News: WOW row inside Chinese government intensifies

[News Bot]

Culture Ministry castigates rival agency for having "overstepped its authority" by revoking World of Warcraft permits; Blizzard claims MMORPG still "online and operational" in China.



Earlier this week, one arm of the Chinese government attempted to shut down local operations of World of Warcraft. Now, another Beijing regulatory agency has declared the move went too far--raising further questions about the fate of Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the country.


The Chinese government has two agencies fighting to keep WOW players in line.


According to the New York Times (registration required), the Chinese Ministry of Culture denounced the move by the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) to suspend WOW operations in the Asian nation. On Monday, Reuters reported that GAPP had revoked the permit needed to operate the MMORPG from localization partner NetEase, citing "gross violations" of Chinese law.

In a Wednesday article in the Beijing newspaper Economic Information Daily (translated by the Times), a Culture Ministry official declared, "In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority. They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming."

The dispute is part of a larger dispute between the GAPP and Culture Ministry over which can regulate China's booming online gaming market. Hong Kong-based Citi Investment Research & Analysis analyst Alicia Yap told the Times that online gaming revenues rose 50 percent in 2008 to $2.9 billion--10 times what it was five years ago. That total is expected to more than double by 2013, said Yap.

So where does the Chinese government's internecine bureaucratic battles leave World of Warcraft? "That aside from some downtime tied to the standard maintenance schedule, the game is online, operational, and hasn't been suspended [in China]," a Blizzard rep told GameSpot.

Earlier this year, the Culture Ministry made headline for summarily banning online "gangster games" in China.

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"WOW row inside Chinese government intensifies" was posted by Tor Thorsen on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:01:16 -0800


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[Ze-Tomb]

Removing a game like WoW form a country which plays alot of it really isn't a good idea. It is nice to know it is still operational, the GAPP really has gone beyond their authority in my opinion. Unless it is dire, I don't think anyone but the owners of an online game have the auhtority to penalize it.

[MarieWoodell]

Why can't they just let the Chinese people have some freedom already. It's getting ridiculous.

[Ze-Tomb]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

Why can't they just let the Chinese people have some freedom already. It's getting ridiculous.

I agree, it is absolutely rediculous all this stuff.

Let the l33t people own us on our MMOs!

[MarieWoodell]

Originally Posted by Ze-Tomb

I agree, it is absolutely rediculous all this stuff.

Let the l33t people own us on our MMOs!

Tehe. They are often better than us aren't they.

[Ze-Tomb]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

Tehe. They are often better than us aren't they.

Yeah, it's creepy. :S

[thoreau]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

Why can't they just let the Chinese people have some freedom already. It's getting ridiculous.

You realize that Chinese players can play on U.S. and European servers right? It is only those accounts that are on Chinese servers that are affected.

I for one applaud the Chinese gov't position. They are saying that they know kids spend hours and hours playing online games. They have established a set of things that cannot be portrayed in those games. If you want to do business in their country you must follow those rules.

And China is no different than many other countries.

For example, before Fallout 3 could be sold in Japan a side quest had to be removed because it involved detonating an atomic bomb. Before Command & Conquer could be sold in Germany the soldiers were turned into robots and the blood changed to oil.

[MarieWoodell]

Originally Posted by thoreau

You realize that Chinese players can play on U.S. and European servers right? It is only those accounts that are on Chinese servers that are affected.

I for one applaud the Chinese gov't position. They are saying that they know kids spend hours and hours playing online games. They have established a set of things that cannot be portrayed in those games. If you want to do business in their country you must follow those rules.

And China is no different than many other countries.

For example, before Fallout 3 could be sold in Japan a side quest had to be removed because it involved detonating an atomic bomb. Before Command & Conquer could be sold in Germany the soldiers were turned into robots and the blood changed to oil.

The other examples you have given are perfectly acceptable changes in my opinion. I just think with all the other things that the chinese block and make difficult for the chinese Wow is just another attempt at taking away their freedom of opinion and speech etc. I've got a few chinese friends that have moved to England recently and the things they are not allowed to talk about in e-mails because of the visits they will then get from officials is ridiculous and I can only imagine that a large proportion of their dislike for internet games stems from the fact they cannot control what is said so easily in them.

[thoreau]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

The other examples you have given are perfectly acceptable changes in my opinion. I just think with all the other things that the chinese block and make difficult for the chinese Wow is just another attempt at taking away their freedom of opinion and speech etc. I've got a few chinese friends that have moved to England recently and the things they are not allowed to talk about in e-mails because of the visits they will then get from officials is ridiculous and I can only imagine that a large proportion of their dislike for internet games stems from the fact they cannot control what is said so easily in them.

I lived in China for nearly 2 years and taught at a university in Shanghai. I know what you say is true. For example, often times students would send me emails using leets speak for certain words like F r 3 3 d 0 m. They were worried that their email would be tracked.

But this is no different than the U.S. or Europe. Use any one of hundreds of flagged words and the gov't will be notified. The only difference is there is less of a chance of us being visited the next day. Less of a chance - but there is a chance.

[MarieWoodell]

Originally Posted by thoreau

I lived in China for nearly 2 years and taught at a university in Shanghai. I know what you say is true. For example, often times students would send me emails using leets speak for certain words like F r 3 3 d 0 m. They were worried that their email would be tracked.

But this is no different than the U.S. or Europe. Use any one of hundreds of flagged words and the gov't will be notified. The only difference is there is less of a chance of us being visited the next day. Less of a chance - but there is a chance.

That less of a chance makes a world of difference though. None of us are really that scared of being able to express a normal opinion. Yeah a terrorist might have to be careful what they say but if students are scared of being able to express an opinion there is a problem.