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PC Games (Games)

Malaysia Gamers Face Night Curfew 47

Posted by Zonk from the not-called-warcrack-for-nothing dept.
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playing games after midnight will be told to leave, while cafe owners who ignore the rules face having their licenses withdrawn.'"
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Malaysia Gamers Face Night Curfew

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  • 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.
    • I think it's largely about the interactivity of video games -- they take on a different meaning to people than video and music for this reason. I personally have never heard of a person addicted to listening to music, but have personally seen cases of people addicted to gaming. Hell, I myself am probably a bit addicted to gaming. :P
    • Its not about control. Its about finding a solution. And the problem with this solution is that it reeks of half-bakedness (and thus - giving the world a picture of their rather moronic and simplistic thinking). This solution in the end will create new problems. This is just plain stupid.

  • good ! (Score:3, Funny)

    by da5idnetlimit.com ( 410908 ) on Thursday November 10, 2005 @01:09PM (#13998835) Journal
    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 !

  • Sometimes I wished that we were limited here too (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xutopia ( 469129 ) on Thursday November 10, 2005 @01:12PM (#13998861) Homepage
    Too many games give huge benefits to people who can play longer hours instead of rewarding skills.

    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-baseme 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.

    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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
      • 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
        • 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.
        • 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?
          • 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.world [worldofwarcraft.com]
      • Thank you for saying that. Why do people feel that the only way to have fun is to better than someone else? WoW is not going away anytime soon. If it takes someone 3 months to get to lvl 60 that is there choice, but if it takes someone else 3 years, so what!? It's a game, play it for what it's worth. If one really wanted to get to lvl 60 so bad, then spend the time, buy a character, whatever. Don't complain that someone else has set that as their higher priority.

        Games are as fun as you make them. I

    • 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.
      • 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
    • 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?
  • 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
    • That never works. They say "never say never?" Well, I'm saying never. If you can't edit some .ini file yourself to direct the game to a different port, or the company itself doesn't release a patch to allow it, or some haxxor doesn't release a patch, then divine intervention would surely render such a limp attempt at control useless.

      Hint: use port 80. Most governments probably wouldn't go as far as to "close the internet"

  • How does this solve anything? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Purplephred ( 904955 ) on Thursday November 10, 2005 @01:12PM (#13998867)
    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.

  • Summary Gets it Wrong (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TychoCelchuuu ( 835690 ) on Thursday November 10, 2005 @01:29PM (#13999050) Journal
    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.
    • The summary very clearly states that this is Internet cafes only:

      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.
      • Yes, but the summary also gives the impression that they're limiting time at home too (look at some comments if you don't believe me). It would have been a good idea to put "Malaysia Gaming Centers Face Curfew" instead of "Malaysia Gamers Face Night Curfew" because then people don't just assume that gamers in Malaysia are unable to play at night.
        • Point taken, but I think this says more about the mental prowess of the average poster :)

          How exactly would the Malaysian government restrict gaming after midnight at your home? Random house-to-house raids? Mandatory timed blocking of known gaming ports on all ISP infrastructure?

          I've never heard of a government-imposed curfew that has anything to do with what you do in your home. Curfews are pretty much always restrictions on your activities in public places.

          Then again, maybe the 2 seconds of thought necessa
    • 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.'"

      You are blowing it out of proportion. Over half of the summary specifies cafes and the like.
  • 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.
    • The problem with your 'solution' is that it's a lot easier for the police mentioned in the summary to locate noisemakers, and the gamers will be taken in for disturbance of the peace instead of gaming. It's not a good suggestion. However - with drinking, you get shut-ins, essentially turning the pub into a private function; well and above board so long as no-one new is let in and there aren't knockon problems like loud drunken staggerers when it all closes. The pub owner will ask people he doesn't know to l
  • 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?
    • Pubs close at 11pm. You didn't think that through really did you?
  • 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

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