WoW currently free to play in China, fate still being decided by government
The trials and tribulations continue for Chinese MMO players, WoW, and its new Chinese provider NetEase. IncGamers is reporting that the beta of the game is continuing - effectively making the game free to play for those lucky enough to be taking part - while the Chinese government decides if enough changes have been made, such as the removal of corpses, gore and other unpleasant parts of the MMO experience, for the game to get a Chinese relaunch.Since handing over the baton from from The9, things have not gone very well. After an extended hiatus which saw the game's servers offline while the data was transferred over, the game is still awaiting the final go-ahead from GAPP (the General Administration of Press and Publication). The beta was originally supposed to last around a week but because of the delay has been going on for nearly a month. However IncGamers is also reporting that according to NetEase, all the internal testing has been completed and once the GAPP are done, the game should launch pretty quickly.
Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Petfiried Penguin Aug 17th 2009 8:05PM
*sigh* So much drama for a game... Seriously why cant the goverment make up their mind wether WoW is ok or not instead of the crazy Roller Coaster of Cencorship they have....
Alexran Aug 17th 2009 8:17PM
How dare you accuse China of censorship! Unless you have solid evidence of this, please shut up and stop accusing this awesome country of nonsense!
manbearpig112287 Aug 17th 2009 8:18PM
Some of their censorship rules do seem messed up to me, but I dont live there so its really not my place. Hopefully everybody over in China gets to play soon.
adshiel Aug 17th 2009 8:21PM
`The Peoples (cough) Republic of Azeroth will not tolerate your comments as they fall outside the Freedom of Azeroth Information act. This Act forbids any commentary whatsoever - actually scrap this comment, as it to is forbidden.
Debesun Aug 17th 2009 10:41PM
I believe Money has a lot to do with these censorships...
notworksafe Aug 18th 2009 2:32AM
Sounds like typical government bureaucracy taking forever, not so much censorship
JLocke Aug 17th 2009 8:09PM
different country, different rules
Rob Aug 17th 2009 8:34PM
I don't get it... the gold farmers don't have any trouble playing the US version... why should their version have any content issues?
jfofla Aug 17th 2009 8:34PM
No Corpses? No Gore?
So...I guess The Undercity has been removed from the game.
Are Undead even a playable race?
Dart Aug 17th 2009 8:38PM
Uh yes?
http://wow.gamona.de/images/news_guides/news/Chinese_Undead_Models_LOGO.jpg
Colerejuste Aug 17th 2009 9:08PM
You no take.. jawbone!
Sarakin Aug 17th 2009 9:28PM
he just looks like a ugly human now not really dead more near death
Mesc Aug 17th 2009 10:03PM
It is kind of astounding that a country that murders pro-democracy protesters gets their panties in a wad over some animated skeletons.
Bodewell Aug 17th 2009 10:15PM
As someone who has done a good bit of significant business in China, it is clear to me that Blizz simply has not given the appropriate "gifts" to the appropriate people.
Keyra Aug 17th 2009 10:34PM
Oh, FFS...
Yay. Another article about Chinese WoW. Time to cue up all of the gold-farming, censorship and other bullsh** comments that we've read in the other threads.
/foreheadssmacktokeyboard
Jettan Aug 17th 2009 10:54PM
Try it again I don't think you hit it hard enough.
Tirris Aug 17th 2009 11:25PM
Since when does "MMO" mean WoW?
Jim Whatshisname Aug 18th 2009 6:02AM
Oh, it's been almost five years now.
Tirris Aug 18th 2009 9:43AM
That's not the point. There are plenty of MMOs, and the author was being biased by substituting "MMO" for "WoW".
megamogx Aug 17th 2009 11:46PM
Really the Chinese can do the most inhuman things and yet they claim their virgin eyes would be corrupted by vitual pixels in game of corpses n pandas? REALLY?
Chinese have 0 mortal authority or high ground...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zspy6sbLZzM