Plans to limit online game playtime rebuked
By Faye Wang (INTERFAX-CHINA)
Updated: 2005-09-05 13:08

"If players are all playing with several accounts, that means it will take longer for them to develop their characters.

That will give online gaming companies more time to develop updates and new products, which will reduce costs," the official said.

In addition, the new timing mechanism will also help online game operators to deal with gaming robots, a type of software that operates game characters while players are away from their computers.

Gaming robots are often used to perform menial tasks such as the gathering of resources, which players later sell.

This 'farming' of in-game resources has become a source of income for some players, who then sell these virtual goods on sites such as ebay.com.

Despite some expected benefits for online gaming firms, overall, the new policy is expected to have a negative impact on their operations, Kelly Huang, Research Supervisor for IT consulting firm iResearch, told Interfax.

"The new system has real potential to adversely impact online games in China, because the system will probably reduce total playing time, which is directly proportional to income for operators," Huang said. "But, it's hard right now to estimate how much of an impact the system will have."

However, Shanda and The9, the largest online game operators in China, both said their businesses would not be greatly impacted by the new timing system, which authorities said would be implemented for all online games in late 2005 or early 2006.

"We actually started an R&D on a system of our own to prevent game addiction in 2004, before they unveiled this new timing system," Shanda PR Manager Li Lijun told Interfax.

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