nighttime-shutdown
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Korea to impose gaming curfew to curb minors' playtime
The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced two new policies aimed at stifling so-called video game addiction among the country's youth. Dubbed the "nighttime shutdown," users ages 19 and under of certain online games will be required to select one of three mandatory six-hour blackout periods set for the middle of the night, during which a user would be barred form online access to the particular game. The blackouts will be instituted for a number of popular online games, such as Maple Story, in the second half of this year. Additionally, testing of a second, "slowdown" policy has already begun, affecting four popular pastimes, including Dungeon Fighter Online (pictured above). The system is said to "drastically" reduce the internet speed of any underage user logged into a policed game for an unspecified but "lengthy" play session, according to The Korea Herald. Eventually, this dys-functionality will be rolled into 19 RPG titles, representing 79 percent of Korea's online game market. Some affected game companies have questioned why equally popular MMOs, such as Lineage, have not been marked for regulation. (Good question.) For years, South Korea has identified and sought treatments for "game addiction," which continues to be a major headline generator in the country and abroad. Critics of the new playtime enforcement policies believe that underage players will inevitably find ways to get around the shutdowns and slowdowns, suggesting that even unprecedented government intervention is not a reliable solution. That is, until the government sends its army of guys with bats to your door. [Via Massively]
Korea institutes nighttime shutdown for underaged MMO players
"You've been playing long enough, it's time to do something else now." It's a statement you'd expect to hear from your parent, but from your government? The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has introduced a set of policies known as "nighttime shutdown" for underage users -- an enforced six hour blackout time. According to today's report in the Korean Herald, kids can choose the start time for their six hour window -- midnight, 1:00 a.m., or 2:00 a.m., and internet access will automatically shut down at that time for six hours. The point of this new "curfew" of sorts is to help curtail video game addiction among Korean citizens, a problem that's been making headlines off and on for a while. While it's only in the testing phase at the moment -- it affects four games right now, including Dungeon Fighter Online and Dragon Nest -- it will eventually expand to include 19 of the most popular online games in Korea, such as Mabinogi and MapleStory. The new policies aren't limited to nighttime shutdown, either. If an underage player is online for a significant amount of time online, a "slowdown" will come into effect, throttling back the user's connection speed and presumably making it much more difficult to play. You can read the full story in the Korean Herald. [Thanks to Amana for the tip!]
