Game Addiction and Usage Controls

User created content is a truly hard problem as Harmonix has discovered with its Creators.Rockband.Com service which allows aspiring Rock Band players to share their songs.

Alas, Rock Band wants its service to operate at a "T" ESRB rating... which precludes a huge amount of modern music.

At first, Harmonix published a list of prohibited words which provoked a fair amount of commentary (via Kotaku).

They are now rethinking things:

This is where the Offensive Content Guidelines live for Rock Band Network content. As we work through our open beta, some questions have come up, so we've taken this text down temporarily to clarify the process further. Stay tuned for updates and, when in doubt, start a conversation with your fellow peer reviewers in the Rock Band Network forums!

Next up, Lego Universe.

M. Fahey (2010), "The Rock Band Network's Very Naughty Words", http://kotaku.com/5452814/the-rock-band-networks-very-naughty-words

"Offensive Content", http://creators.rockband.com/docs/Offensive_Content

A study of online gambling and addiction carried out in the UK found that problem gambling is 10 times more common for online gamblers than for traditional gamblers (5 percent vs. .5% I guess). Note that this is similar to the (traditional) problem gambling rates in the US (estimates range from .42% to 1.5%).

The survey was of 9003 adults, 16 and older.

It will be interesting to see if there is a more serious move to investigate and control game addiction in Western Countries as China has already done.

I also discuss the issue briefly in my book, "Protecting Games".

J. Parker (2009), "Study: problem gaming ten times more common online", http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/industry/258857/study-problem-gaming-ten-times-more-common-online.thtml

American Gaming Association, "PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING Fact Sheet", http://www.americangaming.org/Industry/factsheets/issues_detail.cfv?id=29

SmartyCard has added a number of virtual goods (and real ones as well) that parents can buy for their kids for rewards for its "Learn to Earn" service.

Its a clever idea, but it seems, way over-engineered.

Why not just have a "online reward service" that parents can provide (and manage) for their kids? (I await the emails from the startups doing this already or their fans or their PR firms)

Its a lot less work, and probably will get a better response.

Do the dishes: get 1/10 of a Webkinz doll

Finish your homework: a song on iTunes

Eat your peas: 30 minutes of World of Warcraft

Get an A in Math: how about an iPhone?

The possibilities for a Parental Bribery System are endless... I think with adults we call this "piece work". I guess you could merge such a product with the current crop of education management services that provide information about your kid's grades and in-class performance to have a totally integrated education & reward system.

(hmmm, I feel a startup coming on)

"SmartyCard Learn-Earn-Play Games Service Offers More Rewards From Most Popular Virtual Worlds for Kids and Tweens", http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-26-2009/0004995129&EDATE=

The hardcore, PvP, skill-based, MMO, Darkfall, from Aventurine, has had problems with bots / macroing (automated programs or scripts that play on behalf of players).

Not a surprise - any game that rewards repeated activity for rewards and encourages players to stay online is going to have problems.

People are lazy.

In Aventurine's latest message to the player community, the company has asked players to "just say no" to macroing / bots:

Macroing: We are working to address it at its source, but until then we need to enforce our policies. Before we do that we will appeal to players not actually playing the game to log off rather than leaving their character in-game. This will allow more people to be able to enjoy Darkfall instead of unmanned characters taking up server space. If you’re skilling up by not playing the game as it was intended, you will be kicked and repeated offenses will result in a ban.

As I've stated on numerous occasions, in general, I think a problem with bots is a game design problem, not something that should be fought directly "manno y manno".

The Chinese "anti-addiction" approach of limiting rewards for an account for playing too long would certainly help (and help address queuing problems as well).

If such grinding is really inherent in the game design, it would probably be better to reward players for playing in a "less connected" way to gain their skills or collect their loot so that they don't overburden the game's servers (this can still be done securely in a couple of ways without having the game really being run on the game server).

... I do cover this issue, of course, in "Chapter 15 - Bots and Player Aids" and "Chapter 17 - Game Design and Security" of my book "Protecting Games".

Tasos (2009), "(Darkfall) Update March 21st and Patch Notes", http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=166009

via

J. Blancato (2009), "Darkfall's March 21 update addresses lag, macroing and game availability", http://www.massively.com/2009/03/22/darkfalls-march-21-update-addresses-lag-macroing-and-game-avai/

Children lie and cheat - probably in China as well.

The government of China has been engaged in a longstanding battle (OK, a couple of years) against game addiction by younger players (children under 18). They have instituted a real identity system where players are supposed to use their national IDs to register to play and minors are supposed to play only a couple of hours.. if they play longer, they incur in-game penalties (see previous articles).

The China Youth Social Service Center did a survey which found that the number of children under 18 playing games has dropped by 7 percent in 2008 from 2007.

And the government is declaring victory against game addiction.

Its Friday, I maybe feeling grumpy, but I read these numbers another way...

Chinese children are lying and probably cheating.

Shocking.

After all, if the system was working, the number of children playing online should not be decreasing, rather, the number of hours that they play (in accordance with government policy). In fact, given that China's online population is growing, one would expect an INCREASE in the number of children playing games online.

But, they are not.

I am suspicious.

60 percent of children claim to like the restrictions on the hours that they can play. If we believe this number (cough), it still follows that 40 percent of children don't like the restrictions and some portion of them are using illicit means to spoof their online identity as an adult.

If the anti-addiction policy (as opposed to an anti-gaming policy) was truly working, one should see the growth in children playing games online in concert with the growth in China's online population. However, the hours played per child should drop.

Interestingly, this data should be able to be collected directly from the game companies (who, I suspect, are in no hurry to provide detailed metrics to the government).

... but, as long as the government is happy, why complain?

B. Mingxin (2009), "Anti-online game addiction system proves to be effective in China", http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11044484.htm

J. Lee (2009), "Chinese censor claims success against online game addiction", http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/chinese-censor-claims-success-against-online-games

Theresa Giarrusso has written an excellent article about multi-player online games from the view of a parent... it is very critical of the entire idea of playing online games with other people:

I knew my husband had set my son up to play this “FusionFall” a few weeks ago but I didn’t realize he was playing with other people. I walked by one afternoon and saw Id’s from other players with chat windows popping up on his screen. I freaked out and told him he couldn’t play the game anymore until I investigated it more.

It is an interesting (and legitimate) view that game developers who build games for kids (or where kids wind up) need to consider.

The article goes on to discuss scripted & monitored chat... but it is interesting to note that even with these protections in place, Ms. Giarrusso has real concerns whether children should be playing with others online.

.. The article does mention grooming (the term for pedophiles attempting to recruit new victims). It should be noted that the data is that this happens very, very, very rarely online and almost always with children who are teenagers.

... see Chapter 30 -"Protecting Kids from Pedophiles, Stalkers, Cyberbullies, and Marketeers" of my book Protecting Games.

T. Giarrusso (2009), "Kids offered more multiplayer games online, but are they safe?", http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-blogs/ajc/parenting/entries/2009/02/01/kids_offered_mo.html

China is adding "real identity authentication" to its controls for online games with deployment to be completed by the end of March of this year (2009).

This follows on with the previously deployed "fatigue system" to reduce the amount of time young people play online (deployment started in 2007? 2005?).

The next phase will include an "inquiry" capability to allow identities to be queried.

Of course, the real question is whether the identity provided is the identity of the person playing... an interesting question and much harder problem.

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) intends to require online game companies to complete implementation of its real-name authentication system in the first quarter of 2009, reports IT Times quoting China Game Publisher Association, a branch of the Publishers Association of China, Secretary-General Liu Jiehua. NetEase (Nasdaq:NTES) has already integrated the system into all of its officially operating games, said NetEase game department spokesman Liang Xiaohua.

Real-name authentication is the second phase of the three-part online game fatigue system that was released by GAPP in 2007. Liu says the third part, an inquiry system, is already basically connected to the Ministry of Public Security ID verification center. The fatigue system, which dates back in various forms to 2005, intends to limit the amount of time Chinese youth spend playing online games.

"Online Game Real-Name Authentication to Go Full-Scale in Q1", http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=140294_0_5_0_M

China is moving to require its citizens to use their real identities when playing games online. One of the main motivations of this initiative is to enforce the country's anti-game addiction rules.

The problem with this program is that it is easy for individuals to spoof their online identities by using available tools to generate fake identities. China uses an identity number system that encodes location of birth, age and the like which makes it relatively to fake (much as the algorithm for credit numbers makes if fairly easy to create a "valid looking" credit card number).

The online usage limitations that the Chinese government are predicated on the ability to remotely identify an individual... a very hard problem. After all, possession of a person's valid ID number (even if it cannot be faked) is not the same as knowing who the person is.

While the Chinese government has been targeting online game companies, they would probably have more success by focusing their enforcement efforts on Internet cafes - after all, that is where the games are played and where it is easier to determine how long someone is playing...

But.

Both Internet cafes and online game companies economic interests are based on people playing, not limiting their playing... which will invite evasions or fraud.

In some sense, it would make more sense to remove the economic incentives for game companies and Internet cafes to earn money from people playing too long rather than trying to restrict players...

Though this too is probably doomed to failure.

J. Sterling (2009), "Chinese government to outlaw Internet anonymity", http://www.destructoid.com/chinese-government-to-outlaw-internet-anonymity-118220.phtml

People's Daily Online (2009), "Online gamers have to give real names", http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90781/90877/6575252.html

JLP Pacific Epoch (2009), "Online Games May Require ID Verification by Late June ", http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=140105_0_5_0_M

Online games and virtual worlds which have children as their primary customer are probably the fast growing portion of the online game industry. It is gratifying to see that these services are taking the issue of protecting children seriously.

After all, while kids are the customers, parents are the ones writing the checks.

This week, we have BarbieGirls.com launching Parents' Place which allows controls on children's chatting (via Virtual World News). The game supports three types of chat:

B Chat™ is our standard, default chat feature. Anyone can engage in a B Chat™, which may occur in a girl’s room, stores at the mall, and other public hangouts. B Chat™ is the most common type of chat at BarbieGirls.com – and the most restricted. Girls can communicate only by selecting special greetings, questions, and phrases we’ve created and listed by category. They cannot create their own messages using B Chat™.

Secret B Chat™ is a private chat that occurs only in a girl’s room and is available only to “best friends” (real-life friends who own a Barbie Girl™ device and have physically connected it to each other’s computer). With Secret B Chat™, best friends can chat using a dictionary of words we’ve approved and compiled in our database. This sophisticated word-filtering system is designed to block all other words and prevent inappropriate combinations of otherwise acceptable words. Only girls with parental permission can participate in Secret B Chat™.

Super B Chat™ is similar to Secret B Chat™ in that users can type their own messages, but only using words that we’ve approved and compiled in our database. Girls do not need a Barbie Girl™ device to participate in Super B Chat™. Our word-filtering system is designed to block all other words and inappropriate combinations of otherwise acceptable words, prevent the exchange of personal information, and to help keep chat safe, friendly, and fun. Like Secret B Chat™, only girls with parental permission can participate in Super B Chat™

.

They've also created a "policy tool", the "B Smart" Pact that is a written contract between parent and child about the proper use, and consequences for misuse, of the game's chat services.

Disney has added enhanced anti-griefing tools to Toontown Online (via Massively). They've added a feature to block "Friend Invite" spam (where other players send tons of Friend invitations to annoy other people) and an easy button to report griefing and other behavior (though this may be used as a form of griefing itself).

As Robin Torres of Massively notes, there are still ways to grief others in Toontown:

Funsuckers will always find a way, of course. They'll get on the elevator in a building and then jump off just before the doors close so that you end up going in with less people than you need to be successful. Or they'll jump off the trolley just before it goes in, so that you won't have a full group to play the trolley games. Or they'll join groups and then not attack so they don't get aggro, but can still complete their Toontask (quest). No matter, what Disney does, they can't stop the need of all Funsuckers to suck your fun. But at least they are trying and we are grateful.

Cartoon Network and Xivio have signed up with Crisp Thinking (via Virtual World News and here) to use their word filtering and alert tools (NetModerator) for game moderators who are looking for inappropriate communications, including sexual predators. (This is a great market area, by the way)

What is missing, in my view, is a broader, richer set of parental controls. Parents should be able to set virtual allowances for payments, virtually "ground" a child, set play times and total hours per day played quota, confirm homework is completed, etc. I think this would be a compelling set of services for any child-oriented virtual world to offer from a parent's perspective.

Of course, the ultimate goal would be for products or services like Crisp Thinking to be able to transfer liability or formally meet legal requirements for adequate protection of children on a national or international basis. At the moment, however, these companies are raising the bar for best practices for protecting kids.

The battlecry "Think of the Children!" is ringing out. The Internet in general and online games in particular are the easy targets.

The real question, of course, is who should be "thinking of the children"?