Word is that the Chinese government is working on regulating MMOGs so anybody playing more than three hours in a row will be punished in-game.
The server administrators will be happy (less server load).
The scary thing is that because MMOGs are managed at central servers, they are also the ideal cultural form for any totalitarian state: The committee has decided that you will only play three hours per day, young one.
Imagine if the authorities could set time limits on your reading, listening to music, or anything else …
I’ve never heard of anyone reading or listening to music until they died. MMORPGs are designed to be addictive to a point. If the formula works too well, how is it beyond the right of the supplier to limit it?
This is just the many suffering for the few – it’s a historical formula that will never stop repeating itself. One kid shoots up his friends and says video games made him do it, a million kids get a bad reputation for playing video games. One guy plays games until he dies, a million people have their gaming rights limited. One guy supplies music illegally to the masses, a million people begin to lose their filesharing rights. I don’t have to imagine what it would be like if the authorities could set time limits on my reading or listening to music, because not only do they already do it indirectly by imposing the necessity for jobs and filing taxes and going to school and other social status quos, but eventually they’ll do it directly and it will be just another thing we have all quietly endured “for our own health and protection.”
The responsibility starts at home. A subscription based business model has a drastic effect on a game’s design, practically forcing it to be addictive for the sake of addictiveness.
Aside from the actual deaths, playing a game until it owns your life is probably not healthy. The fact that the games are designed with this intent is doubly bad.
Answer: Find a different business model. Micropayments sound a lot better to me, and NCSoft are moving in that direction, too – only buy what you use, rather than buying chunks of time you then feel obliged to fill with play.
“The scary thing is that because MMOGs are managed at central servers…”
Time for P2P-MMORPG?
It really a problem in my country . My son plays that WoW day long . I tell him go study, go out, go at least and wash yourself you stinkie . But no … he doesn’t do it . I think I failed as a parent yes I did . He doesn’t even talks the language of our forefathers . He just speaks english with a jamaican accent ?!? Why that ? What happenin in that game ? He is zumming all the time .. I go like .. go and help your sister . He go Zum-Zum . I yell at him and apply secret karate moves on his neck. He cries and says Jamaika is crazy . I don’t know what he would say more because he faints from my terrible yet lovingly hits . I wish I could help him . He me only son …