Delicate Balance in a Virtual World

A crude, online video in China called The War on Internet Addiction was likened to the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar after it received more than 1.32 million hits in just three days.

Pieced together with footage from the popular role-playing game World of Warcraft, the 64-minute video was all the rage among discontented online players for insinuating that China's government had denied a license for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Warcraft had been immensely popular in China before being blacked out for weeks last summer during a dispute between two regulatory agencies over licensing, and business clashes between game operators NetEase and The9.

The video's closing monologue called on authorities to approve the game and return "gaming freedom" to online players.

For many online game players, the blackout was tantamount to suspending a shadow life they preferred in a virtual world filled with freedoms, equality, fantasy, competition and fraternity – and sharply different from the disappointments of real life.

Similar attitudes can be found among all kinds of online gamers in China. A 2009 survey by the China Internet Network Information Center found more than 69 million players in the nation's online gaming community. Among those surveyed, 30 percent said they played for "a sense of achievement," while about the same amount said they were most interested in "meeting friends."

Among China's virtual world players – a throng larger than the population of France – about 81 percent are between ages 10 and 29. This is the age group whose members were raised in an era of strict family planning, usually without siblings.

Many players seek a spiritual outlet through the virtual world. They are responding to a world of growing affluence and pressure from a test-oriented education system, weak employment prospects, high housing prices and lonely lives. They turn to the Internet for relaxation and a sense of freedom.

"The real spiritual world is barren," said Li Chuan, a young Warcraft player and artist at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. "In reality, there are too few outlets for spiritual freedom."

Race to Regulate

Player sentiments don't exactly match the views of gaming regulators in the Chinese government. Consider, for example, that authorities in 2009 started using the negative catchphrase "Internet addiction," and followed up with studies and new regulatory decisions.

The China Youth Internet Addiction Report issued last year by the China Youth Internet Association said the nation's urban youth Internet users – 24 million people – make up 14 percent of those addicted to the Internet. Of these, 14.3 percent are between ages 13 and 17. The report also said players ages 10 to 19 constitute the largest percentage of overall online game users – 46.1 percent.

The report came two years after national regulations led to the launch of an online game "fatigue prevention system." Since then, each online user is required to provide his or her citizen identity when registering to play a game.

The playing behavior of users under age 18 is closely monitored by an Internet supervision system. After playing for a so-called "healthy" period of three consecutive hours, a young person's in-game benefits are progressively reduced. But youngsters can easily beat the system by using an adult's identification number.

Worries over "values" tied to online games are driving games regulation. Liu Yusu of Peking University's Cultural Industries Institute Animated Games Research Center, which provides technical support for gaming regulators at the Ministry of Culture, said some experts who overseeing the game World of Warcraft think "some Western values, such as ‘winner takes all,' are not conducive to the building of a harmonious society."

Dr. Yang Shaojie at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital's Social Work Department, doubts Internet addiction is a mental illness but agrees it's "a social problem."

"When closing a door on these so-called Internet addicts," Yang asked, "is another window opened for them in the real world?"

Liu said the problem is that gamers are "just becoming absorbed entirely in one thing. It's the same whether the Internet is there or not."

Classifying online games is relatively common suggestion for protecting users and improving oversight. Internationally, Liu said, games are usually classified by companies and trade associations so that "the government doesn't need to intervene."

But in China, the government has been regulating online games since 2002. An overhaul for the entire government regulatory system in 2008 and a debate over licensing World of Warcraft last year revealed friction between the culture ministry and the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP). These regulators today take different positions, but neither treats online games as games. Instead, they are handled as cultural products and publications.

Content review standards are strict. Regulators check to make sure a game does not violate Chinese law by, for example, containing material that endangers national unity, incites ethnic hatred, promotes cults and superstitions, or slanders. Meanwhile, regulators are supposed to selectively open doors to outstanding cultural products from other countries but block harmful foreign culture.

The culture ministry's online games content review committee consists of 53 experts from the fields of education, psychology and the Internet, as well as legal experts, parents and entertainment sector executives.

The culture ministry and a variety of law enforcement agencies used their powers against Internet game violations, including illegal website activity, 87 million times in 2009. But the violations uncovered by authorities represent only the tip of the iceberg of illegal activity.

For now, regulators are trying to tighten the fence in hopes of preventing harmful gaming. The culture ministry has proposed strengthening regulations, and has required online game companies to reduce violent content.

Additionally, the ministry requires limiting game features that hinder the development of ethics and values among minors. Meanwhile, GAPP has promised to focus on strengthening pre-approval management of online games in 2010.