Chinese WoWers Protest 3-Hour Limit

[Spigot]

Saw this over on Gamepolitics.com (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepolitics/78997.html). Here's the original Interfax story (http://www.interfax.cn/showfeature.asp?aid=5102&slug=INTERNET-ONLINE%20GAME-SHANDA-THE9-WOW-POLICY).

Chinese players of the "World of Warcraft" online game have begun an Internet signature campaign protesting Chinese government plans to limit the country's online gamers to three hours of consecutive playtime.

"These restrictions violate the rights of online game players," one Chinese player wrote on the petition. "Trying to prevent young players from being addicted is good, but this new system will be a total failure."

As of August 29, more than 1,000 Chinese gamers had signed the petition opposing implementation of the new time limits. Chinese authorities said last week they planned to implement a new system that would deduct from the ability levels of online game characters after an individual had played a game for more than three consecutive hours. The system was designed to prevent online game addiction.
I guess the upside of this is that the gold farming industry will be greatly reduced...


UPDATE: PCGamer's first ever podcast (http://www.pcgamerpodcast.com/) discusses the 3-hour govt. regulation, SWGers' victorious in-game protest, Dungeon Siege The Movie and a few other things.

[Murmillo]

I guess the upside of this is that the gold farming industry will be greatly reduced...

I'm thinking not, they would just buy 3 copies for one computer and run and cycle the games as needed. (3 hours game time 5 hours rest = 3 total needed). Since they are tracking game accounts rather then IP's farmers will just slip right pass this with out blinking an eye. And all the other people who can afford 3 copies of the same game will do the same thing.

[Qoz]

Imagine a Molten Core run when everybody need to logoff after 3 hours!
It's gonna be impossible to do instances, because you often spend alot of downtime searching for a group before you even go in. It must suck to be forced to disconnect right before the bosses.

I guess China is afraid online communities are gonna be the preferred place to live.
At least there you can gain some levels and wealth - even though it's virtual.

[Justin_McElroy]

I think we in America need an automatic Fritos bag that closes after three hours of usage. That would be rad.

[51|RandoM]

It'll kill instance runs, if they're serious about enforcement.

It takes an hour to organize a big run, before you're even out there.

On the other hand, fuck those red bastards. ;-)

[feeble]

It'll kill instance runs, if they're serious about enforcement.

yes it will kill instances but saves lives, hopefully you have your priorities right.

im a bit perplexed on why its a 3 hour limit as the people so far who have died playing spend days on the pc, maybe a 10 hour limt per day would be more satisfactory.

[MosBen]

Boy, the power of internet signature campaigns, those *always* work, especially when they're signed by 1k people in a country of over a billion.

[LilEvilFish]

I think they should just ban games, that ought'a do it, what with all this sex, violence and money making, it's enough to make a man think bad things! Bad things I tell you! ;)

[Royal Fool]

I don't understand how they are planning on forcing developers and publishers to implement this 'ability penalty' system... do you just get an instant resurrection sickness once you've been online for 3 hours, in the case of WoW? Gah.

At first I thought it was just a mistranslation or stupid rumor... but as more and more sites report it, I guess it's true. Not the 3 hour limit but the fact they want players to suffer after that period.

[Steve_Erhardt]

Chinese authorities said last week they planned to implement a new system that would deduct from the ability levels of online game characters after an individual had played a game for more than three consecutive hours.

How do they plan to implement that? I doubt Blizzard is going to comply with that themselves so it'd be up to the Chinese government to do it, but wouldn't that require they hack the code somehow?

[Onorai]

The gold farmer in my warcraft guild said that this is a bit of a pain, but he has ways around it. I didn't ask him what this was because his english is not so good and i was lucky to get that much out of him.

[PacerDawn]

This will not kill raids. All it affects is exps that is earned. From what I understand, they are not going to log the player off after 3 hours, but instead at the 3 hour mark their exps goes down to half, and at the 5 hour mark they get ZERO exps. Since players don't get exps from raids anyways (not including blue exps) this shouldn't be a factor for those. It should also not be a factor to level 60's either.

This should not affect the farmers, since as stated, they just need to cycle 3 accounts to level up a character to farming level. The penalty won't affect the actual farming at all.

Source (thanks www.brokentoys.org):
http://pacificepoch.com/newsstories/38373_0_5_0_M

[Spigot]

yes it will kill instances but saves lives, hopefully you have your priorities right.

im a bit perplexed on why its a 3 hour limit as the people so far who have died playing spend days on the pc, maybe a 10 hour limt per day would be more satisfactory.

Those deaths have tended to be in S. Korea, which has a very different gaming culture than, well, anywhere!

[balamoor]

I'm thinking not, they would just buy 3 copies for one computer and run and cycle the games as needed. (3 hours game time 5 hours rest = 3 total needed). Since they are tracking game accounts rather then IP's farmers will just slip right pass this with out blinking an eye. And all the other people who can afford 3 copies of the same game will do the same thing.


No from my understanding of it the timer is going to be a combo of ISP and Game account. Keep in mind this is a communist Goverment so little things like civil rights, and Privacy don't get in the way of that whole boot on the neck of humanity gestalt. :rolleyes:

[Exodus]

Yah... gamers == gods in korea

[Aero Leviathan]

Wow, 1,000 signatures?! That's a big number! That's gotta be like, half the population of China, right?

And since China's government is so democratic, I'm sure they'll listen to the concerns of their citizens.

[Roc Ingersol]

The gold farming is being done through internet access to US/Euro game servers. They're likely already running the data through a network tunnel, and it'll be largely indistinguishable from any other business traffic.

[AboveAvgCharles]

This limit is not going to have any positive impact. They are supposedly targetting those players who are addicted to gaming beyond the point of a healthy pasttime. The thing is, these people are seeking escapism, which is why they become so absorbed in a game, and neglect themselves and those around them. If you take away this form of escapism, they're merely going to move on to another, possibly more harmful form of escape.

What I find curious is that they're not talking about outright disconnecting players, merely causing their character's performance to degrade, and this DOES indicate that Blizzard is cooperating with them. Interesting to see how this pans out.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

I hate Chinese gold farmers. Fuckers could at least learn English if they're on a North American server.

Whenever I see one (which is quite obvious with their Chinese sounding names) I try to get them into shit by saying stuff like, "What?! You believe in a free and independant Tibet and Taiwan?!"

[jBusy]

How do they plan to implement that? I doubt Blizzard is going to comply with that themselves so it'd be up to the Chinese government to do it, but wouldn't that require they hack the code somehow?

If Blizzard doesn't implement it, the Chinese government will ban Blizzard from selling any of their products and then block their IPs. They did the same thing to google to get them to block certain subject searches. Don't bother trying to look up Tianemin Square or Falun Gong if you're ever in China.

[A-Team]

How do they plan to implement that? I doubt Blizzard is going to comply with that themselves so it'd be up to the Chinese government to do it, but wouldn't that require they hack the code somehow?
The9, the company that handles all of Blizzard's customer support in China, has already promised to comply with the Chinese government.

[Buddha Lotus]

Forgive my ignorance.. but what is gold farming in WOW?

[GrinR]

Wow, 1,000 signatures?! That's a big number! That's gotta be like, half the population of China, right?

And since China's government is so democratic, I'm sure they'll listen to the concerns of their citizens.

QFT (quoted for truth)

Also, I find the subhead to be pretty racist. Honestly, there are tons of gold farmers everywhere of all types. I'm one of them. I've met plenty of Korean, English, and American gold farmers - the main distinction being my ability to talk with them. English speaking gold farmers tend to go unnoticed because they can communicate with players (and so say they aren't farming, or move to a different farming area if players complain) and because if you can respond you're generally not seen as a "chinese gold farmer".

[reimomo]

QFT (quoted for truth)

Also, I find the subhead to be pretty racist. Honestly, there are tons of gold farmers everywhere of all types. I'm one of them. I've met plenty of Korean, English, and American gold farmers - the main distinction being my ability to talk with them. English speaking gold farmers tend to go unnoticed because they can communicate with players (and so say they aren't farming, or move to a different farming area if players complain) and because if you can respond you're generally not seen as a "chinese gold farmer".


I don't see the original subtitle as racist, just ignorant/flippant. I do think that the "OMG U SPEAK ENGLISH OR DIE" shit that gets thrown around on US servers is pretty
no-teeth-white-trash-shouldn't-you-be-fucking-your-sister-in-a-rowboat, but then again, so is the word "ghey".

[GrinR]

I don't see the original subtitle as racist, just ignorant/flippant. I do think that the "OMG U SPEAK ENGLISH OR DIE" shit that gets thrown around on US servers is pretty
no-teeth-white-trash-shouldn't-you-be-fucking-your-sister-in-a-rowboat, but then again, so is the word "ghey".

I'm typically the last guy to jump on the "you're racist" boat, but it just rubs me the wrong way when I see DUMB racism. It's one thing to talk about asians doing better in school, it's another to curse the Chinese for bombing pearl harbor.

[Zombosis]

"These restrictions violate the rights of online game players," one Chinese player wrote on the petition.

...Since when do citizens of China have any rights?

[*Legion*]

This is how democracy begins. When you push the populace just a little too far.

Video games have been blamed for a lot, but this will be gaming's first political revolution.

:)

[Eric_T_Cheng]

I'm typically the last guy to jump on the "you're racist" boat, but it just rubs me the wrong way when I see DUMB racism. It's one thing to talk about asians doing better in school, it's another to curse the Chinese for bombing pearl harbor.

Especially when it was Imperialist Japanese who bomb Pearl Harbour...

[Eric_T_Cheng]

...Since when do citizens of China have any rights?

Technically it's in their constitution but as you know the governments can ignore that at their whim because people are sheep.

[Spigot]

Forgive my ignorance.. but what is gold farming in WOW?

Gold farming is, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_farming#Farming), "is a form of playing where a player kills monsters in the game for the money and items that the monster drops. Players who farm usually camp an area, kill monsters as they spawn, collect the loot, and later sell the items to others. Players often dislike this practice because many farmers sell the virtual loot for real money. Farmers can also dominate areas that were intended to be lucrative hunting grounds for lower-level players.

Some cyber cafés allow people to play for free as long as they give a percentage of what they earn in-game to the proprietor of the café who then sells the items for real money. There are even online sweatshops, mainly in China, where people are actually employed to collect in-game items for their employer who then sells them. It is reported that one can make up to USD$100 a day, which is actually better pay than many other jobs in China."

Hence my stating that putting a time-limit on the game access would hurt the gold farming industry.

That and the fact that there are a lot of people IN China who play the game. If they can't play as much, those who farm from there can't farm as much and the farming community in general takes a hit.

I hope I didn't come across as racist. I wasn't trying to imply that the only ones who farm are Chinese. Just that limiting their access would hurt farming in general (heck, it says so right in the article!).

In addition, the new timing mechanism will also help online game operators to deal with gaming robots, a type of software that operates game characters while players are away from their computers. Gaming robots are often used to perform menial tasks such as the gathering of resources, which players later sell. This 'farming' of in-game resources has become a source of income for some players, who then sell these virtual goods on sites such as ebay.com.

[Klade]

Again like others have said this will fail to accomplish any of its stated goals since those people that are really addicted to the point where they are past all reason are doing one of two things. 1) playing on US servers and thus will not be affected or 2) already have multiple accounts and can switch from one to another.

So yeah this really wont do anything but hey this is communism we're talking about. Its sorta there thing to create eleborate social programs to improve life but really do nothing or the opposite.

[Rommel]

im a bit perplexed on why its a 3 hour limit as the people so far who have died playing spend days on the pc, maybe a 10 hour limt per day would be more satisfactory.

Read John Locke young man, or Jefferson.

[GrinR]

Especially when it was Imperialist Japanese who bomb Pearl Harbour...

Thank you,
http://www.bookandblade.com/images/funny/Master-of-the-obvious.jpg

[GrinR]

Read John Locke young man, or Jefferson.

Rommel, you shameless academian you.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

[QUOTE=GrinR]Thank you,

Well, there are people other there who can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese. And we all know how great the US education system is.

[GrinR]

[QUOTE=GrinR]Thank you,

Well, there are people other there who can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese. And we all know how great the US education system is.

I'm just a'ribbin' ya. I also find that image freakin' hilarious so I tend to jump at the chance to post it.

[Crabby]

In other related news, China announces coming genocide of over 1,000 identified enemies to the state.

[51|RandoM]

yes it will kill instances but saves lives, hopefully you have your priorities right.

im a bit perplexed on why its a 3 hour limit as the people so far who have died playing spend days on the pc, maybe a 10 hour limt per day would be more satisfactory.


Save lives? LoL. I'm sorry, but I don't feel that people need to be protected from every single stupid decision they can possibly make. Not only protected... but actively prevented?

I don't need a government to protect me from dangers anybody with a modicum of intelligence can avoid, nor do I want one.