I have a confession to make.

I have absolutely no hostility toward Microsoft.

I like Windows, in general, but I’m a little dismayed at Microsoft’s support for DRM. I know it’s generally less secure than some other operating systems, but I’ve never had any significant problems. In general, I tend to think that the problems with Windows stem more from idiot users not keeping their system updated (or blindly trusting whatever they download from the internet or get in e-mail).

More dangerous for my geek credentials: I love my X-box, and I fully expect to be won over by the X-box 360 (8 hours, 10 minutes and counting). I’ve never liked Playstation, not since it stole attention from the far-superior Nintendo 64. I’m anxiously awaiting the chance to play Perfect Dark Zero. (Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 have been sitting on my computer desk for a day or two now, along with a wired controller for the 360, teasing me. If I had to go much longer without the X-box 360, I’d probably go insane.

The parents of a 13-year-old boy in China who apparently jumped to his death re-enacting a scene from World of Warcraft are suing Blizzard. I could complain about people wanting to blame corporations for the stupidity of themselves and/or their loved ones, or I could link to an appropriate story from The Onion, “Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids.“, but both of those things have already been done over at Slashdot.

What caught my eye in the article, though, was this:

The Chinese government has already said it plans to restrict gamers to three hours of consecutive play, using a “fatigue technique” in games. After three hours of play, the online game would lose some player power, and after five hours, the player would lose most power. After that, there would be a delay of five hours before the game could be accessed to its full capacity.

I can see how they could restrict gamers to three hours of consecutive play by shutting off any connection that’s been connected to a game server for three hours, but without the cooperation of game companies, I don’t see how the Chinese government could use this “fatigue technique”. That’s not to say they couldn’t get that cooperation, of course. If China’s not as huge a market as I think it is, I’m quite certain that it has the potential to be; 1.3 billion people is a lot of potential gamers.

Any regulations that China passes to enforce this sort of thing is likely to have an effect on online gaming as a whole, which is troublesome. And, if it comes to pass, all of it will come from a stupid kid who didn’t learn his lesson from World of Warcraft. See, WoW isn’t like some other online games: long jumps on WoW are killers. I’d hate to think what this kid would’ve tried if he’d been playing City of Heroes.