WOW row inside Chinese government intensifies

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.

  • DavidCK

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 2:48 pm PT

    @ aldrenar47
    The chinese government consists of 20 million members. You've read that right, 20,000,000. Stop getting yourself brainwashed by CNN and actually try to understand their culture before repeating word by word these 'mouthpieces' like a parrot.

  • wonzan

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 1:48 pm PT

    @Ardus - gamespot was once an British only gaming site.

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 12:53 pm PT

    yeah on illegal servers!

  • Ardus

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 11:40 am PT

    WoW "row?" Who talks like that? What is this now, BritSpot?

  • blakeney

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 11:36 am PT

    sticking to the gaming side of this story though lol!!! this is bad news for acti-blizz!! in a good way lol! i dont intend on playing hte next expantion and i played since day 1! reason being i think blizz are taking things too far from every angle!! i know people that have been perma banned for "sharing accounts" when they are brother and sister and play wow when visting!!? they can even ban you if you manage to find your way onto the graphical and 100% within the base game and urban myth that is "Gm island"!!! its pathetic and almost bullying their customers! they need something like this to bring them back to earth all ready for their next mmorpg! if they plan on releasing that with as many rules and bannables of wow they got news comming to them!

  • blakeney

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 11:31 am PT

    @ aldrenar47
    give it a rest! these shows are "put on" the same everywhere!!! i guess you wet your pants too in the usa94 world cup when diana ross was made to look like she split the goal in half with her penalty kick!? but the skam was foiled becuase she missed
    yet the goal magicly still broke in half!! your living in a disney dreamworld!?!?

  • 91210user

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 7:22 am PT

    They're going to shut it down because of a law about 'money'. Yet little girl dies after playing and they should at least use the money to hire more psychologies to see why players are playing games alot more. China make up your mind.

  • raymondcs123

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 6:45 am PT

    Now this is kinda crazy.
    I live in China and I can tell you guys WoW is the most popular game around next to CS >.>
    This will piss off over three-quarters of the Chinese Gaming population AT LEAST

  • Cloud737

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 6:01 am PT

    @ elwood499
    Very well said! A regime is only as good as its people in power, though I have to say that some regimes are better at limiting abuses than others.

    @ 396117268
    What? Excuse me? Don't you mean they had grown like crazy? Didn't the China-US ponzi scheme assured mutual destruction [to both] (even though China, laughably, tried to obtained more independence from the US economics but actually sank deeper), and now while the US suffers an economic crisis, China is sure to be the very next in line because of this?

    Please, if you don't know the facts, don't say anything. And if you also can't write a proper comment (with proper grammar) like an adult, please don't write one at all - you'd be doing yourself a favor by sparing yourself the impending embarrassment.

  • VectrexFanBoy

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 5:37 am PT

    @ 396117268 china's economy is democratic. and before it was democratic is was very small, since they have opened their economy up they have seen a large growth. our economy may be slow right now, but we're ( U.S ) still a lot more wealthy =)

  • elwood499

    Posted Nov 7, 2009 1:58 am PT

    These types of problems are not about the political systems used, its about whose in power. Only a fool would believe that a inanimate abstract political system has morals.

  • freestyler_85

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 11:39 pm PT

    aldrenar47 ... its amazing how naive you are
    jeez i thought people today had access to other sources besides fox news and CNN

  • aldrenar47

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 9:27 pm PT

    The Chinese government is awful. I'm not even talking about communism (which I am not a fan of), but just the way they operate. They do not allow free speech and use very deceptive tactics to make their country look better. Just as an example, in the last Olympics they had a little girl lip-sync a recorded performance of a song because the talented girl that actually sang & recorded it was deemed "not attractive enough". But they tried to make it appear like a live performance and did not admit it until the truth was discovered by outside media. This is only a small example but it shows that they will do anything to 'save face'. They also frequently put positive spins on any bad news related to the government, or just flat out deny it.

  • JOKER677

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 8:30 pm PT

    fight the power fak that bogus government i smell an uprising

  • yboucher

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 7:42 pm PT

    Ok, are we all gonna have the same ill-informed comments we had on the previous news this week? If so, just go to that one and re-read it all.

  • Seljek

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 7:22 pm PT

    @396117268
    Our economy may not be doing so well, but it sure is doing better than the USSR's.

  • Merl57

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 6:42 pm PT

    way to have no respect for people's Free will way to disrespect human life China you disgust me, government corruption and power hungry men, its disgusting, we need more good people on this earth.

  • 396117268

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 6:31 pm PT

    @VectrexFanBoy
    communism sucks

    I don't think so. Why their economy is growing like crazy meanwhile u r Suffering Financial Crisis?

  • andrewlkt

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 6:12 pm PT

    That's what I said on the last news article. There are 2 competing ministries that want to be the ministry in charge of regulating videogames. It seems that Blizzard only bribed one, so the other put the hammer on them. Now the ones they bribed are starting to fight for them, pending continued bribes, of course.

  • VectrexFanBoy

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 6:12 pm PT

    @Paul_GameFury i know, right? what are they doing on a website that you can express your opinion on. i mean if this website were communist they wouldn't be able to give my comment a thumbs down.. =P

  • Paul_GameFury

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 5:52 pm PT

    @VectrexFanBoy
    I'm a little afraid of the 5 people that gave your comment a thumbs down.

  • skateboard1587

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 5:43 pm PT

    i dont know you guys, with this many people gathered together they must be plotting a revolution.

  • Trogeton

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 5:21 pm PT

    this game is way too addictive from what I hear.. I can't even try this game out for that..lol

  • Neosword

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 4:55 pm PT

    This is just ridiculous. It's a game, people.

  • Inconnux

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 4:46 pm PT

    This is what happens when government tries to control every aspect of its citizens lives... those in control start to fight for power and petty infighting results in situations like these. So much for the communist idea of a Utopian idealistic society... human nature takes over.

  • ASG_

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 4:36 pm PT

    Chinese government: trollface.gif

  • FarmFreshDX

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 4:36 pm PT

    It is good to see at least that there are others in power there fighting this kind of ludicrous action.

  • allin2

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 4:35 pm PT

    Headline is misleading. Makes it sound like there is a Chinese government organization that solely deals with world of warcrack

  • jackandblood

    Posted Nov 6, 2009 3:43 pm PT

    Reminds me of that whole opium thing

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