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

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

#971
post #808

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Board games are far better brain exercise. You’re forced to compete with other people and the games usually enforce time limits. Or if they don’t, your opponent will force an end if you want to win.

Is this speculative or do you have anything to back this up?

Empirical evidence? If you’re going to play games for some supposed benefit, games where you are forced to compete or have brutal requirements are going to force you to think more.

I’m not talking Catan or Ticket to Ride. I’m talking medium to heavy euros or war games.

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

#972
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…

I wonder if this will encourage a renaissance in China of LAN play, more P2P protocols for online gaming, and informal game servers run by people you know (rather than the game publisher). Sounds like it could be kinda fun (nostalgia for me)

Yes, I believe playing games with people in the same physical space is fundamentally different than sitting in a room by yourself playing with people online. I look back fondly upon the times in my childhood where we rigged up LAN parties, played console games on a couch or sitting on the carpet, or Pokemon on our Gameboys together roaming around the outdoors.

I don't look back very fondly upon the days when I grinded playing online PC games in a room alone, even though I had a headset and a chat box - that feels more like wasted time.

It's purely personal of course, and I know people who feel differently, but if gaming takes a step back toward anchoring itself in the physical realm, I'm all for it. The arcade heydays of the 80s sound awesome.

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

#973

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only quite recently that we can get fresh grapes off season, that's why people used to drink wine with food - it stays consumable for much longer thanks to the alcohol it contains.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind if I ever buy a time machine

Also make sure it has robust location compensation - the cheaper ones skimp on that, so you might end up quite high up or even get telefragged into the ground!

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

#974

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure a country that commits cultural genocide and sent a million or more Muslim Uighurs into reeducation camps is where you should be looking for a "better system". Forced sterilization, forced labor... Or a country that has no freedom of the press, savagely beats or murders political dissidents, will take away your job and livelihood if you dare question CCP orthodoxy... The fact that you think is somehow mo…

Well, the US did kinda oops away a million Muslims in response to 9/11, and over a half-million Americans in lack of response to COVID19. And we do have that whole gitmo thing. Plus, we had the whole slavery bit we keep forgetting about. I could list this stuff for a while, but that's besides the point. It's not the current state that matters, but possible future outcome. We're both hill-climbing trying to improve sy…

Your best argument for defending the CCP committing genocide is to Whatabout Slavery? AN institution that ended over 150 years ago?

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

#975

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Modern games though are clearly designed to get you as addicted as possible and to play as long as possible to an extent that made the old school 90s RPGs grinds look tame and mild I try to tell my extended family this but I can tell that they choose not to listen. Games are no longer what they were growing up and you have to make sure your kid isn't playing a glorified slot machine. I plan to build a machine and on…

League of Legends suffers from a problem no one's figured out how to fix yet, or that would require so much effort, anyone capable of figuring it out would rather work for a FAANG, which is: How do you separate people who want to excel from people who just want to have "fun"? You can't mix people with a hardcore attitude with people with a casual attitude. It'll result in disaster every single time, without fail, in…

Okay, so let me present you with my view of the game. It's going to be very different from yours, and it's fine if you disagree. In fact, in the first few years I played, I would have had a hard time agreeing as well. But I'd appreciate if you hear me out.

1) On average, ranked players play at a skill level consistent with their rating. In other words, even if they have the skills to play better but don't, their rating should reflect this--on average.

2) For each individual game, there can be some variance in individual performance. Sometimes matchups are lopsided, and sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes you're on the team that benefits, and sometimes you're not.

3) Trends are more useful than individual games. "Did I do better in the last game than the previous one?" is not always a useful question, so I'd rather ask "Did I do better in the last 10 games than the previous 10?" This follows from 1) and 2).

4) Morale affects the game, and my actions can affect morale. It's really easy and tempting to call out gameplay mistakes, but I think that only serves to hurt morale. If I still wanted to win the game, making my team feel bad hurts my chances. If I prefer to surrender, there are better ways to convince people.

So yeah, the reason I wrote this is because I've definitely had my share of upsetting losses, but I found that shifting my mindset helped me deal with it better.

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

#976
post #896

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone in this thread has discussed one of the other important aspects of gaming: the social aspect. Especially in an era of "quarantine at home" - online gaming can be a very social activity and a way to make/grow friendships and play with others. (Obviously I think getting outdoors and being active instead of staring at a screen all day is probably even better, but that is one benefit of games over ju…

The social aspect is a bit iffy. Talk to any female gamer and you're going to hear harassment stories.

Oh I have harassment stories as a male gamer too. Doesn’t mean male and female gamers can’t have fun with their friends online.

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

#977

One point I haven't seen brought up yet is the amount of interaction and forum type communications that happen in modern games within the context of CCPs wanting to control all online speech. The TV show Occupied (norway Okkupert) has a fun example where a militarized group uses video game live audio chat to secretly communicate and pass info. I think there are memes about COD waiting rooms too illustrating digital f…

Could be, but i don't think they have a problem policing speech anywhere else, why would they particularly focus on it in games in a way to restrict the time? If it was the case there's always another online property people can occur to converse. the correct English acronym is CPC now, i think

Didn't know about that acronym!

Yeah i think the point that they don't have a problem policing speech everywhere else kind of points out that this is just another excuse (or value add minimally).

The online places that the less tech savvy majority have is shrinking.

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

#978
post #869

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of depressed people do not demonstrate symptoms of gaming addiction. Even if one were to accept the argument that gaming addiction is always caused by underlying depression, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be considered separately from garden variety depression - there is often a nasty positive feedback loop between depressive symptoms and addictive symptoms. Besides, psychiatry in general needs to b…

The vast majority of depressed people do not exhibit exactly the same symptoms.

No shit, that doesn't change anything I said. The definition of depression is hilariously vague, the last thing we should do is lump additional (relatively) well defined issues under "just depression". Besides, there are certain symptoms that do appear in a high percentage of patients, gaming addiction is most definitely not one of them. The point is not about aligning symptom profiles exactly between individuals, it's about looking at classes of symptoms across a broader population. Nobody in their right mind would say addiction is "just a symptom of depression", even though it can be correlated with depression to a similar extent as gaming addiction can be.

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

#979

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the US did kinda oops away a million Muslims in response to 9/11, and over a half-million Americans in lack of response to COVID19. And we do have that whole gitmo thing. Plus, we had the whole slavery bit we keep forgetting about. I could list this stuff for a while, but that's besides the point. It's not the current state that matters, but possible future outcome. We're both hill-climbing trying to improve sy…

Your best argument for defending the CCP committing genocide is to Whatabout Slavery? AN institution that ended over 150 years ago?

No, I'm not defending the CCP's actions, and my best argument for the CCP is that I'd like a diversity of economic, political, and cultural systems around the world. I don't like monocultures. They're brittle.

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

#980
post #787

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because one is forcing people to do something while the other is letting people choose for themselves.

Does this mean its outcome is inherently better and it should be the default decision? I find this super questionable, especially when we talk about children.

The burden of proof is on you.
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