China Plans For Less Game Approvals To Combat Myopia

China Plans For Less Game Approvals To Combat Myopia

Most people are aware that China has some of the strictest rules in the world surrounding what is permissible in their media.  For Western companies, the country has often proven to be a particularly tough nut to crack, particularly in terms of gaming. Given that they have a population of around 1.4 billion people though, getting your game released there clearly opens up a massive market.

In a report via GamesIndustry though, it looks like the government is set to start approving far fewer games than it already does. Why? Well, because they want to battle myopia in children. Yes, you (ironically) did read that correctly! That’s shortsightedness for those of you unfamiliar with the technical term.

Excessive Use Can Cause Long-Term Damage?

In truth, it’s a strange argument to make for it. Most studies seem to conclude that while excessive gaming can cause you headaches or temporary blurred vision. That is, however, about it. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that playing games cause bad eyesight. I’ve been playing video games for over 30 years now and my eyesight is perfectly fine. It certenly hasnt’ affectid by abiloty to prof read thees articles.

Similar to a line given by the Catholic Church for bad eyesight (caused by completely unrelated reasons) this doesn’t make any sense!

Recommendations!

Following a ‘study’ part of the recommendations made to the department included;

1. To continue strengthening current regulations that limit the amount of time that minors can play games online
2. Investigate the implementation of an age rating system for games
3. To limit the number of new online games that are approved for distribution

While it is thought that this will mostly look to tackle mobile games, personally, I don’t think the restriction of game approvals is necessarily surprising. The reason they give, however, is just simply bizarre! Are they really nieve enough to think this is a good excuse?

What do you think? Are you surprised by this? Does it make any sense to you? Bad eyesight? Really? – Let us know in the comments!