Weird 2010's gamer nationalism meets china bad.
"Oh no, kids won't be able to use games to escape reality now" — Good, have them play outside or read a book or something.
"Horrible, I couldn't live without games" — Yes, this law is attempting to help people before they become like you.
"New generations won't grow up to be gamers now" — How will society survive!
"It's about controlling freedom of thought" — Ah, yes, this will stop the great dialogue had by fourteen-year-olds in LoL game chats.
The solution: bring back arcades. It's a place for kids to hang out, build friendships, exchange ideas, do all that social stuff while playing video games. ofc make the machines free. I have fond memories of hanging out after school at the spot the school set up for high school kids that had arcade machines, pool tables, and a multimedia room. Kids just did whatever they wanted, played time crisis, set up DnD games or just hung out and watched tv. It was a great experience.
There’s this old school arcade in Chicago that is a 20 dollar entrance fee and all the games are free to play for the entire day. They do a lot of community events too. I wish I grew up during the 80s to experience going out to an arcade because it’s so fun.
Same. I was at the tail end of arcade culture in the 90's and I only got to see a glimpse of it as it was dying out, giving way to the home console boom. Japan still has a thriving arcade scene which is where I took some inspiration from this. Of all the gaming communities out there, the fighting game scene is what I'd point to for something "good". Arcades would be a way for kids to engage with one another and bond over fun games.
I really love how they do this in Mexico. The country is so fucked by neoliberalism no one can afford game systems so in most cities there are arcades where you can pay to play Xbox (like sometimes literally the original Xbox) or watch TV or whatever
I personally have fond memories of going to the internet cafe to watch my brother play Halo, at least when such a thing existed in the USA
I saw places like this in Brazil, people would get together and play console games and hang out. It reminds me of a lan party of sorts. Actually lan parties are still really viable in 2021, especially playing older games that already have systems in place to do it.
When I lived in China there were lots of internet cafes. Used to play a ton of diablo and counter strike on the lan. Not sure if that will be restricted too but it was basically a modern version of an arcade. Lots of good memories from those places.
I learned to play foosball in a break room where they'd stuff tissues behind the goal so they could catch the ball after scoring and just put it back in play instead of having to pay another coin for it.