Didn't find any news on this here, but I haven't been around so forgive me if it's a repost.
Also, wasn't sure where to post this. Hmm, maybe it goes in News? Anyhow:
http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=4211
Quote:
Shanghai. August 3. INTERFAX-CHINA - Chinese authorities unveiled new regulations on Tuesday that will prohibit minors under the age of 18 from playing more violent online games, which currently dominate the Chinese online gaming market.
Effective immediately, all minors are banned from playing online games in which players are allowed to kill other players, an activity that has been termed Player Kills (PK). ...
Quote:
In addition, Chinese authorities have also ordered online game operators to install timing mechanisms that would automatically log players off of online games once they had exceeded a set number of hours of continuous play. Chinese gamers on average spend 10.9 hours a week playing online games.
Now, I need to get back to playing WoW ...
EDIT: Forgot to add the required:
In Communist China, MMOs PK you.
Maybe the log off after a certain amount of time would be useful amongst university students in the west. Productivity might return to those pre WoW days.
Quote:Original post by Drazgal Maybe the log off after a certain amount of time would be useful amongst university students in the west. Productivity might return to those pre WoW days.
Nope; instead of playing WoW all day, they'd play WoW for a while, then switch to Guild Wars, then switch to who knows what, until they could switch back to WoW again. Just like how people will play different characters in WoW to maximize the experience bonus obtained while not playing.
"We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves." - John Locke
I'm not familiar with game ratings in China but it doesn't really seem that outrageous to me. Of course, different games implement PKing in different ways. In some, it's a blood bath, and in others your hot air balloon springs a leak.
Quote: In addition, Chinese authorities have also ordered online game operators to install timing mechanisms that would automatically log players off of online games once they had exceeded a set number of hours of continuous play. Chinese gamers on average spend 10.9 hours a week playing online games.
Chinese authorities? WTF are they going to do? If Chinese players are playing on a US server, they can't do anything.
If I was a pro game dev, I wouldn't put up with this!
Look, it's not like they can fully enforce this. There are like thousands of ILLEGAL POLICE STATIONS in China. The rules are different in the cities, than in the country. It will take some good old fashioned diplomacy to maintain the profitable peace! Something to die for, no doubt ;)
