China said it would issue stricter regulations on online gaming in an effort to clamp down on the undesirable aspects of the industry.
” In the next five years, China’s online gaming industry will reach a turning point where ‘green’ games will be appreciated and encouraged,” Kou Xiaowei, deputy director of the audio-visual and Internet publication department of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) said according to China Daily.
Kou said the GAPP will issue more rules for domestic online gaming companies, because some games promote killing and gambling in order to attract users and increase profits. “Although China’s online gaming industry has been hot in recent years, online games are regarded by many as a sort of spiritual opium and the whole industry is still marginalized by mainstream society,” Kou said.
The number of online gamers reached more than 40 million at the end of 2007, an increase of 23 percent over the previous year according to research firm IDC and The China Publishers Association. The online gaming market grew 61.5 percent to 10.6 billion yuan ($1.47 billion).
Media reports about users becoming addicted to online games along with fatal fires in Internet cafes led to the release of a policy last year asking online game operators to discourage all players under age 18.
Liu Bin, chief analyst of research firm BDA China, said online gaming companies will not be heavily impacted by tougher regulations.
“I don’t think the GAPP will introduce policies such as banning gaming companies from setting up gambling systems in their games in the short term, because it is hard to identify the wrongdoers among hundreds of games,” he said.
