Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 1001 posts

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#151

Post by victor106 »

namelessoracle wrote: post #7

I have mixed feelings about this. Younger me learned a lot of problem solving skills and most importantly spent a lot of time learning how to read by playing RPGs and games that required lots of reading. My reading skills would not have been as advanced if i wasn't playing text heavy games that had a lot of plot like Square Enix games and the CRPGs of the time. Modern games though are clearly designed to get you as a…

The feelings you (I have the same feelings about his as you do) have about this are at an individual level.

State mandating how much time someone should spend doing a particular activity is a totally different topic.

Even though I agree with the overall intention of this rule/law I vehemently oppose a state imposing such restrictions.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#153

Post by mlillie »

lnyng wrote: post #110

Original notice from the government: https://web.archive.org/web/20210830120201/http://www.nppa.g... Google translation of the first entry: > Strictly limit the time for providing online game services to minors. Since the implementation of this notice, all online game companies can only provide minors with one-hour online game services from 20 to 21:00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays. At other times, i…

Is the original article not a major journalistic misstep then? Nowhere does it clarify that this only applies to online gaming.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#154

Post by Gunax »

brundolf wrote: post #42
cracell wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but this is like DRM. You just create an arms war. Underage users would find ways to appear to be 18 or older. Or use multiple accounts to continue playing. This is already common in many grind games. You have support accounts that feed the main account items. Or just straight up hacking the timer system. Or playing games published outside if China. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Remember we're talking about a totalitarian regime, where using real IDs for digital accounts is already a thing. Where importing unapproved foreign media is (presumably) banned. Where you can't so much as get a VPN without permission. I'm sure some people will find ways around it, but I don't think that will be the norm.

I dont see it working any differently than piracy. If people can hack the bytecode to appear as though the game has received a valid key, I dont see why they cannot do the same for these restrictions.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#155

Post by KoftaBob »

mrfusion wrote: post #3

Sadly when I hear news like this my first reaction is wondering when it’s coming to the US :-(

That's a pretty misguided reaction, considering there's no legal mechanism for this to be enforced in the US.

Do you think the US gov is going to propose requiring all gamers to provide a real ID to prove age, and people will just be ok with that? No way in hell.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#156

Post by zepto »

solox3 wrote: post #126
sergiotapia wrote: post #116

Is crime going to skyrocket? These kids are going to have a lot of time on their hands and nowhere to spend it.

One could try reading a book, learning a new skill, or socializing.

> or socializing

Perhaps by joining a gang…

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#157

Post by falcolas »

jacknews wrote: post #86
brundolf wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time I spent in virtual worlds as a child remains one of the most cherished experiences of my life. They brought me happiness at times when nothing else did. They stoked my imagination and gave me a sense of wonder. They were one of the few avenues I had for connecting with my peers. It wasn't some waste of time that I regret when I look back as an adult.

I'm quite happy for my kids to spend hours playing online when they are playing together with friends. They start up discord audio rooms or whatever and play as a team. Of course, playing with a ball in a field might be better, but, covid. I don't allow them to play single-player games so much, unless it's something original, story or experience-based. Undertale, Braid, Journey, etc. Certainly nothing 'infinite scrol…

> playing with a ball in a field might be better

I categorize this as "maybe". If you're a physically fit child with good hand/eye coordination, playing ball is fun. If you're not, due to genetics, weight, or illness, it's closer to torment.

Also, playing ball is almost always going to be competitive - there are no bots and only rarely cooperative objectives involved.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#158

Post by exolymph »

willis936 wrote: post #121
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is interesting. I have a family friend, 20-years old and in college, who has maybe 1 or 2 friends in real life. All others are online gaming friends that he's had for years. Never met them. Of course he's gaming all the time because of that social network. I wish I knew the implications to such people when they are older. Is it a good influence? bad influence? doesn't matter? I don't know. Do you have any insigh…

The famous Rat Park [0] studies imply that addiction is caused by an unfulfilled life, not substances. Why ban video games or drugs when the thing that leads to addiction isn't being addressed? Treating a symptom won't solve anything. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Not reliable research alas: https://www.gwern.net/Mouse-Utopia

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#159

Post by aidenn0 »

namelessoracle wrote: post #7

I have mixed feelings about this. Younger me learned a lot of problem solving skills and most importantly spent a lot of time learning how to read by playing RPGs and games that required lots of reading. My reading skills would not have been as advanced if i wasn't playing text heavy games that had a lot of plot like Square Enix games and the CRPGs of the time. Modern games though are clearly designed to get you as a…

I think a big part of why I can quickly scan information on a page is from playing way too much Final Fantasy as a kid. To grind you need to do lots of combat, so I slowly dialed the "Response Rate" (i.e. speed at which text appears) until I could read all of the post-combat messages at the maximum setting.

Re: China has forbidden under-18s from playing games for more than three hours/week

#160

Post by choeger »

We live in interesting times, indeed. All the devices we own now become bricks in the walls government wants to build around us. Make no mistake, China is just the first state to implement such a measure and video gaming is just the first use case.

It's really obvious by now that more and more policies like this will be embedded into software. There are so many applications: Cars (how much, where, and how do you drive), TVs (what do you watch and when), personal assistants (what do you talk about with your children)...

Post reply on HN