Chinese World of Warcraft project chief resigns

by Mike Schramm on Feb 25th 2010 11:59PM

Just when it seemed that NetEase had finally gotten things under control to operate World of Warcraft in China, it's hit another potential road bump. The company released an official statement to Chinese press announcing the resignation of project chief Li Riqiang, according to JLM Pacific Epoch, a research firm that focuses on China. The statement did not give a specific explanation for Riqian's departure nor did it name a possible replacement to fill the seemingly important vacancy.

Since taking over World of Warcraft operations in China from The9, NetEase has faced a series of difficulties. It seemed like the company had finally gotten back on track, however, as NetEase was recently approved to run World of Warcraft and the Burning Crusade expansion. It's as yet unclear how Li's absence might sour that good fortune.

[Via GI.biz]

Source

Tags: activision-blizzard, blizzard, burning-crusade, china, chinese, jlm-epoch, li-riqiang, mmo, mmorpg, netease, operation, press, statement, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (18)

That's Li Riqiang, not Riqian, pronounced quite differently in Mandarin.

And Li's his surname. Calling him Riqiang sounds a little weird ( it's like first name basis in English)

Thanks. The missing g was a typo, but I wasn't sure about the surname -- sometimes western publications will switch the names around, and it's possible our sources did that. But just for you, I went with Li.

A handy rule for helping to figure out which word in a Chinese name is the surname: surnames only have one syllable (because they're one Chinese character). Given names are either one syllable/character or two. So, of course, two single-syllable words leaves you in a bit of a guessing game, especially with certain names like "Lin" that can show up as either a first or a last name (possibly not the same actual Chinese character, though, depending on the parents' choice). But, if one of the names has two syllables, then the other is the surname.

No such easy rule for Japanese. You just have to recognize which is which on a case by case basis. Individual Chinese characters can have multiple syllables when pronounced in Japanese, and both first and last names in Japanese can have as many as 3 Chinese characters. Maybe even more, though I've never seen that (and why would you burden your child so?).

I've seen stories about WoW in China for quite some time but never really read them?

What is keeping them from simply operating?

The government shutting down WOW operation outright isn't likely, that would cause a public blowback, but NetEase is also being cautious, it runs a major web portal and multiple other games, and when doing business in China, you would seriously prefer stay on good terms with the government.

to simplify as much as possible,

the goverment

one side approves it
one sides disapproves it
another side questions it
then all of them approve it and suddenly one side changes its mind or wants more payments for "supervision"
etc etc

pretty much, china's a pain in the ass to build companies in.

I think the guy quit because he does not want to be executed if NetEase slips up when WOW goes live again.

Remember the last administrator in China that was executed for messing up on the job:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/disgraced-chinese-food-regulator-is-executed-456770.html

China is very strict about censorship. WOW is a great place for gaming, but it is also a great place to communicate anti government sentiments. Since everyone in China is going to be on WOW when it goes back up, it is an easy area for people to recruit or rally for anti government purposes. If that happens, NetEase is responsible.

If you remember the censoring of the 2008 Olympics, journalist were not allowed ANY internet access for the first few days. Crazy. China sucks :P

Wrong country.

why are you speaking misspelt japanese in an article concerning the chinese..?

fail troll is fail

I thought China players resorted to buying Taiwan copies of WOTLK? Which is better anyways, no silly censorship on that version.

Correct me if I am wrong, translated, WoW in chinese means, "Evil Monster World"?

And Cataclysm there is "Echoes of the Apocalypse"?

Yup, or 魔兽 can be interpreted as "demons and beasts" or "demonic beasts".

It's a legacy of Warcraft RTS games been translated as that in the 90s (to sound xtreme or edgy, maybe), so the name stuck. "Warcraft" doesn't really make much sense in English anyway, no?

The header image is quite old, 末日的回响 is the name for patch "Echoes of Doom". Cataclysm doesn't have an official translation yet.