9. There Are Government Initiatives For Gaming Addicts
Gaming addiction sounds like a joke to those in the West (something you might make a winking reference to after a particularly long session on Destiny), but it's serious business in countries like South Korea and China, where the grinding nature of MMOs in particular cultivating a dependency on certain titles not unlike that for an illegal substance. Ever felt yourself jonesing for another raid on World Of Warcraft? It's like that, only far, far worse. In fact it's gotten to be such an issue in China that the government has chosen to intervene. In 2005, the General Administration of Press and Publication came up with the idea of implementing an anti-addiction mechanism that locked players out of a game after a specific amount of time, meaning they couldn't play so long that say they died of dehydration. In extreme cases, anyway. Usually people just ended up with bad BO and losing their jobs. Also referred to as a fatigue system the proposed mechanism was a piece of software installed on the computer and compliant with every MMO active in Chinese game space, and developers were allowed to suggest the fatigue time for their titles. Right now it only only affects players under the age of 18 (after some outcry), but if gaming addiction continues to be an issue, that could soon change...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
