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Affected by this regulations are all games that include Player Kills (PK), a usual term for killing other people in online games. Player Kills are a significant key portion in the game play of MMORPG, a short word of massive multiplayer online role-playing games, which are prefered by 49,4% of more than 20 million online game players according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Reasons why these regulations are necessary are given by Liu Shifa, who is head of MOC's (China's Ministry of Culture) Internet Culture Division and which also drafts policies governing the online gaming market :
"Minors should not be allowed to play online games that have PK content, that allow players to increase the power of their own online game characters by killing other players. Online games that have PK content usually also contain acts of violence and leads to players spending too much time trying to increase the power of their characters. They are harmful to young people."
Next to this campaign China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) and Ministry of Information Industry (MII) are about to go a step further by planning to include an identity authentication system into the games which will forestall minors to play games which allow Player Kills without entering the Citizen ID Card numbers before playing. This is currently just an order given to the country's online game operators and there is no timetable set yet since it has to be developed first.
The Chinese online gaming market calculated an amount of USD 304 million (RMB 2.47 billion) in sales revenue for the year 2004, while for the year 2005 USD 1.34 billion (RMB 10.9 billion) are expected according to the report of China's General Administration of Press and Publication and just this online gaming market is dominated by MMORPGs. At the end of June 2005, China was home to more than 103 million internet users according to the statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, 15,8% of them were under the age of 18 years.
"These new regulations will have a huge financial influence on China's online gaming market. PK game content is an important and attractive part of almost all MMORPGs and we don't want to put the authentication system in our games"
states a senior official with a Chinese online gaming firm, who asked to remain anonymous. In addition to that he says :
"Companies will find ways to bypass the new authentication systems in order to maintain the profitability of their businesses. The new regulations banning minors from playing online games with PK content would not stop those under 18 from playing these games. It will be very difficult for the government to enforce this new regulation. I think they will only be able to enforce this policy at internet cafes, where authentication systems would be linked to police databases. But I think it will be very difficult to enforce this system for people playing online games from home."
Additionally to the already implemented and planned new constraints operators of the online games are ordered to install timing mechanisms, which will disconnect players from playing online after exceeding a set number of continuous play, whereat Chinese gamers spend an average time of about 11 hours on online games a week. Several online game operators installed these mechnisms already such as Shanda (operator of Legend of MIR I and II), but many refuse to install them due the fact that they contravene the interest of the gaming firms.
The reason why Chinese authorities have momentously strengthen the control of online games is the aim of the government to create a 'healthy' environment for children. Next to this restrictions for online game players pornographic, violent, gambling, and 'superstitious' content disseminated over the internet and mobile phone networks have been cracked down too by regulators.
Links
Interfax China - Read the whole news here
The Republic of China disclosed new regulations concerning online-gaming in China last week. These regulations vetoes minors under the age of 18 from playing more violent games such as Blizzards very famous World of Warcraft for example.
Affected by this regulations are all games that include Player Kills (PK), a usual term for killing other people in online games. Player Kills are a significant key portion in the game play of MMORPG, a short word of massive multiplayer online role-playing games, which are prefered by 49,4% of more than 20 million online game players according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Reasons why these regulations are necessary are given by Liu Shifa, who is head of MOC's (China's Ministry of Culture) Internet Culture Division and which also drafts policies governing the online gaming market :
"Minors should not be allowed to play online games that have PK content, that allow players to increase the power of their own online game characters by killing other players. Online games that have PK content usually also contain acts of violence and leads to players spending too much time trying to increase the power of their characters. They are harmful to young people."
Next to this campaign China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) and Ministry of Information Industry (MII) are about to go a step further by planning to include an identity authentication system into the games which will forestall minors to play games which allow Player Kills without entering the Citizen ID Card numbers before playing. This is currently just an order given to the country's online game operators and there is no timetable set yet since it has to be developed first.
The Chinese online gaming market calculated an amount of USD 304 million (RMB 2.47 billion) in sales revenue for the year 2004, while for the year 2005 USD 1.34 billion (RMB 10.9 billion) are expected according to the report of China's General Administration of Press and Publication and just this online gaming market is dominated by MMORPGs. At the end of June 2005, China was home to more than 103 million internet users according to the statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, 15,8% of them were under the age of 18 years.
"These new regulations will have a huge financial influence on China's online gaming market. PK game content is an important and attractive part of almost all MMORPGs and we don't want to put the authentication system in our games"
states a senior official with a Chinese online gaming firm, who asked to remain anonymous. In addition to that he says :
"Companies will find ways to bypass the new authentication systems in order to maintain the profitability of their businesses. The new regulations banning minors from playing online games with PK content would not stop those under 18 from playing these games. It will be very difficult for the government to enforce this new regulation. I think they will only be able to enforce this policy at internet cafes, where authentication systems would be linked to police databases. But I think it will be very difficult to enforce this system for people playing online games from home."
Additionally to the already implemented and planned new constraints operators of the online games are ordered to install timing mechanisms, which will disconnect players from playing online after exceeding a set number of continuous play, whereat Chinese gamers spend an average time of about 11 hours on online games a week. Several online game operators installed these mechnisms already such as Shanda (operator of Legend of MIR I and II), but many refuse to install them due the fact that they contravene the interest of the gaming firms.
The reason why Chinese authorities have momentously strengthen the control of online games is the aim of the government to create a 'healthy' environment for children. Next to this restrictions for online game players pornographic, violent, gambling, and 'superstitious' content disseminated over the internet and mobile phone networks have been cracked down too by regulators.
Links
Interfax China - Read the whole news here
