[ZhugeEX]China crackdown on domestics video games industry: minors under 18 years old could only play game 3 hours a week

[SushiReese]

Latest policy just announced on China central government State Council's official website, exact one month after governmental newspapers accused of video games as "spiritual opium" for teenagers.
New policy states that minors can only play games for one hour on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 8pm to 9pm.

Edit:
All Chinese game companies' shares prices in Hongkong immediately go down after the announcement.

 

[Toumari]

No wonder Tencent and NetEase are acquiring everything outside of China.

 

[StraySheep]

It's not too late to stay Nagoshi

Actually that's another reason for them to acquire JP studio/devs

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Lol true, but maybe a reason to not let yourself be acquired.

 

[Rosebud]

Didn't South Korea gave up because they were spending time with other stuff (streaming, social media, etc)? I doubt it will work as intended.

It's not too late to stay Nagoshi

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Actually that's another reason for them to acquire JP studio/devs

 

[Deleted member 11637]

That sounds both unenforceable and extremely unpopular, but go ahead I guess.

 

[cw_sasuke]

First reaction.... 3h per day isnt even that bad, still weird....
Second reaction was ....oh per week ? damn.

 

[KoolAid]

That sounds both unenforceable and extremely unpopular, but go ahead I guess.

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It is already being enforced on a daily basis, and try opposing the Chinese government, see how you'll fair.

 

[Einbroch]

Yikes.

 

[nsilvias]

8 pm to 9 pm is a very narrow range lol

 

[cheesekao]

What's stopping parents from letting their kids play on said parents' account?

 

[Rosebud]

8 pm to 9 pm is a very narrow range lol

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Yeah, they can't even choose play at 7 or something lol

This is bizarre

 

[tiebreaker]

Gone is that 1%.

 

[DSN2K]

What odd times, so young children should be in bed by then regardless.

 

[Xterrian]

Wow they had to even restrict what time of day they could use to play. Well I guess if they're already being draconian there's not really a point in letting them choose when to spend their meager three hours.

 

[Orion117]

Wow that is extreme. Whats the reason behind this crackdown?

 

[mpak]

They might backpedal fast.

 

[HellofaMouse]

imagine living in a country like this

 

[Yuntu]

They might backpedal fast.

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Why? Who would oppose them?

 

[Rosebud]

Why? Who would oppose them?

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It happened at South Korea because children were doing worse stuff with their time than gaming lol

 

[Mivey]

Seems pretty extreme, and whether it won't just lead to people using other forms of entertainment like video streaming or social media to spent their free time.

 

[T0kenAussie]

It's not too late to stay Nagoshi



Lol true, but maybe a reason to not let yourself be acquired.

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If anything more reason for them to diversify out of China. They want decisions like these to impact them less

 

[Fusionterra]

Single Players then

 

[WhateverItTakes]

Wow that is extreme. Whats the reason behind this crackdown?

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The cited reason in the OP is 'game addiction'. But with the CCP's goals of social control and maximising their economy, my feeling this is a more ideological bent of pushing the youth into 'productive' ventures, with a ban meaning families will need to fill that void with other activities. A limit as restrictive as this definitely is making a point more than it's about public health.

 

[Dedazen]

This is dumb decision.

 

[Cenauru]

Can they tell if you're using a VPN? Would ISP's snitch if you were to download a VPN?

 

[tiebreaker]

Instead of playing their favourite games, they will just watch streamers play their favourite games.

 

[Legacy]

Wow it's an extreme idea but interested to see if it works

 

[Golbez]

That sounds.. archaic. And pointless, in the age of social media and gaming streams.

 

[Deleted member 8593]

My dad would have loved this, lmao

 

[Catshade]

It is already being enforced on a daily basis, and try opposing the Chinese government, see how you'll fair.

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Why? Who would oppose them?

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Nobody's gonna oppose them for now, but with this move (among others) CCP is slowly raising a generation of youth that hate their guts.

 

[SushiReese]

Wow that is extreme. Whats the reason behind this crackdown?

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...arty-policy-changes-behind-1-trillion-selloff

 

[Atom]

My parents made this kind of limit when I was a kid. All it did was make me spend the time not playing instead thinking about playing and planning out meticulously what I was going to do to maximize my efficiency of play. I think it backfired.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

China government is everyone's very own Tiger mom.

 

[Quasi]

Reading stuff like this I'm constantly reminded just how much control the CCP has over people's lives. Really scary.

What's stopping parents from letting their kids play on said parents' account?

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Facial scans that can recognise when a minor is playing a game probably.

 

[Arex]

3 hours a week?!

Maybe this might trigger a future revolution from their youths lol.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

It blows my mind that Tencent's this enormous Chinese company that's getting their hands into every company overseas- while their own country is heavily curbing gaming among minors.

How did Tencent get so big, considering how China is when it comes to videogames?

 

[giapel]

Time to play offline kids.

 

[Gay Bowser]

How did Tencent get so big, considering how China is when it comes to videogames?

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Tencent is more than just a video game company. They own QQ and WeChat, huge social networks in China.

 

[Windu]

For one hour AND between a specific time? lol damn. Glad I didnt grow up there.

 

[Deleted member 1698]

What's stopping parents from letting their kids play on said parents' account?

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Justified fear of the government?

 

[NLCPRESIDENT]

Damn. It would take them 8 years to beat a game like Witcher 3.

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

People ITT dont really know that its easily enforcable because minors often dont even have personal PCs that let you play most games, but play almost everything after school in Internet Bars.

On the other hand those bars most likely will find enough ways to circumvent it, because that would kill a lot of those.

 

[BassForever]

They'll curb children playing games but won't curb in game monetization? I see

 

[Ceerious]

People ITT dont really know that its easily enforcable because minors often dont even have personal PCs that let you play most games, but play almost everything after school in Internet Bars.

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Chinese here, this situation you described was years ago. Now mobile games dominate the market. Biggest online games in China right now are mobile games like Honor of Kings. Plus, nowadays China internet bars strictly requires proper ID.

 

[King Kingo]

3 hours a week?!

Maybe this might trigger a future revolution from their youths lol.

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[Dust]

Beating any RPG would take something like a year with this.

 

[War95]

If the social point system was bad enough from a human standpoint this is almost torture lol Absolutely disgusting

 

[Ramsay]

Prohibition 2.0

People are going to find loopholes left and right, and even if they didn't, minors are just going to either spend their time seeking other forms of entertainment or getting angry at their governments.

 

[StarStorm]

3 hours a week from 8 to 9 pm. They are going to find ways to somehow circumvent the time limit.

 

[Acidote]

It's going to be interesting reading internal engagement metrics.

Monetization will need to adapt to keep extracting wealth at the same or increased rates.