China to set three-hour limit on MMORPG's

how would they do it ? pressure the gamemakers to patch it for china ?

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?

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.

Is that a picture of tee-tee from Diddy Kong Racing?

Hehe, yes it is :)

...gotta love communism.

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.

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.

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.

But what will happen to the Gold Farming market?

Yeah, I remember Tee-Tee. Communism is CRAZY!!!

#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.