China Prohibits Vegetable "Stealing" in SNS Games
Sohu IT, 12/17/09
According to an official from China's Ministry of Culture (MoC), the MoC is currently strengthening its oversight of games on social networking sites (SNS), and is requiring complete checks on all games by all regional MoC branches. The MoC has already ordered SNS-based farming games in which users "steal vegetables" from other players to change the name of this action.
Editor's Note: Five Minutes, the developer of the original popular vegetable-stealing SNS game "Happy Farm," has confirmed that the company has voluntarily modified the game such that the action by which users "steal vegetables" is now known as "picking vegetables." Five Minutes said that, in light of the unfavorable social ethics encouraged by games portraying theft, licensed operators of Happy Farm including Renren and Tencent (0700.HK) have already changed the name of the action to "picking;" no longer do users "steal."
Keywords: regulation online gaming browser game Internet Tencent Ministry of Culture SNS Five Minutes Happy Farm Renren 0700.HK
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