China to set three-hour limit on MMORPG's
by Ross Miller 
{ Aug 24th 2005 at 4:45PM }
If you live in China and enjoy your online gaming to the point of
addiction, you may want to go to a clinic now. The Chinese
government is testing a system that would enforce a time limit that players could enjoy their MMORPG's, such as World
of Warcraft and Lineage II.
The system would work as follows: after three hours of consistent playing, the abilities of your online character
would slowly diminish until they became virtually unplayable after five hours. The player must wait five hours after
that time to play again, during which he or she could check on their
child, make
amends to their fellow player in person, or simply cater
to their own health needs.
It would be interesting to see if this works, but I fear that China will not be able to regulate those who buy
multiple accounts for the game, switching to another account after three hours on the previous. That may, ironically,
boost the profits of popular online games in the region. I
guess time will tell on that one – expect the system to be implemented sometime in October.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
forzaq8 @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
how would they do it ? pressure the gamemakers to patch it for china ?
Chris McDowell @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
It's China if they dont patch it china will just stop all internet traffic. I hear they already filter tons of websites so that no one in china can view them. Exciting isnt it?
jdm123 @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
Hmm.. I don't see anyway they could easily enforce this in the applications. "Slowly diminishing character abilities". What...? For real..?
Perhaps monitor internet connections (IP to application server) and after 3 hours of active connectivity, cut them off for the 5 hour cool down. Am guessing this would be easier to enforce through the ISP rather than getting into the business of customizing game code. Scary thought though.
Unknownguy @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
Is that a picture of tee-tee from Diddy Kong Racing?
Ross Miller @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
Hehe, yes it is :)
l0tus @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
...gotta love communism.
Rare Hare @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
A. i think that sucks, they should have no say in what their citizens play and for how long.
B. @#6 l0tus: "...gotta love communism."
do you even know what the hell you're talking about? why don't you go read up on what a communist society actually entails and then tell what exactly is communist about imposing a 3 hour limit on mmo gaming??
the thing i hate the most on this site is stupid people who come on here and talk out their asses.
Whizack @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
What I find hilarious is that people here still ignore the fact that communism exists, and they always act as though the rest of the world has the same constitution as we do in America...
#1-3: yes they will force the game makers to patch it, they have like 3/4ths of the worlds population... you dont ignore that market if you can help it.
not to mention china holds almost every open standard, and proprietary software/hardware manufacturer by the balls when it comes to allowing the chinese government access to all information going in, out, around, or backwards through their devices, computers, networks, etc...
not to mention they reserve the right to deny any company the ability to sell, market, or support their products in their country at any time.
they can do whatever the hell they want.
#7: And I quote:
"do you even know what the hell you're talking about? why don't you go read up on what a communist society actually entails and then tell what exactly is communist about imposing a 3 hour limit on mmo gaming??"
the government has the right to determine what is considered healthy for you and the people around you, if playing games for 10 days straight, dying from it, and costing the government money in the process as well as causing a health issue for that persons neighbors can be regulated... it will be.
Theillusionary @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
I admit I don't know everything about communism, but I figure the Chinese government saw something that was currently not being controlled by them and they decided to regulate gaming. It is good for the Chinese people that everything else in life and society is going so well that their goverment has nothing else to do than regulate gaming.
Saxon @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
But what will happen to the Gold Farming market?
CHILL @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
Yeah, I remember Tee-Tee. Communism is CRAZY!!!
Greatness @ Dec 18th 2005 10:08PM
#10
"But what will happen to the Gold Farming market?"
As a WoW (World of Warcraft) player in the US, these people play on US servers to farm their gold. They are rampent of my server (Gorefiend) in an area of the game called "Tyr's Hand" (in Eastern Plaugelands). When Horde farm that area, I usually take a gank squad there to kill them anyway. It's fun and most CGFs (Chinese Gold Farmers) can't PvP anyway, making it really fun and free HKs for me and my guild.
As for the issue of farmers, this again won't affect them because they are playing the US version of WoW. The Chinese Government would have to filter out the DNS for the North American version of WoW to keep Chinese from playing on the US version. I'd love to see this happen, as it would basically kill the gold market and make WoW much better. I don't want to seem racist, but the Chinese have servers designed for them, they should play on those.
However, as a supporter of self-control when it comes to MMORPGs, I totally despise the Chinese Government for doing something like this. People should be able to tell when they've had enough. The Chinese government controls them so much, they have not learned self-control, the government does that.
In America, if the government even attempted to create a law like this, it would get challenged by every single game manufacturer and player, and it would be ruled unconstitutional.
That's just my 2 copper worth. Sorry it's so long, but I had to say this.