All Your Points Are Belong to Us

Kerry Howley | April 13, 2007

China cracks down on overzealous gamers:

Under-18s who play for more than three consecutive hours a day will have limits imposed on the amount of points they can score, [Xinhua] reported.

Chinese gaming firms such as NetEase and Shanda Interactive Entertainment have until 15 July to install software which will halve the number of points gamers can score if they play for more than three hours, said the report...

Determined gamers who play for more than five hours will get no points at all and face an on-screen warning that they are entering "unhealthy game time".

Comments

|4.13.07 @ 11:05AM|#

Well, there goes China's lucrative Gold-Farming industry; it was good while it lasted.

|4.13.07 @ 11:07AM|#

Chancellor,

Prisoners are exempt. Gold farming will continue. They don't want this off-shored to Bangladesh or Haiti or somewhere cheaper.

Goldwater Conservative|4.13.07 @ 11:45AM|#

We can laugh, but this seems like sort of path nanny-state liberalism is leading us toward.

First they came for the transfat...

Cesar|4.13.07 @ 11:47AM|#

*We can laugh, but this seems like sort of path nanny-state liberalism is leading us toward.
*

They'll take my controller from my cold, dead hands.

|4.13.07 @ 11:48AM|#

Let's give China some credit here, it's pretty obvious that video games are addictive for many people.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|4.13.07 @ 11:51AM|#

First they came for our game points...
...next they came for our porn time.

Alice Pitney|4.13.07 @ 12:13PM|#

An excellent development.

Russ 2000|4.13.07 @ 12:30PM|#

Just another bone tossed to the Chinese software hacking industry.

Rhywun|4.13.07 @ 12:32PM|#

Let's give China some credit here, it's pretty obvious that video games are addictive for many people.

At least they're allowing the over-18s to play as long as they want. For now.

"It is unclear whether the Chinese authorities intend to extend the restrictions to games developed in the West. If it did, Mr Pain said gaming firms would be willing to listen."

Replace "willing to listen" with "falling over themselves to comply".

|4.13.07 @ 12:37PM|#

TP's Goiter,
The next step will be RF chips inserted in the wankers of the youth in Asia (make that Chinese Yutes) to monitor excessive yanking.

Attention: You have exceeded your alloted number of strokes. Let go of your unit and back away from the computer monitor!

|4.13.07 @ 12:43PM|#

Back in my glory days, this wouldn't have cramped my style. In effect it's just an alteration to the rules of the game. You spend 18 hours a day playing Mon-Fri. On Sat you walk in, put up your Big Damn Hero score, and bask in the glory.

|4.13.07 @ 12:55PM|#

Almost: China launches campaign to crack down on Web porn

|4.13.07 @ 1:10PM|#

Well that's great, that's just fuckin' great man. Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some real pretty shit now man... That's it man, game over man, game over!

lunchgiver|4.13.07 @ 1:17PM|#

First they came for our game points...
...next they came for our porn time.

You watch porn for more than 15 minutes at a time?

thedesburrito|4.13.07 @ 1:33PM|#

Now, whenever a kid turns 18, he is going to go out video game binging, which will inevitably lead to lots or carpal tunnel injuries.

NoStar|4.13.07 @ 3:25PM|#

You watch porn for more than 15 minutes at a time?

lunch,
Those who are more in touch with their feminine side often require more foreplay than you might expect.

The Roving Game Show Host (wan|4.13.07 @ 3:57PM|#

Let's run with this for a while.

"Those who are more in touch with their feminine side"

...

END THAT SENTENCE COMPETITION

... waste countless hours at home playing with their breasts

... understand the differences in socialization

... have to deal with morning radio shock jocks.

[bzzzzt! not anymore.]

... might find the Antonio Banderas attractive. Might not

... might be a movie quote maven.

NOW YOU TRY SOME

|4.13.07 @ 5:40PM|#

"Those who are more in touch with their feminine side"

... might not give a damn whether any particular female who works for, comments on the blog of, or happens to be mentioned by Reason is "hot."

... never watch Battlestar Galactica.

... have never spat from a great height just for the sheer joy of it.

... bathe.

... live in San Francisco, New York or Chicago.

... tend disproportionately to be women.

|4.13.07 @ 6:26PM|#

...are in short supply @ Hit&Run.

WoWHead|4.14.07 @ 3:59PM|#

Not that anyone will ever read this, but these sweatshops of Chinese "gold farmers" are largely fictional. I could farm eight or ten bucks an hour at WoW easy... until I got caught, which is also real easy. Then I'd get banned and have to start a new account and relevel, and it's about 190 hours at peak efficiency to hit the level cap, at which point one is strong enough to farm that kind of money.

They hack an account. When somebody in the same "world" wants gold, they log that account, sell its stuff for in-game gold, and sell the gold.