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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

#911

Post by Barrin92 »

daveidol wrote: post #509
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 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…

Might be relevant to point out here that China has largely avoided adopting the remote work culture as most people were back in office in summer last year.

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

#912

Post by Barrin92 »

bogwog wrote: post #702
lhorie wrote: post #687

China thinks that video games (specifically, the online variety) are harmful enough to children that it needs to be regulated at a federal level and children's exposure to games should be restricted. But here's the thing: We on the west do exactly the same thing for things like cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. The motivations behind all those restrictions are even similar (largely related to children's health/well-b…

> It's a big double standard to call their flavor of restrictions "authoritarian", while being ok with (or even strongly in favor of) our flavor of restrictions, even though the two are objectively similar in nature. Our restrictions came about through a democratic process (example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_... ), not because our supreme leader decided he knows what's best for us. N…

Authoritarianism and Democracy are two orthogonal things. Authoritarianism describes the degree to which the state regulates the affairs of its subjects. Democracy is a process by which decisions are made.

You can be in a authoritarian democracy, say Iran which is a theocratic republic which obtained that status through a legit revolution, overthrowing what used to be a dictatorial, but fairly liberal society under the Shah.

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

#913

Post by machiaweliczny »

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…

If I haven't played Runescape my life for sure would be different now. Most likely worse. Had lots of fun, learned english, enjoying the grind, market economics,and got inspired to learn to program similar games. IMO sandbox games should be even encouraged.

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

#914

Post by effingwewt »

JCharante wrote: post #393
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…

As a kid I got into Eve Online (an MMO) and started to learn to program front end by creating Eve related websites for in-game currency (yes the TOS allows it). My code got forked and I still see it being used. With the right game there is so much opportunity for growth in transferrable skills. It would have been hard to motivate myself to learn about databases, creating backend services, using SSO for login, rate li…

I had a friend decide to quit high school over Everquest.

I love gaming but I saw what early MMOs did and it freaked me out so bad I never touched WOW, but did play others such as Guild Wars, POE and such.

I had such fun with early MUDs and couldn't wait until real-time MP gaming was possible. When it got here it was immediately defied. Man Diablo 2 was so much fun, and I made so much money, I wish my kids could experience that, instead of games being shitty and costing exorbitant amounts.

Now it's all just a cash grab/casino/skinner box/insert evil

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

#915

Post by dgellow »

This year has made it clear that counting on the Chinese market for your products is a very risky decision. It’s now transparent that the government come can from nowhere with a swift decision to ban or heavily restrict your industry as soon as announced. I don’t know who will want to deal with that kind of risk. Today the decision is for children, tomorrow another restriction can be for adults too, and you would see your audience vanish instantaneously.

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

#916

Post by mjbeswick »

ericmay wrote: post #376
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 have mixed feelings about this. I don't. If this were to be proposed in America I would view it as extreme government over-reach.

I'm sure they would think that in America, but there people tend favour personal interests over the greater good.

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

#917

Post by machiaweliczny »

honkycat wrote: post #615
pitaj wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few possible causes: - Game prices have not kept up with inflation. - Games are more expensive than ever before. - More games now have online multiplayer, requiring constant funding.

I have family and friends who work in the game industry, and I can tell you it is none of the above. Here is the answer: Crappy gatcha games and skinner boxes branded with a popular IP marketed towards kids are: 1. Much easier to make 2. Makes A TON MORE MONEY. A gatcha game is basically a slot machine, which is basically a website with a fancy front-end. This means you can shovel out these games with low-skill labor…

Should we ban this?

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

#918

Post by doomleika »

masterof0 wrote: post #442
doomleika wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see removing one from eSport scene damages the productivity of a country, if not increase it. eSports are pretty much a negative to the country as a whole. Gaming company use it as ad and sell the illusion to make big bucks. Yes, you could have the next Faker in your country. So what? for every international pro you create there's 100s more kids wasted their youth on a pipe dream where their time could be u…

This is a pretty good take, also what happens to the teens who don't make it to the competitions or twitch? I dont think the tax that eSport winners pay have any influence on a country's economy.

IMO there's no win in the eSport games unless you are the country developing it or host major platform for it(ex: Twitch), they hold too much power.

Competition by nature is a winner takes all game. Age is a strong factor it's event worse than programmer like us which caps around 35-40. For them, it's 25. that means one had to start playing at early teens. Unfortunately most kids are also bad at negotiating terms and compensation nor they hold the bargain chips before they made names, this makes them susceptible from exploitations from all the parties involved. If a player is successful, they make probably same wages as a few high tier engineers. If a player failed, then you have lots of unskilled man with bad health conditions because they spent 12+ hours sitting in fronts of a computer for 10 years. That's disasters waiting to happen.

If I am governor I'll simply make my country very hostile to eSports. If some kid managed to make it, good for the. For the rest of them if they can't even show perseverance than they are bound to fail anyway.

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

#919

Post by ttflee »

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…

In this restriction, online games are broadly defined to include offline-games-downloaded-from-Internet.
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