IT’S NICE TO SEE the Chinese making an attempt to join the rest of us in the 21st Century; especially when it comes to dealing with gaming addiction. Ever since the Internet opened up in China the folks have been flocking in their millions to the online virtual existence, and in particular to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games).

In order to appreciate why China is so focused on this you need to appreciate the sheer size of the market over there. The Chinese games market has grown rapidly in recent years, so rapidly that it scared the shit out of the authorities. Back in 2005 the market was estimated to grow to approximately $580 Million with over 70% of that market dedicated to MMORPG type games. In 2006 this grew to $1 Billion, and it’s now estimated that before this year is out (2007) the Chinese games market will eclipse even South Korea and will continue to grow to a predicted online usage base of 180 Million subscribers by 2010. Think about that for a second, 180 Million people online, playing games!

Now comes the tricky bit; How the hell can China expect to control this explosive growth?

Thus far the Chinese authorities have focused their attentions on two key fronts in a strategic attempt to both identify and control the online population. On the one hand they want to know who is online and what they are doing; especially in relation to the content they are viewing. On the other hand the authorities want to ensure they control the amount of online game time kids are being exposed to, due to the rise in gaming addictions. Both strategies have their flaws, but the Chinese have just come out with a new approach to dealing with gaming addiction which might actually catch on in other countries too, if they manage to pull it off. And the best news of all for gamers in China is that it no longer involves getting electric shock treatments!

From a privacy perspective the Chinese implemented what has become known as the Great Firewall Of China - a massive internet firewall designed to prevent access to any ‘unsavory’ information, but this strategy proved to be a little ineffective and was hacked pretty quickly by some enterprising Canadians. They also then concentrated their efforts on identifying all online avatars, making it quite challenging to even get online in the first place and of course the latest effort is a recently announced method to force people to use a “real name verification system” when going online. Pretty invasive and paranoid I think you will agree, but it pales into insignificance when you consider what they did address the potential for gaming addiction.

Initially the Chinese figured the best way to treat kids who had become addicted to online gaming was to electrocute them. Yup - you read that right! They wired kids up and shocked ‘em until they agreed that gaming wasn’t something they really needed to do anymore. Needless to say this didn’t go down to well with the West, or the poor kids who had their privates wired up in the process. Other countries dealt with gaming addiction in their own ways, the Dutch for example opening gaming addiction clinics to help kids and parents alike, but for a while there it looked like the Chinese were just fighting a loosing battle, and a barbaric one at that, until recently when they announced the latest strategy in dealing with addiction… Virtual Penalties.

It works like this (in theory anyway): Kids under 18 (everyone has to register with an ID card) can only play an online game for a max of 3 hours per day without incurring any penalties. The longer they stay on beyond this limit, the more online penalties they incur (in their individual game worlds) and therefore the more they get penalised within the game. For example, a kid breaking the online curfu in World of Warcraft would start to loose experience points rapidly, thus negating the point of playing the game. Chinese authorities have given games companies until July to implement this new control system or their games will be axed, and the new system is due to commence from the middle of April - so it’s going to be an interesting summer for Chinese gamers one way or another!

I wonder if this approach would ever catch on in the West? What do you think?

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