Is World of Warcraft Facing a Ban in China? - UPDATED

[Ancientgamer]

Well...thats about a third of WoWs player base gone.

Ouch...

Half actually, they're down to 5 million now...

Of course, that still dwarfs the next biggest MMO, so :/

 

[Zimbum]

Wow. That sucks. China bans everything.

 

[hansari]

Two rumors have been swirling around the case ever since: One, that NetEase paid a "sky-high revenue share" in order to gain access to the game, which will quadruple the revenues Blizzard was earning in its deal with The9; and two, that the deal between NetEase and Blizzard, purportedly to provide technical support, is actually "a joint venture to operate World of Warcraft and other games."

I still fail to see what the big deal is.

And how does a foreign business manage to remain out of the way completely?

I mean how does McDonalds operate in China?

 

[Asehujiko]

WoW went from 12 million to about 5. That's a pretty sever blow...

..for the chinese economy. Blizzard has enough to maintain itself.

 

[Doug]

News Flash! China bans something! Again!

Although banning WoW from China would be a pretty big economical blow. Lots of people = lots of money. Ouch.
Makes you happy not to live in a country that takes the piss out on games more than the writing of the occasional "video games might cause your children to become a satanist" article.

Actually, its more a case of 'Playing games may cause your children to question the authority and wisdom of our glorious government's rule!' Which is probably a more realistic possiblity.

 

[Doug]

Wow. That sucks. China bans everything.

China's an authoritian one party state - its what they do.

Its not as bad as the great US ally Sudi Arabia, of course, which is an absolute monarchy where spies are everywhere and even a word of descent can get you deported.

 

[seule]

Wow. That sucks. China bans everything.

China's an authoritian one party state - its what they do.

Its not as bad as the great US ally Sudi Arabia, of course, which is an absolute monarchy where spies are everywhere and even a word of descent can get you deported.

Or the US itself which can deny you entry to the country because you have a name similar to someone on the FBI watchlist...

 

[BGilman]

WoW in China brought The9 roughly 300 million USD in annual revenues, not a small amount. Also, China is the third largest MMO market in the world, behind South Korea, and is set to pass South Korea in the next year or two.

It will not be long before Chinese start complaining about American gold farmers.

 

[Doug]

Wow. That sucks. China bans everything.

China's an authoritian one party state - its what they do.

Its not as bad as the great US ally Sudi Arabia, of course, which is an absolute monarchy where spies are everywhere and even a word of descent can get you deported.

Or the US itself which can deny you entry to the country because you have a name similar to someone on the FBI watchlist...

Erm, I think you're being pretty flipant about that - in Sudi Arabia, the King's word is law, and his royal princes can do what they want freely, including (it is said) murder and rape, and not have to face criminal prosecution because they are, in fact, the law.

As for China, I'll admit they are slowly getting better, but really, they still crack down on ANY disagreement, and are attempting to filter the internet to remove whatever they disagree with.

That VS a few cases of bloody minded stupidly by FBI guys doesn't really match up. Although it is sodding stupid

 

[Thermal Ions]

That would really reduce the gold sellers in the game. Unfortunately it would also reduce the number of regular players.

It will have zero effect upon Chinese gold farmers on the US / Oceanic / European servers. By the nature of the game, farmed gold on Chinese servers previously operated by The9 had no way of finding it's way to the servers we all play on. the farmers may be based in China, but they connect to 'Western' servers to do the farming. Think people.

 

[The Great JT]

Good, maybe that means we can finally put the Pandaren in the game without worrying about the fucking chinese getting offended.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Wait...no more Chinese gold farmers? China's economy could collapse...

Which of course leads to the obious fact that the Us is behind this. War?

 

[Bigeyez]

Wow thats pretty insane, I would vouch a great deal of the 8million subscribers (?), are chinese, what a huge blow for them!

Wonder if they were dodging the law haha.

-Joe

It went from something like 11 million to 6 million when the Chinese left. Blizzard are barely affected though, their subscription fee is almost nothing compared to outrs.

What he said ^^^. They don't have a normal subscribtion like we think of it. So blizz actually doesn't lose as much money from this as you might think. It will hurt blizzards pride though going from 11 mil to about 6 or 7.

 

[standokan]

it seems like china keeps f#ing around and banning things but what is there profet in this why ban WoW, i think its to tease people with hikikomori (people who lock themselfs in their rooms because their afraid of the outside and play on pc all day)

 

[KeyMaster45]

It's Tiananmen Square all over again! But this time instead of an unknown guy standing in front of the tanks it will be a level 80 Tauren Hunter.

I want somebody to photoshop that. NOW.

Ask and thou shalt receive.

Placed in a spoiler for both space and to give those that would be offended the choice to look at it.....and be offended, why one would look at it if they'd be offended is beyond me. Heading to work in a bit, so direct any hate-mail you might have to my secretary Shamus the mad bag-pipe player.

Spoiler: Viewer beware

Back on topic, however, this temporary ban on WoW over there would explain the lack of gold seller spam as of late.

 

[dalek sec]

Not really a shock considering it's china folks. So what's so bad about these gold farmers though? I've never played the game but it seems like they get a ton of hate.

 

[dalek sec]

It's Tiananmen Square all over again! But this time instead of an unknown guy standing in front of the tanks it will be a level 80 Tauren Hunter.

I want somebody to photoshop that. NOW.

Ask and thou shalt receive.

Placed in a spoiler for both space and to give those that would be offended the choice to look at it.....and be offended, why one would look at it if they'd be offended is beyond me. Heading to work in a bit, so direct any hate-mail you might have to my secretary Shamus the mad bag-pipe player.

Spoiler: Viewer beware

Back on topic, however, this temporary ban on WoW over there would explain the lack of gold seller spam as of late.

That is awesome KeyMaster, very nice job on it.