China VS. online gaming

[Apotheosis]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/89ea206a-13f3-11da-af53-00000e2511c8.html

China moves to zap online game addiction

China on Tuesday introduced an “anti-online game addiction system” intended to protect players from the mental and physical perils of spending too much time in front of computers.

The system, which will encourage players to play less by cutting the benefits they gain in online games, is to be implemented by local internet companies that have signed a code of conduct drawn up by China's press and publications administration.

The move reflects fears about the social impact of popular “multiplayer online role-playing games” which have been blamed for encouraging sloth, truancy and even murder.

An estimated 25m Chinese play online role-playing games. These allow players to interact as characters ranging from warrior heroes to powerful magicians in vast virtual environments.

However, communist groups and newspapers have highlighted reports that many players are addicted to the games.

Under the new standard, up to three hours of play is considered “healthy” - and more than five to be “unhealthy”.

The anti-addiction system cuts in-game benefits to players after three hours. For most games this will mean awarding fewer “experience points” to fantasy characters and reducing the value of virtual goods such as magic weapons that they acquire.

After five hours online, players will be subjected every 15 minutes to the warning: “You have entered unhealthy game time, please go offline immediately to rest. If you do not your health will be damaged and the benefits you can win will be cut to zero.“

Leading games companies have agreed to the system to head off the threat of stricter regulation.

China's online games market is expected to grow 65 per cent to $633m this year, and will be the world's largest by 2006, according to CSFB, the investment bank. .

Such growth has won high valuations for Nasdaq-listed Chinese online games companies such as Shanda Interactive and Netease, which have promised to implement the system by late October.

[Andreal]

How many of those 25m chinese people play because their job is to make game money so their boss can sell it and get rich, while they only make 10 cents a day?

[Apotheosis]

I am sure there is going to be a "workaround" to that. But yes, maybe this will reduce farming (or create a scenario where in game currency will be sold for more)

[Tsa`ah]

It only has an impact on game servers in China ... which don't have the same base or popularity of the games coming from neighboring asian nations or the US.

What do you think a company like Blizzard is going to tell the Chinese government when they demand deminishing returns on all chinese players after 3 hours of game play in a 24 hour span?

They'll laugh.

[Skeeter]

All I can say is, I'm glad I'm not communist. what a load of shit.

[Sean of the Thread]

WTF they spend money on shit like that but the ENTIRE FUCKING country is one polluted cest pool. According to NAT'L Geographic.

[Toxicvixen]

If it goes through, Woo! Less Chinese Farmers! At least for a couple hours.

[hectomaner]

there won't be less chinese farmers. they will just switch accounts every 5 hours

[Axhinde]

After five hours online, players will be subjected every 15 minutes to the warning: “You have entered unhealthy game time, please go offline immediately to rest. If you do not your health will be damaged and the benefits you can win will be cut to zero.“

I personally think this is ridiculous. Tsa'ah has a good point. I never filled out a questionaire in WoW regarding my race. This will be near impossible to force in the US, and shouldn't be. Not to mention, if I saw this message every 15 minutes, I'd go fucking bonkers.

[weasel82]

China sucks...let's blow it up

[Apotheosis]

They will be able to enforce it simply because China can and would impose even more severe restrictions.

[Axhinde]

I was referring to enforcing it in the States. China can kiss my ass as far as I'm concerned.

[weasel82]

:ban::ohshit::fu::fu::fu:

[Warriorbird]

"WTF they spend money on shit like that but the ENTIRE FUCKING country is one polluted cest pool. According to NAT'L Geographic. "

Sounds just like America.

[weasel82]

America a cest pool? Well, maybe, but at least we do something about it. Don't we have the tightest rules on pollution in the world?

China doesn't care at this point, they care about industrial growth and as long as they don't have to deal with the short term costs of being environmentally friendly, they're happy.

Isn't one of the well-known stories, the one about how it is cheaper for China to recycle old computers because they have people unprotected tearing the gold and platinum out of circuit boards?

[Andreal]

They weren't talking about enforcing it in the states. China probably wants American's to get brain-damaged from games.

They will be able to enforce it on chinese editions of games though.

[Apotheosis]

I don't know at which point people thought this was being enforced in the Americas. The article is perfectly clear, and anyone with a reading comprehension level of a sixth grader would understand this.

[Tsa`ah]

It seems my point has been entirely missed.

The gist of the article was that China will put safeguards into effect that will discourage game play beyond a certain point ... deminishing returns.

They can only do this with games with servers based in China.

My point was that the games the Chinese nationals play most frequently are not based in China, hence there is no way the deterent systems will have an impact.

They can attempt to boycot all non-China based games that fail to comply with the standards China demands ... but China can't even control (nor are they willing) the bootleg market.

My point had nothing to do with China imposing their rules on the US.

[Apotheosis]

Tsa'ah, I understood your point completely. Someone got confused in this thread, and I am pretty sure it wasn't me.

[AnticorRifling]

Why does it have to be server controlled and not packaged into the game that's loaded on the pc? Couldn't you incorporate a timer that after X amount of continuous useage sends a different signal to the server telling it to start the reduced gains?

This way you just have the option on the server regardless of country but the end user product determines it. So the china versions would be slightly altered and have the timer where another contries wouldn't.

This would make bootleg outside country editions of games very costly and they'd be just like trafficing drugs or making a 1920s moonshine run heh. I could see it now some dude in prison and someone asks him why he's there and he says "For selling US copies of WoW" They'd be like damn you're crazy and they'd leave him alone lol.

[Back]

I’d have to say that morons who let themselves get paid $50 a day for twelve hours of gaming so the guy they are working for can sell their loot for a buttload more are not communists by any stretch of the imagination. The guy paying them shit and making buttloads is a true capitalist through and through.

I would imagine all the non-chinese farmers out there will be very happy that China has decided to step in. All the American, European and Australians can now farm without 1/4 the competition.

[AnticorRifling]

If you can pay me enough to cover my bills I'd play for 12 hours a day. Pick the game I wouldn't care. GS, WoW whatever. I'd be like here's my silvers and gems or here's the blues and grapes have fun I'm gonna go home and walk the dog.

[Sean of the Thread]

ANTICOR LOVESSSSS THE GRAPES..

If the commies were smart they would realize this is another form of commie income. Forget the farms Marx and Lenin dreamed of ENSLAVE THE POPULATION and force them to farm 733t LOOTZ and sell them to the west!

[Back]

$18k a year should cover your food at best. Don’t know how you are going to fill that wardrobe of yours.

[Artha]

I would imagine all the non-chinese farmers out there will be very happy that China has decided to step in. All the American, European and Australians can now farm without 1/4 the competition.
The chinese farmers are way worse than the others, probably because the country actually lets them work for 56 cents an hour, unlike those other ones

[Renian]

So, if you start taking penalties in the game that you are playing, couldn't you just log off and switch accounts, or perhaps, the game you are playing?

Wow, that was real effective.

[The Ponzzz]

I highly doubt any of the top online gaming companies are gonna go, "Ok China, we will put in X amount of hours to create a way to fine ONLY chinese gamers and place a time limit per day!"

If anything ONLY the ISPs in China can control this behavior by only allowing 4 hours and 59 minutes of Online ability into the area in which they are playing. Even then you can abuse it. There is NO way to stop anyone from getting online other than being the communist government that they are and taking the ability for EVERYONE to not get online.

And the article is an editorial, not complete facts. The idea is still only an idea...