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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

#421

Post by yuy910616 »

ericmay wrote: post #401
yuy910616 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can't be left to their own accord.

If you believe this then surely you'd want less government since you can't leave these people to their own accord and also making decisions .

there is a strong correlation between strong government and higher GDP. Weak economies are weak because of corrupt and weak government. So that would be my case for government action - collectively or through a good dictator.

Your logic seems good but is removed from history and reality.

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

#422

Post by boomboomsubban »

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?

How is limiting the amount of time a Chinese child can play online games worse than barring me from buying Diablo as a teenager? If people are acting comfortable with authoritarian government, it's because we grew up under a quite similar one.

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

#423

Post by staunch »

uncoder0 wrote: post #255
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 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.

Temporary and mild authoritarian measures during a once-in-a-century pandemic make complete sense, even to very libertarian people. The U.S. has a track record of such measures being temporary, such as the much more extreme measures taken during WW2.

Comparing this kind of thing to what China is doing is drawing a false equivalency. There is no legitimate comparison to be made.

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

#424

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

bigwavedave wrote: post #302
MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Videogames are addicting as all hell and create NEETs. End of story. Parents who are lazy and just want their kids to stop bothering them just give them to their kids without realizing it can destroy their early socialization skills. I love videogames, but jesus I'd limit my kids use of it to either playing socially or with family. If it's alone, it had better be for short amounts of time. Videogames should be social…

> Parents who are lazy and just want their kids to stop bothering them just give them to their kids without realizing it can destroy their early socialization skills. These hypothetical children have spent all day socializing at school- if that gets "destroyed" by a few hours of being left to their own devices, better stop them from reading and playing with Legos alone in their rooms too. Claiming video games ruin so…

School is the most garbage area to foster socializing children. Not only is it in a controlled environment, but it has nothing to do with learning how to engage with people on a personal level outside of work.

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

#425

Post by woofie11 »

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'm no more or less comfortable with authoritarian government than I am with an authoritarian market-based corporatocracy.

Odds are that you are under an NDA which limits your freedom of speech. Odds are that if you refused to sign one, you couldn't afford a mortgage in a place with a lot of tech. Odds are you will sign more NDAs so your kids can keep going to the same school. The freedom of no regulation is an illusion.

Companies will keep making what sells, even if it's bad for you. Without regulation, video games will become more and more addicting. Without regulation, companies will keep running advertising, even if ads harm culture and the overall economy.

To manage all of this, we need a better system. I, for one, am excited about countries trying something different. The CCP seems to be implementing a lot of measures which stand to increase overall quality-of-life, from limiting stress on kids, to workforce stress, to limiting unhealthy activities. I'd like to see how that plays out.

As a footnote, I'd even be excited about a fundamentalist Muslim government in Afghanistan, if it wasn't expansionary, and if people were free to emigrate if it was't working for them.

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

#426

Post by swman »

Dracophoenix wrote: post #307
swman wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Was this Runescape per chance?

Runescape and World of Warcraft :)

I learned about contracts and hiring people when I was a 9 year old running a lobster fishing company with contractors haha.

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

#427

Post by rflec028 »

Aperocky wrote: post #342
artificialLimbs wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Isn't "time spent online" miles away from what the government should be allowed to regulate in your life? For anyone who can think for themselves it is, but the CCP has crippled its population's ability to think independently with their constant, forced propaganda. This brainwashing is a form of violence against its people and I hope they rise up someday, but I don't know how that could happen.

Your comment reminds me of a joke. --- A high level official from China's propaganda department visits the CNN, and asks to learn the state of the art in propaganda. Bemused, CNN receptionist replies: we are living in a free country, there are no propaganda here. CCP official: That's exactly what I'm trying to learn!

Tight.

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

#428

Post by goostavos »

uncoder0 wrote: post #255
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 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.

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"

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

#429

Post by yitianjian »

cercatrova wrote: post #412
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…

> 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. Fun fact, there has been recent research to show that the "glass of wine during a meal is healthy" is entirely a myth; _no amount_ of alcohol is beneficial to overall health [0]. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803651/

(forgive me since I did not read your reference) but I recall there were some studies showing that the "health benefits" touted by the "glass of wine a day" studies were strongly correlated with:

- being middle to upper class (can afford a glass of wine daily)

- having good self control (drinking one glass of wine a day instead of many)

which are both good health outcomes

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

#430

Post by ajuc »

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…

In developing countries games in 90s were a big avenue for kids to learn English. Mostly we had pirated games (a game costed 50-100 PLN, people earned 400-500 PLN a month, nobody used original software) without translations and with ripped cutscenes. So you had VERY big motivation to learn English to understand what is even going on.

I remember playing Betrayal At Krondor and Albion - story-heavy RPGs - understanding maybe 10% of words in any particular dialog or description :)

Additionally games train trial-and-error approach to technology which is why I think almost every software developer older than 30 that I know started as a gamer.

Nowadays it's a different world and I'm not sure games have such effects anymore, because it's much less demanding entertainment. They work out of the box, are translated into your language, affordable so no need to mess with virtual drives, keygens or copying cracks over game files.

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