Nerfed By The Feds

I don’t mind the move myself, and considering China’s other computing-related restrictions, this one seems reasonable. 3 hours seems a bit short though, and I think 4-5 might be better. Of course if the degrading process is tiered then perhaps 3 is enough, if the first tier isn’t too severe at say, 4 hours. I don’t think that losing a very small part of the workforce is really a plausible theory. Games don’t stop people from actually going to work or school (except maybe in so few cases, it won’t matter).

I would be worried if they made this happen with all games… but it seems to me that they understand how these online games work and they’ve found a way of restricting their use which blends in OK with the way MMORPGs are structured. I think zombie-prevention is a good cause.

Has the Chinese government gone too far? You are asking if they have gone too far by limiting the amount of time one of their citizens can play an RPG when this is the same government that ran over pro-Democracy protesters with tanks? No, I do not think in the case, the Chinese goverment, based on its history, has gone too far.

Umm a government that in my lifetime has used tanks against students peacefully protesting and you’re gonna complain about them regulating online game time? Yes the Chinese government has gone to far, no I wouldn’t even put this on the top sheet of things to complain about.

I feel sorry for all the chinese gamers. 3 hours is not enough for a decent Molten Core run, especially guilds that are just starting out (my guild can now clear the entire core in about 8 hours).

If china had upped this limited to 5 hours, people would still be able to do Molten Core and Blackwing Lair

Oh dear Lord, I think we may just see a MMO-caused riot in the streets of China.

Millions of angry gamers, fraily fighting the riot officers for their chance to run Molten Core in WoW. And I’m not kidding, I think something bad might just come from this. MMOs are like a drug, and they are essentially cutting people off that.

I guess it would be better if read “Has the Chinese government taken the MMO issue too far”. Geez you guys are right bastards when it comes to being picky. I wasn’t suggesting this is the “first straw” in oppression for the government. In light of China’s past offenses this is small potatoes. I was more interested on how you guys felt if it were taken out of context.

Right bastards…I like that.

Anyway, taking the MMO issue out of context, I would say “Yes” the Chinese government has gone too far. I would have to look it up, but I’m pretty sure the Chinese government is currently more of an authoritarian government as opposed to a totalitarian government (for those who don’t know the difference, think the difference between China and North Korea.)

As a presumed authoritarian government, China should only be interested in controlling the activities of its citizens insofar as it relates to them supporting or at least, not actively opposing, the government. The only reason I could think of that China would want to limit the amount of time its citizens could play a MMO game is to limit the amount of time they would potentially be exposed to foreign ideology and thought.

As JohnDoe already said, 3 hours is barely enough time to finish the Wailing Caverns let alone the Molten Core or Blackwing Lair. I doubt many Chinese gamers would want to discuss the current state of world affairs when they have the Dream Gems of the Serpent Lords to attend to.

Not that they necessarily would discuss world affairs or that Blizzard is allowed to let outside gamers access Chinese servers.

As to your last point regarding how this action would be taken in America (or any other Western democracy) you are right, civil rights groups would by up in arms. However, I cannot think of any part of the constitution that would bar the government from enacting such a law. Except that any rights not enumerated in the constitution are reserved for the states…maybe the states could slide it in there, but it might violate interstate commerce laws, especially if you are not in the same state as your server.

In any case, taken completely out of context regarding China’s history of aggregious human rights violations, your article is good food for thought.

It’s a freedom that shouldn’t be taken away and their dictatorship is going to piss off a lot of gamers over there. Gaming revolution, anyone? Perhaps not, but it’d be hilarious to see millions of gamers parading around Beijing with red flags and Mario’s face on them.

To be honest, I support this move. This may be because I have never been bitten by the MMORPG bug (heck, I dont even play games online), but I am always hearing of people, mostly east asians, dieing whilst playing on these games for too long.

I suppose you could say that it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they have played a game for too long, but in my opinion if you play a game for over 5 hours straight, it cannot be healthy. The chinese government is not denying gamers the right to play the games full stop, but they are sort of looking after the well-being of their citizens.

My only gripe is that, as has been pointed out, maybe 3 hours is a little short. I’d increase it until 5 hours.

Why shouldn’t I be allowed to play computer games till I die from it? It’s my life not the state’s. I mean with China truth is your life really pretty much is the state’s property, as you exsist by their decision but I mean in a free society applying this kind of rule would be a pretty awful precedent. I mean If they can tell you how long you can participate in an activity like this, they can tell you what to eat, how much to excercise, pretty much anything about your private life. Hell it’s not like this is exclusive to MMORPGs. Ever play Baldur’s Gate 2? I beat it 4 times in a row in under a month, if you don’t think there were some days where all i did all day was play Baldur’s Gate 2 you’ve got another thing coming. Sure I ate and went to the bathroom and even got up and just paced for a while but for all intents and purposes that was all i did that day.

“Why shouldn’t I be allowed to play computer games till I die from it?” - Because that would be a stupid thing to do. Its almost like justifying suicide, albeit without the person knowing they are comminting it (hmm…does that make any sense?).

I don’t see it as the state’s job to protect me from my own choices. Having meat 2-3 meals a day and not getting a lot of excercise will kill you too. So will being promiscuous, so will working 50-80 hours a week in a high stress job. Lots of things will take time off your life, and I think it’s my right to do things that are bad for me. The precedent, that everything that’s bad for you needs to be regulated isn’t a particuariliy friendly one. I for one don’t want to live in a state which tells makes me ask permission every time I want to blow my nose.

To what i just said I just wanted to add, taken to the nth degree of excess the way the people who die playng computer games do will make nearly anything harmful. If we’re going to regulate anything that can be harmful in very high doses then their are a lot of other things to regulate. Food being the most obvious. Sleep is probably another one they should consider, after all people who don’t get a good night sleep are less productive citizens so we can’t have people walking around who reguaraly get little sleep, or aren’t eating well.

Vermouth, do you support a small amount of government regulation on blatantly harmful activities? Say having to be licensed and older than 16 to drive or 21 to drink.

While I’d fight it to the bitter end my body would probably be thankful if I was forced to sleep 8 hours a day.

I do support those because without them underage drivers and drinkers pose a threat to the immeadiate safety of the community. People aren’t playing World of Warcraft and then plowing into a schoolbus or something. I’m addicted to caffiene, and yeah it would probably be better for me if i kicked the habit, but in the end it’s my decision to make and I don’t want the government coming and taking my diet cokes and coffee and putting some kind of meter on my coffee pot to make sure i don’t cheat. In the end this is the same kind of issue. People are suffering adverse consequences because they’re playing video games too long. Freedom ought mean the freedom to do what’s bad for you.

there’s a difference between doing something that only affects you (gaming) and something that potentially affects others too (underage drinking/driving). Then there is also a difference between gaming for 3 hours and for 50 hours.

I regulary spend way more than 3 hours gaming. I even did a 32 hour WoW marathon once (tho mostly because I didnt have anything else to do and wasnt really getting sleepy). Not really healthy, but hardly lethal. 3 hours is just a ridiculously low limit for any real gamer.

OK, let’s cut to the most important part of this discussion. All this rubbish about democracy and the right to play games until you start growing mould dodges the REAL issue at stake here:

Is Lego better than gaming?

I like to think that I’ve seen and played most games going over the years and can honestly say that Lego is both cooler and more fun. I’m not entirely sure where Lego is going these days but Space Lego kicked more ass than the Doom Marine and Duke Nukem ever did.

Don’t get me started on virtual Lego…

lego was awesome, butpc games have spoilt me

Yes Lego is more awesome. It has been scientifically proven by Harvard graduates that Legos contains more awesome-o (the juice that makes things awesome, think Midichlorians) than even videogames. The only thing that contains more awesome-o than Legos is sex. And that is sometimes debateable.

Actually, there is very little debate on the matter. Legos are more awesome than bad sex, but not nearly as awesome as good sex.

Heads, you will burn in the fires of seven hells at the hand of Cyrris for misusing the term “legos”.

Anyways, yes, Lego was more fun than pretty much anything. Heaven is built out of lego blocks.

I had to edit Holliday’s original entry for that, dammit. It’s not Legos. “Lego” is a collective noun, like money (except Lego is of course far more valuable and expensive). I don’t care how you were brought up saying it!

One block of Lego. Lots of Lego. I’ll defend it to the death.

Lego….is….awesome.

If the chinese governmenr strapped a restriction on that, I would have to go there and complain.

I had hours of fun as a kid.

You say potatoe I say Legos.

;)

I think we’re diving into the “Big Brother” topic. Maybee it isn’t good for us to stay out till 3am, so why not mandate a national curfue? Candy can be bad for us so we should limit 1 bag of candy per day at the grocery store. TV is bad too so we should limit our TVs to only work 3 hours a day. We shoudn’t waste gasoline, so we should make cars only run up to 50 miles a day. Soda is bad for our teeth, so the government should only let us drink 1 can a day.

You wouldn’t support any of those suggestions (I hope lol), so why propose video gaming restrictions? Kinda makes you feel good if you live in a democratic nation. Freedom allows some rather offcolor activities to happen, but at least we aren’t limiting ourselves.

So basically yeah, I don’t agree