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General: China to Crack Down on Online Games
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
China has announced that it will be creating new rules to curb what the call "undesirable" elements of online games.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said it would issue new rules cracking down on "undesirable" elements of online games amid fears of growing Internet addiction as the number of players soars, state media reported on Thursday.
The number of online game players in China rose 23 percent to 40.17 million last year, Xinhua news agency said this week, citing an industry survey. Regular subscribers, accounting for over half the players, soared 30 percent.
The demand propelled online games sales to top 10.57 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in 2007, up 61.5 percent, the agency said.
The industry's growth comes amid media reports of soaring rates of online addiction, and officials blaming Internet obsessions for the majority of juvenile crime.
"Although China's online gaming industry had been hot in recent years, online games are regarded by many as a sort of spiritual opium and the whole industry is marginalized by mainstream society," Thursday's China Daily quoted Kou Xiaowei, a senior official with the General Administration of Press and Publication, as saying.
Read the full article here.
Comments
I read articles like this and realize that I'm looking at what our own future may become very soon. Amid the rampant negativity towards games and this cultural misconception that it's up to the government to be responsible for children instead of the parents, it's understandable to think that, as far as game censoring is concern, we (here in America at least) may soon follow in the footsteps of Communist China.
On another note though, the article mentions "illegal internet cafes." By the descriptions (and the mention of banning accounts) I get the feeling that these were gold farming "cafes" that were closed down.
Numbers on the full article are a bit suspect: 500+ cafes, and 1400 computers. That averages to under 3 computers per cafe, so the definition is somewhat questionable, unless there's a typo in the article.
I think that the problem with china is that they have prohibited more things that in EU and USS is normal, and the life don´t cost the same there than here. All people want to fell the freedon, an with the games they can feel more free. When China will be governed by the Chinesse, all will come to normality as in other countrys.
Damn online players are not devoting enough time to enriching their communist greedhead masters.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
I'm so glad I live in South Africa...chances of the government caring about something like this are very slim. They do have a strange way of approving the most random of laws though
Anyway, I really think that the Chinese government need to mind their own business. I'm sure parents are perfectly capable of controlling their own children - especially since they are only allowed one unless they want to face harsh consequences.
CHIpwNA
Anyway, what this says to me is that the Chinese people are generally unhappy and have given up hope that life can get better. Not surprising, and it doesn't bode well for the U.S., where people seem more and more unable to figure out how to find pleasure in the real world.
You guys really need to get your heads out of the sand. One article and you think you know everything about China's government and the online gaming industry there.
The problem isn't the current government, it was the previous one, they went some three decades with minimal contact with the capitalist west and this meant that the majority of Chinese people have led a very sheltered life from modern technology, so now that they have it, they are embracing it full on, with the parents and their generation having no awareness of the inherent dangers involved for their children. Addiction to online games is real, and it has hit China harder than countries that have been introduced to the games steadily rather in the span of three or so years.
It is not bad for them to look into ways to prevent such addiction, they, like the US, have a group who believe violence is linked to gaming, but they and that opinion is not what is motivating these things. The actual measures taken so far have been purely to combat addiction problems. People do steal, vandalise and hurt others in the name of feeding their addiction, whether it is alcohol, drugs, gambling or online gaming.
A little weird perhaps that gaming could be talked about in the same breath as those things but it is true, as the only recorded death associated by law with a computer game is the suicide of an Everquest player some seven years ago now in the US. In China they've had several suicides and violent crimes directly linked to MMOs now, it is becoming a problem there.
Bad news sells, people are blowing this out of proportion, the government is just taking the measures it needs to, to ensure the sanity and safety of it's people, as to date they have proven that can not control themselves. I wish the US government and some European governments would wake up and take gaming more seriously, to combat things like poor standards in the gaming industry, illegal trade of virtual goods and the out of control virtual sex/gambling industry.
bobfish, the problem is that the other countries you mentioned (US/EU) are not communistic or dictatorships. In other words, the government does not control our lives. THIS IS A GOOD THING.
The US government has proven time and again that they don't understand the gaming industry. That's why they shouldn't poke their noses deeper into it than it already is. Otherwise, they'll make the situations worse.
Also, in response to your comment about "to combat things like poor standards in the gaming industry, illegal trade of virtual goods and the out of control virtual sex/gambling industry," I just have to wonder... what in the world are you playing? "Poor standards" are determined by the players... if they don't like a game or idea, they won't buy into it and the game/company will fall. There is nothing currently illegal about the trading/selling of virtual goods, aside from it ruining in-game stuff (which is something the company itself should be responsible for, less they loose players). And the last one well... that just emphasizes my confusion as to what the heck you're playing.
lol.. the article says they (the Chinese) regard online gaming as "spritual opium" .
Then why dont they arrest all those goldsellers and botters for being "Spiritual drug dealers" and execute them all like they do with real drug dealers?
One bullet. One less goldseller. I'm for that plan.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Ah the Chinese, keeping howling barbarism alive and well for eight thousand years and counting...
^ Intelligent response.
Unlike the others that simply take this as an opportunity to cry "communist".
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Nice to see the government helping the people instead of ignoring the problems.
Yay! so less gold farmers?
As for blowing this out of proportion your probably right. The fact that every citizen (male at least) is forced to join the military and things like that are probably more important. This albeit compared to other things is small time and to be expected from a place like China. But I'm betting that since this is a MMO website and not really a political site, this particular issue is way up there for us. Whats funny about your post is I'll bet you oppose the Patriot Act, but somehow what China is doing is OK. I have a Taiwaneese friend who didn't think China's "for the good of the people" propaganda was all that great when they told him what his career was going to be. I think he is a lot happier here in Medical school than being an officer in the Chineese army.
BTW Everyone,
Don't call someone from Taiwan, Chineese. They REALLY get upset about that. Just sharing a life lesson so none of you have to learn it the hard way.
No. What this means is all the people they say can't play games for fun now will be assigned to BECOME gold farmers. Gold Farming is an industry over there, remember they have elements of capitalism, but no free enterprise. Therefore this ACTUALLY translates to MORE gold farmers. Sorry.
your joking when u spell Chinese "Chineese" right? very funny.
^ Intelligent response.
Unlike the others that simply take this as an opportunity to cry "communist".
Just out of curiosity (NOT being a butt-head Im ACTUALLY curious) what would you do if your local mayor came to your town and told you that your banned from playing EVE online because you are not what you state considers healthy? Would you prefer that the government tell what to do or would you rather pursue happiness on you own?
JUST SO YALL KNOW, Communism is an economic system not REALLY a political one. ALTHOUGH they might call us Capitalists with the same connotation. What they suffer from is a combination of a Dictatorship which Communism creates.
Just quoting my Political Science Professor. Crying communist (and I am guilty of it myself) is fine IMO as long as you understand what your saying.
/check under bed for communists.
LOL
I support this idea.
As for gov't controlling, is it a GOOD thing? or BAD thing? It is good when it controls something you do not like. If SoE controls SWG you do not like it, and if Bush orders Bioware to remake SWG you will LOVE it (joking). The last time I know, US is more regulative than China in a lot of ways (social security, trade union ...) and less than China in other ways (internet policing, online gambling and virtual sex).
If you thing that poor standards are set by the consumers, then why do we need DEA or other gov't agencies to police and check food quality, toy safety, automobile safety ... The measures taken by the Chinese gov't arises after some very unfortunate incidents, say rampant junvenile crimes associated with kids hanging 24/7 around internet cafes (street gangs anyone?), fire and heavy casualties in illegal internet cafes with poor conditions and very bad escape routes (hidden from police and hard to get out in case of fire). One particular arson (crime associated with internet cafes) in an internet cafe killed many students ... When shooting at schools in US prompted US officials to reconsider gun policies, why can't the Chinese review its rampant illegal internet cafes, and proliferation of some undesired web sites and gaming sites?
Before you speak, check the facts, I do not believe you live in china or know China well enough. Most of the games being played in China are not US games (except CS). The quality of games there are very varied, from decent ones, to very indecent ones. Most of the gamers frequenting the internet cafes are klds (some crime victims in internet cafes age 10 or younger). Not many kids are lucky enough to have a computer at home. China is a whole new ballgame. Broadband at home is not a must. Fixed telephone line at home is not a must. A lot of online games in China involves real money gambling, very vulgar content. US$15 monthly for a game means life or death for a kid with no means of earning in a countryside with low income levels. The cost of playing online games in an internet cafe is a lot of money, say 1 chinese dollar an hour or more. Its not the average NY wealth mid age gamer playing Everquest 2 or EVE online.
And they've had private enterprise since the 1980s.
I support this idea.
That sounds racial discriminant.While it is true that online farmers are often times Chinese kids hired, they work like slaves, being paid a few dollars a day, if they got the assignment done. The owners of these farmer companies are not necessarily chinese, nor are they necessarily inside china. The most famous case being an Italian and an American mid aged white male, caught in HK owning a US$1M+ monthly turnover farming company, hiring Chinese kids via online recruitment. RMT sites accept VISA, AE, Paypal or whatever the most advanced electronic payment methods. They do not look like illegal companies hiding inside a Chinese village. More likely they are your neighbor offices in New York or London, formally registered business in the west with VISA, AE approval and formal Paypal, Western Union or whatever else accounts.
One bullet, one less goldseller, you play too many counterstrike. Since when goldselling is a death offense? How about one bullet, one less troll on MMORPG?
And they've had private enterprise since the 1980s.
No they don't have free enterprise. It is regulated (Like video games now) by the government. And I think when my prof was saying dictatorship I think he was using it as an umbrella term. I'll ask him again though. I'm not afraid to be wrong.