playing with firearms.

      I don't know why there is such a huge emphasis on video game deaths around the world.

    • Human rights? We'll pass.

      Polution laws? Maybe next year.

      Internet-gaming-related death? We'll get on that right away.


      More like:

      Human rights? Tricky subject: How much freedom/human decency can you have in a ostensibly Communist nation and still maintain solid control?

      Pollution laws? Tricky subject: How much can we look at cutting pollution while still developing our industrial capacity and supporting growth?

      Internet-gaming-related death? Easy subject: Put fairly strict rules in place to reduce the time people
    • Sounds like some other super-power nation I've heard of.
  • And stock pile on Kleenex.
  • Wow, that's evil.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EvilMagnus ( 32878 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:49PM (#13392455)
    Development of the system is scheduled for completion at the end of September 2005. Internal testing is scheduled to begin in October of 2005. After internal testing, trial operations of the system will be held using the games "The Legend of Mir II" and "The World of Legend" operated by Shanda, "Westward Journey Online" and "Fantasy Westward Journey Online" operated by NetEase, "World of Warcraft" and "MU" operated by The9, "JX Online" and "First Myth Online" operated by Kingsoft, "The Legend of Mir 3G" operated by Optisp, "Lineage II" operated by SINA, and "Blade Online" operated by Sohu.

    Compulsory deployment of the new system is expected to begin for all massive multiplayer online role-playing games and casual games in China in late 2005 or early 2006.
    So they're forcing Blizzard et al, to add code to their games to a) tell if someone's playing in China b) de-level their character if they play for more then 3 hours straight. Sure, Blizzard runs China-only servers, but this kind of code monkeying (esp. if China wants to make it universe-aware, so you can't just skip between games once your 3 hours on WoW is up) could have a significant impact on game stability.

    Example: in WoW, you de-level from 40 to 20. What happens to all your kit that requires level 30 to equip? Conditions like that could make the China WoW code quite a pain in the ass to maintain.

    • They should just have microsoft roll back a few of their stability patches. That way no one program will ever run for longer than three hours... : p
    • by DAldredge ( 2353 )
      This is way down of the list of evil things that china does...
    • Quoting: in WoW, you de-level from 40 to 20. What happens to all your kit that requires level 30 to equip?

      I hear the Abuse Department has some ideas. Customer Abuse, that is.

      chl

    • What about the actual impact on how the games are played? Say you login to WoW at 10am, your buddy logs in at 11am and your other friend logs in at 12pm. Guess you three can't get together to run through an instance.
      Most of the high end content for games like WoW would be impossible to accomplish with this type of restriction. Hell, a lot of it is almost impossible without this restriction!
    • I'm a programmer. The kinds of modifications you are suggesting are actually quite trivial and could probably be stably implemented in minutes. Yes, it depends on how exactly they've written their code, but if they've done their jobs right it should accommodate such conditions very naturally and flawlessly. For example, items that require a certain level are merely unequipped, or skills could be unlearned. Simple, really.

      Is your real concern the game, or is it politics?

      • but if they've done their jobs right it should accommodate such conditions very naturally and flawlessly.

        Yes. It would also be the first time it's ever happened in an Enterprise-level network application. :)

        For example, items that require a certain level are merely unequipped, or skills could be unlearned. Simple, really.

        But what if the character's bags are full? Send them to a special 'de-leveled' Vault account? Or trash them? And that's just one example. So you may well be a programmer, but I don't think
        • Yeah, a lot of it is open to interpretation, and I've never written an MMORPG, but there are some ways to guess at what my happen. But what if the character's bags are full? Send them to a special 'de-leveled' Vault account? Or trash them? And that's just one example.

          If the game has some method of outside storage that is player-specific, then it would be feasable to store the items there. Another technique that would seem easy to implement would be to simply make an exception for the unquiped items; let t

          • Those are just ideas! What do you think?

            I think it'd be a pain to code. :-) And that's just the items. Many abilities are chosen at various levels, and they'd need to be rolled back to their (pre-high-level) choices. So if the game doesn't track level picks, they'd have to add that functionality.

            Anyway, I'd categorise it as a 'non-trivial' fix. Blizzard runs localized servers already so they could apply this patch to just the China servers, but it forks the code even more, which places an additional burden
    • as most of these games opperate on some sort of statistics, you could just half/quarter/set to zero those values. Much like ressuraction sickness in World of Warcraft. I wouldn't be suprised though if game companies would make these solution trivial to 'hack' just to spite the evil tyrannts.
  • by Nice2Cats ( 557310 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @03:51PM (#13392469)
    You know, with all the noise about how evil online gaming is, I must say that books are actually a lot worse. Online, you can meet people, talk to them, socialize, make friends -- but the next time you are in some public place like a train station, take a look at somebody who is reading a book. All they do is sit there, blank-faced, dead to the world, completely anti-social, not willing to even acknowledge that there are other people around them. Reading at home turns you into a zombie whose only thought is the plot and only action is to turn the next page. People like that just have to develop strange tendencies. And history shows us what can happen to people who read: mass suicides [wikipedia.org], for one.

    Note, too, that evil people write books, not computer games. Hitler or Mao, a piece of them will always live on in a book. The people who blow themselves up in the name of Islam in Iraq, Israel and lately London do it because of what they read in a book, not because their character on WoW does it.

    China has got it all wrong, again. If they really wanted to do themselves (and us) a favor, they would make sure their population can't read.

  • Of course, China may just want to avoid a tragedy similar to the recent South Korean man's death covered on Slashdot.

    Hawaii has decided to cut down all coconut trees to prevent people dying from a coconut blow to the head. (there are more deaths per year by coconut then by sharks and gaming together)
  • The Chinese government scares the hell out of me and I'm hoping for a revolution of some sort. I think that pissing off a generation of people with such a crappy law will surely make a revolution come that much faster.
  • by globalar ( 669767 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @04:14PM (#13392617) Homepage
    As much as a "westerner" would laugh at this, for the Chinese this is probably appreciable (to a degree). Some context:

    - China is host to a lot of conversative thinking. This includes suspicion of videogames, which are strongly associated with 1) Japan, 2)western excess, and 3)isolated youth. Korea and Japan have an obsession with games, which many Chinese find disconcerting.

    - Youth, despite being routinely used for hard work, are considered important to the degree that they should stick with the familiy. A cultural gap, as societies (there's more than one in China) modernize, has appeared that includes new elements like pop culture and urbanization. Chinese parents are concerned about this new future for their children. It might also be shameful for a youth to be idle, disassociated with the family, and over-enthusiastic about videogames.

    - The PRC has recently been pressed to provide more services and better responsiveness to popular worries. It started with lip service by Jintao and Jaibao, but the presence of strikes and media decentralization has forced the need for good press. This flimsy "service" is a gesture.

    - HCI (human computer interaction) is new to many Chinese and the government's help in softening the introduction (including addressing addiction) may be seen as a good-will gesture. We don't like Big-Brother, but it's common for a government to assist in the spread of "new" technology and allay worries of adoption. Control can be comforting.

    - Health is a very important concept in China. Often it is linked to a religious/philosophical notion of balance. Obviously, too much of anything like videogames will distort balance. Good familial relations also ties into this concept of balance. Until videogames become cross-generational and respected, they won't neatly harmonize with traditional views.
    • Not to mention how stories like the marathon gamer death reflects back onto the whole country. At least that might be how China's viewing it.
    • Yes, there may be cultural mores (and certainly, Beijing cites those when creating policies such as this) surrounding computer and video games, but I think there's a more practical government objective at work here as well.

      One thing to consider is that China is going to suffer from a self-inflicted "top-heavy" population demographic in coming years (similar to the U.S. baby boom generation, or the rather elderly, on average, population of Japan) because of their baby boom in the 1960s and the subsequent one [wikipedia.org]
      • right. Except when the young male population can't get laid, due to the abmysal male/female ration in china (thank you, one child only policy, totally backwards culture) and can't play what else is there to turn to? Thats right, rioting in the streets. They should be glad for any escape young chinese males take, it'd help them stay in power longer. Opium for the masses is the key.
  • This is really going to mess up the gold farming economies...
  • by Shivetya ( 243324 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @04:51PM (#13392851) Homepage Journal
    They are about individual accomplishment and usually materialistic gain. Even most non-MMORPGs are about individual accomplishment in the way of score.

    Plus, heaven forbid, you might meet someone who doesn't toe the party line.

    Addiction my ass. They are protecting their addiction to exploiting their own people under the guise of socialism. Some are more equal than others.
  • This may also put a stop to the sweatshop-like use of outsourced labor in China, in regard to harvesting gold and weapons from multi-player online games.

    See this article, linked to from Slashdot a while ago: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815 [1up.com]
    • LMAO if we are on the same level, that means sitting AT A COMPUTER, killing VIRTUAL CREATURES is now a form of work.

      OK, slashdot geeks. Calculate this: what is the work expenditure per hour to move your mouse back and forth enough to camp a [high level mob] in [game of your choice] and what is the income relative to said work expenditure. Extra credit for pie charts calculating relative work/income ratios for varios MMORPGs.

      I have to say, FFXI is the most expensive one out there, but I still love it.
    • One big difference, however, is that people who are playing the game are just playing. People farming gold and items are working - and not just working, but also earning a wage paid from a foreign country. The Chinese government will probably turn a blind eye toward the gold farmers in their country, and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually encouraged it as well.

  • by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @05:42PM (#13393196) Journal
    The moment my government tries to prevent me from gaming more than three hours is the moment I start guerilla warfare.
  • That's not gaming. That's business.
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Parent wrote:
      > That's not gaming. That's business.

      If that's true, then it's probably illegal for kids under 16 to play WoW/EQ/UO/etc in the US without a special work permit. ;)

      Seriously though: Once the various world governments pick up on the fact that you can make money on a MMORPG, they'll pass laws saying kids can't do it, and they'll also limit the number of hours you can spend per day|week. Count on it. This will happen in our lifetime.

      On a much less serious note: Then suddenly it will become a vio
  • Timer enforcement? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by erica_ann ( 910043 ) <erica.stjohn@gmail.com> on Wednesday August 24, 2005 @11:36PM (#13395325) Homepage Journal
    How in the world will it be enforced? And what is to stop somone from leaving there (think of the monitary loss) and going to another place and playing 3 more hours? The determined will find ways around this.
    • "The determined will find ways around this."

      But most people are not that determined.

      In a similar manner to UK banning the sale of large numbers (20+) asprin tablets per day, people can still go around each chemist and buy 20 from each one. but they generally don't. The people who used to store 100+ asprins now are down to 40ish.

      The determined will ALWAYS find a way round things, but the casual players will just accept it.
  • Just a Thought. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MrCopilot ( 871878 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @08:25AM (#13396740) Homepage Journal
    Wouldn't a better solution be to limit the amount of time per day everyone can play?

    Follow me here. Online Gaming is always reduced to the guys who spend 18hrs a day sniping at newbs. Pick any game, its always reduced the same, if you didn't buy it in the first 6mos, by the time you get in you are a serf to a hundred jobless LVL32 (insert Superior Class here). To give everyone a fair shot, maybe developers should limit online time to say 6 "in world" hours a day, Extend other (Under-utilized at present) areas of gaming for the interested. Character development and customization, Economic commerce decisions, etc.. all that stuff that drags us out of the immersive feel of the game. Instead of layering "windows" and text on-top of the 3d world, move it all out of the world. Library, Hospital, Commerce, School, Chat & Socializitation, Story & Quest Info. All these would benefit from being free of 3d paradigm (except Combat school).

    Seems like it would go a long way to extend the funlife of the game. The truly addicted will all be off by 6am. Take a lot of work to pull it off well.

    Any Takers?
    SourceForge is waiting....
    Think about it, we already have a captive chinese audience, what is that 1..2.. billion?.

    As a parent I wouldn't mind seeing a max hrs listed on the box. As a player, hmmm the extra stuff would have to be done very well, you know with Professional Writers and Artists. What? It could happen.

    • 1) You would get bad press from the hardcore players who generate a lot of early word of mouth for your games. These will probably be a large portion of your beta testers. 2) MMO's are basically IRC with a pretty screen saver. Personally I am running the game most of the time just to chat with friends while doing other stuff. 3) Addiction is how they retain users. They don't really want you to have the spare time to try out another MMO and decide you like it better. They would rather users had no spare ti
    • or a turn-based MMORPG would be good. where you can do X amount of things in a day, and then you have to wait for say 12 or 24 hours to do your next turn.

      old BBS RPGs were like that, and they were fun, and you couldn't get addicted because it couldn't take that much time out of your day.

      of course, you'll probably want to make turns longer and where you can do more things.
    • Wouldn't a better solution be to limit the amount of time per day everyone can play?

      And also, TV could only let you watch 8 hours / week.
      Cars that don't ever go above 65 m/h.
      And McDonalds should stop selling burgers once you've eaten 500 Calories.

      When a business decides to explicitly countermand customer requests in the name of "their best intrests", they rapidly cease to have customers at all.

      (Under-utilized at present) areas of gaming for the interested.

      So not only are they acting against the wishes of th
  • This might get the somewhat left-leaning /. audience to wake up a bit about the PRC?

    I know it's so very fashionable to b**** about corporate America or the religious right, but the religious right are libertarians compared to the atheist PRC.

  • MUDS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Thunderstruck ( 210399 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:27AM (#13398366)
    Is the great Chinese network able to identify both big budget MMORPGS like World of Warcraft and smaller ones like the classic MUD? These I think are more prone to causing addiction than any "here today gone tomorrow" packaged MMORPG...

    The first line of text I saw on my first mud was (roughly) "YES! 32 Hours nonstop and counting!!"

    • Come to think of it, I remember seeing a restraining order one of the local University computer labs had to take out to keep at least one MUD addict from stinking up the place 24/7.

  • Why does everyone focus on video games so much? Seriously, there are a LOT worse things to worry about, and I'm not talking about wars and genocides here. In America, we have lawyers working punishing, stressful 70+ hour workweeks, but when someone plays video games for even half that amount everyone goes berserk over how bad they are. In Tokyo, rank and file bussiness workers called sararimen leave early, then get back VERY late at night, seeing their family only for a few hours each day. These people

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