[hjek]

> This is a such a classic HN comment:

Thanks!

> The answer to your decentralized chess is that no one would care if it broke the rules or not unless millions of people were hopelessly addicted to it and it warranted a second look.

Ok, so you'd have a online gaming vacuum for all <18 gamer kids of China. Don't you think someone would make a game or two run over IRC (or SMTP some other protocol) if it meant capturing that entire market? Then it would be millions; and then perhaps authorities would care, and then perhaps herpaps an IRC server could* be "an online gaming platform", which would be interesting and peculiar legally, is what I'm saying.

(What really distinguishes / categorizes something as a game network protocol as distinct from written human language, legally..?)

[nearbuy]

I'm pretty sure if this policy got kids to play chess or Go over IRC, instead of games like League of Legends, the government would call it a big success and pat themselves on the back.