World of Warcraft Gets Banned In China Again


Recommended Posts

In a crackdown against online gaming, China has put World of Warcraft under review again today, asking Chinese operator NetEase to stop collecting fees and suspend new account registration as the game is in violation of regulation agreements.

A regulator from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) said today in an online statement that the game was in "gross violation" of Chinese regulations and they have returned the company's application to operate "The Burning Crusade" (Yep, that's right, they said The Burning Crusade and not Wrath of the Lich King) in China. NetEase has responded that they have not received official word from the governing body of their intent. As of this posting, Battle.net China is still accepting registrations for World of Warcraft.

Analysts aren't surprised that the game has been targeted by the GAPP, as the branch of the government was displeased over World of Warcraft going back online thanks to the approval from the Ministry of Culture. Essentially, the game is locked in a battle between the two wings of the government as the GAPP works to tighten its control over content in online games.

The lockdown of service has affected NetEase and Activision in the stock market, pushing them down 2.4% and 4.3% of their stock values respectively.

Update: Added links to the GAPP's statement, NetEase's official response, and corrected wording in the first sentence to show World of Warcraft China is still running.

Source: http://www.massively.com/2009/11/02/breaki...warcraft-again/

2lix105.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WoW is one messed up game.

What an original and totally unexpected comment. You killed me with your wit good sir!

How I understand it most have moved on to the Taiwanese servers anyway. So no great loss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, China is a police state. What can you expect that they would want to control every aspect of their citizenty's life?

What do you mean? The USA and Europe both have to review media before it is released, hell L4D2 had the same thing in Australia. The only difference I see here is slight changes with their value system as far as what is acceptable and unacceptable, but the overall process of a "police state" controlling the media is the same in most countries.

I support China in this move. People who play WoW clearly need some state nannying.

People who play Borderlands clearly need some state nannying. ;)

It's a very slippery slope....I don't like what waits at the bottom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good. If only every other country would follow.

I find it ironic coming from you, nothing personal, but you have this sig with a PS3 or XBOX games thing.. and if your country follows China's footsteps your signature will become a hell of a lot smaller, like, with your name in it, maybe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find it ironic coming from you, nothing personal, but you have this sig with a PS3 or XBOX games thing.. and if your country follows China's footsteps your signature will become a hell of a lot smaller, like, with your name in it, maybe.

No... Dont you think they banned the game because teenagers use an insane amount of time on it, often getting addicted?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No... Dont you think they banned the game because teenagers use an insane amount of time on it, often getting addicted?

Well it may be one of the reasons behind that, yeah.

Although there are plenty of these "addicts" in other countries, too.

Still, it's all dodgy to me, banning a game ? As if that's their major concern..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No... Dont you think they banned the game because teenagers use an insane amount of time on it, often getting addicted?

No. One reason is a lot of the whole undead aspect (aka Undead, Death Knights, pretty much all of Northrend) is against their "culture" or something. You also can't have any sort of panda killing in games over there either lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but the overall process of a "police state" controlling the media is the same in most countries.

I can post outright slander in the paper if I want to do it. I can equate the government to Nazi Germany if I so choose - I suggest you try that in China.

I'll be seeing you.. oh wait, I won't as you'll either be executed or you'll just "vanish".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can post outright slander in the paper if I want to do it. I can equate the government to Nazi Germany if I so choose - I suggest you try that in China.

I'll be seeing you.. oh wait, I won't as you'll either be executed or you'll just "vanish".

Yet I was talking about video game regulation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't find it terribly interesting what they're banning, as it certainly is addictive and boring.

But the why. Cutting people off from social opportunities seems like a strange act. I doubt they're going out and closing down all the bars because people do dumb things when drunk? It really shows a culture of distrust when the new media is banned just because it's new.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.