Thai government imposes nationwide curfew on online gamers.

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xteq113
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Thai government imposes nationwide curfew on online gamers.

Post by xteq113 »

Here is an interesting artical from fark.com
Overnight game closure upsetting adult players

Fears some children could skip classes

Anjira Assavanonda


The policy was ``nonsense'' and certainly not the right solution, they argued.
The shutdown, which was under supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), will be in force until Sept 30.
The most outraged players were university students and working people, who usually access the online games late at night. Most were fans of the ever-popular ``Ragnarok''.
``The government shouldn't do that. The night hours are usually play hours for university students and adults, because we have to study or work during the day. They shouldn't try to limit our rights,''said Vititphan Charoenkwan, 20, a third-year student at Chulalongkorn University.
He had just stopped by an internet shop at Siam Square last evening.
Many cybergame shops in the area were still packed with players, but all of them knew the ban would start at 10pm.
Mr Vititphan looked upset. He said he had been a Ragnarok fan for over three years and did not view the game as harmful in itself.
``It's the players who are responsible for the crime and violence which has been reported. This depends on each individual, not the game itself,'' he said. He thought the server shutdown could have an unfortunate effect on young players, who may opt to skip classes an play during the day instead.
``Young children mostly don't know how to manage their time, and they will find a way to access the games somehow,'' he said.
The government would be better blocking access to youngsters by verifying the ages of all users.
Charn, 20, said the imposed restriction was nonsense. ``I just don't understand what the server shutdown is really about. It's not as if all the players do anything harmful. It depends on the individual.''
Early this month there was a report of teenagers betting on the result of the game. This prompted the ICT to restrict access to local game servers, to force online players to take a break from the cyberworld.
There are currently five online games on offer _ Ragnarok, N-Age, Fairy Land, King of Kings and Dragon Raja.
Some internet shop owners said they agreed with the policy, but only as a temporary measure.
``This is a deserved punishment for the game providers, to make them more responsible for a business which operates in a public space,'' said Anant Lertvorasap, 24, co-owner of a cybergame shop in Siam Square.
But if the shutdown was more than temporary it would be too much of a limitation on players' rights, particularly adults.
``Many of my customers have complained. Some said they often connected to the game around 3am or 4am because access was easier then,'' Mr Anant said.
He said the ban would not affect his shop much because it usually closed by 10pm anyway.
But he was slightly concerned that stricter control might eventuaally scare young players away from his shop.
Not every teenager appeared opposed to the restriction. Ping, 17, welcomed the nighttime ban, and even wished the servers be shut down permanently.
``Many of my school friends are addicted to Ragnarok. They play non-stop sometimes, not paying attention to study and even skipping classes. It's like drugs, and I would be glad if it were shut down completely,'' he said.
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Mad_Max
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Thai government imposes nationwide curfew on online gamers.

Post by Mad_Max »

man...that must suck to be them... :-? i would be pissed to the extreme if they ever did that to my fav online games... :evil: for some cases, online games/reg vid games are what keeps some of us(gamers) sane sometimes... :cheesy:
- Mad Max
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Post by blAkdraGon »

argh...that bites!
=*-dRagON-*=
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