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

reuters.com

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

#491

Post by Kiro »

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #114
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 spent a lot of time hiding away in my room - up late on the internet, playing video games, reading books, listening to music - often the kind aimed at the alienated. I felt alone, like i didn't belong. Some of it was my personality, some of it was how my parents raised me. Some was how that was juxtaposed against the culture/environment i was raised into. My parents pushed a lot of sports and i grew out of it - fav…

I feel the opposite. I'm a very social and active person but recently I've realized I don't enjoy it. I have been wasting my life on stuff I don't care about. Now I just want to sit inside and dive deep into this "boring cyberpunk world". I wish I came to this realization sooner.

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

#492

Post by jstrH »

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…

Surely a lot of these “behaviors observed after X hours of Y” studies are subjective to the researchers and broader social opinions on what “normal” is.

I don’t disagree on the monetization part, but daily life is an implicit game of risk avoidance. We are cognitively tuned to play a cognitive simulation.

My hesitancy is social belief we all must be on board with playing “the real world” simulation as dictated by traditional political beliefs, which heavily influence which studies get funded.

Maybe utilitarian day jobs aren’t the only busy work we should expect of each other.

Frankly as a social scene, I’d rather people argue over DND rules than how much profit they can make if more people went hungry or died rather than get their insurance benefits they paid for.

Perhaps the behavioral economics math we use to advertise and market tribal belief in our teams superior product or service should be set aside to let folks navigate the sim as they wish and real economic activity must adjust to satisfy that?

Social norms have always followed technology. Maybe the perspectives we apply are no longer correct in this contemporary time.

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

#493

Post by herendin2 »

jpambrun wrote: post #334
rank0 wrote: post #235

I am appalled by all the supportive comments in this thread. Why are HN users so comfortable with authoritarian government? It’s about more than just online games. It’s about control. I’m sure the great firewall is perfectly fine as well?

Alcohol pretty much universally prohibited for minors and nobody calls that authoritarian. Governments have responsibility for the wellbeing of citizen, even against themselves (mandatory seatbelts comes to mind). Meanwhile, gaming addiction can also be very destructive.

Ethyl alcohol is easy to define: C2H6O

There's no such clear definition of 'games'. So there is potential for interpretation and overreach.

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

#494

Post by nsxwolf »

beaunative wrote: post #417
bjt2n3904 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physically abusing your child by chaining them to the radiator is not a parenting decision. Providing lunch at something the child is required to be at by law is not a parenting decision. Requiring annual physicals is not a parenting decision, nor a health care decision. However, requiring a specific treatment is both. Alcohol consumption is a grey area, and a cultural choice the country has made. Why not make the dr…

A parents' can ask their kid to limit video game time, but can't have the video gaming industry to enforce it. A national government can. That's the issue. And if a parent really feels their kids deserve more video game time, they can always lend their own account to their kids, which would disable the mechanism, that simple.

That simple? Until they decide to make it a felony to evade this system in that way.

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

#495

Post by YinLuck- »

rank0 wrote: post #235

I am appalled by all the supportive comments in this thread. Why are HN users so comfortable with authoritarian government? It’s about more than just online games. It’s about control. I’m sure the great firewall is perfectly fine as well?

The sitting president was removed from the de-facto public forum, but you're whining about minors getting their video game time restricted? Authoritarian government is already here. You just missed it because you're on the side of the devil.

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

#496

Post by fullstop »

cvdub wrote: post #106
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…

There's no denying that Dark Souls is hard. It's also fair. It's 100% your fault every time you die, and you know what you did wrong.

I wouldn't say 100% your fault. I'm going to blame the camera for a few of my deaths!

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

#497

Post by eric-hu »

ryan93 wrote: post #484
goostavos wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even know where people are coming from any more. Like literally everyone else in tech who knows how the sausage gets made, I'm appalled by the teams of Ph.Ds which exist solely to exploit the dopamine response of children. However, it never would have ever crossed my mind to jump from "here's a particular problem" to "the government should control how much of a specific activity your child can do at home"

You make it sound a lot more scientific than it is.

Seconded. It doesn’t take a team of PhD’s to run A/B testing on features and variations that improve lift. Tie performance bonuses to improved engagement and sales, and you can motivate many non doctorates to find novel ways to make things addictive.

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

#498

Post by ryandrake »

anonporridge wrote: post #380
uncoder0 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the last year of 'quarantine' for most of the Western world has made people more comfortable with authoritarian governments and actions. It's rather alarming how widespread and quickly this change in ideology has happened.

Perhaps because we've all seen firsthand the reckless social irresponsibility of a massive segment of the population. Faced with this, it's not surprising to me that many people would see a more authoritarian government to be preferable to a laissez faire approach that requires the vast majority of individuals to make reasonably good choices for the collective and understand the wider implications of their behavior.…

COVID has convinced me that a functioning society can’t just throw its hands up and exclusively rely on Nash Equilibrium to deal with all problems. If you rely on everyone being rational self-interest-optimizing actors, you’ll never solve problems that require voluntary collective, coordinated action. It just ends up as a giant game of prisoner’s dilemma with everyone choosing DEFECT.

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

#499

Post by xster »

rank0 wrote: post #235

I am appalled by all the supportive comments in this thread. Why are HN users so comfortable with authoritarian government? It’s about more than just online games. It’s about control. I’m sure the great firewall is perfectly fine as well?

I'd also be careful with the labels based just around the flavor of authoritarianism you're used to for all your life. FWIW, drinking age is generally customary rather than codified in practice in China, as is public drinking.

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

#500

Post by TillE »

swman wrote: post #100
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 it really depends. I have way too many personal anecdotes of people I knew from back in the day (middle/high school) who gamed like 8 hours a day. Most of those people were _addicted_, and a handful went on to drop out of college and aren't really doing that great today. They still play 8+ hours a day.. I remember I'd ask them if they wanted to study, or if they want to go hiking or do something IRL, but they…

"Gaming addiction" is 99% depression and similar disorders. It's just not a thing on its own, it's a symptom.
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