China's new stances on video games offers a unique glimpse into China, on a topic that is not yet politicized in the U.S. (a rarity). Im sure I jynxed it and Ted Cruz will say video games are an essential freedom, and AOC will say violence in video games is causing the murder rate to increase in IRL. Or maybe AOC will say video games are reducing greenhouse gases by keeping people at home, and Ted Cruz will say video games were invented by the left to reduce the fertility rate. All I know for sure is one side will pick an aggressive stance and the other side will take a more extreme opposing stance.
China has made the following aggressvie stances.
1. Only 3 hours of gaming per week (8-9PM on Fridays, weekends and holidays)
2. Characters must have clear genders and male characters cant be effeminate
3. Storylines are prohibited from having blurred moral boundries
The obvious first thought is are all Mario games banned? or will they just remove Luigi?
Only masculine characters like Wario and DK can be played, giving chinese boys a realistic standard for what it means to be a man.
China continues to push boundaries by making top down decisions on +1.4B people. Do people have an inherent right to freedom? who makes the decisions? whats next? Forced exercise? banning all liquids other than water? banning men from hugging? Banning disagreeing with the state? Banning story lines with blurred moral boundries is akin to banning critical thinking.
If you are against video games, where is your line? When the authoritarians come for your hobby who will defend you? Somebody think of Luigi!