Gamers in China are facing new limits on how much time they can spend playing their favourite online game.
Games are serious business in China. Last year, Chinese players spent almost US$500m on online games.
The government has been encouraging the growth of online gaming. It is hosting a two-day games conference in September in Beijing in the hope of attracting more foreign investment.
But the phenomenal popularity of online games has fuelled concerns that some people may be losing themselves in the virtual worlds of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).
In one extreme case, a player killed a fellow player who had stolen his virtual sword. The gamer received a suspended death sentence in June.
The measures announced by the Chinese authorities are due to be introduced from October.
The government in Beijing is reported to be introducing the controls to deter people from playing for longer than three consecutive hours.
The measures are designed to combat addiction to online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Lineage II.
The government has been encouraging the growth of online gaming. It is hosting a two-day games conference in September in Beijing in the hope of attracting more foreign investment.
But the phenomenal popularity of online games has fuelled concerns that some people may be losing themselves in the virtual worlds of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).
In one extreme case, a player killed a fellow player who had stolen his virtual sword. The gamer received a suspended death sentence in June.
The measures announced by the Chinese authorities are due to be introduced from October.
More than 20 million Chinese play games regularly, mainly in net cafes. For the most part they are dimly lit, smoke filled, less than clean but crowded and dark with people waiting to use the computer. Most of the places have the windows covered so players really lose a sense of time. Also there, you will find women who work for restaurants constantly roaming around asking to bring food to players. The cost is so inexpensive that most can afford to spend all day there. They are 24/7 operations with zero controls on minimum age of players. Not mention most of them are students, they are willing to skip school to play the games which is unacceptable.
I think the government should have done this earlier. Many of my friends in China are crazy about online gaming. They can live in a internet cafe for couple days just to play the games, they can eat and sleep right there. I definitely see that spending too much time in a fake world, limits what we are capable of doing in the real world.
 Some 1.5 million people play World of Warcraft in China |
the people who waste their time in internet cafe are crazy, and the people who only for a virtual gear to crime are stupid...it is just a game!!
ReplyDeletethese people are all lose their self in the real world, so they may find out some satisfies and honor in the game.
i used to play the wow in Chinese realm, and the game environment is not good, the people in the game are always argue for a gear. but now i am playing wow in American realm, it is better than Chinese, might the cheaper game time make the people don't just focus on the gear. players can find more interesting things to do in wow.
we also need to think about children's health problem when we mention online games,Many people think that the online game is an arch-criminal for teenagers to fall into a wrong path.The fact is onlin game really cost a lot of negative effects on education and society.Especially for teenagers.
ReplyDelete