China's online game regulations relaxed

According to reports from Pacific Epoch, Chinese controls to prevent addiction to online games were greatly relaxed this week when the government announced adults would be exempt from the regulation. Last August the Chinese government's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) announced plans to install a fatigue system in online games. After a rash of fatal marathon gaming sessions in Southeast Asia, the GAPP said it would require massively multiplayer online games to punish gamers who played for more than three hours at a time by cutting their ability or level by half and reducing them to the lowest level possible after five hours. Gamers would need to take five-hour breaks between playing sessions to avoid the system's punishment. The system started trial implementation on certain servers for a handful of games back in October. The government is currently planning to implement the system in earnest this year.