Shares slide after China brands online games 'electronic drugs'

>teenagers had become addicted to online gaming and it was having a negative impact on them

Same for tiktok & other social media. "Maximizing engagement" is just corporate-speak for optimizing addiction.

China should just ban free2play games - that's where the addictiveness is concentrated. Require every game to have a minimum upfront price. It would be great for the industry and refocus publishers on creativity.

Ya stole my response!

I would like to see some analysis of addictiveness of gotcha games vs games pre games as a service. I knew many people hooked to counterstrike in PRC internet cafes in the late 90s, but those titles seem like something one grows out of. These new games feel qualitatively different in terms of addiction, even though I think most people aren't susceptible to allow modern games get in the way of life, even if they are always in the pocket and engineered for addiction. But it would be interesting to see some numbers on population scale being affected by "electronic drugs". I do remember the one time I got into mobile games was Simpsons Tap Out on vacation and I ended up making spread sheets, setting timers to optimize farming. There wasn't even gambly loot boxes involved.

They didn't call it "electronic drugs" which is sort of a correct translation but losing the context, they call it "mental opium". Which relates back to opium war.