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China calls for less 'effeminate' men in videogames and bans 'gay love'

Nickolaidas

Banned
China calls for less 'effeminate' men in videogames | PC Gamer

In August, China announced new regulations which will strictly limit when and for how long people under the age of 18 are allowed to play online games: Just one hour per day, from 8-9 pm, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and official holidays. That rule took effect September 1. All players are also now required to register using their real names, and game companies are strictly forbidden from offering any services to unregistered players.

According to a South China Morning Post report last week, China has also slowed its approval process for new online games in order to help combat online gaming addiction among young people. A source told the site that the goal is to "cut the number of new games" and "reduce gaming addiction," amid concerns that the number of games approved in the first half of 2021 was "a bit too aggressive."

The slowdown had been in place for at least a month prior, according to the report. It's not known when the approval process is expected to return to its normal rate.

This isn't the first time that Chinese authorities have pumped the brakes on approvals for new games. In March 2018, the government stopped issuing game license approvals completely for the remainder of the year, which lopped a massive $190 billion in market value off of Chinese tech giant Tencent, and hit some small developers even harder.

Word of the slowdown followed a meeting between Chinese officials and representatives of Tencent and NetEase, an internet technology company. The purpose of that meeting was to reinforce the need to enforce restrictions, and also to lay out other content guidelines: Games with a "wrong set of values," including "gay love," are to be avoided, according to the report, and the companies were also instructed to ease up on monetization and profit-focused game mechanics.

"The authorities ordered the enterprises and platforms to tighten examination of the contents of their games," a separate report on english.gov.cn, the official English-language website of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, said. "Obscene and violent content and those breeding unhealthy tendencies, such as money-worship and effeminacy, should be removed."

That report also called for potential monopolies to be resisted, avoidance of game designs that induce addiction, for new restrictions on ads "involving celebrity endorsement," and for new rules related to livestreaming.

Xinhua's English-language website didn't reference any specific content guidelines, but warned that the country's Minister of Culture and Tourism "will strengthen education on moral standards for all practitioners in the entertainment sector."

This might be the first time that negativity toward effeminate men in videogames has been made official policy, but it's not actually a new attitude. Compare, for instance, the differences between the North American art for the flamboyant (and, as far as I know, canonically gay) League of Legends character Taric, who's had two different looks in the West across the game's long history,

University of Hong Kong associate professor Geng Song told AFP (via Yahoo! News) that the crackdown is driven in part by the perception that "effeminate men are physically weak and emotionally fragile," and are thus unable to effectively defend the nation from threats. Gaming itself may also be seen by some leaders as "contributing to a softening of character in young men," Lancaster University Chinese Studies senior lecturer Derek Hird added.

Tencent was already pretty well committed to cracking down on youth gaming in China. It rolled out a facial recognition system earlier this year to keep minors from gaming all night, and in August it cut allowable playtime, ramped up the frequency of its facial recognition checks to an "all-day inspection" system, and banned playing online entirely for people under 12. But that wasn't enough to prevent even tighter regulations, which—unsurprisingly—have had a negative effect on its bottom line: After a precipitous decline through July and early August, its share price had begun to climb back, but took another downward turn after word of the new content guidelines and slowed game approvals was made public. NetEase's share price has followed an almost identical pattern.


....

As much as I enjoy woke companies being kicked in the balls and be denied the sweet Chinese dollar they drool for ...

This is just wrong.

I don't like gay characters or other minorities being shoved down my throat and make me feel like I'm being lectured, but I don't like gay characters getting banned from gaming altogether. Yes, I know, it's China we're talking about, not exactly the most democracy-friendly country in the world, but the point still stands.

On one hand, you have Netflix and Amazon telling you your story and staff need to have women and gay people just because, and on the other hand you have assholes in China attempting to ban wokeness altogether.

Why does it have to be an 'either / or' situation? Let writers write the stories and characters they want to write. Let them hire the people they want/need to hire. Stop pandering to either side. Why is it so hard?
 

Calverz

Member
RIP Final Fantasy series
FaRsnyo.jpg
 
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Viscious82

Neo Member
I support their restrictions on gaming with the exception of gay characters in games for mature audiences. One thing that wasnt clear in this declaration is if all the restrictions on the depictions of people apply to games of all age ratings or only games that are rated for kids or general audiences. If the USA had a competent government then I wouldn't mind having some similar restrictions to protect children. They should also restrict the depiction of child soldiers in game. I think that it's a weird fixation that is really common in jrpgs for example. I'm curious to see how this plays out over there.
 
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tommib

Member
I support their restrictions on gaming whmith the exception of gay characters in games for mature audiences. One thing that wasnt clear in this declaration is if all the restrictions on the depictions of people apply to games of all age ratings or only games that are rated for kids or general audiences. If the USa had a competent government then I wouldn't mind having some similar restrictions. Forced wokeness in the USA has become a sickness.
Not cool, bro. You don’t want the law restricting gay people appearing on any medium. That’s fucked up, dude.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I support their restrictions on gaming with the exception of gay characters in games for mature audiences. One thing that wasnt clear in this declaration is if all the restrictions on the depictions of people apply to games of all age ratings or only games that are rated for kids or general audiences. If the USA had a competent government then I wouldn't mind having some similar restrictions to protect children. They should also restrict the depiction of child soldiers in game. I think that it's a weird fixation that is really common in jrpgs for example. I'm curious to see how this plays out over there.
Gay characters only in mature games?

What a bunch of homophobic bullshit.
 

Viscious82

Neo Member
Minors should not be exposed to any sexuality in my opinion. I think that if a is games for mature audiences then It is all good. Kids can be easily persuaded and manipulated. I believe that if they are homosexual by birth it will develop naturally, but I also believe that some people can be influenced. I'm an afro latino and I don't mind seeing diversity of race in games as long as it is not forced. A lot of games lately are focused on forcing agendas on players and I'm not a fan.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Minors should not be exposed to any sexuality in my opinion. I think that if a is games for mature audiences then It is all good. Kids can be easily persuaded and manipulated. I believe that if they are homosexual by birth it will develop naturally, but I also believe that some people can be influenced. I'm an afro latino and I don't mind seeing diversity of race in games as long as it is not forced. A lot of games lately are focused on forcing agendas on players and I'm not a fan.
So make Mario games where he expresses interest in Peach mature rated?
 

tommib

Member
Minors should not be exposed to any sexuality in my opinion. I think that for games mature audiences then It is all good. Kids can be easily persuaded and manipulated. I believe that if they are homosexual by birth it will develop naturally, but I also believe that some people can be influenced. I'm an afro latino and I don't mind seeing diversity of race in games as long as it is not forced. A lot of games lately are focused on forcing agendas on players and I'm not a fan.
Let’s pretend that they are influenced and some turn gay (doesn’t work like that but whatever). So what? Being gay is fucking awesome and not worst than being straight or whatever. That’s some retrograde medieval thinking there. Will you think less of your children if they’re gay? Come on, people. It’s the 21st century. We should be over this.
 
Usually when you go to these extreme lengths, you're outright projecting and insecure over something true to yourself.

How many cocks up the flabby rear does Xi Jinping take on the CCP Cock Carousel? Anyone care to take guesses?

Minors should not be exposed to any sexuality in my opinion. I think that if a is games for mature audiences then It is all good. Kids can be easily persuaded and manipulated. I believe that if they are homosexual by birth it will develop naturally, but I also believe that some people can be influenced. I'm an afro latino and I don't mind seeing diversity of race in games as long as it is not forced. A lot of games lately are focused on forcing agendas on players and I'm not a fan.

So how does Xi Jinping's flabby bumhole feel like ;) ?

That aside, everything you just said could be applied to violence in games, and kids are exposed to quite a lot of that, cartoonish or not. I understand that agendas can be real, but if studies have proven that violent games don't make people more violent, then I'd like to think similar studies would show fanservice doesn't make gamers more willing to commit sexual harassment or assault, or that homosexuality in a game will make a person gay (or more gay).

Besides most stuff like fanservice, sex, homsexuality etc. are in mature games that are obviously not aimed at kids. So I sometimes don't see the point in saying it shouldn't be forced on kids when for games in particular they aren't usually in games aimed at kids at all, and it sometimes feels more like a talking point to indirectly say keep that stuff out of ALL games.

At which point I would personally come into a conflict of interest because surely there will be some devs who want to include it for their artistic vision, me saying they shouldn't is effectively me arguing for censorship.
 
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Warablo

Member
I'm not homophobic. I'm not afraid of gays. I think sexuality should not be in children's games period. All good for mature audiences.
Okay, what do you define as sexuality? Can a teen male have a high pitched voice? What about how the way he talks and the vocab he uses? The way he walks? The way he dresses?
 
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Viscious82

Neo Member
I just checked the website for the Chinese government that was mentioned in the article and it doesn't mention anything about banning depictions of gay love. Who added that in? Looks like western propaganda strikes again. Lol.
 

Boss Mog

Member
But what if the drivers are… GAY!
You joke but Apex Legend is a BR FPS and for some reason more half the character's are LGBT. I don't know why they think it's relevant but Respawn keep tripping over themselves to tell us this. If they spent half that time on fixing bugs and banning cheaters maybe their game would be in good shape at this point.
 

Viscious82

Neo Member
Sure. There are adult males that have high pitched voices. Sexuality is any depiction of sexual orientation straight or gay. They shouldn't push any of it on children. All good for mature audiences.
 

matty3092

Member
Minors should not be exposed to any sexuality in my opinion. I think that if a is games for mature audiences then It is all good. Kids can be easily persuaded and manipulated. I believe that if they are homosexual by birth it will develop naturally, but I also believe that some people can be influenced. I'm an afro latino and I don't mind seeing diversity of race in games as long as it is not forced. A lot of games lately are focused on forcing agendas on players and I'm not a fan.
This is spot on children should absolutely not be exposed to sexuality let them figure themselves out as they grow older.
 

Viscious82

Neo Member
I agree with you there. The west is too focused on promoting lgbtq issues at the expenses of traditional values on family, masculinity and femininity. Heterosexuals are the majority in the world population. We can coexist and accept adult members of the lgbtq community but I'm against promoting it in children. They can be manipulated easily and I believe that it's better to let them develop naturally without people outside the family with an agenda trying to influence them. Hell the majority of us were. Manipulated into believing in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Children can also be manipulated to become racists at an early age. Videogames for children shouldn't be promoting that and should just focus on being fun with neutral themes.
 
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