VietNamNet Bridge – "My friend eats and sleeps with on-line games," Tran Quang wrote in a letter to the editorial office of the on-line newspaper BaoVietnam.com, asking for ways to help his friend break the habit.

Young people play online games at an internet cafe in Ha Noi. Deputy Director of the Ha Noi Post and Telecommunications Department Duong Van Chinh says the only way to prevent internet users from spending too much time on on-line gaming was to put a cap on playing hours.

Quang said that his friend was no longer like a normal person.

"He looks pale and skinny," he wrote, "He has been wallowing in the world of on-line games for two years."

While the number of gamers like Quang’s friend is not high, a survey released by Nielsen Viet Nam, a leading company in global information and media, in August found that 53 per cent of Vietnamese internet users were playing games and chatting on-line, 30 per cent used the internet for reading and information-seeking, and the rest mainly used it for working or other purposes.

"Almost only students come here, to play on-line games," said an internet cafe owner near the Ha Noi University of Technology.

Ha Noi has more than 3,500 internet cafes, which are mainly used by on-line gamers.

On-line games were imported to Viet Nam later than other foreign countries, but despite this late beginning, Viet Nam is starting to keep up with world gaming circles.

Computer games were first introduced to the country in 1985. Since then, a series of computer games have found a strong foothold in the domestic market. In contrast, on-line games didn’t start appearing until 2003 and there are already questions on how to manage and trade this quickly growing pastime.

"It is impossible to prohibit local enterprises from supplying on-line games to the market," according to Deputy Director of the Ha Noi Post and Telecommunications Department Duong Van Chinh.

While confirming the on-line game market should grow according to the rule of market-oriented economy, Chinh recommended the only way to prevent internet users from spending too much time on on-line gaming was to put a cap on playing hours.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism may agree that it is necessary to apply a time frame for gamers. In a draft circular it says that gamers’ scores will be adjusted based on the number of hours they spend playing on-line.

Under the draft, gamers will get 100 per cent of their scores when playing consecutively for up to three hours. The scores will be cut in half for anyone playing an additional two hours and return to zero if gamers play more than five consecutive hours.

Yet, specialists believe it will be difficult to enforce these new rules.

According to Nguyen Hoang Tuan Anh, a communications official of leading on-line games company in Viet Nam VinaGame, new on-line games are being continuously introduced into the local market, that is why gamers will easily be able to change to another game to score points after getting 100 per cent of scores in their first game.

Internet cafe owners agreed with this analysis.

They said they were unwilling to ask their clients to provide personal information before using the internet as they were required for fear that their customers would feel more comfortable at another shop where they were not requested to do so.

This deficiency of information is hampering efforts to put a cap on playing hours for gamers.

According to psychologist Phung Thi Hien, people addicted to online gaming unconsciously put the purpose of the virtual world above that of the real one.

This, sometimes, prompted them to finish work in reality in a nominal way so they could spend more time in realising their goals in the virtual world, Hien said.

Gamer Nguyen Khanh Hy said he used to be addicted to on-line games, spending 16-20 hours a day gaming, ignoring his studies and his "real" life. When he turned off his computer screen, he felt as if everything surrounding him turned dark. His legs felt like jelly.

"I still feel my flesh creep when recalling that time," Hy said.

A recent figure provided by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication found that last month another 63,000 people subscribed to the internet, bringing the total number of internet subscribers to 6.1 million nationwide, while the total number of internet users is 20.2 million, representing 23.5 per cent of the population.

(Source: Viet Nam News)