Chinese government says no to Wrath of the Lich King

by Ben Gilbert { Mar 11th 2009 at 12:48PM }

Seriously, who doesn't like skeletons? Well, the Chinese government, as it's citing "skeleton characters" and a "city raid" as two primary reasons for the million World of Warcraft players in China still not receiving Blizzard's latest expansion.

JLM Pacific Epoch reports the Chinese government "has rejected two applications by the second expansion for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King since China's Spring Festival (January 25 - February 1)." Considering Blizzard has removed "skeleton characters" from WoW in the past and the supposedly gold farmer-free million plus player count for WoW in China, we're willing to bet Blizzard (and its licensing partner in China, The9) will find a way to release Wrath of the Lich King yet.

But seriously China, what's your deal with skeletons?

[Via Massively]

Tags: blizzard, china, chinese-government, city-raids, massively, pc, the9, world-of-warcraft, wrath-of-the-lich-king

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

joeybeast @ Mar 11th 2009 12:52PM

China is afraid that its youths will all become skull fuckers, can't you see?

Professor Lario @ Mar 11th 2009 12:53PM

How incredible ironic...

Professor Lario @ Mar 11th 2009 12:58PM

Me fail English!? Unpossible!

Shmil @ Mar 11th 2009 12:58PM

What happened to you China? You used to be cool.

Mikeymike @ Mar 11th 2009 1:37PM

China still cool, we pay later!

Markez @ Mar 11th 2009 1:51PM

Excellent, also in that episode is Homer and Marge searching for Lincoln's gold.

Slust @ Mar 11th 2009 12:59PM

You can't censor skeletons. When the zombie apocalypse happens, and the dead rise to feast on the flesh of the living, YOU WILL NEED TO KNOW ALL YOU CAN ABOUT THEM! And since there is no official training out there, games are the only place you can learn about re-killing the undead.

vdeogmer @ Mar 11th 2009 3:34PM

Un-killing?

Babel @ Mar 11th 2009 5:13PM

*Redeadening

Since there's been two awesome Simpsons references above me, I felt obliged to add another.

The Baron @ Mar 11th 2009 1:02PM

That must be a pain in the arse for Blizzard.

HitNRun @ Mar 11th 2009 1:05PM

I think this might be the point where "F-ck It" finally overtakes "China is 'the future' and has 1 billion people" for a western company.

Lieutenant @ Mar 11th 2009 1:11PM

Yeah, must be. China is a very large % of WoWs overall subscribers.

This also happened with vanilla WoW and TBC. Blizzard had to censor player corpses from skeletons to coffins.

The Baron @ Mar 11th 2009 1:33PM

I doubt they'd say "fuck it" to a million subscriptions and full price retail sales.

HitNRun @ Mar 11th 2009 3:16PM

a) Well, obviously they're not in a big hurry
b) China pays a fraction of what we do for WoW software and subs

Markez @ Mar 11th 2009 1:02PM

I can't find anything very specific as to why skeletons aren't allowed, but I tried:

"A member of staff with the public relations department of The9, which runs WoW in China, was quoted by a Guangzhou-based newspaper as saying the changes were made according to "China's particular situation and relevant regulations."

"It's to promote a healthy and harmonious online environment," the anonymous staff member said."

Did China sensor out the skeleton halloween costumes from the Karate Kid? Ralph Macchio is fuming and needs to know.

HitNRun @ Mar 11th 2009 1:04PM

Well, this makes sense. Skeletons are a moral outrage that evokes images of death from starvation, which is a propaganda tool of the capitalist pig running dog who are jealous or fearful of China's state run economy.

And city raids...you don't even really need to ask, do you? It's practically a road-map for vile dissidents and misguided sons of gloriously prosperous farm workers to disturb the tranquility of the revolutionary elite in their working areas.

MowDownJoe @ Mar 11th 2009 1:18PM

Very true. Wizards of the Coast has to change the art on alot of Magic cards to sell in the Chinese market because those arts depict skeletons.

The Baron @ Mar 11th 2009 2:06PM

China is pretty much a capitalist nation at this point.

HitNRun @ Mar 11th 2009 2:26PM

At the bottom, it is, yes. But I don't think skeletons and city raids are verboten because of a grass-roots political campaign by Chinese citizens.

Charlie_Six @ Mar 11th 2009 4:00PM

To add onto what The Baron said, opinion polls have found that most Chinese people are more supportive of free trade than most Americans, ironically. And that this even includes Communist Party members. Found the data over at worldpublicopinion.org, if anyone's interested.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Mar 11th 2009 1:04PM

Skeletons=what burried under Tibet and therefore unspeakable

WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Mar 11th 2009 1:07PM

China has a long-standing problem with skeletons. Many Magic the Gathering cards had to be changed to remove skeletons, with all skeletons being replaced with some manner of zombie.

China also disallows games to feature pandas that are capable of dying/being killed, as well as fictional religious belief systems.

It is all a part of the government's complete control on what its constituents are allowed (at least openly) to believe and experience.

WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Mar 11th 2009 1:11PM

Some examples:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/1028#theimage

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/948

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/960

FSK405K @ Mar 11th 2009 1:31PM

"fictional religious belief systems"

So you can't mention any religion whatsoever in games, then?

RagnarokAngel @ Mar 11th 2009 1:38PM

Careful FSK405K, you could cut someone with that razor sharp wit of yours!

Lee @ Mar 11th 2009 1:41PM

First Scrabble and now Magic the Gathering cards.
Rock and roll.

WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Mar 11th 2009 1:48PM

FSK405K,

I meant truly fictional beliefs.

Such as believing that your comment was funny.

Markez @ Mar 11th 2009 2:02PM

I thought he was being serious in asking that question, and I was curious as to the actual answer.

ronEbear @ Mar 11th 2009 2:06PM

Or that a talking snake tricked a man into eating a fruit that contained all knowledge thus rendering that man mortal and full of evil. Then along comes another man who is on a suicide mission to eliminate said evil from ALL men.

Frostybolts @ Mar 11th 2009 2:12PM

This may come as a shock, gentlemen, but I believe that this random internet blog comment poster did not check his facts very thoroughly

Warcraft 3 is HUGE in China, and it has an anthromorphic panda drunken kung fu master who is quite capable of being killed

ryan @ Mar 11th 2009 2:19PM

It's funny, but I actually prefer some of those changes in the Chinese alternates. Thanks for posting them. :D

WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Mar 11th 2009 2:28PM

No, I was not outright wrong about Pandas:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/03/10/the-great-panda-debate/

So, there is no specific law, but right now it's thin ice.

Guild Wars was forced to remove Pandas as a killable pet prior to release:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Panda

Also, it's possible that since Pandaren are not actually Pandas, they were spared, whereas Guild Wars could not get away with using actual Pandas. I know that's semantics, but it's the same semantics that disallow a skeleton but allow a skeleton with eyes and clothes.

squeehunter @ Mar 12th 2009 4:14AM

@ronebear

It's called allegory.

Would ancient people really take well to, "In the beginning, there was a singularity, then between 10^-36 seconds and 10^-12 seconds the strong force, weak force, electromagnetism, and gravity seperate into the four fudemental forces, which allowed nucelosynthesis of... ... and thus man grew from a monkey over millions of years which is a number that thou hast not invented yet, but the change took so long, thou would not have noticed. Thou shall trust thy Lord God that his be true even though none of this will make sense to thee until 4000 years..."?

That would have went REAL well back then.

LameDuck @ Mar 12th 2009 2:47AM

Actually, it was a serpent that tricked a WOMAN into eating the forbidden fruit. Is that so hard to believe? How many woman do you know that can be easly fooled by good looks and sweet talking?

Er... I mean, BOO RELIGION! I CAN'T THINK FOR MYSELF SO I MUST FOLLOW THE POPULOUS TREND OF DOWNING EVERYTHING THAT SCIENCE CAN'T PROVE! ALL GLORY TO SCIENCE! KILL THE INFIDEL!

bm @ Mar 12th 2009 12:37PM

"I CAN'T THINK FOR MYSELF"

Should I really mention how ironic that is? "lol"

LameDuck @ Mar 12th 2009 5:31PM

So it's ironic that I pointed out a flaw in popular thinking? I think you need a dictionary there, Ms. Morissette.

Fact is, blasting someone for not thinking the way you do is bad, no matter how much "truth" and "fact" you have behind you. Science can't prove everything, religion doesn't cover everything, and we're all living in a computer simulation so WTF does it matter? Go back to doing your times tables, Jr, and let the big boys play a little while.

I'm sick of all you idealistic jackasses praiding around on the web thinking your anonymous little smartassed comments matter. The don't, you don't, I don't. EDIT: Getting personal. Everyone relax. Take a deep breath. Drink a glass of water.