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

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

#191

Post by mrlonglong » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #175

mrlonglong wrote: post #147

Wouldn't those kids grow up resenting the CCP? If the CCP keeps doing this long enough, they're going to have millions of sullen people and then all it takes is just one spark.

> If the CCP keeps doing this long enough, they're going to have millions of sullen people and then all it takes is just one spark. ...and lots of disaffected people end up dead or beaten or in prison or, seeing those options demonstrated vividly, resigned to their fate under the CCP’s rule, unwelcome as it may be. It’s not like this hasn't played out already several times over different issues.

They have a billion citizens. At some point the few will become the many disaffected.

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

#192

Post by aidenn0 » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

piaste wrote: post #172

tejohnso wrote: post #145

With school out for summer, my preschooler is either playing a video game or watching youtube for hours on end. We try to force some time away from screens but it is a never ending struggle, as screen use is the immediate, default state to return to. I find most of the youtube content worse than the gaming, but neither are all that great.

Disclaimer: not a parent. He's a preschooler, not a teenager or even a kid. Can't you just... not give him a phone/tablet except at specified reward times?

I am a parent. You absolutely can. The kid will make your life miserable about it for anywhere from 4 hours to 3 months depending on how stubborn they are.

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

#193

Post by blibble » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #161

blibble wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they've lost 50% of their users in 4 years and this was before the recent PR disaster

Probably has little to do with China.

which is why this decision will be such a blow

they made the calculation that losing some percentage of their western markets to appease the CCP was worth it

and now they're going to lose that too

couldn't happen to a group of nicer people

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

#194

Post by devteambravo » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

I learned English playing Starcraft Shareware with a bunch of Canadians. I learned about money, economics, marketing, psychology and social skills via Runescape. I used games as an escape from my hell on earth childhood. And yet, I see this and think... maybe they're onto something. Today's games are engineered to rake in and manufacture addicts. People who don't know what dark design patterns are. Forgive my French here, but fuck the "Freedom" bullshit, this is about the one and only thing it's always been about, $$$. I say good for them.

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

#195

Post by dharmab » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

zetazzed wrote: post #166

When I was a kid, I learned a tremendous amount from playing complex games like SimCity, Civilization, and Ultima. I feel like they opened my horizons to feel empowered to do interesting and meaningful things in the world, and they basically substituted for time I would've spent with GI Joe. Now, as an adult, when I do game, it substitutes for time I would've spent exercising, working on coding/ML side projects, or h…

This policy is for online games. All of the games you listed would not be subject to it.

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

#196

Post by justicezyx » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

MangoCoffee wrote: post #185

China is also cracking down on the kpop/jpop style in the entertainment industry as well. https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=...

It's about banning feminine characters and ultra youth idols.

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

#197

Post by bradlys » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

sudosysgen wrote: post #88

bradlys wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t matter. Probably positive if anything. A lot of children don’t hermit up and play video games because it’s better than being with friends - it’s because they don’t have any friend options in real life. Where I grew up, I was shunned, bullied, and neglected by pretty much everyone. It became apparent I was actually quite social, funny, and pleasant to be around when I was online. I made a lot of friends quickl…

Well yes that's true. But at the same time a lot of your potential real life friends are also going to be playing video games instead of being sociable in real life. I do empathize with you a lot having had a very similar experience in my youth. But ultimately finding people that were like me in real life was crucial.

> I do empathize with you a lot having had a very similar experience in my youth. But ultimately finding people that were like me in real life was crucial.

Sometimes it's better to accept that those people don't exist where you live. Where I grew up - they really didn't exist. I'm fortunate now to live in SV where my interests and what not align more - but in rural America... I do not exist. (People like me leave that place)

I went to small schools (<100 people per grade, sometimes less than 60). If you didn't make your friends in that group - SOL. There weren't other schools to make friends at, social activities for kids, etc. You were stuck with what you had at school and that's about it.

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

#198

Post by sudosysgen » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #177

sudosysgen wrote: post #85

To note, this only applies to online games. The restrictions are supposed to be server side only.

Tencent is implementing facial recognition on phones to enforce this. I don't believe we can realistically claim it's server-side only. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/business/video-game-facia...

The facial recognition is in order to make sure the user of the game corresponds to the ID they logged in with. It still only applies to online videogames.

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

#199

Post by hjek » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

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…

So it's not just 3 hours per week, it's three specific hours a week, but also only for online games services. It's interesting that the law covers the service, not the client.

Now, I wonder what qualifies as an online game service. If I play correspondence chess over email, would the email host be running an online game service? If someone modifies the Battle of Wesnoth network code to run over IRC messages, would the IRC host be running an online game service? (What about decentralized network game protocols?)

Lots of legal grey areas to explore, like with Phil Zimmerman putting the PGP code in bookform. I'm sure you could find a way to game online without relying on an online game service.

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

#200

Post by namelessoracle » Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 4:40 PM UTC

lhorie wrote: post #91

People talking about the benefits of games reminds me of people talking about the benefits of, say, a glass of wine with every meal: it's worth looking into but at the same time it's the sort of thing that obviously doesn't scale linearly with the amount/intensity of consumption. I similarly have mixed feelings as well, but for slightly different reasons. I've read about studies that say that musical training (which…

I would agree with "the problem solving skills" section of your argument. But not the reading one. Getting good at reading is almost purely exercise. You do it more, you get better/faster at it, which has gains that show up in all kinds of fields be it tech, medicine, whatever.

Old school games had basically an entire novel embedded inside of them worth of text. 10 year old me wanting to read all of Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger got an easy novels worth of reading in. Getting 10 years old to WANT to read is HARD. Anything that encourages that is good.

Modern games dont have that text, and even when they do they have voice acting to get around it. Games like Chrono Trigger and old school Final Fantasy are rare and dont get made as much anymore unfortunately. Its all gambling boxes.