Politics and games: China imposes stern limits in online gaming and services

Last week, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons was banned in China after reports on several users using the platform to air out political agendas surfaced in the game.

1/ “I play the game, I just bought it a few days ago. For lots of people around the world who play this game, they have to put their ideal life into the game, and for HKers, we have to put our protest movement and our protest sites inside the game.” pic.twitter.com/YWyZLSgSgV

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) April 2, 2020

Now, sources report that a stricter ban on gaming may be imposed in China, which will greatly affect the Chinese gaming community in general.

The idea of “promoting the split of the motherland” pushed such measures to be instituted.

According to multiple reports, such as from Dot Esports, PingWest and TweekTown, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is eyeing to ban games with themes or features on zombies, deaths, plagues and other similar themes to avoid links with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Other game features such as map editing, role-playing, organizing unions and chatting with foreign players are also on the road to getting banned.

Sina Corp released on its website detailed information about the imposed ban. The article included that games are “not allowed to promote the “Global Service” function in the game,” or else the publishers may face suspension of their business and other grave consequences. This technically requires all gaming publishers to either limit online gaming to within China alone or convert this feature to offline

This may be the strictest gaming ban China has implemented so far.

Any game with features such as customization, building, and open chats will be strictly monitored by the government. Furthermore, players will now be required to use real names rather than a username or alternate name in the game.

These measures are said to take effect by May this year.