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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

#101

Post by jimbilly22 »

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…

mixed feelings because it's under 18, and therefore you dont feel that freedom of self is as important? Would you feel differently if this was for adults?

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

#102

Post by hkt »

bserge wrote: post #23
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 haven't played a good game in nearly a decade. I used to play them for the story, then it all became too grindy, trainers became moneymakers (yeah I used cheats, sue me, I played for fun), everything needs a fking Internet connection and anticheat software that does god knows what. Kinda sad.

I can strongly recommend mining old 90s titles. Homeworld remains the best RTS I've ever played by miles and that's from 1997 or so.

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

#103

Post by shadofx »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #68
throwaway5752 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to look at from their point of view and in good faith, excessive childhood gaming seem to be causing problems for some people like stunting their personal and intellectual development. China seems to be taking a stance that their citizens are a human resource for their country, and excessive gaming is hurting their asset.

> like stunting their personal and intellectual development This. And social development. What are the implications of having all of your friends online and never met them in real life?

Lower likelihood of Covid, for one

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

#104

Post by boomboomsubban »

brodouevencode wrote: post #9
tgv wrote: post #8

Anyone want to argue why this would be bad, apart from restricting freedom? BTW, nothing in the article about limits on TikTok or YouTube or whathaveyougot. That's as much opium as gaming, IMO.

> apart from restricting freedom? Do you need any more than that? From the western point of view this is the apex reason. EDIT: To add - it is true in the west that minors don't enjoy all the same freedoms as adults. However for most things those decisions are made by the parents and not the state.

Here are a few things commonly limited to Western minors by the state or a reasonable proxy; alcohol, tobacco, movies, video games, being outside(curfew laws), pornography, music, fireworks, driving.

And much like with this new Chinese law, many minors violate all of those restrictions often with parental approval.

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

#105

Post by andrewmcwatters »

I'm sure I would think differently if I were a parent, but this kinda sucks from just the perspective of letting a kid be a kid.

I fondly recall draining days and days and days into online multiplayer games, made some of my best friends who are still with me to this day across state lines, and came to my wedding, while eating all sorts of stereotypically bad gamer junk food.

Other than spending too much time arguing with people online, I don't find myself outside of what people would consider "well adjusted."

Besides, most people don't spend their entire lives playing video games for hours on end. You do get tired of it.

On second thought, maybe such rules would help one keep their love of games for longer...

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

#106

Post by cvdub »

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.

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

#108

Post by merrywhether »

clifdweller wrote: post #69
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…

yeah this is mostly for the genshin impact/gacha games that are super popular and are made purely to suck money or time for grinding. I doubt they will put to much effort into policing drm free games running locally.

In a parallel world they just attack this problem directly and outlaw lootbox/gacha gambling entirely for all ages. It’s obvious that such design is meant to prey on intrinsic feedback loops in the human brain, so why not just go straight to the source. People will still find ways to gamble, but at least elsewhere it’s generally explicitly labeled as such.

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

#109

Post by [deleted] »

brodouevencode wrote: post #9
tgv wrote: post #8

Anyone want to argue why this would be bad, apart from restricting freedom? BTW, nothing in the article about limits on TikTok or YouTube or whathaveyougot. That's as much opium as gaming, IMO.

> apart from restricting freedom? Do you need any more than that? From the western point of view this is the apex reason. EDIT: To add - it is true in the west that minors don't enjoy all the same freedoms as adults. However for most things those decisions are made by the parents and not the state.

[deleted]

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

#110

Post by lnyng »

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, it is not allowed to provide online game services to minors in any form.

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