China Censors World of Warcraft; Blood to Oil
World of Warcraft returns to China.
After a six-week suspension, World of Warcraft is now "partially" up and running in China. The game went on hiatus after Activision switched operators, moving the MMORPG from The9 over to rival NetEase. However, the Chinese government's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) stepped in before the game could re-open and decided that additional aspects needed to be changed (or censored).
According to this report on MMORPG News, WOW is currently in closed beta for one week while the changes are applied. Current players have noticed that previous piles of bones have now been replaced by bags of sand. In-game talent tree icons, once appearing as severed heads, bones, and blood, are now represented as boxes. Additionally, blood is no longer red, but appears as black oil instead.
The current changes aren't the first revisions made to WOW in China. Undead characters--once sporting exposed bones or bone accessories--were revised in order to cover or remove the bones entirely. The change stemmed from a controversial subway advertisement featuring undead characters from World of Warcraft that supposedly scared children. The Chinese government deemed the initial change was necessary due to the lack of specific age ratings on games sold in Chinese retail shops.
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So they kill an internet addict and now censor WoW for blood and skeletons.
Can China go one week without f'ing up?
WHY???? Why would they do that? That's just plain stupid.
quote]The change stemmed from a controversial subway advertisement featuring undead characters from World of Warcraft that supposedly scared children[/quote]
Total BS.
So im guessing that Kel'Thuzad is looking like a baby girl?
I hate china.
try not to say things like "china effed up." its their government, not the people.
good thing I live in the Netherlands where the government doesn't have shit on things like this. The pirate bay owned that stupid BREIN organisation by keeping TPB up and running under the flag of no longer being the owners of TPB
Screw those commies in china leading it into submission...
They are not censoring games such as Doom 3 or some other games with explicit display of skulls body parts. The cosmetic change is probably only ostensible reason. What commies are really doing is to put MMORPG under their surveillance for the real sensitive information exchange.
Chinese gov't nerfed blizzard hard!
So what was an MMO without 5 million Gold sellers like?
The government should BE the people. Sadly this is not true in China's case.
oh man, china would shit their pants @ dead space xD
I really do feel sorry for the citizens of China. Soon they won't be able to do anything.
one again confirming that china is a crazy backward communist censoring land, only rivaled by apple HQ cept for the communist part(still investigating).
try not to say things like "china effed up." its their government, not the people.
of course we meant their government, its not like any of the billion people over there have a say in what their government does.
God bless the United States of America. The land of the Free.
God bless the United States of America. The land of the Free.
And home of Apple?
I have to say, as a US citizen living and working in China for over a year, some comments made by idiots who have never stepped foot out of their own country (muchless state!) and make completely idiotic and groundless remarks really bothers me.
But situations like this, and being an avid WoW player, I find completely laughable! Godbless US servers ! It is mindbending to me how their government can be hipictritical (spellcheck) to the next level! (and no, they did not ding)
try not to say things like "china effed up." its their government, not the people.
And yet people blame Americans for the government, oh the fucking hypocrisy.
And yet people blame Americans for the government, oh the fucking hypocrisy.
Well we *do* actually vote them in, so in theory they have a point.
No one really votes in Communist leadership.
Its just mind-bottling
Why not sell it as R rated then? (21 years of age)?
The kids who love the game will ask their older brother to buy it, or an older friend.
stupid little chinese .
^ +1
Biggest Hypocrisy at work
You know what I haven't had in a while.. Big league chew
You know what I haven't had in a while.. Big league chew
God bless the United States of America. The land of the Free.
First sentence. Good. Last sentence. Untruthful.
At least with our current government.
First sentence. Good. Last sentence. Untruthful.At least with our current government.
yup, stop paying taxes on the land that you own free and clear and see how long you're "freedom" lasts. :-p
I thing they are at least haveing a go at sencoring the internet and games that children play which is more then what the rest of the world is doing.I say good on them if they dont want bad western values infecting there way of life
I personaly play all those games but then I am not under the age of ten years
the kids now days are being desensatized at a younger age to violence,gore and the realizm that you see on the TV and at the MOVIES they can turn off there emotions and grief then what they do and learn from the games they start to use in real life
But then with our free rights serciety how are we to control our childrens upbringing we can not while we have the internet and media uncencored
Gazz
try not to say things like "china effed up." its their government, not the people.
well, it is kinda their ppl, but not their ppls fault.
what i'm saying is, you try and keep 1.3 billion mostly very poor ppl from anarchy and see if you come out looking like the dalai lama. see if you can go one day without a single one of 1.3 billion of them causing a news worthy effup.
we could say the same thing about the U.S. "oh look, another shooting, whats wrong with them." but its just statistically more likely to happen there, even if for no other reason than 300 million people, many with guns.
@GAZZOO- they don't want bad western values? Let me just explain how much of a hypocrite you are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3w [...] re=related So the local chinese can make lifelike games about killing Japanese people and it is okay but a fantasy game can't even show some little things. How about you preach to the Chinese about this first before you start chiming in about how it is Americans fault. I will tell you what the real issue, China is trying all it can to nudge out foreign business in order to promote Chinese products but they do it under the notion that "it is for the health of the kids" when it is all about money and power and promoting local products.