China in new push to curb addictive online gaming
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China is preparing to introduce new rules to deal with the growing problem of addictive behaviour in the nation’s booming online game sector, one of the country’s top game operators said on Wednesday.
Industry regulator the General Administration of Publication and Press is in the process of formulating the new rules, called “anti-fatigue” rules by some, said Michael Tong, chief operating officer of No. 2 online game operator NetEase.com Inc.
Tong said that rather than boot off players after they play for a certain amount of time, the new regulations will require operators to award less “experience points” for players the longer they stay online.
“The important point is that it’s a system that’s going to be implemented for the long-term growth of the industry,” he said. “So the GAPP wants to encourage game designers to make games that are less addictive or encourage people to play less hours.”
He said the rules will apply to all game operators in China, including major players such as Shanda Interactive Entertainment, the nation’s top operator, and Tencent Holdings .
China’s largest Web portal, Sina Corp., has also entered the industry recently as it tries to diversify away from its former staple of mobile messaging services following an unrelated recent government clampdown on that sector.
The new rules, while curbing play time by some, are unlikely to have a major impact on individual company revenues, said JP Morgan analyst Dick Wei.
“The number of excessive players is not big,” he said. “Secondly, experience is not the only thing in online games - people do other things, like marry and chat as well. Third, the government is interested in the long-term development of the industry. They don’t want to destroy it.”
Earlier in the day, NetEase reported its second-quarter profit more than doubled year-on-year to $29.3 million, due largely to the online gaming boom in China.
The industry generated an estimated $160 million in 2003, and is expected to grow at an average rate of 39 percent each year to reach $823 million by 2008, according to IDC.
The pending new anti-addiction rules follow periodic clampdowns on Internet cafes where gamers, most of them adolescent boys, often play.
They also come amid calls from various state-owned media and other government voices to rein in an industry that can foster addictive behaviour.
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