WOW row inside Chinese government intensifies

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Nov 6, 2009 3:01 pm PT

Culture Ministry castigates rival agency for having "overstepped its authority" by revoking World of Warcraft permits; Blizzard claims MMORPG still "online and operational" in China.

Earlier this week, one arm of the Chinese government attempted to shut down local operations of World of Warcraft. Now, another Beijing regulatory agency has declared the move went too far--raising further questions about the fate of Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the country.

The Chinese government has two agencies fighting to keep WOW players in line.

According to the New York Times (registration required), the Chinese Ministry of Culture denounced the move by the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) to suspend WOW operations in the Asian nation. On Monday, Reuters reported that GAPP had revoked the permit needed to operate the MMORPG from localization partner NetEase, citing "gross violations" of Chinese law.

In a Wednesday article in the Beijing newspaper Economic Information Daily (translated by the Times), a Culture Ministry official declared, "In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority. They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming."

The dispute is part of a larger dispute between the GAPP and Culture Ministry over which can regulate China's booming online gaming market. Hong Kong-based Citi Investment Research & Analysis analyst Alicia Yap told the Times that online gaming revenues rose 50 percent in 2008 to $2.9 billion--10 times what it was five years ago. That total is expected to more than double by 2013, said Yap.

So where does the Chinese government's internecine bureaucratic battles leave World of Warcraft? "That aside from some downtime tied to the standard maintenance schedule, the game is online, operational, and hasn't been suspended [in China]," a Blizzard rep told GameSpot.

Earlier this year, the Culture Ministry made headline for summarily banning online "gangster games" in China.

55 Comments

  • RitterXplode

    Posted Nov 26, 2009 6:47 pm PT

    weaponx789 said the best reply among all of you.

  • pimperjones

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 7:46 am PT

    Blizzard needs to understand how China works. You always pay off both sides equally, until you figure out which side has the control. Looks like somebody forgot to slip GAPP their monthly blank cheque. It's all about the Mao Notes in China, pay off both the CAPP and CMC like you're suppose to and everything will be rosy.

  • electroban

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 5:58 am PT

    @richioso Yes but does Sierra Leone have the income the U.S. has. Please keep your 12 year old prattle to yourself.

  • richioso

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 2:23 am PT

    @VectrexFanBoy
    The US is one of the most heavily in debt nations in the world, Sierra Leone have more money than the US.

  • tyco_ex

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 10:23 pm PT

    What Comment1 said. They are pretty much a totalitarian government.

    It's a common misconception that communism = totalitarian. The reason being that a totalitarian government is practically necessary to implement communism, but they are not one in the same.

  • Force360

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 5:38 pm PT

    lol. Gangster Games ^.^

  • Ottozero

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 3:43 pm PT

    oh..... ok. This could lead to WW3

  • Comment1

    Posted Nov 9, 2009 12:44 pm PT

    As has been said, China isn't Communist. It used to be, but it hasn't been for some years. The point of Communism is that the People own the factories, farms, property and land, and it is shared amongst them, usually by an all powerful government. The intention, is to bring equality to all. ...'Well, they are most definantly communist, I mean a great example would be trying to use google over there :p' ... That has nothing to do with Communism, just as free speech and bittorrents have nothing to do with a capitalist economic system. The fact is, China has businesses, buisnessmen, billionaires, entrepreneurs and a growing middle class. These are all things they are promoting, which is anathema to Communism.

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 10:09 pm PT

    FMD129 is right.

    quick, all WoW players, find chinese military players and get info from them!

  • Viralmessiah666

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 9:01 pm PT

    maybe it'd cut down on the number of gold farmers who screw up the economies of games if they did shut it down...

  • Montague

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 7:50 pm PT

    I was there during the 60th anniversary with my wife's family who is ex-military (very high) and we couldn't access Facebook style sites, anything really American (we couldn't even access our sites to pay bills). We were there for 2 months which made communicating with friends in the states difficult. You can not even watch movie trailers from US stationed sites to give you an idea of how bad it is. Her parents did say the Chinese government says it regulates American sites to block porn (which is kind of ironic with all the Chinese porn sites). Anyways, her parents said it was really because they do not want the Chinese population to really know what is going on. I am not against China of course, it is a great place to visit but it does have it's issues. An uninformed population is much easier to control. As for WoW, i don't see it getting cancelled, Chinese believe in Money, and it brings Money into the economy, and i don't know how many packed internet sites we walked by and saw over half of the people where playing WoW. Blizzard just has to wave a few shiney's and the problem is solved (j/k).

  • FMD129

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 10:42 am PT

    @Scorchgame

    Well, they are most definantly communist, I mean a great example would be trying to use google over there :p But they are slowly becoming more capitalistic, so I somewhat agree with you. And on the actual subject itself, im not surprised they are trying to ban it, cause they could easily talk to somebody not from china and let out information un-censored.

  • Reiken37

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 9:38 am PT

    China is definitly a Communist country. On another note, this makes me LOL so hard. I can't wait to see what happens in the future.

  • ShadowXStorm

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 8:26 am PT

    @ Scorchgame
    I think you sir are the one that needs to learn what communism truely is...

  • Roger_Smith

    Posted Nov 8, 2009 1:56 am PT

    North China is best China.

  • HuSSaR83

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 7:26 pm PT

    Ruled under single Communist party of China and its not communist ....lol a good one

  • weaponx789

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 6:14 pm PT

    let's all calm down & hope that China & its regulatory agencies do what's best for the residents of China.

  • Scorchgame posted Nov 7, 2009 5:58 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Scorchgame

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 5:58 pm PT (hide)

    @HuSSaR83
    China is hardly even communist, it has a capitalist based economy you stupid. I suggest you idiots learn more about China and its policies before you say anything out of context. Plus, without China, would your bloody things be cheap?

  • HuSSaR83

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 2:53 pm PT

    It's obvious Communist Chinese government doesnt want its huge populace to keep growing on this game and support(give money) to Capitalist economy of United States.

  • DavidCK

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 2:50 pm PT

    @ aldrenar47
    The reason I've pointed out some numbers is that most people here thinks the chinese government is some dictator running the whole show. Believe it or not, there is a voting system there. Also, the news media here in the states 'forgot' to show the important speech the chinese president made during the 60th anniversary. Which is, they are moving TOWARDS a democracy. Wake up people, democracy doesn't happen in a day. By the way, the chinese system is general moves way faster than any other political system historically speaking.

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