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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

#571

Post by Filligree »

namelessoracle wrote: post #200
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 a…

> 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.

What sort of games have you been playing?

Modern games come in every possible variety, and as soon as you look outside the likes of Fortnite you're swamped in story-heavy games, if that is what you want. The Atelier games, for example. Certainly those have voice acting, but not everywhere—and if that's a problem, pick the Japanese VAs.

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

#572

Post by Filligree »

prox wrote: post #397
namelessoracle wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

One game that improves problem solving skills is Space Engineers.

Soooorta?

Stationeers does much better.

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

#573

Post by concretemarble »

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.

Governments have responsibility for the wellbeing of the citizen, but they also have responsibility to stay out of the way of the citizen's personal behaviors unless it is really needed. These two interests are always conflicting so the government shouldn't just limit things in the name of citizens' wellbeing without careful consideration.

Also, not all potentially addiction forming behaviors should be regulated. By this standard, masturbation could be addicting and destructive too, should the government regulate the number of times it can be done a week? In china, it's legal to have sex at 14, does that mean sex is not addicting?

Personal anecdotal story is close to useless. Freedom regulation policy needs to be backed with strong data.

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

#574

Post by DantesKite »

908B64B197 wrote: post #414

It's interesting how they are only restricting online games. Games where young frustrated [0] [1] Chinese teenagers could talk relatively freely with others from different regions of China. Or god forbid, learn English and have contacts with westerners. Better to keep them grinding on shaving a few tenth of a second on basic algebra problems for the Gaokao. That will better prepare them for the factories. [0] https:/…

What do you think about the government banning alcohol?

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

#575

Post by thomastjeffery »

This comment thread is a really interesting instance of a social phenomenon that happens in forums.

The overwhelming majority of comments here are both:

1. Partially or fully supportive of this policy.

2. Downvoted to grey.

There seem to be two ways people are engaging with this topic:

1. Writing a nuanced comment about how this is probably good for children or well meaning (to be downvoted by most readers).

2. Upvoting the handful of comments that point out how this is obviously a terrible overreach (but not writing as much in a comment because it has already been said).

Because those with an unpopular opinion have so much more to express, those perspectives generate the most comments and the fewest upvotes/most downvotes.

This phenomenon tends to make it seem like a minority opinion is held by the majority present.

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

#576

Post by m0zg »

detaro wrote: post #562
m0zg wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also self-hosted, and offline games. Shit, my 17 yo plays until 4 in the morning somehow even though his internet turns off at 10pm and his phone has no data plan.

So your point is that people won't follow regulation targeting online games, by playing not-online games?

My point is that if "playing games" for days on end is a concern, this does next to nothing to fix that. In fact, I'm not even sure there is a fix per se. As a parent, I think this is a big problem. Literally an entire generation of young men and women are wasting entire days on their YouTube/TikTok/computer games addiction (often all three) and neither learning nor doing anything worthwhile with their lives. That bill will come due in the form of poverty, crime, substance abuse, and death 10-20 years from now, when these folks see that they can't get paid for watching youtube all day. At least not reliably. Kudos to the Chinese for seeing a little bit ahead of everyone else, even if their "solution" is nothing of the sort.

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

#577

Post by SolarNet »

krsdcbl wrote: post #226
javajosh wrote: post #168

The restriction is specifically "online games". Not offline games. Which is interesting because it implies that offline games are somehow less addictive - but in my experience, offline games can be very engaging, too. But perhaps it's in a more wholesome, problem-solving way? It's kinda impressive that the CCP can make decisions that affect 1B+ humans like this, overnight. I hope it's the right thing to do, for the k…

i find it amazing how much tolerance is expressed when authoritarian rule is passed "for the kids sake". I feel reminded of the current apple issue. Are people really that ready to accept dictate over their and their kids behaviour in the name of moral and health? Isn't "time spent online" miles away from what the government should be allowed to regulate in your life?

> i find it amazing how much tolerance is expressed when authoritarian rule is passed "for the kids sake".

> Are people really that ready to accept dictate over their and their kids behaviour in the name of moral and health?

To be clear, most commentators here are probably from outside China. There isn't anything anyone commentating here can do about this. So all we can really commentate is on the outcomes and what it might mean.

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

#578

Post by everdrive »

true_religion wrote: post #510
everdrive wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games work best as a lesser of many evils, and come with a few caveats: If you watch a lot of TV, it's hard to argue that video games are a worse use of your time. Video games do have some legitimate benefits, but it's probably hard to say that they are more beneficial than other things you could be doing with your time. (ie, reading difficult literature or articles vs. reading RPG text.) However, people aren't…

Sure but I’m not really comfortable with this level of government interference with peoples lives. No one ever stopped me from playing soccer for 5 hours a day when I was younger, and in high school sports practice was a 3 hour minimum. This restricts game play to 3 hours per week. That means essentially you can’t play video games for leisure … while at the same time you are forced to do a minimum of 40 hours a week…

I'm in no way supportive of China's actions here, and was just commenting on video gaming and addiction in general.

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

#580

Post by devteambravo »

krsdcbl wrote: post #297
devteambravo wrote: post #194

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…

And yet, this fights the symptom, not the cause. Regulation should target companies that manufacture said addictive products, not dictate how citizens should behave under the guise of protection

I just don't buy the premise. Got it China bad. We're not acting better at home here in the US of A. You may disagree, but at the end of the day, you're walking with the same style of state surveillance in your pocket as any other. We cannot both be the cause of the problem and the solution. "not dictate how citizens should behave under the guise of protection". Do we live on the same planet???!
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