In order to slow the number of games that are approved for its audiences and regulate their content more thoroughly, Chinese authorities have explicated that games that feature "gay love" and "effeminacy" must be altered if they are to be played in the country.
Online gaming has an enormous market in China and was worth a whopping $13.5 billion at the start of the 2010s. However, mass media in the country is subject to the censorship laws of the Chinese Communist Party, which might lead to a game being banned outright or screened to remove certain content.
The government is especially concerned with internet and gaming addiction among young people and as a result rolled out a number of laws to curtail time spent on games. These include using legal names to log into online games, facial recognition scans on minors playing games late at night, and restricting children and teenagers to three hours of gaming per week.
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Historically, there have been a number of misconceptions about gaming and the most prevalent one is that violent video games cause real violence in their players. Check out our explainer on how this isn't the case below:
As per this report from South China Morning Post, the Chinese authorities are trying to reduce the rate at which games are approved for its audiences and held a meeting with Tencent and NetEase to explain its guidelines for appropriate media.
Games should not feature anything from a "wrong set of values" which comprises "worshipping money" and "gay love", for example. Developers and publishers should not have elements that encourage player spending in their games, nor should they try to maximise profits from their games.
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"Obscene and violent content and those breeding unhealthy tendencies, such as money-worship and effeminacy, should be removed," read a report from the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Speaking to Yahoo News, Geng Song, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, said that this is borne of a belief that "effeminate men are physically weak and emotionally fragile". Furthermore, heterosexuality is considered to be the only sexuality in Chinese society, leading to "anxiety" when it comes to different expressions of gender and sexuality.
Derek Hird, a senior lecturer in Chinese Studies at Lancaster University, also added that authorities have the opinion that "excessive gaming is also contributing to a softening of character in young men".
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These requirements, however, have had a considerable effect on the revenue gained from the games industry. Stocks for both Tencent and NetEase dipped by 10% following the announcement that they would be involved in a hearing about regulations on their games.
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