The new state enemies may be virtual creations from the Chinese Internet game 'Vo Lam Truyen Ky' (Swordsman), but this hasn't stopped authorities from taking some very real steps against the magical kung fu warriors.

Worried about the Internet gaming craze that has swept Asia since the 1990s and hit Vietnam about a year ago, Hanoi this month unveiled an ordinance to restrict the hours per day fans can spend in the make-believe world.

Vo Lam and other versions of what is known as 'multiple massive online role playing games' (MMORPG) in the jargon of the booming industry have taken Vietnam by storm since June 2005.

Cyber cafés have mushroomed and filled with school children who immerse themselves for hours a day in the interactive games, assuming characters that fight, chat, and even marry each other.

"Now I have friends all over the country," 15-year-old Truong Khanh Hoang, school bag slung across his back, said during one of his daily three-hour gaming sessions.

"At school, it's the first thing we talk about."

It's not just kids who have gone mad over Vo Lam.

"What I love is becoming somebody else - sometimes a hero, sometimes a traitor. I can even try to kill my wife," said a 37-year-old man, asking not be named for fear of marital reprisals.

Another self-confessed gameaholic, 29-year-old dentist Tran Khanh Long, said Vo Lam, a world of medieval castles and marauding warrior tribes, is hugely successful because "Vietnamese people love Chinese martial arts stories".

"We grew up reading these graphic novels, and in this game we find the same kind of atmosphere."

Vietnam's leaders aren't impressed about their youths diving into this homework-free parallel universe.

They worry about "pathological players" who spend real money on virtual weapons and sometimes continue online fights in real life.

Under the new ordinance, due to take effect in mid-June, online game shops will have to locate at least 200 meters away from schools and shut their doors from 11pm to 6am. Children under 14 will have to be accompanied by adults.

Hitting gamers where it hurts, the state has also ordered the game operator to introduce a new scoring system that discourages non-stop playing by deducting points after a three-hour time limit.

Nguyen Thai Linh, a 22-year-old student at Ho Chi Minh City's Polytechnic University, is devastated.

"I usually play 12 hours on Saturdays and Sundays," he said. "I don't have time during the week, so I really need to get my fill of gaming on weekends."

The Ministry of Culture and Information, also in charge of censoring movies, books and cartoons, may see the new craze as a threat - but the industry is excited by the potential in the youthful country of 83 million people.

In the Asia Pacific, the world's largest gaming market, the number of online player is expected to grow from 17 million last year to 75 millions in 2009, according to US consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In Vietnam, the sector exploded from nowhere to two million online gamers now - and industry watchers say the proportion of players beats that anywhere else in the region.

"The leading game in China, 'Legend of Mir', reaches 700,000 concurrent users (CCU) at most, and the Chinese population is 1.3 billion," said Le Hong Minh, chairman of VinaGame, Vo Lam's local distributor.

"But in Vietnam, with only 83 million people, 'Vo Lam Truyen Ky' has 140,000 CCUs and will probably have 200,000 by the end of the year."

Part of the allure for entertainment-starved Vietnamese youngsters is that online gaming is relatively cheap, with 100 play hours of Vo Lam costing about four dollars, when a ticket for a feature-length movie costs three dollars.

The number of Internet users has grown from 500,000 in late 2000 to 12.5 million early this year. Online gaming will be an US$80 million industry in three years, predicts the Vietnam Software Association.

VinaGame now dominates the sector, but the state-owned Vietnam Software and Media Company and FPT Telecom are muscling in, with FPT recently paying 2.9 million dollars for the licence of South Korean firm Webzen's game 'MU Online.'

"Unlike the Korean market, which is somewhat saturated, the Vietnamese market is only at an infant stage," said Webzen's Asia Pacific chief Andrew Yeom. "It's a real window of opportunity."

Source: AFP