China Puts Hold on Net Cafe Construction This Year

With government concerns about online gaming growing steadily in China, Beijing has put in place a ban on the opening of new internet cafes for the rest of the year. GigaGamez reports on the country's move, which is largely seen as a response to some high-profile deaths from unhealthily dedicated gamers. From the article: "Honestly [this] shouldn't be that big of a deal if you consider that the Chinese government has already estimated that 113,000 Internet cafes already exist. Add this to the already bizarre limitation of World of Warcraft play time and you have some very unhappy gamers." Update: 03/08 14:52 GMT by Z : GamePolitics has the word that virtual currencies are also to be restricted, in an effort to ensure that the yuan is kept secure.

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[jamar0303]

Quite strange to be thinking of the children, given that you need to be 18 to use the internet cafes in China.

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[jamar0303]

sorry- I've been too grumpy for humor the past few hours (personal reasons). That one flew right over my head.

Well..

[okinawa_hdr]

...if you consider how many American dollars a sword, piece of armor, or gold fetches in the aftermarket of popular MMORPG's, compared to what the average Chinese worker makes in a month, you may be addicted to farming in these games also.

change to WoW economy

[romit_icarus]

I predict a significant drop in Gold inflation rates in WoW due to the resulting reduction of farming activity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer_(gaming) [wikipedia.org]

The Fed had better act quickly.

Wireless Grids

[bhima]

I'm really surprized the Chinese haven't really done amazing things with wireless grids and better crypto.

OK maybe they have and it works well and that's why we haven't heard about it.

Democracy vs Dictorator ship

[SmallFurryCreature]

That would be like setting of a flair signalling that you are doing something the goverment disapproves off.

Your silly attitude is pampered by living in the free west. A program called freenet suffers from that too. Its latest version attempts to sit on a darknet.

Yeah, that works. In the free west where NOBODY (we know off so far) gives a shit about wich ports traffic is going across or wether they can read it.

For the chinese goverment it would be trivial to just report any traffic that does not go over

Dangerous compared to what

[pipatron]

So how much more likely is it that someone dies from using a computer, compared to the alternatives, which would probably be "just hangin'" or something that the youths of today does! (I'm 27, it was better when I was a kid, uphill both ways etc)

NOT a response to deaths from gamers

[FriendlyLurker]

The Chinese Gov is not responding to a few "deaths from unhealthily dedicated gamers" as many news sources are reporting with the tone that this is a "good idea". This is such a thin cover story its laughable. Unreported yet estimated to be large numbers (http://hazards.org.master.com/texis/master/search /mysite.html?q=china&submit=+Search+Hazards [master.com]) of Chinese routinely die/maimed/disappear from very poor to zero work related safety precautions, with local courts routinely ruling against the victims and their families because awarding for better conditions/compensation "restricts Chinas progress". This news story is simply an ongoing restriction to information/Internet policy with a very thin disguise - anybody reporting it otherwise is being uninformed or perhaps is gunning for a similar policy locally.

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[kamapuaa]

You're kidding. Every motherfucker on the street in China knows people get injured at work if they work in construction jobs or mining or so forth. Welcome to the 3rd world, the local version of OSHA doesn't exactly have much power. How does vaguely limiting the number of Internet cafes (they're already everywhere) relate to a lack of Occupational safety standards?

Anyway, this doesn't limit people who do Internet on their home computers, or who text people on their cell phones.

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[khallow]

This isn't a good example because we actually have the opposite effect. Namely, state enforced protection of employers.

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[drinkypoo]

I think the point was that it's not because people are dying. China doesn't give one tenth of one shit if a gamer dies. In fact the powers-that-be are probably overjoyed every time, because there goes one more computer-savvy motherfucker that won't be challenging the social order.

The point which I thought was made fairly clearly in the prior comment (amazingly clearly for slashdot) is that closing the internet cafes is really about controlling access to information. You can't be anonymous at home...

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[kamapuaa]

Yep! And the counter-point was, internet cafes are everywhere, internet is on people's cell phones, internet is available on home computers.

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[drinkypoo]

Yep! And the counter-point was, internet cafes are everywhere, internet is on people's cell phones, internet is available on home computers.

On one hand you might say it's like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. On the other hand, not doing it is like telling someone it's okay to stab you because you've already been shot. Of course, that's a pretty ludicrous comparison when what we're talking about is censorship, fascism, and control, but it still illustrates the point better than any othe

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[AK Marc]

(except possibly for prepay cellular, but I don't know how that's actually handled in China.)

You go to any of a million street vendors or stores (and I'm guessing 1,000,000 is not too far off from the correct number) and pick up a prepaid China Mobile card. When you want more, you go back and buy a recharge. The only way it is tracable is if they track the SIM card through triangulation. However, Internet cafes record the ID of every person, assign them to a specific computer, and track the time in and

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[drinkypoo]

However, Internet cafes record the ID of every person, assign them to a specific computer, and track the time in and time out. If there is any reason to try, the government can find out who was on which computer when. There is no anonymity at the Internet cafes.

So I guess the Chinese don't have Fake ID technology then, eh?

Maybe we should send some teenagers over there to provide it to them.

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[AK Marc]

So I guess the Chinese don't have Fake ID technology then, eh?

Well, it's not like here where kids are expected to pass fake IDs all the time and the bartenders look the other way (unless it's Bush Jr.'s girls). Forging government documents is actually treated like a crime in some countries, so it isn't worth it.

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[blueZhift]

I don't know if it is part of some grand plan or not. But the death of the game player does give a handy excuse to slow things down while their censorship/surveillance apparatus catches up. Internet cafe's must be an authoritarian government's nightmare in terms of controlling information and access to outside sources. So any excuse to put on the brakes is handy. They won't do it for too long though, because for better or worse, the internet cafes are part of the state's opium that keeps the masses from not

well

[mastershake_phd]

Think it has something to do with this?:

A 26 year old, 330 pound, guy from China died after playing online games for 7 days nearly non stop over the Chinese new year said his parents.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/165207/yo ung_man_dies_after_a_marathon_week.html [associatedcontent.com]

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[Henry V .009]

Obviously he didn't forget to eat while playing.

Good articles in Harpers and the Washington Post

[borkus]

There was an interesting article in March's Harpers written by a reporter who checked himself into an "Internet Addiction Treatment Center." Unfortunately, the acticle's not online, but it's worth checking out at a library or newstand.

The Post article is a little less behind the scenes, but it does detail how China is pretty much treating Internet Addiction along the same lines as heroin and alcohol addictions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/02/21/AR2007022102094.html [washingtonpost.com]