The Chinese government has announced a new policy that is designed to crack down on those online advertisements which use sexually charged imagery to sell products like MMO titles, which are very popular in the Communist country. The Ministry of Culture will be in charge of banning those online game companies who do not take the new policy into account when promoting their titles. The new policy is also set to limit the use of gambling and violent acts in advertising.

This comes after companies seeking to expand their audience turned to adult stars and to controversial public figures, most of them women, to serve as spokespersons for their online games, like Warrior OL and Dahua Xuanyuan. The new policy will be introduced on August 1.

The China daily quotes Wu Jun, who is the vice president of 9you.com, the company that develops online game Warrior OL, who said that his company is welcoming the new policy and will make sure that it abides by all its provisions. Also quoted was a resident from Beijing, probably a player of MMO games, who said “It is unnecessary to ban the advertisements, because the players do not really care who is the spokesperson of the game.”

Zhao Xufeng, who is an analyst watching the video game market for the Iresearch Consultant Company, stated, “The game companies can get more publicity with less expense by advertising with net celebrities.” The analyst is also saying that the online games industry is set to deliver more than 30 billion Yuan, which is the equivalent of 4.4 billion dollars, to the Gross Domestic Products of China during 2010, with the figure set to rise during the coming years.

The Communist Chinese government has taken steps to regulate the online gaming industry in the last few years, aiming to limit the impact of Western made MMOs and create an environment where local made video games have a chance to get the biggest audiences.