I found this article today.
Apparently, the Chinese government will soon be requiring gamers to register their real names and other personal information before they are allowed to play MMO games. This will be implemented in order to "monitor" developing addictions to online gaming and to stage necessary interventions should any addiction be deemed too severe. This is one new restriction that will be added to a list of growing restrictions in China. But how bad can an obsession to a favorite video game be? In one case, such an obsession has resulted in a South Korean gamer's death. Another prime example led to an infant's death. So can this new system be justified? There is no doubt that this is a serious matter. What does this mean for the future of online gaming? I, for one, have some limited experience playing World of Warcraft, and when I think of MMOGs, I think of an escape from reality where you can distract yourself and get immersed into a world of pure entertainment. By looking at the increasing restrictions that Chinese gamers must face, will online gaming still be enjoyable in the future as their government is slowly finding ways to control this alternate reality?
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2 comments:
Firstly, let me thank you for sharing this article. I'm not too familiar with the ways in which technological advances have affected national policies abroad and my interest in the adaption of law as a response to the growing possibilities of the internet has definitely been sparked. With that said, among the apparent bias seeping from this coverage, the bigger question seems to have developed into an investigation of Chinese civil liberties. Whether or not said liberties are currently infringed upon in other aspects negates the larger picture of policing access to a limitless, near-ethereal universe. Obviously, an irony lies at the feet of the difficulties faced when power struggles over "control" of a self-regulating intangible reality occur.
Good post, Anton. The case of the South Korean gamer in Daegu was actually one of the earliest stories that led me to want to study PC Bang culture. The Chinese have been threatening to do this for about a year or so now, but by all accounts it seems as if "hard-core" gamers simply open multiple accounts and switch when their time runs out on an account. As Anonymous points out, this is one example among many of attempts to regulate the Internet that will most likely "fail." However, another question I wonder about is how did so-called addiction to gaming become a fear (of parents and apparently governments)? The discourse around gaming addiction would make a great research project!
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