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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

NPR On China's Gaming Anti-Addiction Software

Imagine this: you're playing your favorite Internet game when suddenly a warning flashes onto the screen. You've been playing three hours, it says, so it's time to get some exercise. If you ignore it, any points you've won in the last three hours will be halved. After five hours, they'll be wiped out.

That's the scenario in China, where anti-addiction software is supposed to protect gamers under the age of 18. But it hasn't been an unqualified success.
-- Read Full Article, Anti-Addiction Software in China Has Loopholes

Seems ineffective to try and control a cultural concern with software. Especially when the target audience is probably insanely computer savvy. I'm pretty sympathetic here - I'm not really under the impression that anyone, kids or otherwise, spending the majority of their waking hours playing games as terribly beneficial.

Course, it is also interesting that if we were to take the American arguments about what video games are capable of - name encouraging murder - China would be awash in violent crime by now. Last I checked, not so much. Still not sure little Xiao should be spending as much time on SuperDancer as I take for my job - and I swear that isn't just envy speaking.

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