Chinese Government Says No to Teenager Gaming Addiction

Teenager Gaming Addiction is considered as a big problem for global gaming industry. Probably, game companies do not suffer from it, instead they dedicate to making their games more addictive. Anyway, games are a kind of pastime, and parents should not let their children indulge in a virtual world every day. Online games' high interaction and good gameplay are more likely to make teenagers of weak self-control and even adults not tear themselves away from those games. Some vivid examples can be found easily in real life.
Today, Chinese government has taken an important step in online game anti-addiction by combining game rating system with real-name system so as to strengthen supervision and control. This new real-name system has been implemented in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (CN) for the first time.World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (CN) adopts the 15+ rating mode and requires all players to register with their real names. Players under the age of 18 will be restricted differently. It is learnt that the real-name system is very strict. Aside from being monitored by the anti-addiction system, players under 15 years old are unable to experience the fun of new regions in the new expansion.Rated 15+ For the First TimeNetEase put up an announcement on its official site, "According to Chinese Online Game Law, all the gamers need to register using their real name for playing World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. We will take technical measures to prevent gamers under 15 years old from visiting the expansion content. Gamers who are between 15 and 18 years old are allowed to enter the game under the protection of minor-related measures."
The game requires players to input their real names and ID numbers while creating or binding a WOW account. It is said that the game company will verify players' names and ID numbers. If their entries are incorrect or not matching, their accounts will be brought into the anti-addiction system. As a result, those players cannot have a taste of the game content.Unreal-name Players Are Refused"A ship packed with players was heading for the North Pole, but half of them disappeared all of a sudden…" A WOWer shared his funny story in a forum. It is revealed that the other half players were refused by the anti-addiction system as a matter of fact. "Don't mention it, my character was put under the control of the anti-addition system for my ID card expired, I created a new character aiming to go to the new region, but finally I was teleported to where I had been." Quite a lot of players made various complaints on the Internet. As expected, players under the age of 15 are not qualified to enter the new regions of "Wrath of the Lich King" and will subject to supervision by the anti-addiction system. Although players aged 15 to 18 are allowed to experience all game content, they are also the targets of the anti-addiction system.Additionally, if only parents of players who have not yet reached 18 years of age contact the game company, provide the ID number used for registering an account and present documents to prove their relationship (residence registration table), they can apply for restricting their children' gaming activities.