World of Warcraft Changed for China

[Kollega]

I don't get it. Chinese authorities have no problem with torturing Internet addicts and beating them to death,but they have problems with depictions of skeletons. I'm actually intrested - is there any censorship in their biology schoolbooks?

I wonder if they were allowed the original copy of C&C: Generals. Or if they swapped China with...Burma, instead.

Nein. C&C: Generals is Banned In China.

 

[not a zaar]

I don't get it. Chinese authorities have no problem with torturing Internet addicts and beating them to death,but they have problems with depictions of skeletons. I'm actually intrested - is there any censorship in their biology schoolbooks?

Read the thread. Apparently it's a cultural issue, Chinese people take offense to skeletal remains being strewn about.

 

[Destal]

The apparent Chinese government ban on display of bones or skeletal remains seems bizarre to me, but then again in the US it is <a href=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0408043fcc1.html target=self>apparently against the law to talk about sex on the radio, which I can't say is any less absurd in terms of censorship.
If it requires a special device which must be turned on (radio, tv, computer, etc) to receive or use the media, then it should not be censored. Don't like what you're hearing/seeing? Turn the sucker off.

It's pretty obvious that it isn't enforced...Just look at Howard Stern.

OT: China is almost as bad as Germany for banning all violent games against people.

 

[Asehujiko]

That's interesting. Stuff like that would ruin the little atmosphere that the game has, and that's a big deal to me. Good thing I'm an American.

So how would it "ruin" that atmosphere that the Scourge has some actual supplies lying around instead of a bazillion unassembled/broken foot soldiers as if their entire necromancy division was on a holiday?

 

[RebelRising]

For those of you who don't know, the government's objection to the depiction of bones and skeletons is simply them maintaining a cultural remnant from Confucianism, which specifies ancestor worship; as such worship would usually entail bones, I can see why they wouldn't want this. It is admittedly a tad pedantic, but I'm not one to judge.

 

[Swaki]

i never found wow to be violent, and making the "blood" a different colour doesn't seem to make it any less violent, your still hitting things until their body fluids start pouring out of them.

and about the re skinning ; hows the new mount going to look? and i dont think i would mind that much if my priests spine would no longer stick out of his robe.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Well, that's certainly weird. It's a good thing they have WoW back, but the changes are a bit odd, even considering their culture's view on the dead. I just hope the benefits outweigh the downsides in the end.

 

[Kajt]

Looks like China is trying to take Japan's place as the weirdest country ever.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

I wonder if they were allowed the original copy of C&C: Generals. Or if they swapped China with...Burma, instead.

They didn't get it at all, it was banned. Something about showing China in a bad light. I think nit was banned in Germany as well for glorifying war, altough don't quote me on that.

 

[Radeonx]

That's interesting. Stuff like that would ruin the little atmosphere that the game has, and that's a big deal to me. Good thing I'm an American.

So how would it "ruin" that atmosphere that the Scourge has some actual supplies lying around instead of a bazillion unassembled/broken foot soldiers as if their entire necromancy division was on a holiday?

I was talking about the actual bodies. The fleshless parts always added atmosphere for me.

 

[Byers]

Possibly the most retarded thing I've ever seen.

 

[HeartAttackBob]

The apparent Chinese government ban on display of bones or skeletal remains seems bizarre to me, but then again in the US it is <a href=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0408043fcc1.html target=self>apparently against the law to talk about sex on the radio, which I can't say is any less absurd in terms of censorship.
If it requires a special device which must be turned on (radio, tv, computer, etc) to receive or use the media, then it should not be censored. Don't like what you're hearing/seeing? Turn the sucker off.

It's pretty obvious that it isn't enforced...Just look at Howard Stern.

OT: China is almost as bad as Germany for banning all violent games against people.

That's a good one! Ha! You almost had me there.
For a second, I thought you were being serious and didn't know that Howard Stern & the broadcast companies he worked for were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the FCC for particular "indecent" parts of his shows.
But of course, you must know that because I linked directly to it, and are just pulling my leg.

 

[HobbesMkii]

The apparent Chinese government ban on display of bones or skeletal remains seems bizarre to me

I don't get it. Chinese authorities have no problem with torturing Internet addicts and beating them to death,but they have problems with depictions of skeletons. I'm actually intrested - is there any censorship in their biology schoolbooks?

The Chinese government is communist and thus avowedly Atheist. Chinese religion centers around the veneration of the ancestors, who act as intermediaries between the spiritual realm and the temporal realm. Because Communist doctrine teaches that "religion is the opiate of the masses" it is thus considered dangerous to the government to allow religious symbols (in this case, bones which represent the ancestors) to remind people of faith, less they fall victim to this opiate. It's sort of a public safety initiative, that also has the added effect of minimizing any influence religion might play in creating opposition to China's government. It's an extremely nuanced argument, but it's also extremely common in Chinese government censorship.

 

[ShadowKatt]

And as much as I would normally have a problem with all this, because it's WoW, it amuses me. Got I love to watch WoW and its players suffer. Most of them deserve it anyway.

 

[BGilman]

In practice, you can download a patch for Chinese WoW that restores the game assets to the way it looks in the western versions. The changes are client side only.

One thing that people tend not to understand about the Chinese goverment, is that it has a much larger bark than bite. For instance, when movies are 'banned' in mainland China, about the only effect, is that you will see a blurb in the newspaper about it. They will still be easily obtainable from any DVD shop/guy selling DVDs on the street.

 

[Destal]

The apparent Chinese government ban on display of bones or skeletal remains seems bizarre to me, but then again in the US it is <a href=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0408043fcc1.html target=self>apparently against the law to talk about sex on the radio, which I can't say is any less absurd in terms of censorship.
If it requires a special device which must be turned on (radio, tv, computer, etc) to receive or use the media, then it should not be censored. Don't like what you're hearing/seeing? Turn the sucker off.

It's pretty obvious that it isn't enforced...Just look at Howard Stern.

OT: China is almost as bad as Germany for banning all violent games against people.

That's a good one! Ha! You almost had me there.
For a second, I thought you were being serious and didn't know that Howard Stern & the broadcast companies he worked for were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by the FCC for particular "indecent" parts of his shows.
But of course, you must know that because I linked directly to it, and are just pulling my leg.

He has yet to have a single lawsuit against him since he's been at sirius, that article is 6 years old. Also, I stand by what I said, it can't be that well enforced, he's still on the radio. He makes way more than those fines would ever add up to, so how is he being censored exactly?

 

[Woem]

Thank you for using the word "changed" instead of "censored" in the title, it pushes the debate in the right direction. As I've said before it really doesn't have anything to do with censorship. Headshotcatched said it correct that China just doesn't like the imagery of bones. It happened with Magic: The Gathering, it happens with World of Warcraft and it will happen in the future.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I know its a little late to be responding to this thread, but from what I found out a long time ago these changes were already in the game over there from launch day; why is this a shock and news to everyone now? The bones were already covered on undead and when players die they don't leave the little skeletons we see, they leave tidy little tombstones...which I actually find kinda neat.