Chinese WoW partial relaunch pics, comparison shots of censorship
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 11th 2009 at 2:00PM
They also have some comparison images of the censorship found over there. Anything with skulls or bones on it is out, and the offending images have been replaced with piles of dirt and bags and debris. Blood appears as black oil rather than red liquid, and even player corpses are out. As you can see, everywhere players die, there are instead little graves and tombstones around. Very interesting. No idea if this actually "helps" in China (or what the point of the censorship is -- seems as though it's a cultural thing, more like it's a respect for death and dead bodies rather than worrying about whether people will be disturbed by the mention of violence), but of course the government over there has final say on what goes into the game, and apparently this is what they approved. Hopefully Chinese players will be headed back to Northrend before long.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Xtofer Aug 11th 2009 2:06PM
The tombstone thing has been in the Chinese version of WoW even before they went dark.
pinkysan Aug 11th 2009 6:24PM
Even if bones were covered before, the censorship seems heavy-handed to me and is worth reporting again. However, putting down other people's culture or calling people racist names are not very productive either.
The US government also censor the 7 forbidden words on TV (FCC v. Pacifica Foundation)... Saying those 7 words may in fact offend some people, but that's a cultural thing, and many other Americans disagree. Blizzard's solution is to put in an optional filter that is defaulted to be ON to remove those words from chat. I think that's similar the Chinese government imposing the masking of bones on blizzard, only that the users cannot turn it off unless they re-roll on a Taiwanese server.
The issue i think we should focus on is the government censorship. Making fun of the cultural feelings is not very productive. This is like making fun people who are offended by the burning of the American flag (or insert your cultural sore spot). And calling people racist names are simply uncalled for.
As for the later comments about Chinese government's human rights abuse, let's not forget the list of endless western hypocrisies on that front... Just off the top of my head, westerner's treatment of Jews, Africans, Native Americans, and just about everyone else in the not too distant past. The U.S. congress, for example, has still yet to apologize for their mistreatment of Native Americans, though some people are pushing for that now, only 200+ years later. More recent examples in the US are crack vs powder cocaine sentencing differences, Hurricane Katrina, Abu Ghraib-->Guantanamo Bay-->Bagram Air Base (look up Bagram if you haven't heard) and many more.
This is not to excuse what the Chinese government is doing, but please be mindful of the log in your own eye before pointing out the speck in other's eye.
Retron Aug 11th 2009 8:03PM
Not to mention the Forsaken and all other undead being covered with skin. Nothing new here.
Quark1020 Aug 12th 2009 2:35AM
Frankly, i think those bits of censorship really isn't so bad. Dumb as they may sound to us westerners, so long as the people over there can play it, it will be fine. Personally, i find the whole thing funny, a huge collection of gravestones instead of bones XD
RogueJedi86 Aug 11th 2009 2:08PM
Northrend sure will be fun in China, all those sacks of grain everywhere, and being attacked by large groups of grain sacks. Will their frostwyrms be flying sacks too?
mtsadowski Aug 11th 2009 2:32PM
You are missing the big picture. Does this mean that they'll have to remake the Arthas cinematic and have a huge CGI sack of grain come back to life? and take flight over an army of sacks of grain and piles of dirt in beautiful quality! That would be awesome!
Rai Aug 11th 2009 2:53PM
Talk about raising hell.
......yeah I'll be in my corner.
RogueJedi86 Aug 11th 2009 2:55PM
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Sack King?
Oh god, I just had a vision of WoW-China looking like LittleBigPlanet. Nothing but sacks everywhere.
BiigD Aug 11th 2009 3:00PM
Army of the dead- (Army of the living grain sacks)
mtsadowski Aug 11th 2009 3:01PM
That actually sounds pretty cool. I'll play that!
Retron Aug 11th 2009 8:04PM
In Chinese biology class, one learns that the human body is internally comprised of sacks of grain, suspended in black liquid.
TiM Aug 11th 2009 2:13PM
I wonder if the rogue Tier 8 will be a giant walking grainsack. maybe two little grainsacks for the shoulder skulls and one big grainsack to go over the head.......eh it'd still be an improvement.
Seaborn Aug 11th 2009 2:14PM
Its interesting when you think about how different cultures are even when the medium is a game like this.
Justin Aug 11th 2009 2:44PM
I feel bad for the Chinese people and having oppressive censorship. I hope the u.s. never gets like this.
mtsadowski Aug 11th 2009 2:51PM
The U.S. is getting close. Everyone in this country LOVES to get offended. They LOVE it! They want it so that they can complain. That leads to censorship. We may not be there yet, but I can tell you that we're a few snowflakes away from an avalanche.
Luke Aug 11th 2009 2:15PM
I wonder who decides what's harmful to Chinese and what isn't. I mean, you're killing things, and there are some pretty morbid monsters in the game. I really can't see how bones poking out of the undead players is worse than, say, this: http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=30697
RogueJedi86 Aug 11th 2009 2:21PM
LK isn't out in China yet, maybe Putrid Colossus won't be allowed there either.
Karilyn Aug 11th 2009 3:35PM
I'm sure they will be heavily modified, just like Abominations.
All things considered, they probably just use the normal frost giant model, and reskinned it to have a more yellowish skin color.
Karilyn Aug 11th 2009 3:38PM
I meant Storm Giant, not frost giant.
As those Colossuses are already based on the Storm Giant model.
t0xic Aug 11th 2009 2:14PM
I've only got one question. How the $!@#$ could anyone die in TB with that many other people? All the quest mobs are probably hiding in a cave somewhere.