It seems that Communism has once again reared its ugly head. This time it is in the form of a campaign launched to limit the total amount of time a minor can spend online to 3 hours before point deductions begin reports chron.com. The concept is based on ID cards that are to be used to log in which have the gamers age and if under 18, a message will be prompted that reads “do suitable physical exercise”. A spokesman for the project had these comments:
Gaming companies Shanghai-based The9 _ which runs the popular “World of Warcraft” online game in China _ and Shenzhen-based Tencent both said Tuesday they have started using the screening software.
The9 spokesman James Zhao said he doesn’t expect the new restrictions to affect business because most of The9’s users are adults. “World of Warcraft,” from Vivendi SA’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., is the world’s most popular online game and has more than 3.5 million subscribers in China.
We can only hope that this idea will not come overseas but China and ourselves have basically polar opposite political ethos. What would you do if you were a couple hours into a co-op Halo 3 game when you were told to get off your ass and play kickball? What if its 2 AM and there are no kickball games happening? I think we are safe in this one and I doubt this is what Mao Zedong wrote the “Little Red Book” for.
I mean, I have a few friends that play Halo 2 all the time. However, they do pretty well in school, and are also in VERY good shape. I think that this is cruel, but actually necessary for some residents in China. Maybe they could organize something which would determine whether or not a child is overweight/obese, and then regulate gameplay by that, not everyone.
Lets say your 5′8, a light build, and weigh 200 pounds. You would have your videogame time regulated until you got to your key weight, then your unlimited game time would be granted again.
Also, if they did this, they shouldn’t use BMI, because bodybuilders, and athletes have a higher BMI because muscle weighs more then fat, but you can tell if a kid is overweight/obese by looking at them.
What do you guys think? If they really want to follow through with it, maybe they should look at a less extreme version that doesn’t effect everyone, because I’ll say that some people really do have videogame problems. But then there are people that have T.V addictions and such, but thats another discussion.