Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

April 12, 2010

In a bid to limit the screen time of its young gamers, Korea has unveiled some drastic initiatives.

Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will try to block certain online games after midnight, reports the Korea Herald. Midnight, however, appears to be a generic term, as gamers will be able to choose their specific six-hour long gaming black-out period: 12AM – 6AM, 1AM - 7AM or 2AM - 8 AM. Under the plan, online access to massively multiplayer games would automatically shut off at the appointed time.

A secondary aspect of the policy would have the Internet speeds of young gamers throttled down if users remain online for a “lengthy” period of time. The slowdown policy is said to be in current testing on four online games, with plans to spread the procedure to 19 games in total in the second half of 2010.

The Ministry will also target young gamers who use the registration numbers of their parents in order to circumnavigate such restrictions.

Posted in Game Addiction Game Consumer News Games & Culture Korea Youth

Comments

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by sharpshooterbabe on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 12:16.

That is stupid! I'm glad I don't live in Korea. But I bet one of the MMO's is WOW.

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Shahab on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 03:19.

Wow, talk about one of the stupidest ideas in the history of human thought. I hope the people responsible DIAF.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 06:33.

Direct International Action Films??

Thats a crazy reward!

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 01:07.

Oops, double post and no delete button

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Aliasalpha on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 01:06.

So what, gamers are like mogwai? Never feed them after midnight?

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Lcpuche on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 15:35.

2 Am to 8 am

why would you play that late? idd be sleeping :)

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by josh111888 on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 00:17.

A lot of people prefer to be up at night and sleep in the morning. Also, if you work the graveyard shift, then your days off would put your free time sometime between 12:00 AM to 8:00AM.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Cerabret100 on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 14:19.

I'm sure someone will discover some way to mask whatever the program uses to identify and target people for throttling or black-outs, therefore just switching said info every couple of hours, completely negating the system.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 12:26.

Under a week before someone has a way to bypass it.

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by Chris Kimberley on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 13:34.

I call 24-48 hours in the pool...

===============

Chris Kimberley

===============

Chris Kimberley

Re: Korea to Impose Gaming Black-Out Periods

Submitted by lordlundar on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:26.

If the means gets international support, I call the 12-24 block.

Shout box

Cheater87: R18+ heading for Australian parliament http://www.gamespot.com/news/6350339.html02/14/2012 - 1:14am

Uncharted NES: David Jaffe Rails Against Storytelling Games- http://slashdot.org/palm/10/12/02/13/1943236_1.shtml02/13/2012 - 5:04pm

DorthLous: Australian government holding anti-piracy talk behind closed door: http://delimiter.com.au/2012/02/13/govt-holds-second-secret-anti-piracy-meeting/02/13/2012 - 12:31pm

DorthLous: SONY new CEO says Hardware is important, but the future lies in content and service: http://www.techworld.com.au/article/414925/incoming_sony_ceo_hot_gadgets_aren_t_enough_anymore02/13/2012 - 12:27pm

Andrew Eisen: That article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

All shouts

<< Return To Top

Forgot your password?
Username :
Password :