2006年VOA标准英语-Vietnam Tries to Limit Online Game Playing

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
11 July 2006

A new Vietnamese regulation is designed to prevent young users from spending endless hours on on-line games.  But gaming companies say enforcing such limits is difficult, and it is not clear how serious the government is about the regulation.

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Screenshot from Legends The Game, a free online multiplayer video game   
  
Over the last three years, the market for on-line games has exploded in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government is worried that kids are now spending too much time in Internet cafes, battling each other with virtual swords and lasers.

A new government regulation requires gaming companies to make it harder for players to receive bonus points, or "level up", after they have been on-line for three hours, and to stop giving them points after five.

Vu Xuan Thanh, chief inspector¹ at the Ministry² of Culture and Information, says the government is responding to its own concerns, and those of many parents.

"Some kids play so long they collapse³ right on their keyboards," he said.  "If your child played for 10 hours straight, he asked, would you be pleased with him?"

At one on-line gaming cafe in Hanoi, the kids admitted they tended to play for long sessions.

 

 
Vietnamese students pack an Internet cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam 
  
Trung, 15, was playing a game called Space Cowboy. He said the longest he has played at one sitting was five hours.

"No," said his friends,  "it was 24 hours."

The new regulation took effect July 1, but neither the players nor the owner of this cafe had heard of it.

The owner, who asked that her name not be used, says that limiting the players' time would not work. She would have to record their ID numbers, and if she did that, she says, no one would come to her cafe.

American Bryan Pelz is the CEO of Vinagame, which markets Swordsman, the number one on-line game in Vietnam. Pelz says the government consulted extensively with the industry before issuing the regulation.

"Vinagame, FPT, VAFP, and maybe a couple of other online game providers were contacted, early on. And then I think that they met with gamers themselves, cafe owners, game operators, a variety of different groups, to discuss," he said.

But Mr. Pelz says that implementing⁴ the regulation may be difficult.

"There's a technical implementation⁵ issue. How do we make sure that after three hours they don't level up as quickly, and after five hours they're cut off?  We don't actually write the games ourselves, we actually license⁶ them from abroad," he noted⁷.  "So we have to go to our partners abroad and have them make modifications⁸."

Mr. Pelz says he is glad the government issued the regulation, since it provides the industry with a legal framework, and he says his company will comply.  But some in the industry take a harder line.

Tran Vu Hai is the director of VDIG, the company that sells the scratch-off pre-paid cards used to play games like MU and Space Cowboy.

Hai says the restrictions⁹ are meaningless, because players can set up multiple accounts to evade¹⁰ the controls. He says trying to forbid things usually has the opposite effect, and says the government needs to build more sports facilities for young people, so they have something safe to do besides playing on-line games. 

Vietnam is hardly the only country concerned about children spending too much time with on-line games. But the effort to limit on-line playing time does have a particularly Vietnamese flavor.

Just 15 ago, Vietnam was still a tightly controlled society, where the government kept tabs on people through their neighborhoods, their places of work, or their families. But as the Internet becomes a part of life, Vietnam is starting to get used to one of the signal qualities of cyberspace¹¹: anonymity¹².

"Anonymity is one of the fascinating things about an on-line game, because it allows anybody to be whoever it is they want to be, in the game," added Mr. Pelz.  "And that's one of the reasons why people play the games. But yet at the same time, it's a double-edged sword. As a game operator, we really don't know who they are."

That anonymity will make it hard for Vietnam to keep its kids from playing till they drop.

1 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

4 implementing   

v.实现( implement的现在分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• -- Implementing a comprehensive drug control strategy. ――实行综合治理的禁毒战略。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• He was in no hurry about implementing his unshakable principle. 他并不急于实行他那不可动摇的原则。 来自辞典例句

5 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

6 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 modifications   

n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变

参考例句：

• The engine was pulled apart for modifications and then reassembled. 发动机被拆开改型，然后再组装起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The original plan had undergone fairly extensive modifications. 原计划已经作了相当大的修改。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

10 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

11 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

12 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。