In a move sure to frustrate MMO operators who see China as an increasingly important market, the Chinese government has just announced its system for preventing "unhealthy" periods of play time on the part of players. The system will progressively lower a character's statistics and abilities the longer the player stays online past a three-hour mark. China's General Administration of Press and Publication has defined playing online games for under three consecutive hours as "healthy," for three to five hours as "tiring," and for more than five as "unhealthy." After three hours, a character's level is cut in half and drop rates for items is decreased, and after five hours the character's level is reset to the minimum. The character will not return to normal until the player has signed out for five hours.

"This timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," Kou Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual and Internet Publication Department of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said during a press conference.

Several companies have pledged their support for the program, which will take effect some time between late 2005 and early 2006. Affected games include World of Warcraft and Lineage II, as well as nine others. Assumedly, players will be unable to avoid the effects of the system by simply switching over to another game after three hours. The system is sure to frustrate players able to take part in high-level instances, which generally take several hours. It was not specified whether MMO developers will compensate for this in-game.

Some existing MMO players may look forward to the program's impact on "gold farmers", many of whom are known to be located in China. But for legitimate players, how much uninterrupted play time is "unhealthy"? Do the goals of this program (ie, fewer people dying after 36-hour online gaming sessions...) outweigh the obvious negatives? What would be the ramifications of such a program in South Korea? (Armed rebellion?)