How China finally stopped kids from gaming
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2023
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China has been cracking down on video games for decades. From console bans to video game addiction camps and limited gaming hours they have tried everything. Has any of it worked?
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Is the lifetime fee 250 dollar or 300 dollar? It says both numbers on the page at 1:12
300 $/Euro(ger) with or without the CuriosityStream (about 3 $/month) Bundel? Or do I have to wait for the Bundel Deal Cupon?
10 Years x 30$/Year = 300$. Nebula founded in 2019, so it's 4 Years old.
So if I belive Nebula survives >10 Years (no inflation/Cupons/...) it's a better deal then the /Year one?
The wanted 250 and then said nah 300 people will pay 300
Even with that offering it's still not worth it. The potential is there, but it's not good besides the content of CZcamsrs like TA.
These Nebula exclusive bonus/extra videos are only like 4-5 mts long, not really worth getting a subscription.
I do disagree with china's aggressive gaming regulations but there is an issue here gaming companies are hiring neurologists to make their customers addicted to their products
For sure I was playing Apex Legends for some time and as I was playing I would often notice these weird high frequency beeping sounds in the background and also weird flashing. Think of the mcollough effect and how easily the mind can be manipulated.
With every worldly issue that isn’t just arguing about fiction. It’s complicated.
I think gaming and gambling or any adrenaline related thrill seeking activity has a common root. By the way I have yet to see that they ban gambling parlors in PRC, those are more harmful in my opinion than video games.
Maybe their choice of handling is not the best, however nowadays addictive games are bad news, the fact that kids spend their parents money is one thing, however the real danger is what the lasting effects of such interaction can be and how they can change the way kids percieve the world forever.
got a link for that?
When I was a kid (not in China), my parents would scoff at me playing games and watching TV while completing ignoring the fact that there was nothing else to do, as all the nearby playgrounds had been turned to buildings and parking lots. No D&D culture either.
I guess forcing me to attend a 12hour school and classes for chess, piano and what not could have kept me busy lol. Might as well be a robot
I remember when my parents wanted for me to stay longer at school my results actually went down (*there were some after school lessons). You can't productively learn more than about 2 or 3 hours per day..... it's just impossible. Learning is not like "chopping wood" sometimes less is more. More lessons and more learning is not the answer to anything. More motivation to learn is the best but you still can't force yourself to learn more. There is some limited capacity and if you go into overdrive too much your results will go down, not up.
Also if the environment around you is stressful somehow, your results will go down if your parents constantly fight or if your family has financial problems anything which moves your "brain attention" away is very bad. My best result in school were the best when my family was most "healthy" as a whole. You can't expect a kid with problems in the family to perform well. It's very complex problem of course the most important is motivation but even with all the motivation in the world you should know your limits and not go above, or your results will certainly go down and you can't overcompensate, because you'll get even worse. It's like fighting with water when going to drown, you should stop fighting the water, more intense flapping will not save you.
China does have a lot of playgrounds and parks though.
@@davidk.d.7591 2 or 3 of them I hear! But seriously, 雲南 was one big park- can't same the same for 廣東。
Mine yelled at me for playing games a lot too, but yelled at me even more when I wanted to go visit a friend, go out to eat, to the park, etc. It made no sense.
Damn... That is so sad.
Increase of myopia (3:17) is strongly associated with lack of sunlight exposure for your eyes as a minor. This can also happen when you are in a cram school from 09.00 till 21.00 without ever seeing a screen.
theyre trying to fix that too tho to be fair
@@heckoff7904 Yea they are, it is also kind of sad how much pressure Chinese parents put on children trying to pass the Chinese central exam with high grades.
@@guill90even then that still didnt guarantee a job hence the high youth unemployment
When I was a kid, I spent lots of time outdoors. When I was diagnosed with myopia, I was told it's because I "read books too much". The blame game never ends... When I looked at the studies last time, I got the impression that rather than just sunlight exposure, myopia is caused by lack of re-focusing (and sunlight exposure) during a *crucial developmental age* which is however *different for everyone*. So like I got myopia because I didn't spend time outdoors when I was 5-6 years old, but someone else's range might've been 7-8 years old, and someone else might've had the crucial time during 4-5 years of age. And because the effects/onset of myopia is delayed by months/years, the studies have so far not been entirely conclusive
@MenkoDany You also have people who inherit myopia genetically from their parents. I want to point out that there was a significant increase in myopia cases in a few countries like China, South Korea, and Taiwan. It was linked to the overly competitive education system and kids being in a cram school from dawn-to-dusk.
On the side note Nvidia's approach of increasing gpu prices could also work in this situation too😂
Nvidia doesn't need our peasant money when AI companies pay them millions monthly for GPUs
@@dacueba-gamesMoney is something that's never enough...
Thats true. And because GPU Chips are limited it makes more sense for them to sell them to AI companies instead of gamers since they will pay a lot more.
Most people game on their phones tho
Most chinese kids play on their phones
Outright banning or total restriction was never the answer. I'm living in the 'dry state' of India and I'm pretty sure we're the state with the most death by alcohol poisoning. As the proverbs said "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant". This is so true.
Never heard the saying, but I will use it
Gujarat has a very sophisticated black market of alcohol.
Any type of prohibition just prompts the creation of black markets to get around it. Americas 18th amendment prohibition or the war on drugs are both good examples of how this works at different scales.
Gujarat?
No. Stolen things are not sweet and secrets will rot you to the core ... What a disgusting proverb.
The sad reason behind the constantly failed ban in video games is mainly because the wide spread poverty disqualify children from any other "good" activities (free video game and time of a poor child are very cheap), and there is a general lack of those "good" activities. Also, ironically, lack of willingness to enforce labour protection law in China resulting in people, or more specificly, parents working extra hour with little or no additional pay, leaving no time for their children, is another major cause for the toxic gaming culture in China.
Remove "in China" from this comment and it becomes even truer...
I have a college classmate who has lived in an internet cafe for almost four years, and I don't even remember how many days he went back to school for classes.
His parents are middle school teachers, so do you mean his parents work overtime at school every day and don't have time to accompany him?
Therefore, it can only be said to be one of the reasons, but not all reasons.
@@Argus-ut8gi Teachers actually do a lot of overtime. You know, tests cannot be graded during class for the most parts. Same with preparing courses.
BTW, My classmate only paid 1 year's tuition in 4 years of college, and applied for an interest-free student loan for the remaining 3 years
It's not that he can't afford the tuition, but that he invested all the tuition money he brought from home into the game.
@@wai828how did you make that argus as link?
Completely with you on the final assessment - addiction itself is only a result of underlying issues. That was also the case with me as a kid. I skipped classes/school etc to just play games(CS and Runescape at the time), but when I got physically better and my mental health improved, I somehow, without even knowing, stopped playing completely.
You also don't have to stop playing to not be addicted. I almost entirely stop playing video games if I'm stressed for time like uni,. but when I'm on holiday opening Elden Ring and playing while calling with friends from abroad is always a fun experience. There are also a lot of fun multiplayer games to play.
Also, I firmly believe video games are really important children's interests in engineering tech and loads of other valuable skills. China is making a big mistakes here. I personally learned to build a PC when I was 13. learning how to choose parts and computers is an invaluable skill to have in the modern day that most people don't have.
honestly i play games to chat with my friend..without them i wouldnt play as much
I think the chinese had already analysising many options and chinese goverment do have many experts to help them to make a decision.
That's' your personal experience and anecdotal evidence.
Why do people think 10 yr Olds must have underlying issues. Introducing carefully designed crutches such as gaming and addictive technology is grounds for creating such underlying issue that builds upon each other. Same for minors, same for adults.
For those who play non-Chinese games, like on steam, they don't face any restrictions
there have been several cases online that kids actually wake their grandparents in the middle of the night to make them go throught the face verification just so they can continue to play the game. Imagine the guy monitoring seeing a 80 yo playing for 12 hours straight. 😂
People don't get individual 24hr monitoring. What does happen is the employees can skim through the data and look through those photos.
@@cubicinfinity2 they can set up red flags like 80 year old with so much time clocked in
@@abdiganiadenthis is honestly really sad. This sounds like an institution or a prison. There’s being harsh and then there’s this.
@@jalene150
Nothing "harsh" about protecting children from videos game adiction.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 The world may be going to ruin but at least there won't be any video game addiction. Problem solved I'd say
China when children game: 😡😡
China when children work in factories: 🙈🙈
All industrializing nations have child labor at some point. The west did the same. We just got done with it sooner. That’s the cost of moving from an agricultural, to an industrial society
I actually agree with the monthly spending limit, but even better would be to clacify loot boxes as gambling and let it be 18+ (and then also include a spending limit)
I mean 18+ is reasonable but a limit is dumb. Everybody should spend their money tas they want
I understand that, but if we are allowing gambling and addiction, then we need to help people as most people don't know what they are doing. The limit would be per game, I don't think there is a problem with that unless you are a whale who spends 1k or more per month @@prod999solo
Gambling is a disease. That should be elimanated
@@prod999solowell oh god... Some pepole just cant stop spending so i suport spending limit and age restiction but not playtime restiction
@@furdiburd So do we limit everything that can be seen as addictive then? Gonna limit how many beers someone can buy in a day or how many times someone can have sex?
Thank you for addressing the issue that gaming is just a coping mechanism. Gaming, phone addictions, or really most kinds of addictions are just coping mechanisms trying to escape actual disorders. I was very addicted to my smartphone. My mom took away my phone. Didn't work. I just got worse and didn't get back to my academic best at all. Now I've my phone and I'm doing decently academically. And it's because I know my issues and have tried to actually work on them with the help of different institutions.
Over the years, my screen time increased till it stabilized at a value. My productivity went up & down till it stabilized at a value. I don't feel that the two of them influenced each-other much. To me, screentime is an important method of stress-relief but before i had gadgets, i used to drown myself in books & magazines for stress-relief, so my lifestyle hasn't changed much over the years.
Except it isn't... It's addictive.
For some, yes it's an escape. For others, there is a trap effect (it's like cigarettes. You take a few puffs every so often.. suddenly, you start craving it)
"Just a coping mechanism" is too weak of an argument. We are talking about a country with 1.4 billion population that's on a decline. Gaming addiction is a real societal problem, especially on developing youth. And you can't help but be concerned of the future of the society where the majority is not even part of a working class, because if that happen you know that the society is about to decline. The approach isn't a total ban, but a curfew in gaming for youth. Digitization is a huge part of China's modern society, so the ban of mobile devices is a no-no. Instead, they give them a mandate that they're only allowed to play for a certain number of hours. As a person who's been addicted to games a lot of times in the past, you know that "that itch" won't go away unless you keep on playing to the point that you don't know when to stop. I've been through that and it affected me negatively in my studies during college days, delaying my future career over 2 years. If their youth were to develop a good self control early on in their life, don't you think it's a huge win for the society? And I think this isn't a "me" problem, because the collective "me" the size of China's youth is a serious matter.
Pretty much this if you become addicted to something you have some underlying problem. The other question with addiction is always are they harmful, do they disturb a healthy life style. And the other thing a lot of people dont understand addicted means the person cant do without that practical activity. Somebody who read books 4 hours a day can be addicted to it but its not necessary harmful.
That's the ideal move for a kid: to find competent help and guidance away from the parents.
As an autistic person, who get's quickly overwhelmed by too much stimulus, using the computer helps me regulate how much I'm exposed to certain things that stress me out. I have found a balance, where I do the amount of things I'm capable in the real world, I cook for myself, take regular walks and sometimes go out and meet people, but I also have a safe haven in my PC activity, where I watch youtube, play games and meet friends in discord in a much more controlled setting. While I do realize that the availability of the PC sometimes makes me less eager to branch out, I do think that I don't have a gaming or internet addiction, but rather that I've found a way to interact with the world in a way that I feel comfortable with, which very much wasn't the case, when I was in school and was forced to go out and socialize most of my day.
Similar circumstances here. Just because someone is in front of a screen doesn't mean they are wasting time. If authorities put this much effort into making cities better places to live and people less miserable maybe they won't try to escape reality in their spare time.
I do agree with your opinion that gaming addiction is usually a symptom of an underlying problem. In my youth, there was a time when I spent most of my free time playing video games. It was an unhealthy way of dealing with my depression at the time and distracted me from other problems in my life. If you want to limit gaming time for minors, simply taking away the video game is not going to solve the problem.
For me I'd play a lot of games as a kid, but I also played outside a lot and I liked going on walks.
It's only now that I'm physically disabled that I have days where I'll spend a majority of it playing games.
No but its the first step. Uninstall the games, address the issue.
@@JLydeckaThe first step is addressing the issue. If you push them into other coping mechanisms they could be worse.
Coping mechanisms don’t solve problems. To solve problems you need to be sober and have a healthy mind.
Addiction is a problem in itself. Just because addicts have other life problems doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t start by curing their addiction. They don’t have to solve all their other life problems before tackling addiction. That would be a dangerous mistake because their addiction would hinder their ability to solve their underlying problems.
@@bjorkzhukov3638 You're assuming that the problems that lead people to becoming addicts are individual problems that have to be solved by the individuals, instead of social issues that can only be tackled on a societal level. And we're talking about minors here. Literal kids. They don't have the maturity of life experience necessary to "solve their own problems".
From what I've heard, live streams are insanely popular in China too. I wouldn't be surprised if it has taken over a large part of the time and money that used to go towards games.
Sure, if video games specifically are the enemy, then they've made progress. If you however look at whether the population are spending less time on general entertainment or getting caught in addictions, then the results are likely not all that impressive.
Addiction to anything is actually a thing. So while it's true that there are more avenues now other than video games that can caught one's attention and be addicted to it, isn't it a good thing that during the time when the youth were playing under curfew helped them develop self restrain? I don't mind that the government think that video games are "evil", given that they have bad history with addiction. In fact, they're sidestepping on that and they allowed video games only with strict control, especially to youth.
This might be one of the worst cases of the government listening to it's people (those people being out of touch parents)
Bro just say you hate democracy
@@EggEnjoyer in a democracy the government would be voted out and no one would have implemented any policy that people actually wanted
@@EggEnjoyer a gang rape is a democratic act.
Democracy is good, and I don't think there is really a better system, but it is flawed and can be manipulated by ignorance and propaganda.
Says a 15 year old
When the virtual world is better than the real world
The virtual world is "better", because it's designed to be that way. To make it so pleasurable to the senses, that you keep coming back to it until you're addicted.
The but that digital world is just based off of the real world. There’s beauties and horrors in the real and digital worlds.
I mean you don't game just to suffer
But too much is not good bc electricity bills could Skyrocket
The state is trying to parent for the parents.
A genuinely informative and balanced, in-depth take at the history, development and current situation regarding the Chinese video games industry (in particular, mobile, online and subscription gaming) and legislation for it. Kudos.
Thank you for making a tech altar video in what feels like forever. Don't get me wrong, I also love, and watch the Friday checkout. However, tech altar's case study like videos are my favourite of the two.
The sad thing about china is that they missed out on what many would consider the golden age of gaming(90-2010). Now that gaming is taking off they missed out on creative complete experiences and instead are conditioned into playing mobile/ games that are hyper competitive with predatory GAAS models. Korea as well to a lesser extent. They’re the biggest market too so it’s having a negative effect on western markets as well
I don't really understand how China is able to prevent someone to play a pirated single player game in an Offline PC ?
They don't. The restrictions are only implemented in recent games or active games. They're all free always-online or subscription based games, so it's hard to pirate them.
Like how all the kids these days play Fortnite, kids there want to play the new popular thing. So even if they have tons of options in pirated games and offline games, they want to play the shiny popular game.
Also, good take in your opinion piece. When I have alternatives to gaming and dont feel that stressed, I dont even open my computer, and when I do it's to talk with my friends and specfically play with them and not just open the computer just because
As for addiction it would be interesting to see if the gaming addcited simply moved to other addictions instead. After all addiction is really a metaboilc problem within the person (dopamine dependence) that simply makes that person prone to ANY addiction. While people who don't have that are similarly resistant to all addictions.
Not really a “dopamine dependance” but you’re right about the addiction being shifted to something else-mainly due to stressors and boredom.
Most definitely did for me lol...
other addictions is not as bad as useless games, this is like opium.
Chinese kids are now addicted to tik tok etc as they don't have limits for now
As someone on the Autism spectrum, who in various points of my childhood had issues with excessive gaming, I can attest that at the very least there is a strong comorbidity between problem gaming and mental health/neurological conditions at large. My special interest as a child was turn based RPGs. Predominantly Pokemon, though nowadays I'm into other franchises. My friends and I mostly bond over video games or tabletop RPGs like D&D. About half of my friends are also on the spectrum and many of them also have video games as their special interest. I cannot say for certain whether or not video game addiction should be considered a condition unto itself. What I can say with confidence is that gambling addiction should 100% include addiction to loot-boxes in video games, loot-boxes should be regulated to the same extent as and in similar ways to other forms of gambling, and video games should at a bare minimum be regulated as another form of consumer media with special attention payed to its interactive nature.
Solid reporting and evaluation. A very level evaluation from someone with experience in both China and gaming. Going to Nebula now to watch the piece about China's actions in addressing abuses in the private educational system and issues of excessive pressure in the State schools..
You are one of the most balanced reporters on China issues, and hearing that you lived there, this makes a lot of sense.
Myself as a Chinese has devided opinion on this.
I do believe gaming addiction is a serious problem and it needs to be adressed. I am pleased that Beijing is determined to adress it, no matter the cost.
However gaming is also an industry that needs room to breath and grow. It is kind of satifying to see Chinese games are getting a chunk of the world market share. But hardly can we find Chinese masterpiece titles out there, despite the richness of our culture.
I hardly believe any kind of great games can be created by investors and designers who worry about censorship and constantly changing regulations.
Agree with you, I dont mind and even hope Chinese can develop our own gaming industry and no need to aways look at the western and Japanese games. Same thing like our own film industry, use to be dominated by Hollywood. Nowdays, most Chinese can look at our own movies proudly. As long as gaming is restricted to adults and not children, I think this is fine.
Multiplayer gaming, especially mmos, gachas, and whatever mtx thing is cancer, predatory, and should be eradicated. On the other hand, single player gaming industry in China and especially indies is healthy and should not be touched.
I miss the days in the early 2000s when all the kids in the neighborhood would have GBAs and have massive link parties in the park. Beijing was a gaming paradise and it felt healthy. We'd be physically interacting and would play other games besides videogames like football, rollerskating, and biking.
When it comes to cultural exports china is severely lacking. Japan has Anime and Korea has massively popular kpop and i thought gaming would become very influenced by china and chinese games. Unfortunately because the goverment attacks the developers and industry itself by limiting game releases it harms the cultural exports more than the game addicts its supposed to punish.
@@illliiiiillliii6265 So they're doing everyone a favor unlike Japan who export those games and animes to ensure that the weeb losers remain as such 😂
The problem is that the only types of games that can comply with these regulations are the online-only microtransaction gambling games. A game that runs entirely locally without an internet connection by definition can't sell you lootboxes, but it also can't report back the data these regulations demand so Genshin is the Chinese gamer's only option.
The whole concept is self-defeating. In order to have the level of control they want, the government is clearing space in the market for the worst kind of predatory game design. Banning game consoles had the same issue. They saved the country from the scourge of Wii Sports right as microtransaction-based mobile games were beginning their rise.
Offline games are not regulated lol. So why would they need to report? You see all those made in China games on Steam, those don't report to the government, completely unregulated. Actually all these "war against gaming" and regulation is very targeted and specifically "live service/multiplayer/online" games... because only those cause massive problems and not single player games.
Chinese government: WE MUST CURB VIDEO GAME ADDICTION!
some guy in a basement: Congrats ya'll just played yourselves
"Why spend time on games than you can spend same time working in factory"
- China
Based and Labourpilled
Dang, your videos are so good. Much appreciated, as always.
0:00: 🎮 China has a long history of regulating video games due to concerns about addiction and negative social impacts.
4:17: 🎮 China's attempts to regulate the gaming industry have been largely ineffective.
8:22: 🎮 China's government has implemented strict regulations on the gaming industry, resulting in decreased playing time for minors and increased enforcement measures.
12:24: 🎮 Excessive gaming regulation in China has received mixed opinions, with concerns about limited parental control, privacy issues, and the need to address underlying causes of gaming addiction.
16:18: 🎯 China's approach to tackling mental health and education pressures.
Recap by Tammy AI
Who asked?
@@crowxar😂 I and well over 100 others! If it ain't for you, keep it moving!
@@crowxar my country need to remove video games becase it made all of kids animal noise brain thots just like my school
-0:01 China hates Japan therefore vidya bad
@@ihateentertainment or why not resolve the underlying reasons why these kids become addicted to games?
or perhaps youre upset because you cant play those games?
I find myself being suck by video games and play it for hours and going to bed late because the game just grabs you. But i also had the same feeling in watching some TV series or even reading some mangas. Sometimes some media content will make want to consume it until i feel exhausted. After doing it i never really feel like seeing it again.
Oh for sure it’s everywhere. Even on youtube. Everything is designed like this because of greed.
@@iAmNothingness also because of enormous competition. If a company/business wants to survive, they often just MUST exploit some psychological weaknesses we humans have, to attract customers, and make them spend time in their games/consume whatever other kind of media they specialize in producing, and do their best to make people spend at least some money over that time.
Free-to-play games, usually of competitive genre, with elements of grind, are the most addictive and destructive on average, as far as I can see. And most profitable.
Actual engaging, relaxng, or somewhat educating interactive art, that games can easily be, are not any easier, and often harder to produce; they attract less funding since it's known that they are less profitable and investors (whoever they can be) would be better off investing in some more exploitative genres. They are harder to be kept "alive" for years or decades, like competitive games can be, - it takes more creativity, development resources and funds to keep delivering sequels of high quality that people will accept. While competitive or grindy service games don't even actually need any coherent and engaging plot, complex story, universe, whatever. It can be a nice bonus for fans but it's not required. Professional tugging on the consumers' psychological weaknesses is required, and maybe some decent, catchy, not off-putting visuals, and that's all. Oh, and also lots of clever advertisement, to stand out of hundreds, or now thousands of competitors who want to do the same.
A huge part of why games are largely like that, is also the fact that people often don't have much time to thoroughly engage in some artistic game world, which is usually required to actually enjoy them. While competitive/addictive free-to-play games know this fact and cleverly alow you to play short matches, lasting from ~15 to ~60 minutes on average. Engagement is not really needed, you don't need to learn much at first, only the basic game mechanics, which are made as simple as possible for newbies, while usually having deeper layers that unfold as the player keeps exploring it, to keep them unsatisfied, feeling inferoior to other players, wanting to catch up, collect more things, be more universal and mighty, or whatever else.
And also, free-to-play games are just... free. The way they are built, their business model, just allows that. That's basically cheating in a way. Why would one pay for something that they can't be sure they will like and accept the quality of, when there are so many free products to try "without" consequences of potentially wasting money on? That's a trick too, though, because free-to-play games generate much more income for developers on average, thanks for unfortunate souls that got hooked on it and keep spending money on, usually just to try to scratch the itch of standing out, being more powerful than other players, or whatever else they eventually pay and keep paying for. While others, who don't pay (there are lots of such people usually, the majority of players), have to experience slower progress compared to those who pay, see their characters in default, "boring" appearance, not standing out, and are just reminded constantly that they are inferior to those who pay, in little but persistent and sometimes mildly annoying ways. Still many do not pay, either due to total lack of money, due to not accepting to "pay for games", some principles, or whatever else, and I think it can hurt their self esteem and confidence in a way. For me it did for sure.
I am generalizing and simplifying, of course. The problem is a huge and complicated one.
To be honest, I think it all boils down to how the imperfections of how the human mind, society and capitalism, and maybe even this world, work; due to huge and growing competition, and due to games being made firstly as a business, and not as art. Although, art can be somewhat addictive too, any fiction can be. Especially to people who are having problems in life, feeling insecure or unfulfilled, and don't know how to change that.
Oh, and I must add to my previous message.
The gaming market, as well as movies and especially books I think, is very oversatieted. I mean, there are so many games to try, accumulated over the previous few decades (mostly the last ~15 years or so). The audience, its time and money, are dilluted over this enormous legacy. There are lots of older games that still have some or a lot of people online (or just playing them, in case of single player projects), who are not really willing to leave and switch to something new. Sure, most games of the past don't have as good graphics as the new ones. But gameplay-wise many of them are hard to surpass, with all the modern huge expectations.
New developers come into the industry, either for passion or for money, and have to find ways to compete with all of this legacy, try to catch people's attention, pull them out of the comfortable games they got accustomed to and keep playing for years, and make them try their projects, somehow.
Combine it with the falling fertility rates, less young players to become a potential audience, in countries where most gamers are, and the progress, "refreshment" becomes even harder, harder to compete with the legacy and create new and meaningful projects. I hope you get what I mean.
Also add mods, which add lots of play hours for people to keep enjoying older games, taking their time, attention, but usually not giving the mod developers any money for their skills and work, hence not funding the usually passionate and artistic developers.
Add piracy, which makes competition for game developers even harder if significantly widespread. Pressuring the prices of paid projects (not free-to-play, those actually are not affected by piracy at all in most cases, due to how they are meant to play) to lower even more, as people can literally get the product for free, and takes away the attention, play time and potential money with those people that pirated it. They spend time there, for free, not funding any further development, not trying other products they could have, it's basically lost to the economy. Again, I most likely expressed my thoughts a bit vaguely here, I just need to sleep now ;/
I think the world, the society works like that, in a way. Accumulating complexity, also mistakes and disagreements, slacking and lots of work spent inefficiently, until it all becomes too heavy to hold onto, unsolvable without drastic measures which usually are not taken even if understood, and slow or fast degradation begins, while the society is squeezed more and more dry (often voluntarily, due to the ongoing processes that people don't even think about or notice, not just due to some evil capitalists or government) to try and keep their level of life as it was, without doing the much needed changes, reforms, without slowing down and "taking a deep breath" to think about it all.
Games are super addictive
Yeah but they can be used as a coping mechanism.
Video games symbolizing dignity, honor and nobility. They stimulating brain activity. Gamers are smarter than the average person.
Both positively and negatively, for example some games may teach you good stuff while some other is literal Micro-transaction topia
Throughout the whole video, I just thought “they put too much pressure on those kids to be perfect, no wonder they are turning to video games”
My gaming enconter started from my mother idea that it would keep me away from the street since I was very social as a kid and always wondering around in the neighborhood. Her mission was accomplished and the silver lining is that I spend less money at home because I don't drink, party, go out, eat less, etc. The only thing that I have to spend my money is for the game and equipment and since I play in PC, a mouse and keyboard is enough
Cultivating kids hobby like yoga, swimming, reading, listen relax music in cafe, sleeping, charity, exercise to cope with negative emotion is crucial. Without proper way of addressing the negative emotion, people tends to go for binge watching and gaming. Also, ability to come out personal goal and work on it is another important element to cultivate since young. Don’t be too/over bossy around and ask your kid to be follower on instructions. They should have develop their own goal that bring meaning and value to themselves and society. Then, this kind of addiction can be reduce. If the kids fully band from games. They can easy addict in others like watching CZcams or bilibili. they can just simply find other source of short temp pleasure.
Also, the fact that they went after consumers to prevent addiction, rather than reigning in the addiction causing practices in video games itself, since they have such a big chunk of gaming market.
It already mentioned going after practices such as the loot boxes. Also this is only restriction for minors, supported by parents. Their actual consumers - the adult gamers - are not affected at all!
@@Ash-vv8zg Many people don't understand that the Chinese government's legislation to limit the gaming time of minors is essentially transferring the control over children's gaming time to their parents. If some parents are willing to allow their children to spend more time playing games, the children can easily do so using their parents' accounts.
I worked in network company, we went to address some issue in a small time gaming company here in India. Their I realised that one of the advisors to CEO aka consultant was actually behaviourial neurosciene with an additional degree in Economics. I DONT THINK FEW RESTRICTIONS BY GOVT WOULD BE BAD THING ESPECIALLY IN PROTECTING KIDS AS THE FAMILY STRUCTUTE BREAKS DOWN
Exactly. I completely agree with you.
China can’t crush desire for video games without offering most children an alternative like parks close to homes or team sports at schools.
They do... alternative stuff aplenty wherever you go
I think your most simple point is probably the most perceptive one. I think we can all agree that parks and teams sports are better than video games socially and physically. In a civilised world, offering alternatives is far more proper than banning I think
@@nedks11they are not banning tho, they are limiting for a certain age
Apparenlty they mostly switched to Just spending a lot of time on tiktok instead 😅😅
@@97CorviChinese TikTok is way different from western TikTok. I mean it’s still bad to scroll on that all day. But the content shown isn’t nearly as terrible as western TikTok
I think this strict limitation to 1 hour each Fri,Sat,Sun could kinda increase the stress for children as they than want to use these times as much as possible.
Like for example I personally don’t play that much so I sometimes do not play at all for a few weeks, but then in other weeks I might play 1 hour per day. All this depends on like wether or not I am busy, if I have other plans for my free time, Updates released etc. So here if It’s Saturday and I am like „I don’t really feel like playing the new update just now, maybe I’ll at least check it out next week“ while with the limitation I would be like „But if I don’t play now, I wasted one hour of this weeks playtime, so I better use it.“
Do you understand what I mean. (Sorry for my bad English, I’m not a native speaker)
The last quarter of this video is the best part. Thank you!
To understand this policy, it is first necessary to understand China's cultural background. In the past, China was very poor and people could only engage in manual labor. However, with the reform and opening up, the economy began to develop. Many parents hoped that their children would not have to endure the hardships they had experienced, so they encouraged their children to study hard from a young age, so that they could stand out from the crowd in the future. But excessive learning has caused great pressure on children. Some children have become bored with learning and become addicted to electronic games, resulting in poor academic performance and inability to attend good schools. As adults, they can only go to sweatshops to engage in physical labor, repeating the hardships their parents have endured.
But these parents who make their children tired of learning do not realize that their excessive expectations are causing their children to be tired of learning. They believe that their children's poor academic performance is due to their addiction to games, so they have been protesting to the government, demanding that all game companies be closed. Different from what most people imagine, the Chinese government will listen to the opinions of the people, so they have introduced game restrictions. However, this can only solve surface problems, because the most fundamental problem is that parents are busy with work and do not have time to accompany their children, parents lack communication with their children, their education is very rough, their children's grades are not good, they will insult their children, and often physically punish their children, and say to their children, "These are all for your own good. No wonder children escape reality and become addicted to games.
The government cannot directly blame these parents because China's current rapid economic development cannot do without their overtime work, so the government can only use game bans to cope with the situation.
After all, it's still because there are too many Chinese people. There is a famous saying in ancient China, "All things are inferior, only reading is high." This is a problem that Chinese society cannot avoid.
Also, this ban is actually very lenient. As long as parents actively provide their children with their real name authentication, children can play for a long time because the system authentication shows that the parents themselves are playing the game. I have seen many parents dislike their children's noise, so they voluntarily throw their phones at their children and let them play the game on their own.
Through these practical actions, you will find that game bans are only a temporary measure to address parents' complaints, and have no impact on adults and increasingly enlightened parents.
lol ONLY 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in high school? That is for super privilege students in Shanghai, Beijing . Right now, as the birth rate peaked at 2013, the high school admission and high school schedule is even more strict. A typical high school would starts from 7 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m. six days a week or even 13 days in two weeks. Some high school will push this even further. School admins try to compensate their lack of decent teachers with extra time at school, at least this is what I have concluded from my experience.
here in my country I go to school from 8:10 am to 3 pm from monday to friday, and I don't have to go to english lessons (I did the final english exam in my country and passed so I don't have to go) so now I have like 30 hrs of classes and maybe 10 hrs of homework every week
i think that in some way, locking spending limit, while very presciptive is also something that i can agree with. The rest however feels like it'll just backfire. I know that it'll backfire if it's done towards me for sure. but i feel like if you lock the spending and in turn put a cap on the income of most game company, the incentive for game companies to be predatory on both your time and your money will be lessen because no matter how hard they try, there's a hard cap for it
i grew up as a teen in china, I was there when they lifted the ban on foreign console with the generation ps4 xone. Yet chinese people were already playing games in internent cafés and never really switched to consoles. And the gaming culture was really different I used to be an intern for 2k games shanghai, they were developping games specific for the chinese market. because foreign games and the business model associated wasn't working at all. Chinese people would play on low end hardware if not browser, or mobile.
the gaming scene in china is huge but it is completely different from the western one. But also because of that it made it really hard for the chines gvnmt to control what where and when people played especially the youth.
My little brother went to chinese school, is in highschool now still chinese. to his mum demise and the ccp, he has absolutely no issues playing anything he wants for how long. It's like most bans in china, they will cutoff the data sources to prove a succes rather than cutting off the issue itself.
Aren't you under risk writing this comment?
@@gouthamanushprobably not
@@gouthamanush how so?
@@gouthamanushIt's China not North Korea lol
@@gouthamanushlol people have a clown view of China by brainwashing of the MSM
Ah, yeah, let the government parent the children, surely nothing would go wrong
I think the bigger issue is the perception by the government that the citizenry lack any sort of agency, and unfortunately the citizenry also accept that. I don't want to riff too much on the personal responsibility side because when taken to the extreme it allows for massive corporate abuse, but a balance must be made. People aren't chess pieces you can move or eliminate any time you like.
@@Moonstone-Reduxperfectly said
It definitely went wrong in the US. Most of gen z are now woke id*ots, acts like npcs and can't even answer simple math or general knowledge questions.
@@mao_tse_tung1921 For every complex problem in this world, there is a simple and succinct solution that is often wrong. Game companies are often one step ahead of your government officials when it comes to understanding why people want to play games and what pushed them over the edge to addiction. It is down to parents to understand their children and cultivate a healthy relationship with gaming in a way that fits their children better. We cannot attribute gaming addiction to some nebulous concept of the mysterious Chinese or Western (in itself a misnomer) soul and really understand this problem through proper observation and psychological studies.
A healthy human mind doesn't wake up one day and go "today I will get addicted to something". People get addicted because there was some pleasure in their life that they could not get outside of the addictive substance.
Hold corporations accountable, but understand that they may not be the whole problem.
What he said about education pressure is the real issue here. While education serves to add value by teaching skills and knowledge, conventional schooling also is a signaling mechanism that implies ability for future universities and employers. So parents want their children not just to learn but to beat their peers. So you end up with a system where parents need kids to perform ever better in standardised exams to get into more elite universities and continue getting stellar results so they can be attractive to the most desirable employers. As long as there will always be more desirable and exclusive professions/employers people will compete to get into the more exclusive/elite universities. As long as some university programs are more exclusive/elite/outright better than others, school children will compete to get better results on standardised testing. As long as you have some young people who either themselves are willing or their parents are willing to force them, everyone will be under intense pressure to study 12 hour days to get the best standardised test results.
I don't want a US style admissions process where the best institutions mostly don't admit on merit any more (if they ever did). I still believe in meritocracy but China and east Asia as a whole shows the pitfalls of what can happen when meritocracy is taken to its logical conclusion.
Okay but he also mentioned that China has cracked down on excessive education so clearly they're aware of the problem and are actively working to fix it.
East Asia also has much more competent political leaders than the west because of their emphasis on education and meritocracy
@@JS-ih7lu Education and merit only gets you so far. Your leaders also need to not want to only think of themselves above all else. Which is hard when a thing called "power corrupts is a thing".
mesmerizing video. great topic. China is one of those places where extremes can be found, whether in action or reaction. The choice of topic and delivery is aces. Great video.
You convinced me to get the lifetime subscription, I hope it'll really stay lifetime
Just to be clear, gaming is never banned if you are over 18 yrs old. And the rule is not simply ban children playing games, but limiting the time of playing within a scientific range that gaming is still beneficial for brain exercise but not enough to get addictions. A lot of students or children were exposed to additive games and ruined their future during the 1980s to 2000s. Currently the policy is only enforced on teenagers younger than 18, similar to alcohol policies all over the world. As for the reason for these strict import policy of games, it is mainly due to the prejudice that Western world saw China, which made up a lot of games story lines that degraded the reputation of China on purpose. Another reason is that some games are full of violence or dirty words and regulations play the role of game ranking or classification.
Agree with you, remember how angry western media was when Diablo Immortal wasnt in China yet, they made up stories like it was banned there with so much dirty politics. Personally believe that game should be banned.
The denial of media, in any form, from text to video games, is always a mistake. People turn to these things for leisure, and when other feasible leisure options are not available, productivity does not go up, it goes down, as the public becomes more desperate for escape.
Excellent content as always
Good video, great reporting. 👍
I think gaming in moderation is fine and the parents themselves should be able to regulate their kids playing games.
However I think microtransactions, in-game sales, gambling or similar stuff, should completely be outlawed.
I'm from Mexico. I grew up surrounded by video games and as an adult, I still play them. I find them more interesting than watching TV series and although I read a lot, I surely play more.
But my little nephews are not like that. They play sports, board games, put together Legos or puzzles... and on weekends we play videogames as a family. They occasionally play Fortnite on weekdays. China would be very pleased with them... not so much with me.
Brilliant video! Really well balanced
Mobile games should be regulated everywhere. One thing is 10 hour single player game, and another is 10000 hour mobile game where you can waste 10000$!
they should relax the strictness of the rules, for example, allow them to play at whatever time they want and increase the gaming limit to like 4 or 5 hours per day, and they also need to address the root issues that you mentioned.
@@user-yu9ih6bq5m an average Chinese kid is still smarter than the smartest adult in your country tho, why waste there potential in playing video games, I'm sure those kids will appreciate the rules when they grow up and become productive in actual skills not video game
At first I was like "another instance of hating on games for no reason", but since they actually had real addiction problems, I can understand that they want to sanction it harshly.
Nice insight! Köszi!
I used to play pirated NES games on a VCD like 20 years ago. Must ask for permission before play. Now I work at a Chinese game company programming games.
It's still crazy to know later that what I played in 2000+ is released in 1983.
i also as an avid gamer (though
Gaming for me has definitely was a way to escape sadness and depression and did used to play a lot. Most people would tell me I am addicted. But, I was not. When I needed to quit gaming like studying for exams and doing chores I could easily do it. So, to other it looked like addiction but I never was. It was just a way for me to escape from my negative thoughts.
China is the worst place to be as a kid. Gosh! I would rebel. But, I were born chinese, I would think that is the norm where you goto school 6am to 9am.. So, not knowing what freedom you dont have, maybe its hard to rebel.
They really didn't. The most recent academic research in this area suggests China's efforts actually haven't reduced their playtime at all. They certainly adversely affect their video game market, but they're definitely not stopping kids from gaming.
Hey man can you link your sources? I'd like to do some further reading
Fantastic video mate
Reason #1
Children in China have MONEY!
The Gaming Industry is aware of this and created the "Pay to Play" model.
Everything else can be branched off from here!
I wonder if time limits on how much you can game will lead to better games as developers start condensing experiences instead of making them intentionally too watered down to be time sinks!
There is very little room for “individual choice” for anything in China. The government acts like your typical, traditional parental figure who thinks they know what’s best for you and are looking out for you. Your job is to listen and obey. If you don’t agree, it’s your problem. Well, but then the reality is that the government is never actually your parent, and you should never treat your citizens as some dependent kids…
Have they tried encouraging more in-person socialization?
They will need to fix the 996 work culture first. Let parents be parents and not just workers who happen to have offspring.
But now China is in a siege mentality what with the trade war that is going on and its international standing being (not being completely undeserved) under attack. It's anyone's guess if they are willing to look to other countries for solutions or if they are willing to loosen up to realise better long term outcomes. Already a cult of personality is forming around Xi Jinping (if the term Xi Jinping thought doesn't send chills down your spine, I honestly don't know what will) they might already be driving off a cliff with all the social, demographic, and economic problems looming.
It's also funny how huge Tencent is and how big China's esports acene is
You're using the "grain of salt" metaphor wrong. It's the other way around: if you can't trust how good something is, you shouldn't put but a grain of salt in it to see if it's good, instead of salting it all the way, thus covering up its true nature.
went to nebula and it says $50 per month NOT $30... your video only came out yesterday. How can the price for annual membership increase so much in a single day?
One thing you missed in the video: despite these sources claim of success of limiting the gaming hours, they acknowledge that average time spent on short video socia media (e.g. TikTok) has skyrocketed, instead of, you know, having them participated in family activities.
This entire crackdown is yet another blatant display of excessive bureaucratic interference that ultimately achieved nothing.
From my experience my students (Chinese) don't play games for two reasons too busy with studies and their parents just outright don't allow them too. None of my students has mentioned anything about having facial recognition or any other systems that allow them to only play for a short time. One of my students actually plays a lot more than the 60 minutes a day.
Regarding the crackdown on private education, it's made it much worse for students in China. Before my primary school students would usually be back home at 5pm-6pm from school, now they are usually only home from school around 8pm-9pm (Some are worse than others). That is going to school at 7am or 8am. One of my high school students goes to school from 6am-9pm Monday to Saturday. Honestly I think this change is what caused the drop in gaming, though my nephew and niece keeps gaming/watching videos as much as they want.
Many people don't understand that the Chinese government's legislation to limit the gaming time of minors is essentially transferring the control over children's gaming time to their parents. If some parents are willing to allow their children to spend more time playing games, the children can easily do so using their parents' accounts.
@@cchen6522 I agree with you. At the end of the day, the children that end up playing video games instead of studying will find out the error of their ways when they are sweeping a street for a living.
The harder they try to ban gaming, the more they are going to encourage board games.
I have severe polin allergies. I can either play video games all day, or die of boredom inside.
When I was a kid I just use some random id number on internet to pass age verification and those bans on console never worked, like prostitute is banned but you can find them everywhere in China, you could find consoles in store pretty easily.
I wonder if it possible to educate kids through gaming and movies? We learn through texts and numbers at school, to me this is outdated when we have powerful gadgets around which can stimulate students through images, voices, and physic simulation.
It's crazy to think that China has actually been doing this for the sake of attempting to save its own people. They knew from the beginning what would happen, tried everything to stop it, and failed almost immediately. China has an extremely huge population while also having a massive country to spare, they had to take care of people one way or another.
It's NOT doing it for the "sake of attempting to save its own people". NOTHING the CCP does is for the good of the people, it's all propaganda, all polemics, all just authoritarian control.
Because how can business keep exploiting workers for super cheap labor when people keep having so much fun in their free time. Thanks China
They also literally flooded a ton of people when it rained very hard and fuck up Hong Kong, so I’m. 101% sure they’re not doing that for the sake of the people
I think you can also talk about esport in Asian Game right now in Hangzhou. They do have esport as an event and it is being broadcasted on state TV
I actually think China had fair gaming regulations during 2019 for high school. Maybe a bit harsher than China on week days and possibly less harsh on weekends for high school, that's actually very reasonable. I don't actually game as much as I used to anymore, I definitely game a lot during the weekends (my friends haven't been getting on for a while though sadly), but on the weekdays my gaming is often very low.
Limiting spending amounts for minors might not be a bad idea if lootboxes aren't made illegal for minors.
Good job for very objective and balanced analysis and comment! Very rare to see it from a foreigner. Most of them usually show obvious bias, either favor or anti China for everything - either everything is good, or everything is evil. It's great to find someone with real experience living in China sharing unbiased insights! Love it! BTW, I as a parent, do not like the regulations on games at all, but the crashing private education business thing was a good job done!
The last time the Chinese government interfered with things that were not well understood and researched by experts in the field, it ended badly. they can prohibit and suppress playing games, as is human nature, humans will look for every way to achieve something. and the Chinese government is also killing the economic potential and technological development of the gaming industry.
Interesting to see that also China experience that bans and sanctions backfires. Anyway interesting that the Chinese acknowledged the problem so early.
The one child policy that was for many years the rule in China was one of the reasons that this addiction happened so widely too. Many kids still grow up without a sibling, many with their grandparents since both of their parents working and with no outdoor activities with friends because except the school time they don't socialize a lot after they come back home. So, gaming is starting as way to not feel alone. Even if they have strict rules on gaming, consoles like Switch, Ps5 and x-Box are sold freely in every mall and in Switch for example cannot be controled because of the offline games. Also, other media platforms like TikTok, Douyin here, gained more popularity from minors after this ban. That means that the addiction problem still exists, just changed platform and way.
If the Chinese government really wanted to completely ban videogames, they could have done it with their current technology and policies. The CCP is clear that it looks down on videogames but they cannot openly admit that the gaming industry can greatly benefit the country's economy.
Good observation about the psychology behind videogame addiction. There's a high likelihood that videogames serves more of an escape.
they cannot just outright ban something, although video games has demerits but only when consumed excessively, they only wanted to reduce the addictiveness of it
Outright ban makes no sense when those CCP politicians have kids and grandkids who like to play games... they gonna be outraged too. It's same like smoking, CCP also hate smoking and tries to reduce smokers but when many of their friends and family members are addicted to it you can't really ban because it will cause social unrest...
Gamers are truly the most persecuted class.
i think the curfew one would help alot, something alot of children these days have trouble with, sticking to a time table, or managing their time. 40 years ago, having a time table in our life was a normal thing, now people can't even imagine it.
I also like that they keep trying different things, if it doesnt work they just abort it and try other stuff, in my country they just debate about it over and over and over again.
Uh Oh I just realised we've had video games for 50 games, damn! That makes some of us who bought Atari's and Pitfall brand new feel quite old!
Apart from gaming companies trying to make their games addictive , I wonder if the human tendency for eating the forbidden fruit has any role in this.
been long since we got these kinds of vidz
Kids can play games. The problem is people who think micro transactions, free to play gambling simulators, and asset flips are actually games. This includes parents who are paying for this trash that no one should be touching. China has only ever blocked Steam community but not their store, because their store does not sell as much scams in China as Chinese companies do. There were thousands of scam games in China and now new AAA games everywhere are nothing but scams. Anyone who even reads about games know that they want you to pay for them months in advance, are unplayable for a year after release, and never deliver on their promises. And the have loot boxes that hide the costs of things, all the while bait and switching you with useless crap. Kids and adults alike keep dropping more than their monthly salary on shit with no real gameplay. Also Nintendo games are expensive everywhere, so the import tariffs means nothing to kids playing games.
I grew up in the late 90s , I loved my games but I guess I was lucky to have been from a very small town with a vibrant community and playgrounds all around with crazy af friends 😅. Thus my point would be Gaming isn’t an issue but availability to a good environment, community & infrastructure is.
best comment so far. you hit the nail my friend
The implementation isn't great, but I totally agree with the spirit, too much social media and video games, are definitely causing large issues on an individual and societal scale, for both children and adults. Unfortunately here in the west no government is taking any real action to reduce these problems.
that's because we have FREEDOM!
Yea, when I was younger Ralph Nader was a well known public safety advocate that is credited for returning a lot of automobile regulations.
These days consumer protection is considered Communist. Nobody even uses their phones anymore because of robocallers. Forget about social media.
Usually content or news about china seems to be sensationalized but this seems very well presented, great vid
I think this policy was in tandem with the private educational market ban so as to create more time for families. We'll see in a generation how this worked out.
I really don't think they have been as successful as they think. I would guess that a lot more gaming has gone offline to avoid monitoring. There are SO many small gaming devices made in China for retro gaming and emulation.