China to ban online gaming, in-game chat with foreigners outside Great Firewall(taiwannews.com.tw)
taiwannews.com.tw
China to ban online gaming, in-game chat with foreigners outside Great Firewall
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3916690
115 comments
> This needs a better source.
There won't be any better source. China will never publish these measures as laws or regulations, not in clear text nor formally acknowledge such "ban"h exists. It's an obscure code of conduct to extort companies in private sectors for "bad behaviour".
And yes it will be arbitrary enforced, the "ban" will differ from time to time and varies between provinces.
There won't be any better source. China will never publish these measures as laws or regulations, not in clear text nor formally acknowledge such "ban"h exists. It's an obscure code of conduct to extort companies in private sectors for "bad behaviour".
And yes it will be arbitrary enforced, the "ban" will differ from time to time and varies between provinces.
Then how does any one know if it is fake news or not. This is not up to journalistic standards..
The only "proof" is some random screenshot from IM chat groups. I think journalist can write a headline like "Chat screenshot shows China tightens gaming ban" but it will be less clickbaity.
Title and article is misleading, as usual, alas. Being a Chinese gamer/coder is hard, everywhere you turned there's no less of anti-china content shove down your throat, at the same time an authoritarian regime squeeze on the other end.
We get it, 1940s there's mass slaughter, 1980s crazy things happened when there's a nutjob in charge. It's a country with 5000 years of history and 1.4 billion people each with life stories living and thriving, and a govt having bag of problems just like everywhere else. But, to some people, like youtube/github/stackoverflow still not enough to tell me I'm less of a human being, my family my friends and our beloved dog are being 'slaughtered',
serisouly Animal Crossing?
We get it, 1940s there's mass slaughter, 1980s crazy things happened when there's a nutjob in charge. It's a country with 5000 years of history and 1.4 billion people each with life stories living and thriving, and a govt having bag of problems just like everywhere else. But, to some people, like youtube/github/stackoverflow still not enough to tell me I'm less of a human being, my family my friends and our beloved dog are being 'slaughtered',
serisouly Animal Crossing?
Sorry, I must nitpick. Egypt and Iraq has 5000 years of history. China has 3000. Your first written record came in 1250 BC, latter day Shang dynasty. On the other hand at the same date Eastern Mediterranean has five great historical civilizations already, though nearly all perished in a collapse. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, and Anatolian Hittites.
I’m sorry people are being so shitty. Some of us understand that we should direct our ire towards the CCP, not towards Chinese people in general.
>> One-player online games will also be subject to surveillance, as a new real-name mechanism is going to be implemented in China. Also, the new law will not allow for zombies and plagues, map editing, roleplaying, as well as organizing a union in games — regulations which are believed to be inspired by the sensitive content made by Joshua Wong.
Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
It would be hilarious if it were zombies or map editing/mods.
It's amazing that Joshua Wang's actions have resulted in the game being made unavailable for an entire nation. Banning the entire game is also an incredible example of the streisand effect.
Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
It would be hilarious if it were zombies or map editing/mods.
It's amazing that Joshua Wang's actions have resulted in the game being made unavailable for an entire nation. Banning the entire game is also an incredible example of the streisand effect.
> Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
Nothing will be the breaking point short of political revolution. The CCP has gladly murdered its' own citizens by the thousands before and they will gladly do so again to maintain power. That's how authoritarian regimes work. Combined with the fact that they are powerful enough geopolitically that no other nation will do anything about it, China is set on its' dystopian nightmare future.
Nothing will be the breaking point short of political revolution. The CCP has gladly murdered its' own citizens by the thousands before and they will gladly do so again to maintain power. That's how authoritarian regimes work. Combined with the fact that they are powerful enough geopolitically that no other nation will do anything about it, China is set on its' dystopian nightmare future.
> The CCP has gladly murdered its' own citizens by the thousands before and they will gladly do so again to maintain power
That may be happening now via the virus. China's case count is still around 80k, where it has been since the virus started taking off elsewhere.
Millions died in Mao's "Great Leap Forward" and then again later in his "Cultural Revolution". Not only did he lead the country through two periods of extreme death and famine, but also he is still an icon to many in China. Xi could very well do the same thing.
That may be happening now via the virus. China's case count is still around 80k, where it has been since the virus started taking off elsewhere.
Millions died in Mao's "Great Leap Forward" and then again later in his "Cultural Revolution". Not only did he lead the country through two periods of extreme death and famine, but also he is still an icon to many in China. Xi could very well do the same thing.
> China's case count is still around 80k, where it has been since the virus started taking off elsewhere.
Many of the Chinese economic growth and development stats are fudged or are often unconsidered unreliable. I don't know why people think they'd be any more truthful about a case count.
Wuhan does have a reputation of being the #1 source of Chinese punk bands tho.
Many of the Chinese economic growth and development stats are fudged or are often unconsidered unreliable. I don't know why people think they'd be any more truthful about a case count.
Wuhan does have a reputation of being the #1 source of Chinese punk bands tho.
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I think the implication of the grandparent is political revolution.
Personally I think it's a little unlikely at the moment because of China's surveillance state and generally rising standards of living in China over the last couple decades, but FWIW the Syrian Civil War was started over graffiti.
Personally I think it's a little unlikely at the moment because of China's surveillance state and generally rising standards of living in China over the last couple decades, but FWIW the Syrian Civil War was started over graffiti.
As the lockdown showed, many people are happy with authoritarianism if they think their government is keeping them safe and well fed. Only until the majority starve will there be revolution.
I can't disagree more -- I am completely following all social distancing in California. Staying home, only going out when necessary, having virtual gatherings with friends. I'm also supporting our government enforcing these policies for others. But it's absolutely not because I trust our government to keep us safe, nor do I trust them to decide to keep people home. I trust the greater scientific community, and my own due diligence in understanding the issue, and am making an informed decision.
I abhor the fact that people are protesting the stay-at-home order en masse in some states, but I believe that they're looking at it from the same perspective as me. I feel it was a failure of their education to not understand the issue, and that they're doing the rational thing if they believe they're being forced into authoritarianism. I also believe they're doing the rational thing since we have very little social support system for many of those people, but that's beside the point.
If the government made all guns illegal and said "we haven't gotten rid of all guns from the streets, you must stay home or risk being shot by rogue gunmen, with a fine of $1000 for leaving home", I would also be protesting in the same way as those people today.
I can't speak for other countries, but people in the U.S. are very opposed to being told what to do, especially by their government. Most are okay with it in a pinch for a short while, but I don't think any sort of authoritarianism is going to fly in the U.S. long term.
I abhor the fact that people are protesting the stay-at-home order en masse in some states, but I believe that they're looking at it from the same perspective as me. I feel it was a failure of their education to not understand the issue, and that they're doing the rational thing if they believe they're being forced into authoritarianism. I also believe they're doing the rational thing since we have very little social support system for many of those people, but that's beside the point.
If the government made all guns illegal and said "we haven't gotten rid of all guns from the streets, you must stay home or risk being shot by rogue gunmen, with a fine of $1000 for leaving home", I would also be protesting in the same way as those people today.
I can't speak for other countries, but people in the U.S. are very opposed to being told what to do, especially by their government. Most are okay with it in a pinch for a short while, but I don't think any sort of authoritarianism is going to fly in the U.S. long term.
The French have a saying - “revolution is only three meals away.”
So, Lenin is French now?
I have heard this attributed to Lenin but I've also seen other earlier and/or different attributions to it, so /shrug
The Syrian civil war was started over bread and unemployment.
It's not a dystopian future anymore, it's the present reality. The nightmare has been realized.
> Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
If anything, I believe this will be used to create more anger towards the democracy movement in Hong Kong. Blaming these restrictions on them because they are endangering “national security”.
I remember when PUBG got “banned” in China, there wasn’t any real backlash against it. People are still playing it, although only against Chinese players.
If anything, I believe this will be used to create more anger towards the democracy movement in Hong Kong. Blaming these restrictions on them because they are endangering “national security”.
I remember when PUBG got “banned” in China, there wasn’t any real backlash against it. People are still playing it, although only against Chinese players.
Certainly Streisanded me straight into looking up who this Joshua Wong fella is who made some so called "sensitive content". Must be too irritating to sensitive thin skin types
https://hongkongfp.com/2020/04/15/activist-joshua-wong-troll...
You'd think so but as we see in the US again and again as well these days, breaking points are well past what people believe.
>>Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
Their policy must be to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it
Their policy must be to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it
> Something will be the breaking point for this level of restriction/overreach in the name of surveillance.
Ever since WWII, with Marxist scholars observing that Nazi states don't receive the unrest (to them: class struggle) that we'd otherwise expect it to have, they've strongly suspected that cultural hegemony goes a long way to preventing unrest.
This comes especially into relevance when you consider that the CCP is in a position of cultural hegemony with respect to its citizens to an extent that free societies simply aren't.
The more China is able to prevent its people from accessing actually trustable institutions, the stronger its citizens obedience to it.
You say Streisand effect, but this is very greatly weakened when the state controls the most powerful communication platforms, and have suppressed communication media that it doesn't control.
Ever since WWII, with Marxist scholars observing that Nazi states don't receive the unrest (to them: class struggle) that we'd otherwise expect it to have, they've strongly suspected that cultural hegemony goes a long way to preventing unrest.
This comes especially into relevance when you consider that the CCP is in a position of cultural hegemony with respect to its citizens to an extent that free societies simply aren't.
The more China is able to prevent its people from accessing actually trustable institutions, the stronger its citizens obedience to it.
You say Streisand effect, but this is very greatly weakened when the state controls the most powerful communication platforms, and have suppressed communication media that it doesn't control.
>Wang's
It's actually Wong.
Admins please edit title for clarity:
China to ban online gaming with, chatting in-game with foreigners outside Great Firewall.
Right now the title is very misleading and I was concerned that even on WeChat I wouldn't be able to talk to my Chinese friends.
China to ban online gaming with, chatting in-game with foreigners outside Great Firewall.
Right now the title is very misleading and I was concerned that even on WeChat I wouldn't be able to talk to my Chinese friends.
Banning chat between Chinese and non-Chinese on WeChat only seems like a couple small steps down the slope, so I wouldn't be so sure your concern was misplaced.
WeChat is already very heavily moderated and surveilled. The CCP's issue here is that gaming platforms hosted overseas are not.
it would be a big step, because it would make it much harder to do business with Chinese companies
You're using wechat?
Very brave of you.
Very brave of you.
Why?
I naively assumed the amount of spying going on on the platform was common knowledge, my bad.
And sure, no reason not to use it, as long as you're 100% certain you're never going to utter anything on the platform that isn't 100% aligned with the CCP party line.
And sure, no reason not to use it, as long as you're 100% certain you're never going to utter anything on the platform that isn't 100% aligned with the CCP party line.
I'm well aware, but chatting with friends about daily life hardly is of interest to any spies
You're vastly underestimating what modern AI can guess about you given enough "chatting with friends" data volume.
And we're not talking about spies here, we're talking about a centralized, tyrannical government building a detailed personality profile of you to make sure you are and will remain a well behaved sheep.
Google "chinese social score" if you want to know more.
And we're not talking about spies here, we're talking about a centralized, tyrannical government building a detailed personality profile of you to make sure you are and will remain a well behaved sheep.
Google "chinese social score" if you want to know more.
There should be local models which can alert a citizen if they’re about to say anything remotely government related.
The Chinese firewall is looking less like a method of tyrannical control, and more like a ridiculous attempt at troll-shielding an easily manipulated populace.
https://youtu.be/xN0vUlljX0I?t=120
https://youtu.be/xN0vUlljX0I?t=120
The chinese themselves actually prefer playing on local servers due to the amount of shit talking they get while playing on global servers. Unending amount of Tiananmen copypasta and free Hong Kong slogan its sickening.
Source: voicechats on csgo
Source: voicechats on csgo
Good.
They lag hard and they seem to hack and use cheats at higher percentages than non Chinese. There are lots of movements to segregate Chinese players onto their own servers in games like DotA 2 and Cs:go. The CCP decided that the people who spam the copypasta about how bad the CCP is were actually making an impact.
China literally got trolled out of video games - but it's because they trolled the world first. Reap what you sow...
They lag hard and they seem to hack and use cheats at higher percentages than non Chinese. There are lots of movements to segregate Chinese players onto their own servers in games like DotA 2 and Cs:go. The CCP decided that the people who spam the copypasta about how bad the CCP is were actually making an impact.
China literally got trolled out of video games - but it's because they trolled the world first. Reap what you sow...
Few years back I would occasionally run into groups of Chinese players that were creating 'bigger teams' in PUBG (usually you play team as team of 4 deathmatch with 100 players). They must have bigger groups queuing at the same time with same type of cosmetics to form bands of up to 12 players.
Its a lot of 'fun' to play 4 v 12. Trust me. </s>
As bad as it sounds I am glad they will be kept out by their own government.
Its a lot of 'fun' to play 4 v 12. Trust me. </s>
As bad as it sounds I am glad they will be kept out by their own government.
I don't doubt it. Like I said, troll-shielding. The more interesting consequences of that don't happen in game chats though. The censorship apologists come out in force in the wake of a competitive player being banned for publicly supporting the HK protesters was a good demonstration of that. They were clearly struggling to understand the value of free-speech, and the fact that those accustomed to it are unaffected by "You wanna hurt my national pride?! Well I'm glad 9/11 happened! See, free speech is bad!"
Really just limited to Animal Crossing - I'm guessing because they can't effectively monitor information on the platform.
Dodgy article title.
Dodgy article title.
Related: https://time.com/5818993/animal-crossing-china-removed/ "Hong Kong Protesters Spread Democracy Messages on Animal Crossing. Now It's Gone From a Huge Chinese E-Commerce Site"
Huh. It says that /after/ banning animal crossing it’s taking it to the extreme to block users. Which I take to suggest they will be applying it to other games.
> One-player online games will also be subject to surveillance, as a new real-name mechanism is going to be implemented in China. Also, the new law will not allow for zombies and plagues, map editing, roleplaying, as well as organizing a union in games — regulations which are believed to be inspired by the sensitive content made by Joshua Wong.
I'll admit the article isn't exactly well written which makes me have trouble trusting it. But doesn't the above quote imply that they are in fact censoring other video games than Animal Crossing.
I'll admit the article isn't exactly well written which makes me have trouble trusting it. But doesn't the above quote imply that they are in fact censoring other video games than Animal Crossing.
> I'm guessing because they can't effectively monitor information on the platform.
I not sure about this. Usually, they won't let a social platform operate without a self-censoring team, I guess they will force gaming platforms to do the same.
I not sure about this. Usually, they won't let a social platform operate without a self-censoring team, I guess they will force gaming platforms to do the same.
Comrade Xi: so many exciting things to borrow from North Korea or Russia!
I'm wondering how certain game companies will react to this because they kept censoring and changing games to please China for a market they might now lose to some extent.
I really wonder what censoring Animal Crossing will teach chinese children? Thinking about growing up knowing that so much is wrong and that even children can’t have a critical voice?
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aorth(8)
What the fuck is wrong with China?
Please don't post unsubstantive comments or flamebait to HN. It's not what this site is for.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> What the fuck is wrong with China?
Root cause: Confucius and his teachings.
Root cause: Confucius and his teachings.
I came here to say this. If you want to predict how the CCP will behave, the first step is to get a good understanding of Confucianism then work up from there.
Ironically, during Cultural Revolution, Mao wants to get rid of CCP and Confucius altogether. The extremists pushed for populism and direct democracy.
Dictatorship. They sense--rightly or wrongly--that they can get away with more repression so they try it.
Covid has been, like 9/11 to us, a great way to introduce police state measure in a lot of countries.
Covid has been, like 9/11 to us, a great way to introduce police state measure in a lot of countries.
This would've been a welcome move back when vanilla world of warcraft servers were still a thing.
Could these be the drivers?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22885689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22886182
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22885689 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22886182
Also they'd be more nuanced now. They will likely ask/force Nintendo to crackdown than doing it themselves..