Chinese gamers have never had it easy, and it seems that the government is going to make it even harder for them to enjoy online titles like World of Warcraft. According to CNN, new legislation went into effect on August 1 that requires players to register for online games with their legal names. If they are minors, the game developers themselves are responsible for ensuring that these children do not spend excessive amounts of time playing online. Games aimed at youngsters are also forbidden to contain content that might lead to the imitation of socially inappropriate behaviour.
Chinese regulators have a long and storied relationship with the internet companies. Just recently the Chinese government and Google had a major standoff that nearly resulted in the search giant being ejected from Chinese cyberspace. Blizzard has also had trouble keeping World of Warcraft alive in the country, with licensing issues regularly flaring up.
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