WoW to Partially Relaunch in China

[John Funk]

WoW to Partially Relaunch in China

After almost two months' downtime in China, the world's largest MMOG finally looks to be back on track in the area... sort of.

The trials and tribulations of the world's most popular MMOG in the world's most populous country seem to be coming to an end. in April [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90087-China-Blocks-WoW-Lich-King-Release] that they would not be renewing their contract with The9, the operators of WoW in China, instead signing on with competitor NetEase.

Of course, the switch didn't go so smoothly, and earlier this month there were rumors that WoW might even be reports [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93231-Is-World-of-Warcraft-Facing-a-Ban-in-China-UPDATED] that the game will be allowed to restart operations as of July 30th... but for the time being, will only allow current WoWers online.

Until the changes to the "objectionable" content in WotLK are finalized and approved, the game won't be taking any new blood:

[blockquote]Players who already have accounts will be allowed to play the game starting late next week, but new players will be barred from signing up until the game gets final clearance, the report said. NetEase will not be allowed to charge subscription fees during that period, which is meant to ensure a smooth transition of user data from the operator switch, the official was cited as saying.[/blockquote]

Of course, one wonders how much of a difference this makes to all the Chinese players who jumped ship to play on Taiwanese servers, including elite raid guild "Stars," who recently got the first [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XodAfSKLmGA] Yogg-Saron kill without the aid of any Watchers (it makes sense if you know WoW - trust me).

(Via Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5320102/world-of-warcraft-to-re+launch-in-china-sorta])

Permalink

 

[The Great JT]

Here, let me summarize the whole "no Watchers Yogg-Saron kill" thing: There's four optional bosses that make the fight against Yogg-Saron a lot easier: Hodir, Freya, Mimiron and Thorim. You can fight Yogg-Saron with any number of those four bosses and any combination of them around, but it's completely optional. It's basically like saying, "do you want to just go for it and be harder" or "take the time to do this and make the final fight easier."

That said, China really needs to loosen up.

 

[King_Paco]

i wonder how much business they've lost over this...

 

[hansari]

Until the changes to the "objectionable" content in WotLK are finalized and approved, the game won't be taking any new blood

What was this "objectionable" content? Did they have a clan mission reminiscent of Tienanmen Square?

i wonder how much business they've lost over this...

They probably just played on the Taiwan server like the article says...

 

[Hirvox]

Until the changes to the "objectionable" content in WotLK are finalized and approved, the game won't be taking any new blood

What was this "objectionable" content? Did they have a clan mission reminiscent of Tienanmen Square?

Actually, the main beef is with skeletons, which are apparently taboo in China: They already had to put some meat on the existing skeleton models and use gravestones instead of skeletons to show where characters have died. But because WotLK is heavily undead-themed, skeletons and bone motifs are everywhere. Before this fracas, Blizzard had cut out the entire death knight class from the Chinese version of the expansion, and it still wasn't enough for the censors.

Not that this is the first time Blizzard has gotten into trouble with China: Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne had the Pandaren, who are panda samurais. The Chinese didn't particularly like the combination of a Chinese animal and a Japanese warrior.