The People's Daily, the "mouthpiece" for the Chinese government, has published a number of proposed rules to regulate game content. The published draft is a collaborative effort between Chinese governmental agencies and several gaming corporations including NetEase, Perfect World and Tencent. Under the proposed rules, gamers would be divided according to age (below 6, 12, 16, 18+), each category with its own subset of 'guidelines'.
- romance, or "puppy love", would be banned from all storylines for all ages
- games would forbidden from including stories that "encourage romance"
- no sexual behavior between characters
- games in the 16 and under categories should show no scenes about marriage
- female characters should wear "clothes that cover more than 3/4 of their breasts
- clothing must be appropriate for the environment they are in
According to the newspaper, this draft will need to go through several committees and revisions before final approval, but it seems indicative of China's increasingly aggressive stance against gaming addiction.
Last year, the Chinese government completely stopped approving games for a period of several months, the repercussions of which are still being felt in the Chinese games industry. China fell behind the US in game revenue for the first time in several years.
