South Korea imposes MMO ban overnight (no really)

[MetalSymphony]

Kotaku.com

Long story short, if you play a MMO in South Korea, you are gonna be forced to choose a 6-hour window in witch you cannot play that MMO. The time-frames are Midnight to 6am, 1am to 7am or 2am to 8am.

Supposedly it's a measure to curb the rising number of video game addiction cases in the nations under-18 population, With a estimated 7% (over 500,000) already suffering from it.

They are also forcing a Fatigue system on the games, where drops/loot and the like become far more scarce as the player continues to play past a certain consecutive-hourage. (like play for more that 6 hours a day, loot becomes harder to find and worth less)

Do you guys think this will help, or is it unnecessary?

 

[arnoldmcguire335]

I think that helps. the US should do the same.
Stupid Digimon Battle *grunts*

 

[JMitch38]

I doubt it will be of any real help really considering that south korea is basically the epicenter for most of the worlds MMOs, kids are probably going to be playing more than one MMO so when they need to stop playing one game for 6 hours they will probably switch and play another until they need to stop playing that game and continuesly switch to avoid not playing, Then again if they play one game religiously then the ban will probably just piss them off.

I guess given how gamers can get with their games the ban would be necessary i suppose so they can actually get some sleep.

 

[Kaiju]

GOV's stepping in on vidgames ...w00h00 for freedom atriotic: :loltongue: ...get's more frightening by the day. :O_O:

 

[DSP]

To be fair this is fairly legitimate, considering it is south korea where this shiz is insane, whenever you hear a game related death it ususally shifts to exhaustion or starvation from south korea D: they really do love their MMOs

 

[MetalSymphony]

To be fair this is fairly legitimate, considering it is south korea where this shiz is insane, whenever you hear a game related death it ususally shifts to exhaustion or starvation from south korea D: they really do love their MMOs

Plus that story of the couple who let their newborn stave to death because they where so busy taking care of a Virtual baby in Everquest (or something, i can't remember the exact name of the MMO).

 

[unmei]

Whether or not it's necessary, the government should not be imposing these limitations on goods or services that they are not personally providing. The majority of their targeted audience should have limitations set by their parents, it should not need government intervention. Then again, this IS Korea, Most of the people will probably just end up watching the StarCraft channel in their forced downtime anyway.

 

[KR Hyper Kabuto]

The crazy things that these Korean MMO players do while they're playing. I feel that its right they should have some kind of limit on how much they can play.

 

[unmei]

The crazy things that these Korean MMO players do while they're playing. I feel that its right they should have some kind of limit on how much they can play.

I don't question that there should be a limit. I do however question who that limit should be imposed by, and upon.

If there's a teenager who's playing a 15 hour WoW session every day between school (afternoon - morning) and his grades are being effected, by all means, the parents should impose a limit. If another teenager plays a 15 hour session every Saturday/Sunday in his or her own free time, who does that hurt?

All in all a 6 hour ban isn't going to be the end of the world for anyone, it's essentially sleep, but I still don't think that this should fall under a government regulated ban. there's probably quite a few places the money that would go into this project could go to get better use.

 

[Lynxara]

Whether or not it's necessary, the government should not be imposing these limitations on goods or services that they are not personally providing.

Based on some articles I've read about this elsewhere, I think you can't get broadband service in Korea without going through the government. So the government is effectively regulating use of broadband infrastructure that it provides.

Relying on private enterprise to build up your broadband infrastructure results in more fragmented and less efficient systems like America's. Well, that and America being so huge that efficient infrastructure is always a real challenge to build up beyond the local level.