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제 12 호 China's Game Restriction

  • 작성일 2021-11-22
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What Impact Can It Have?

KICKER: WORLD (GAME)


China’s Game Restriction


What Impact Can It Have? 



Yeong-Jin Choi, Editor

pch39067@gmail.com


  Do you like to play games? If you ask me, I would like to answer, “I do.” One of the world’s most popular game, The League of Legends, has been completely merged by China in 2015, and China itself is rapidly enhancing the gaming technology, which is highly influential around the world. However, this powerful gaming nation is strictly restricting games on teenagers right at the moment, which caused some decrease in stocks to some big online gaming companies in China, and. therefore, I would like to focus on China’s game restrictions, and what impacts it might cause to Korea. 


텍스트, 사람, 실내이(가) 표시된 사진  자동 생성된 설명Teenagers in China Playing the League of Legend

China’s Game Restriction on Teenagers and its Effects

  NPPA, the National Press and Publication Administration of China, which takes charge of online game consideration has claimed the regulation policy named “Notice on Preventing Addiction Among Minors in Online Games” that teenagers are only allowed to play games on weekends and legal* holidays through eight to nine A.M. The main reason why was because of the negative effects playing online games excessively* has on juveniles*. Daily News of China has reported that many teenagers have already been addicted to online gaming presently, and it is obviously giving a bad effect to their teenage growth. 

  Some parents agreed with the policy, saying that the government is trying to help out teenagers to control themselves from playing games too much. However, many teenagers disagreed with the idea, protesting that the government is being too controlling. What happened afterwards was very likely to predict; teenagers started to borrow adult’s ID with money in order to play games. As the Chinese government gave an order not to service new games, it is quite obvious that China is starting to restrict the game industry itself. 


*Legal: Connected with the law. 

*Excessively: In a way that is too much. 

*Juvenile: Relating to a young person who is not yet old enough to be considered an adult. 


Responsibilities on Gaming Companies due to the Regulations

  Online gaming companies, including Tencent, one of the biggest gaming companies in China, has agreed to launch new methods such as facial recognition technology and algorithms to ensure the rules are followed. Tencent, especially, is currently monitoring when children are playing their games with tracking technology and sending of prompts* to ensure children were not playing on their parent’s devices. Tencent also introduced a facial recognition scan which verified whether mobile gamers were adults. 

  However, as I have already mentioned above, some Chinese children have circumvented* existing restrictions through use of illegal websites, software, use fake IDs to generate adult ID numbers, and even borrow existing adult IDs to make a new account. Some children use VPNs to access foreign sites to play games and to avoid the time limits imposed* in China. 

Tencent, One of the Biggest Gaming Company in China

*Prompt: To make something happen. 

*Circumvent: To avoid something, especially cleverly or illegally. 

*Impose: To force someone to accept something, especially a belief or way of living. 


Provisions and Possible Impact of the Regulations in China

  The biggest provisions* of the regulations are below: Implement* real name identification systems across all games, limit the amount of time that minors can spend playing games, implement limits on the spending of minors on online games, implement age rating systems in online games, actively work with parents, schools, and others to fulfill responsibility to minors, and to work with local regulators to implement these changes and ensure they are complying* fully with regulations for the game publishers. 

  Though the Chinese government might have claimed the notice* because they do care about the teenagers’ physical and mental health, experts have already noticed the regulation is affecting companies internationally. Soon after the government’s announcement, stock shares in companies like Amsterdam-listed Prosus, which holds a 29 percent stake in Tencent, were down 1.45%p. European gaming stocks also fell, with companies such as Ubisoft and Embracer Group affected. E-sports in China too, could be affected. Since players under 18 are prohibited to play, China’s gaming restrictions could put a stop to the development of the e-sports sector. 


*Provision: The act of providing something. 

*Comply: To act according to an order, set of rules, or request. 

*Notice: Information or a warning given about something that is going to happen in the future. 


Gaming Industry in South Korea

  Statistics show that the gaming market has continued to grow over the past decade, and the market value is estimated to grow up t o19.9 trillion won in 2022. According to the survey held in 2019, around 65.7 percent of South Koreans answered that they were playing video games. However, while Koreans have a huge appetite for gaming, local game developers are not among the world’s leading gaming companies. While the South Korean industry has a global share of around 6.3 percent and gaming is still a widely popular activity, critics point out that the lack of progress and innovation in game development is a big flaw in the industry. 


Impact on South Korea

  Some experts have analyzed that local online gaming publishers would not be influenced by China’s gaming regulation as it is confined only with the teenagers so far, and teenagers in China’s online gaming market account for an extremely small amount of the pie of the total gaming sales. The problem is, however, to recheck the uncertainty of China’s online gaming market. Since it is obvious that the government of China has clearly showed its negative perspective of the gaming industry, there is a possibility that the target of the regulations can be expanded to adults, too. 



  South Korea is famous internationally for its reputation of having a huge appetite for games and is one of the leading countries of e-sports. Though I am partly concerned of what impact China’s online gaming regulation for teenagers might have, it can also be a good chance for the local online gaming publishers and local gaming industry. Therefore, I would like to recommend this issue for the students who would like to choose their professions related to the gaming industry. 




Sources: 

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/what-to-make-of-the-new-regulations-in-china-online-gaming-industry/

https://nikopartners.com/game-regulations-in-china-everything-you-need-to-know/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/825058/south-korea-gaming-industry-size/

https://www.ekoreanews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=52815