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China Government Privacy Games

Chinese Games Will Force Players To Use Their Real Names (scmp.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the real-names-with-real-consequences dept.
The Chinese government will soon require video game users to log in with their real names. According to the South China Morning Post, the government is rolling out a state-run authentication system that will ask game makers to join the system in batches. From the report: The plan has been in the works for some time, with the government pushing for tighter controls based on the argument that it needs to protect minors. In 2019, the State Administration of Press and Publications (SAPP), the body in charge of regulating games, introduced new limits on how much time and money minors can spend on games. Anyone under 18 years old is limited to 90 minutes on weekdays and three hours on holidays. To enforce these limits, players are required to to give out their real names which can be checked against ID numbers. Tencent and NetEase, the country's two largest gaming companies, got a jump on these plans by introducing their own verification systems.

For now, not much is known about how the national verification system will work or whether it will resemble the independent systems already in place. In some cases, the private systems have introduced some stringent controls. In Honour of Kings, the immensely popular Tencent game known as Arena of Valor overseas, the verification system includes a facial recognition scan. China also has other rules governing what games are even allowed in the country. One requirement is for game publishers to submit games for content and monetisation review before they can be legally distributed in China.
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Chinese Games Will Force Players To Use Their Real Names More

Chinese Games Will Force Players To Use Their Real Names

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  • Next slashdot (Score:5, Informative)

    by nonBORG ( 5254161 ) on Monday August 03, 2020 @06:10PM (#60362445)
    You will next be required to use your real name everywhere you can post or comment. So they can adjust your social score which is the game they are playing. It is called control the people control the world.

    • I always have done.

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by penandpaper ( 2463226 )

        What kind of surname is ( 2972 )?

      • And how many times has someone doxxed you, threatened you with violence, and/or showed up at your house or place of work and threatened you?

        • Never on Slashdot.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rtb61 ( 674572 )

            Yeah, because no one bothers to believe that is you real name, no one cares. Real fake, so what, as far as the rules are concerned it is a fake name and you should not use other people's name on /., get caught and they should delete the account and force you to start again.

            Kids will log in with their parents account. Their parents are paying so it is their account in reality. As for real names in game space, oh yeah, that is going to work well in school the next day, the big dumb bullies will beat up all th

            • Re:Next slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)

              by AxisOfPleasure ( 5902864 ) on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @01:08AM (#60363575)

              "...the government will realise what a pack of idiots they were..."

              You haven't dealt with governments much have you? Ha ha. Come on, when has any government admitted to any liability for anything, least of all the Chinese government. This is the same government that told the first doctors who identified COVID last year, to shut the hell up about it or risk a few months in a Chinese gulag.

              Goverments don't make mistakes, they "miscalculate the risks". They don't admit to anything, they "concede certain key facts".

            • After a bunch of deaths, it will get quite out of hand, the government will realise what a pack of idiots they were.

              You know the Chinese have had real name laws for online content since 2017 and there hasn't been some mass doxxing or death.

              Jesus what kind of a world do you live in where someone knowing your name suddenly makes you at risk of dying? It makes China sound like a fucking paradise.

              • The kind of world with swatters and stalkers (and how do we know it has caused no deaths in China, anyway)?

                • Swatters and Stalkers didn't get invented with the internet. If you're worried about that I suggest you don't go to sleep tonight. Do you know how much more likely you are to die in your sleep than to be swatted?

              • Just mass "re-education"...

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Kisai ( 213879 )

                American's, particularly celebrities do not want their real name showing up in games, because then they will be inundated with assholes who don't like them ruining any ability to play the game. Now of course certain assholes maybe earn it, without the prestige of being a A-list or B-list celebrity, but participate on any game forum for more than a month and you will trigger all the worse edgelords to grind an axe and swing it at you.

                I recently joined a tech forum, I had two edgelord assclowns constantly try

          • You've been lucky, then. I'd never recommend to anyone in this day and age that they use their real name online.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Mashiki ( 184564 )

          Unless their political opinion is on the opposite side of yours, they likely have no fear of someone trying to threaten them.

    • nah.
      xi plays call of duty modern warfare season 5.
      and does not want to deal with aim bot campers anymore

    • Re:Next slashdot (Score:5, Informative)

      by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Monday August 03, 2020 @06:45PM (#60362579)

      But The Orville's Majority Rule [fandom.com] could never foreshadow China's shitty credit system! [wired.co.uk] China would never ban a number [theatlantic.com] or anything else so idiotic! /s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      This is never a good idea. Heck it's not really a good idea to even use the same alias and email address between different sites in case one site gets hacked and takes over your account.

      Using your real name does not prevent people from being assclowns. It only drives their assclown behavior further because everyone else is doing it.

      Like my general opinion to real name policy is "bite me, and screw your ToS." If I do not have a financial relationship with you, whatever random name I pick is my real name.

    • Yeah, I assumed this was the real purpose. Some people may be using in-game communication features to express discontent with the government.
    • Here's mine China: Fuk Yu.

  • "We need to do this TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN!" - The war cry of authoritarian legislators everywhere.

  • My Chinese Name (Score:3)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Monday August 03, 2020 @06:15PM (#60362467)

    is Long White Dong.

    • Ah, the old "choose a mythical object" pseudonym.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      But your wife calls you Min Dong.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Lo Wang will come and smack you, not so much for taking his joke, but for being so fucking bad at doing it.

      Shadow Warrior is a great series btw.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fenrif ( 991024 )

        I don't think Shadow Warrior invented the concept of making fun of Chinese people sometimes having the name Dong.

        John Hughes makes some great films BTW.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          No, but it hammered that thing home with gentleness of an industrial hydraulically powered sledgehammer.

  • Doggonit, everybody is used to Princess Sparkles.

  • This worked very well at Google+ and works well at Facebook. What could possibly go wrong in a country with at least as many assholes online as any other country and an authoritarian government in control as well?

  • Saves them a step or two when you make some offhand anti-government comment in a game, so they can black-bag you to some 're-education camp' and pump you full of psychoactives that much faster. Saves tax money. So they have more to spend on hookers, blow, and American whiskey.

  • Dibs on LeeRoy Jenkins (Score:3, Funny)

    by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Monday August 03, 2020 @06:24PM (#60362511)
    That one will go quickly.

  • Will this lead to rise of single player offline games by necessity?

    Since these will likely be the only games you'll be able to play beyond the time frame allowed by the government after enforcement kicks in properly. If it ever does that is.

  • Let this serve as notice that I, hitherto known as backslashdot, hereby change my name officially, legally, to Xi Jinping. Also, as an independent games developer, I'm going to remake classic video games, starting with Pong. To differentiate it from the Atari game of the same name, I will be calling it Xi Jinping Pong.

    • Will you remake a King Kong themed version too, and have weed-themed bell-decorated merch for it?

      You could have a Xi Jinping Pong King Kong Ding Dong Bong!

  • I"ve been missing the classic LAN party anyway. I'm expecting it to return, with all this ranked season pass microtransaction loot boxing hype fuled bloated mass online gaming getting on my and many other people's nerves. China only takes it to the next extreme, but I won't be following.

    • Ditto. Smaller LAN parties with drinking were lots of fun. Like the perfect merger of watching a movie with friends and doing some sports with friends.

      I remember doors put on trestles, snacks being thrown, and epic sneaky kills. Oh, and yeah, girls like to game just as much. So don't assume a sausage fest or you will get a sausage fest because of it!

  • Prepare for murder. Lots of it. (Score:3)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Tuesday August 04, 2020 @04:00AM (#60363941)

    Statistically, there's probably around 5000 people on the planet, with the motivation and means to murder you for anything you might say. (Example: "I like puppies!")

    With real IDs, the only thing stopping them from doing so, falls away.

    Prepare for lots and lots of bloody real-world hate-crime.

    Then again, given China's government, what's the difference to what the government has been doing all along anyway... I wonder if they will coin the term "vigilante re-educators" for this. ;)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Even if that isn't public, that data is still on record, is it not? The question, IMO, then becomes what (if anything) would be done to keep that data safe, as it'd be foolish to assume nary a hacker would find that information useful or desirable, or try to obtain it.
  • It's not only China who is forcing people to use their real name to log in, more countries are preparing for that.. Mind you, logging in doesn't mean your actual name is shown onscreen to other users..

  • Chinese scumbags, my name is Phuk Yu

  • I'd, as an American free to use any screen name I want, go by Xi Jinping.

  • Nice! I have finally have a reason to change my name to "Free Hongkong".

  • Will this reduce them on WoW?

    https://us.forums.blizzard.com... [blizzard.com]

    Apparently not.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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