China Censors World of Warcraft; Blood to Oil

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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).

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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Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.

41 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tenor77
    So they kill an internet addict and now censor WoW for blood and skeletons.
    Can China go one week without f'ing up?
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    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 childrenTotal BS.
    Reply
  • So im guessing that Kel'Thuzad is looking like a baby girl?
    Reply
  • nachowarrior
    I hate china.
    Reply
  • duckmanx88
    try not to say things like "china effed up." its their government, not the people.
    Reply
  • 2shea
    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...
    Reply
  • chaohsiangchen
    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.
    Reply
  • SamanuelMC
    Chinese gov't nerfed blizzard hard!
    Reply
  • Honis
    So what was an MMO without 5 million Gold sellers like?
    Reply
  • astrodudepsu
    The government should BE the people. Sadly this is not true in China's case.
    Reply