{"id":2865,"date":"2021-09-27T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T01:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=2865"},"modified":"2022-06-01T15:45:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T06:45:39","slug":"20210927-2865","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Publication date of the original Japanese article<\/a>: 2021-09-25 11:20 (JST)
Translated by. Nick Mosier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


China\u2019s Game Publishers Association Publications Committee (GPC) issued their self-regulation guidelines on September 24 with the joint signatures of over 200 gaming firms. Large companies that provide services internationally participated in putting together the guidelines which contain a number of conditions including not using international game distribution platforms to get around the restrictions. Chinese government-run news website China News<\/a> and other local media are reporting on the new guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the movement to strengthen restrictions on video games in China has grown stronger. Due to an appeal from the government this year, many game service providers are using name verification and facial recognition to implement restrictions on underaged players. Games have recently come under heavy criticism from the government in China, and game service providers in the country appear to be falling in line with the demands for tougher rules (see related article<\/a> in Japanese).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidelines released by the GPC are called the Online Game Industry Anti-Addiction Self-Regulatory Guidelines (\u7f51\u7edc\u6e38\u620f\u884c\u4e1a\u9632\u6c89\u8ff7\u81ea\u5f8b\u516c\u7ea6). According to a summary of the guidelines, the conditions are based on demands from the Chinese government with the aim of preventing underage online gaming addiction. 213 companies and organizations have pledged to the regulations through joint signatures, including large companies like NetEase, Tencent, and SIE Shanghai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidelines are mainly focused around demands that the government has already made to game companies. One example is the demand to limit online playtime of underaged players by linking to the National Press and Publication Administration system for name validation and making use of facial recognition. Name verification is required even when buying or downloading single player games.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


There are also extensive restrictions on the types of content that can be in games. In addition to politically harmful, indecent, and grotesque horror content, there are also strong restrictions on effeminate male characters and boys\u2019 love content, which has been deemed \u201cinferior culture\u201d. There are also restrictions on monetization focused addictive practices and game design that rewards constant access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another restriction that stands out is that game service providers can\u2019t use platforms outside the country to get around the restrictions. It\u2019s also forbidden to operate a game without receiving a license from the Chinese government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly announced guidelines do more than just highlight differences between the environment around games in China and places like Japan. This includes tightening restrictions on Chinese game companies from distributing games in markets abroad. In order to release a game in China, the game has to be inspected and the publisher has to receive a license of approval by Chinese regulators. For this reason, there\u2019s been a trend toward developers spreading to foreign markets instead of the heavily restricted domestic market (see related article<\/a>, in Japanese).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the third section of the guidelines target attempts to avoid restrictions by using game distribution platforms abroad to offer services to domestic users. In other words, the guidelines suggest that the workaround developers and publishers have been using to avoid restrictions, selling in foreign markets, could also require a governmental review and a license. Implementation of the guidelines could see Chinese game companies not have a route to avoid the strict review process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamers in China have also been seeing their workarounds to avoid strict government policy being closed. Some gamers in the county have been using VPNs to access services like Steam as though they are users in other countries. But some users have been saying<\/a> their last ray of hope, Steam, is changing their country settings back to China. While there is a Chinese version of Steam available in the country, the available titles are limited and subject to government inspection (see related article<\/a>, in Japanese).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These guidelines can be seen as a general summary of the governmental restrictions that have been placed on games in the country recently. While it\u2019s stated that these are self-regulations, the guidelines are strict when compared to countries in the West or Japan. It will be interesting to see how all of this impacts China\u2019s game industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters. Mandatory real-name verification is also included in the guidelines and 213 companies have pledged to the strict measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-development","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nChinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters. Mandatory real-name verification is also included in the guidelines and 213 companies have pledged to the strict measures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-27T01:40:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-01T06:45:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sayoko Narita\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sayoko Narita\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters - AUTOMATON WEST","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters. Mandatory real-name verification is also included in the guidelines and 213 companies have pledged to the strict measures.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2021-09-27T01:40:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-01T06:45:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sayoko Narita","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sayoko Narita","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/"},"author":{"name":"Sayoko Narita","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6ff2721c450e20970538373b7515eaf6"},"headline":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters","datePublished":"2021-09-27T01:40:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-01T06:45:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/"},"wordCount":696,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Global)"],"articleSection":["Game Development","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/","name":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg","datePublished":"2021-09-27T01:40:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-01T06:45:39+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210925-176916-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210927-2865\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chinese game companies will self-regulate boys\u2019 love content and effeminate male characters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6ff2721c450e20970538373b7515eaf6","name":"Sayoko Narita","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","caption":"Sayoko Narita"},"description":"JP AUTOMATON writer","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/seiji-narita\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2875,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/2875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}