Ah Mao (not his real name) has a problem with online games: he can’t stop playing them. But luckily for him and his family and friends, his solution — unlike some other people — was not to murder anyone but rather to try to have himself arrested. His crime? Playing too many video games.
22-year-old Ah Mao says his problem started back in May of 2009, when he discovered Hot-Blooded Fantasy, an RPG game from Shanda that was popular on unofficial private servers. To say that Ah Mao liked the game would be an understatement; he stayed in the internet cafe for a full eight days and nights playing it. He later moved on to other games like Tencent’s QQ Racing and Netease’s Fantasy Journey to the West. As time went on, he got into games on YY and things got worse. Virtually every dollar he earned was going to games.
To his credit, though, Ah Mao has been aware for some time that he had a problem. When his laptop was stolen, he didn’t buy a new one for fear it would only facilitate his gaming habits. He sold his smartphone and replaced it with an old-school Nokia that can barely run Snake. He found a job that required long hours daily in the hopes that it would keep him from gaming too much. But unfortunately, it seemed like every time he got paid, he went on a bender.
His latest was in late March. Starting on the 26th, he spent several days in an internet cafe playing games, and when he emerged on the 29 he decided since it was clear he had no self-control, it was time for the police to get involved. He called 110 — China’s emergency number for crimes — and said, “Come arrest me and lock me up for a few months, I cannot keep myself off of the internet.”
The operator suggested he go to a local police substation, where he met with officers and a counselor. Needless to say, they refused to actually throw him in prison, but the counselor did recommend a three-step approach to recovery based on creating distance, self-control, and supervision. Ah Mao has already tried the first two, of course, but he has lacked external supervision. With the help of family and friends, he may finally be able to kick the habit.
I’ve written a number of stories about game addiction over the past month, and I want to clarify that I’m not suggesting games themselves are the problem. I’m a gamer myself (most recently I have been playing Bioshock Infinite) and I have nothing against games. What I’m trying to drive home with this article and others like it is that gaming addiction is a real problem, and it’s something that Chinese society takes pretty seriously but hasn’t really figured out how to handle yet. You may recall the horror stories from several years ago about China’s game addict boot camps, or that China is currently working on its own conditions for diagnosing game addiction, but it’s clear that some people out there need more than what’s currently available.
(Jiangsu Online via QQ Games)
The post Chinese Gamer Demands Police Arrest Him for Playing Games Too Much appeared first on Tech in Asia.