The Expanding Chinese Wallet

From the People’s Daily Online, where I get all my Chinese gaming news, China to implement online gamer identity authentication system in June: “Online gamers will have to enter authentic identity information to play games from June onwards, enabling parents to check their children’s online gaming history, reports Tuesday’s Beijing Daily Messenger.” That sounds so innocuous, doesn’t it?

Automagic Warcraftery

Regarding World of Warcraft repetitive gameplay issues, Blizzard poster Tyren wrote:

Recently, players expressed some concern over the use of programmable gaming peripherals while playing World of Warcraft. We want to make sure it’s clear that creating hotkeys for certain actions in the game is ok. However, if these peripherals are used to automate gameplay to the point where the player is able to conduct repeated actions in the game without paying attention, then that will constitute a violation of our game policies. The use of sustained automated play grants an unfair advantage over players who earn their achievements by actively playing through the game as it was designed. In the interest of maintaining an even playing field for all players, we will investigate reports of automated play and take action as needed to prevent this from occurring in the game.

Presumably, when he writes, “… if these peripherals are used to automate gameplay to the point where the player is able to conduct repeated actions in the game without paying attention, then that will constitute a violation of our game policies”, he isn’t referring to raid priests and flash heal.