China is finally getting Wrath of the Lich King
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 10th 2010 at 7:00PM
- How it was reportedly ready to go in early 2009, but Blizzard's Chinese then-distributor The9 was released from its duties after poor management;
- How WoW China's new distributor, NetEase, had to get the entire game re-approved, and upon its relaunch, it faced heavy censorship not requested under its previous owners;
- How the entire re-approval process may have been politically motivated due to US-China trade relations;
- How Wrath's content review by the government was halted due to collecting subscription fees being "illegal" and creation of new accounts was suspended pending investigation;
- And how Burning Crusade was only just approved a few months ago.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
mike Aug 10th 2010 7:04PM
Bout time.
Terethall Aug 10th 2010 7:56PM
"Hell, it's about time."
Felix_NZ Aug 10th 2010 8:46PM
Hell.
Jormund Fenris Aug 11th 2010 6:30AM
Peace and WoW to everyone!
Nawaf Aug 11th 2010 7:40AM
Finally. Anyone remembers this Around Azeroth screenshot?
http://www.wow.com/2009/05/02/around-azeroth-love-and-pocket-healers/
"Today's screenshot comes to us from a very different Azeroth; it's from the Chinese version of World of Warcraft, also known as CWOW. Eliza of on Bloodscalp wrote in from Sichaun, "My boyfriend chose to be a warrior, so I chose to be a priest to heal and protect him. Four years passed, we became the best partners in this game, from dungeon to Arena. Now we are going to be married this September, so I sent you these pictures, for memories, and for love." She also notes that Chinese players still aren't able to get Wrath of the Lich King, and adds that she and her soon-to-be-husband plan on leaving CWOW behind. With all the recent troubles, who can blame them?"
jslim419 Aug 12th 2010 3:24PM
funny thing is most chinese players have already played through wrath's un-censored content on taiwanese/korean servers.
i mean i know it's their country, and i have no right to tell them how to run it. but china is really starting to look like an extremely overbearing parent that wraps their children up in foam mats before sending them outside.
shaunarcher Aug 13th 2010 5:51AM
NO! not fair I've just left China for good and been playing TBC all this time QQ
shadowhowl1900 Aug 10th 2010 7:12PM
does this mean lower gold cost meaning people will buy more gold leading to people actually bring something in my GDKP?
Drakkenfyre Aug 10th 2010 8:28PM
First off, I don't know how many millions of times this needs to be said before people realize it, but GOLD SELLERS ON YOUR SERVER ARE ON YOUR SERVER. They are not in China. At least, their accounts aren't. They very well could be in China, but their account is a US or European account. They don't have to worry about it because they aren't limited to what the Chinese servers are. They could shut down every Chinese server, and it still wouldn't matter because they aren't on a Chinese server. You think they can somehow magically send gold from one server to another when you yourself can't?
Secondly, I would like to say a big screw you for thinking this would benefit you by people "bringing more gold". That gold you think of is from compromised player accounts. You like the idea of getting more gold, even if it's from someone's compromised, stripped account?
Snuzzle Aug 11th 2010 4:28AM
Actually, most gold sellers on our servers are on hacked accounts. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than constantly buying new accounts that are constantly getting banned.
I don't know where the actual seller on that account is located. But the account is a US/EU account because it was a hacked player account. :(
Jamie Aug 10th 2010 7:14PM
*Warning: tongue in cheek comment*
I am so going over there to gold farm and make like a million Yuan...
Bloody European gold farmers ruining Chinese WoW economy.
disdrgfreak Aug 10th 2010 7:39PM
Unfortunately, gold farming is one of the few ways many people of poorer nations can make a living. I realize what a pain they are, but their circumstances make their actions understandable. Actually, at this point, I'd think that gold farming is more profitable than real farming at this point.
disdrgfreak Aug 10th 2010 7:41PM
Redundancy department of redundancy speaking. Lol fail at the repetition.
And @Jamie, I understand the joke, I didn't mean to direct my previous comment at you.
Endless Aug 10th 2010 8:40PM
@disdrgfreak - well, it's not like somebody held them at gunpoint forcing them to have more children than they can support. Your pleas for compassion are somewhat mis-targetted, I'm afraid.
disdrgfreak Aug 10th 2010 8:53PM
Endless, three words: One. Child. Policy. There are very few families left in China that won't comply. It means tax cuts and lower living expenses. It's disheartening to see people who still think that Chinese families have gazillions of kids who are there to work on a farm or be sent to do child labor.
Please do show proof that too many children is an issue for families with low incomes.
Angrycelt Aug 11th 2010 11:30AM
Jamie - I lol'ed
Other dude - Your love letter to the oppressed masses misses one major point. Many gold farming endeavors hack and steal accounts, pillage them for every copper they can get, and leave the legitimate player who has spent sometimes years having to deal with their mess.
Yes, there are some genuine WoW "factories" with shifts of players just grinding for gold and mats and selling them, and yes, in some places that's an honest day's work. But I hope you're not trying to legitimize hackers and scammers just because their lives suck.
Remember that when your car or home gets broken into because someone thought they deserved the things you worked for more than you did.
Muse Aug 10th 2010 7:17PM
I figured they'd skip Wrath altogether and cobble together some kind of 70-80 Cata content.
marco Aug 10th 2010 8:23PM
Tailor an entire expansion specifically to them? Sounds unfeasible.
Manadar Aug 11th 2010 5:48AM
It could be called Farm of the Lich King and only feature a Wintergrasp zone with elementals and mining nodes. If you want to get a higher profit you could do quest where you pick pocket people for all their gold and gear.
blizzardsprules Aug 10th 2010 7:17PM
Wait what? DK's aren't in China's version? *goes and migrates to chinese servers*
In all seriousness though, wouldnt that seriously cause imbalances or something to the game mechanics?