China Slashes Kids' Gaming Time To Just Three Hours a Week (bloomberg.com) 150
China will forbid minors from gaming more than three hours most weeks of the year, imposing their strictest controls yet over entertainment for youths in a blow to the world's largest mobile gaming arena. From a report: Gaming platforms from Tencent to NetEase can henceforth only offer online gaming to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and public holidays, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing a notice by the National Press and Publication Administration. The new rules, which limit teen playing time to three hours most weeks of the year, is a major step-up from a previous restriction set in 2019 of 1.5 hours per day, most days.
The escalating restrictions on Tencent's biggest business are likely to spook investors that had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days, exploring bargains after a raft of regulatory probes into areas from online commerce to data security and ride-hailing ignited a trillion-dollar selloff in past weeks. "Three hours per week is too tight. Such a policy will have negative impact on Tencent too," Steven Leung, an executive director at UOB Kay Hian (Hong Kong) said. "I thought regulatory measures would take a break gradually but it's not stopping at all. It will hurt the nascent tech rebound for sure."
The escalating restrictions on Tencent's biggest business are likely to spook investors that had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days, exploring bargains after a raft of regulatory probes into areas from online commerce to data security and ride-hailing ignited a trillion-dollar selloff in past weeks. "Three hours per week is too tight. Such a policy will have negative impact on Tencent too," Steven Leung, an executive director at UOB Kay Hian (Hong Kong) said. "I thought regulatory measures would take a break gradually but it's not stopping at all. It will hurt the nascent tech rebound for sure."
I guess (Score:5, Funny)
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And you think the world would be better off if you had a government that controlled every aspect of your life?
Who to vote for?
How much work and how much play?
How many kids you should have?
What is proper thinking and what thoughts are wrong?
What to believe in and what not to believe?
Sounds awfully like a sect + totalitarian dicatorship.
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False dichotomy.
The current system is clearly broken, I'd subscribe to half those things.
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not a false dichotomy.... either you choose how to live your life or someone else does it for you
cue the pedantics who will then split hairs to show how wrong I am
Re: I guess (Score:2)
And you think the world would be better off if you had a government that controlled every aspect of your life?
Oh, but you already do, if you live in a western "democracy". The methods of your government as opposed to China's are just different.
Who to vote for?
It's either one party or the other. Both do the same, they just do it differently. Or how many of you voted for raising the production, but not the wages, since the 70s?
How much work and how much play?
You work pretty much the entire waking time, givr or take a meal or two, and the 8 o'clock movie time.
The rest you play.
How many kids you should have?
That's easy: as many as you can afford.
What is proper thinking and what thoughts are wrong?
Did you by any chance follow the Assange "trial"?
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They don't want to end up with spoiled leaders without attention spans who golf all day and throw KFC at news they don't like.
Re: I guess (Score:1)
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Umm, so the guy in charge of China that's gets offended because someone said he looked like Poo Bear? Seems like a great leader to me. Right up there with Biden and Trump.
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And 52% of America wants to be more like China, with the politicians running absolutely everything.
This is what happens when a federal government is allowed to expand unchecked. Ultimately they will tell you how many children you are allowed to have and how long those children are allowed to play video games. Along with everything else.
Re:I guess (Score:5, Insightful)
Well you are wrong. You probably should stop watching Fox News and other propaganda sites.
Most intelligent Americans may have aspects of Chinese Government that do work better than America, which wouldn't necessarily conflict with our values and ideologies.
With mode of the even very liberal folks in America, doesn't want the government to micromanage our child care, because they know if they did go that rout, when the Conservatives get in power, they will push stupid rules, like forcing prayer in schools, making sure their kids don't listen to corruptive music, eat Avacoto Toast...
However for a lot of those companies that already have a lot of government subsidies, the government can put particular rules and regulations around these subsidized companies, to make sure the money is going for the greater good.
Re: Don't you mean... (Score:3)
But who else will get us to "think of the children" so they can get their latest fascist idea passed into the law books?
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Politicians do what the people who voted them in, ask them to do.
If a moderate politician represents an area that suddenly goes hard left or right, or demands the most stupid thing. That politician will go with the flow of their constituents, and supporters.
The peoples position right or left, are not as individual views as they really think they are, but influenced by the culture and media they are being fed. They are being sheep, but the media is calling them Lions, so they feel like they are being indepe
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> Politicians do what the people who voted them in, ask them to do.
I didn't ask him to do or say any of that stupid shit.
I don't think any voter asked me he mayor to smoke crack with crack whores, asked the Senator to take bribes, or asked the president to first withdraw the military BEFORE trying to get the civilians out, but they do all that shit.
To even run for senator or for president, a person must believe that they SHOULD be running the country, and that most people will agree with that they should
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You as a person didn't say or ask him to do stupid stuff. You as part of a group of people did.
The Republican people are against science, education, are racist bigots who only care about making money fast, and is pro-life.
If you are a Republican, you personally may be for science and proper education and tries not to be racist and making good long term financial sense, but you are pro-life and that is an important value to you.
The Democrats people that fall for anything called science, against business, p
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Remember, politicians are the ones that got rid of child labor, which was a serious problem. And politicians broke up the big monopolies, which were a big problem. And politicians made sure over the counter hair products were save and wouldn't scar you, which was a big problem. And so forth. All driven by the population who raised an outcry so that politicians had to listen.
Of course, we could say just get rid of all the politicians and replace let the actual citizens make the laws and elect the... er..
Priorities (Score:5, Informative)
Fewer hours for video games means more time for learning Xi Jinping Thought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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What if it's a Winnie the Pooh video game [wikipedia.org]?
Finally I can get ahead... (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cute (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Cute (Score:4, Interesting)
> Are they going to force all games to connect to an online service to authenticate before playing?
I think that would be a reasonable expectation of their next step given all that we've seen before now.
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. . . But it only applies to online games. Are they going to force all games to connect to an online service to authenticate before playing?
I hear you Micro$oft.
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The games developers already shot themselves in the foot with this one.
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It could be that they specifically target online games given how predatory those have become. Most of what is labeled a "game" today is essentially a "click this button for a small dopamine pill" hamster wheel.
Restricted playing times eat that business model, while you can put quite a bit of gameplay into 90 minutes.
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But it only applies to online games.
So there will be a new market for games you play offline all day, and upload your progress during the 3 hours per week you are allowed online.
They're working on that (Score:4, Informative)
You know your power is starting to slip when you start making laws you can't enforce.
That's still a bit of a work in progress but they're getting there https://www.theverge.com/2021/... [theverge.com]
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Trivial to enforce - this is for ONLINE games only. So you control the companies and demand that they enforce it, and if the companies won't do it you just block them.
Re:Cute (Score:4, Interesting)
I can tell you that this is easier to enforce than you think. While there are going to be some that find ways to work around, what they will do is create online profiles for each kid/family and link them all together for easy tracking. They will want the gaming companies to work together to prove allocated times don't exceed the preset determined limit.
You're biggest issue is going to be offline gaming. Though they will probably just find ways to limit access to games offline.
I am not agreeing with what they are doing, just pointing out how I would implement a system of checks and balances if I had their amount of control.
Don't ask what I would do to subvert their levels of control though. They have the potential of creating some of the most exceptional hackers though.
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It also does not really matter. This law informs parents on what is acceptable. The parents will take it from here, and like most child focused laws, be the enforcer on what their kid is doing.
Re: Cute (Score:3)
Not the Chinese. There is such a thing as a social responsibility which is inherently clear in the social contract which is the agreement all people have to accept to live in any given society.
What you purpose is anarchy and it's virtually only achievable in isolation. So have fun with that.
As for me, I am enjoying your vision of hell and I have to say they food is great.
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Given the 996 work system and the high retirement age the state has to raise the children because nobody else is there to do it. Nobody should have this much control over your life and their system sucks. When you only see your kids a few hours per week you don't have much to do with raising them.
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I know there was a story about the 996 work week just a few days ago, but I want to take this opportunity to say that I would voluntarily sign up for a 666 works week.
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You want to work 72 hours a week, 6am to 6pm? Fuck that noise. I'll do my 40 and enjoy my life. Fuck their 9 to 9, 6 days a week bullshit as well.
Re: Cute (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re: Cute (Score:2, Insightful)
"Freedom and safety are at opposite ends of the spectrum." This clearly makes no sense. I do not want to try to survive alone in the wilderness. Humans thrive in communities when we help each other out. When humans are alone they're sad and vulnerable. People who are homeless would likewise benefit and have more freedom if they were in a house. So in reality, freedom and security are not opposed.
"Free people are some of the happiest people you will
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In china, they put you in reeducation camps for being muslim. Neighbors rat each other out to the police over most certainly trivial things.
I don't know anyone personally that has been shot despite living in both Florida and California, living in Orlando, Los Angeles and San Diego.
If you are poor here, you qualify for medicare. If you are working you likely have some kind of healthcare insurance option, especially if you have a half way decent job. Of course, you probably think that I am some how responsibl
Re:Cute (Score:4, Insightful)
You know your power is starting to slip when you start making laws you can't enforce.
As already mentioned, this current law is for online games only so it's easy to enforce (with sanctions on the online gaming companies).
As for offline gaming, I already enforce about the same time limit for my kids (5yo and 8yo) on ipads, mac, windows and xbox, through parental control software offered by Apple and Microsoft. I think it'd be easy for China to mandate that Apple and Microsoft turn on these controls by default for all users, and only let them be turned off by tying your user account to your China state-issued ID with age verification.
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Im 42 - Im glad my parents didnt restrict my video game play when I was younger. I dont think it harmed my development in any way. I guess iPhones and tablets probably amplify doing it alone, and we were always in a group playing nintendo or whatever, so I dont mean to speak to how you guys should parent your kids or anything.
I'm 47. When I wanted to play games, I had to go to the library and rent books of source code for games and type them in (ZX Spectrum / Basic). We had only a dirt cheap computer and couldn't afford a tape drive. Therefore, my gaming was all inherently very educational. The only restriction was that if I wanted to game, I had to first type in a "maths exercises" program that my dad authored and my mum wrote out by hand, and do 15mins of maths.
What's available on ipad+youtube now is backed by a multi-billion
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I am 37 and played lots of video games as a kid. Both in groups and solo. Probably more solo time because many of the games I enjoyed were single player anyway.
None of that prevented me from getting friends, getting an education, working at a career, owning a home or meeting and marrying my wife.
This just looks like state control where it is unnecessary.
P.s. my friends and I also rode bicycles, went swimming and made up random games outside. I guess kids aren't allowed outside without supervision anymore. P
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I'm 58. When I wanted to play computer games I had to write them myself, type them into a teletype terminal, punch them onto paper tape, load that onto the computer, and play be hitting teletype keys and have results printed out in ascii.
But, you are welcome on my lawn - it's a nice looking lawn
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This would be no different than in Texas where there is a web site for people to report on women who have had an abortion [chron.com]. While not state funded, this serves the same purpose: private citizens ratting out their neighbors to the government.
You know, because freedom.
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You know your power is starting to slip when you start making laws you can't enforce.
Did you even look into the law? Hint: There's nothing in this law about people, and everything about forcing corporations to simply limit service. Something which they actively do since such laws have been in place for over 3 years already.
Sounds fishy (Score:2)
Sound more like they're reigning in Tencent rather than them being worried about the kids... if that was the case, they'd have made it a matter of screen time and not gaming...
Granted, screentme would conflict with office drones. Can't have that. But surely, if they were worried about health, social media and streaming would also be part of this.
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Authoritarian governing (Score:2, Insightful)
However, one thing is clear - Chinese people living in China have no self-determination due to lack of personal freedoms.
Re:Authoritarian governing (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what government making decision "for greater good' look like when it reaches its logical conclusion. You have seen Chinese Communist Party dictating how many children you can have, you have seen them discouraging taking on excessive debt, you have seen them restricting minor's screen time. You might even agree with some of theses actions. However, one thing is clear - Chinese people living in China have no self-determination due to lack of personal freedoms.
Yep. All for the greater good. Like suppressing "misinformation" ...
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You have seen Chinese Communist Party dictating how many children you can have, you have seen them discouraging taking on excessive debt, you have seen them restricting minor's screen time.
While not a defense of China, too often I see people makes comments like this from a US perspective largely with the thematic message of, 'look at us, we're so much better in the US than those oppressed Chinese people'. Well let me tell you that the only folks in the US not subjected to the same authoritarian policy that you mention is those who can afford to buy those freedoms. Here in American, freedoms are only free for those who can afford them.
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What are you going on about? What freedom do I have that a homeless person doesn't?
The only reason I have anything is because I am willing to WORK. Go figure.
The homeless person is just as free as me to get a job. They are just as free as me to stand on the street corner with a sign. They are free to go to the parks and beaches and all those other lovely places that don't cost money. Same as me.
I'm not seeing how poor people are less free. I mean, sure, we are all "wages slaves" I suppose. Not sure how you
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I'm not seeing how poor people are less free.
Well lets go back to your initial comment.
dictating how many children you can have
We provide a minimum wage and social programs to support families, but they don't provide enough support to make successful families. You're free to get a job as you say but you're not automatically free to get a job that will successfully provide for a large family should you want one.
discouraging taking on excessive debt
If you're poor, you're not free to get a proper loan because you aren't inherently free to acquire a job that pays you enough to get the loan.
China controls freedom through polic
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Well let me tell you that the only folks in the US not subjected to the same authoritarian policy that you mention is those who can afford to buy those freedoms.
Essentially, that was my point, only written in a way that would make it harder to -1 Disagree mod.
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Not too long ago, a large part of the chinese population was living in extreme poverty.
Don't compare chinese of today to americans of today. Compare them to chinese of yesterday. Because when you live in extreme poverty, all those freedoms that you have on paper are worth very little, because you can't make use of them.
Lifting a few hundred millions out of poverty is a huge success. No western nation has accomplished anything on that scale.
I'm not saying that it's a sacrifice worth making or something - tha
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Obscure parties that maybe 2% of the US population support?
Re:Authoritarian governing (Score:5, Insightful)
Freedom to infect others and pollute others is selfish and doesn't scale.
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Freedom to infect others and pollute others is selfish and doesn't scale.
A better and more charitable way to interpret such argument is by asking what are costs vs. benefits of mandating vaccinations. Obviously, there are benefits - more vaccinated people results in less COVID deaths. However, you also need to look at costs. What are the costs of allowing authoritarian measures to dictate (regardless of justification) how people live?
Authoritarian hypocrites (Score:2)
We've seen that even bigger shutdowns are needed when infections spiral out of control and DOS the hospitals. If hospitals are overwhelmed, non-Covid illnesses can't be treated either.
Why have a centralized military if deaths don't matter? Let everybody battle invaders on their own or at the local level. Dereg Defense.
Actually the GOP is becoming the "over-regulating commies" by having state govern
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Many define "freedom" to also include freedom to make and manage local laws/rules. If you exclude that view, then you are essentially saying "I want all things my way, and to define 'freedom' my way". Sorry, you are not the King of the world nor words.
Children can't.
And you didn't address the military question. Why have a draft under your view of "freedom"? If death and/or illness matter past a certain point, then how much unti
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Many define "freedom" to also include freedom to make and manage local laws/rules.
So, the laws restricting mandates were totally OK then by that logic. The fact that they pre-empted laws you liked better is your real problem, though, right? You wanted authoritarian laws restricting individuals and were disappointed by freedom-affirming laws restricting perochial decisions against individuals by school boards. Got it.
And you didn't address the military question. Why have a draft under your view of "freedom"? If death and/or illness matter past a certain point, then how much until central mandates kick in?
I'm not in favor of the selective service system, but I'm not sure how it has anything to do with the hyper-extended point you are trying to make. Whatever apparently weak lo
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I didn't say that.
No but under your logic, folks are still free to make anti-mandate laws. Turnabout is fair play.
It's not hard to understand. Laws which affirm individual rights are preferable to ones that restrict those rights. The only reasonable exceptions in a just society should be for restrictions on violence and theft. Lockdowns, for example, restrict individual movement for reasons which are, in my opinion, not justifiable given the overall risk of the disease. You seem to have a very low appetite for risk. So, s
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It's a personal preference, and one I believe is roughly in line with that of the general population of the US.
If your preference was shared by the general population there is a higher likelihood mandates and lockdowns would be the norm. Fact is they are not the norm outside of authoritarian countries like North Korea, China, New Zealand, and Australia: a miserable list of authoritarian shitholes if there ever was one. The vast majority of the US and the rest of the world is unmasked and unmandated, I suspect against your personal wishes. Second, it's overwhelmingly folks with a Left leaning bias that prefer coerciv
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You are full of shit, evidence-free moron.
Ad homiem doesn't win debates either. Try actual facts and rhetoric next time. You lose.
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You are the one who lobbed accusations against the medical establishment without presenting any evidence or solid logic.
Be specific: which accusations which I have already made, require additional proof? Do you need proof that doctors and the medical establishment have a tremendous list of medical abuses [wikipedia.org] to answer for? That is one helluva long list of evidence to argue with with 40-50 entries of non-conspiracy theory straight up facts with a metric shitton of references. So, please drop the fiegned hurt at some imaginary lack of evidence because you've been absolutely full of shit since the start of this, and simply ignored
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I did acknowledge it and explained why it doesn't support your point.
No, all you've done is ignore or deny any rational argument, deny clear evidence, and try to change the subject over and over in some very lame and transparent ways when you started getting smacked around in the debate. You also never responded to the points that Sinij made, because they were good ones and you probably just couldn't. Then when I buried you in evidence you start hand waving that it's not evidence. Okay, loser: keep whining. It's clear between your "you're a moron" post and and the post I ma
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As mentioned nearby, there are more extreme examples and doubt everyone will accept the most extreme. The real issue is finding and defining the "break even point".
What if your suburban neighbor started a smelly chicken and cow farm? Should you just have to put up with the noise, smell, and flies in the name of "freedom"?
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What if your suburban neighbor started a smelly chicken and cow farm?
What if Napoleon had a Piper Cub? What in the actual fuck does this have to do with you still not having the right to coerce the world with mandates and never be exposed to CV19 or other diseases for that matter?
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Smart move. They should add social media (Score:4, Interesting)
This is no different than protecting kids from too much sugar or potatoe chips.
Re:Smart move. They should add social media (Score:5, Funny)
This is no different than protecting kids from too much sugar or potatoe chips.
Dan Quayle in da house!
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Dann Qayle in da hous!
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It's not comparable in that limiting a minor's cup size at a local store is not intrusive. It doesn't involve tracking individuals.
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I feel like it is outdated tho. The kids who would of been spending 12 hours a day gaming, and interacting with others, will now just spending 12 hours a day watching streamers game.
Hot near future trend in China (Score:2)
Internet connected multiplayer pinball machines.
This is a very feasable thing with modern tech, and it's still not a video game.
Re: Hot near future trend in China (Score:2)
I'm sure someone there will attempt it. Hopefully they got the bribe money ready before they embark on this endeavor.
More time for... (Score:1)
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ilab/ilab20200930
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Well not according to the page you linked so why ask if Nike is responsible without evidence?
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Not a great place for sarcasm given how many big name brands have been castigated for using forced labour. I asked someone in Nike marketing if they'd cleaned up their act, their response wasn't exactly confident that they had.
Online Gaming! (Score:2)
They are limiting minors' access to online gaming to one hour on weekends and holidays.
This will accomplish exactly squat. (Score:2)
Playtime in general, or just computer games? (Score:1)
Because, you know... playing is the natural form of learning.
I want kids to play as much as they enjoy. (And us to make it as enjoyable as possible, without employing unhealthy addicting methods.)
But I want them to play useless things that don't teach them anything as little as possible! (Wasting e.g. 1/4 of your life is functionally equivalent to dying 1/4 of your natural lifespan earlier. And just as harmful. Imagine the resources we pour into preventing people from dying early. But we do nothing against
What about in-game currency mining? (Score:2)
That's not fun, that's work. Is that banned as well?
To all the chinese bot accounts. (Score:2)
The US should do the same for social media (Score:1)
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When you use a word like "libtard" to disrespect people who have a different opinion than you, while suggesting that the government should restrict their speech that you don't like... it might mean you've been in an echo chamber too.
Maybe too much negative sensationalism by foreign and domestic trolls succeeded in distracting you from the idea that, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are for EVERYONE.
Let's make genuine speech easy to
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This is advocating for government control over our freedom of speech and association. Typically both liberals and conservatives would agree that we don't want that.
Social media companies are not the government, so the bill of rights doesn't apply to them. It's ok if they block things they don't want on their own platform.
The critical distinction is wh
DDoS? (Score:2)
So every kid in China is going to be playing online games during the -same- three hours a week? What about China's new three child policy? Does that mean a family would have to buy three consoles, one for each?
How much extra capacity will be required by the game owners to deal with this three hour load?
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No silly, each child will get their own profile. Not sure how they will stop siblings from stealing each others game time though. Maybe make the child stand in front of a camera for rental scan to verify it is them at the gaming device.
This would all make more sense to me if I understood the actual goal of the state here. Video gaming is a hobby. It shouldn't be preventing you from working or maintaining personal relationships or even enjoying other aspects of life.
I don't know how Chinese schools operate a
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Step 1: Wait in login queue for multiplayer game for 90% of allowed time, due to weekend usage spike.
Step 2: lose quickly because no practice at game.
Step 3: revolt against gov't.
(or alternate Step 3: only be allowed to play government "let's work together" co-op lame propaganda game).