Chinese Government Restricts Online Gaming
From LoveToKnow VideoGames
August 4, 2005
The government of China has announced new rules that will make it illegal for minors to play online games in which players kill others. The regulations will require games in which players can kill other players to have identity authentication systems; these systems will require each player to enter their Citizen ID Card number in order to play a game. Those under the age of 18 will be prohibited from playing.
The move, which was announced by the country's Ministry of Culture (which includes a Game Products Censorship Committee) and the Ministry of Information Industry, is being reported by Interfax, the Chinese news agency. The ministries indicated that they were concerned about the time spent by young people on violent video games and especially game in which a player gets increased power by killing others. The government is also concerned about the amount of time youth spend playing games. The average Chinese gamer spends nearly 11 hours online per week, playing. In response to this, the authorities have demanded that online games include a timing mechanism that will log players out of the game once they have exceeded a certain number of hours playing without a break.
Games in China
The Chinese video game market is huge. In 2004, it generated over $304 million in sales revenue for game publishers and projections for 2005 are even larger with some analysts expecting over $1.3 billion in revenue.
Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are increasingly popular there and most of the top sellers have player kills as a key component of their gameplay. Top online games right now include Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Legend of MIR I and II and Fantasy Journey to the West.
These restrictions were not the end of China's stricter video game regulations. Now, companies entering the online gaming market in China must prove they have at least $1.23 million in financial capital before they will be licensed as Chinese online game operators. Currently there are several Korean and Western games finding success in the Chinese market.
The government is also investing millions of dollars in alternatives to the current games available commercially. They are funding up to 100 online games to be developed in China over the next several years. However, do not expect these games to be anything like the violent games currently selling out in Chinese markets. Instead, the government funded titles are meant to be inspirational and healthier for China's youth. Several of the games are loosely based on classic Chinese literary tomes or are inspired by Chinese historical events.
The PC strategy game Hearts of Iron was banned in China because the Ministry of Culture found that it distorted historical events and facts; specifically, they objected to the representation of Manchuria, West Xinjiang, and Tibet as independent sovereign nations.
For those who are wondering if video game playing is a real problem in China, note that the country has also recently opened its first clinic for video-game addiction. The majority of young patients at the Video Game Addiction Center in the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital are addicted to online gaming and there are estimates that up to 2.5 million people in China have some form of Internet addiction.
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