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Posts with tag OnlineGaming

China Cracking Down On Online Games

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jan 17th 2008 at 3:40PM

Once the Chinese government gets its mitts on your industry, you're in trouble. Their newest target? Online games.

The government is issuing a set of new rules meant to crack down on what it calls "undesirable" elements of online games, mainly MMO-style affairs. All the hysteria stems from fears of growing Internet addiction which, as anyone with a level 60 Night Elf knows all to well, doesn't do a whole lot for productivity.

According to an Xinhua news agency, the number of online gamers in China rose 23 percent to 40.17 million last year. Regular subscribers, which accounted for over for over half the players, rose a rather staggering 30 percent.

Um, we blame their parents?

From Reuters

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Chinese Gamers Told to Take a Break

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 11th 2007 at 3:00PM

Marathon gaming sessions are a way of life for serious players of online games like World of Warcraft or Everquest. Some game developers make changes to discourage overindulgence, but others seem to flaunt and encourage it. For the Chinese government, the problem has become more serious, with a small but well publicized number of gamers actually dying after day- or even week-long sessions at the keyboard.

According to Engadget, China has decided it's time to do something to protect its children, instituting mandatory limits in online gaming for youths. They plan to do this by forcing game developers to include a sort of diminishing return for those who play their games, reducing gameplay rewards (such as points, experience, and in-game treasures) by half after three hours of play per day. Should a sedentary gamer soldier on for a further two hours they'll be inundated with messages threatening to kill their characters if they don't get offline pronto. The regulations sound well intentioned, but China has said it will shut down any online game that doesn't institute these changes by July 16th. That doesn't give much time for developers to update the multitude of games played online in China today.

From Engadget

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