7. China VS Online Gaming
OK, so I'll admit, this isn't so much a video game as a way of playing but it would be foolish not to include this. Now it's no surprise that China are pretty darn serious about censorship. However in the case of online gaming there's a little more to it than simple censoring of messages, in this instance addiction plays a big role. In China online gaming addiction is rife and the country has been attempting to regulate this by implementing time restrictions, the idea behind this is to encourage gamer's to take a break. Back in 2007 the Beijing Reformatory for juvenile delinquents claimed that a third of its prisoners were heavily influenced by online gaming. Of course there's no real way to prove this and I doubt there is any correlation but the claim itself is enough to encourage such precautions as time restrictions. As previously mentioned, we all know that video games are heavily censored in China, like every other entertainment medium too. Causes for censorship include things like 'Divulging State Secrets', 'Disturbing Social Order' and 'Damaging the Nation's Glory', what those entail exactly are up to the Ministry of Culture. However a recent game that was banned gives us an insight as to what is not tolerated. Battlefield 4 was banned in China for "smearing the image of China and endangering national security." Now I don't really know what about the game could be considered a threat to national security but I do understand they don't want their country portrayed as the villains, had they listed that smearing the image as the only reason it would have been more understandable. So China has some serious restrictions, censors and even bans on video games, usually of the western variety. However I put this example at the top of the list as it's hardly surprising.