In order to knuckle down on the perpetuating concerns over online game addition amongst their youth, the South Korean government has put in place a ban on juveniles playing them past midnight. Underage users who play past the set hours will be disconnected from the server for a six-hour period; gamers will have the ability, however, to choose whether the ban itself starts at midnight, 1AM or 2AM.

But the fun doesn't stop there for these poor bastards. Not only will they be disconnected from their servers, no - any extended play online will also result in a throttling of their connection speed. Currently, this criterion is currently being tested on four MMOs and will later be adjusted to expand to a total of nineteen online MMOs which currently represent 79% of the domestic market in Korea.

See guys? Not all of you have it this bad. Some of you might have to go to sleep a bit earlier than others during raid times, which prohibits you from getting uber gear; but you at least have a choice of "sneaking" back into the game when everyone (parents) in the house falls asleep. These poor folks in Korea will have a six-hour wait - by which raiding will be done - and their connection throttled. Will they find a way around this? Probably (especially if the ban is IP specific in which users might be able to do some IP/MAC spoofing, or just hop on another wireless network).  South Korea can always do what Kim Jong Il does to those who disobey: feed them to a group of sharks with lasers attached to their heads. That'll show 'em not to play past midnight.

[The Korea Herald]