China Starts War with World of Warcraft Addicts

China Starts War with World of Warcraft Addicts

Chinese authorities are targeting a national crackdown on online gamers who spend more than 3 hours daily playing, in an attempt to tone down the youngster’s addiction to popular sagas like World of Warcraft.
It seems that the “get a life!” expression is highly recommended for Chinese teenagers these days, since most of them tend to forget their “social responsibilities”. According to Chinadaily, the communist government in the most populous country in the world has begun a national crackdown on Internet cafés that provide access to games like World of Warcraft, Dungeon’s and Dragons or Lineage.
It’s the latest attempt made by the government to cope with teenagers’ increasing interest for fantasy worlds and for the freedom of expression they provide.
President Hu Jintao ordered regulators in January to promote a “healthy online culture” to protect the government’s stability, according to state media. In April, Hu was quoted in state media as urging Communist Party leaders to “curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online.”
According to National Business Daily, China has more than 30 million online gamers, 10% of them being under aged. The government seeks not to totally forbid gaming, but to promote a healthy Internet use: “measured gaming is good for the brain, but gaming addiction hurts the body.”


Currently, out of the more than 8 million World of Warcraft players reported by Blizzard, 3.5 are Chinese, making Blizzard’s creation the most popular online game in the South Asian country.
Central authorities have imposed local Chinese authorities to decline the authorization of any new Internet café in the country, all the way until the end of 2007. Moreover, tougher regulations introduced on Monday, July 16, force gaming companies operating inside Chinese borders to implement a screening program that requires online gamers to enter their identification card numbers.
The program then monitors the online time of players identified as under 18 and prompts them at the three-hour mark with a message asking them to stop and “do suitable physical exercise,” according to China Daily. The software monitor slashes by half the points of underage players if they keep playing beyond three hours, and wipes their points out completely if they stay on more than five hours.