I don't presume to know much about trade policy or international relations, so I'll just pass you
this link to a story over on VentureBeat and let you decide for yourself. You probably have already heard that Blizzard has had plenty of trouble trying to bring
World of Warcraft back online in China -- they've been
waiting on approval from the Chinese government's General Administration of Press and Publication, which has already mandated
a few changes to the game. Dean Takahashi at VB suggests that rather than being a technical issue, the delay may actually be political and/or economically motivated: the US and China have been
bumping gently lately over exports and imports, and Takahashi suggests that Blizzard's game may have gotten caught in the middle. The GAPP, he says, may be holding the game back, concerned that such a popular foreign game might be released again on their soil.
Fortunately, even Takahashi says it's unsubstantiated --
WoW is likely to go
back online in China in a matter of days, and the delays could just as easily have been administrative errors. But I do agree with Takahashi that it's worth watching -- China is cautious about allowing foreign manufacturers to sell to their citizens, and video games are no exception.
Tags: approval, china, chinese, dean-takahashi, economy, exports, foreign, gapp, general-administration-of-press-and-publication, global-economy, imports, international-relations, tariffs, trade, trade-policy, us, venture-beat
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Economy, Wrath of the Lich King
Sep 18th 2009 at 9:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Creese5704 Sep 18th 2009 9:20AM
Thats a really good point, I hadn't thought about that.
snarl Sep 18th 2009 9:21AM
Politically motivated? ROFL! VB's article reads like some sort of wacked out 911 conspiracy theory.
Working in the real world I can tell Government departments move at their own pace. You can't rush the bureaucacy... regardless of which country it is located in it seems. ActiZard knew they had to go through the censors again when the switched operators. If their marketing group under- guesstimated the time it would take, that is on them. It's not like they are going to be put in Chapter 11 from the delay.
Cripes, next people will be demanding a US Department of WoW.
snowleopard233 Sep 18th 2009 9:23AM
It’s certainly not an outlandish concept (no pun intended given the logo above). There’s a very small barrier between private industries and the government in China, with government officials have at least some personal stake in any number of private businesses’ futures. So, the pains we’re seeing on getting WoW back to china could be due to political reasons as well as the possibility that key officials may have stake in rival Chinese developers or internet providers
Mookow Sep 18th 2009 10:03AM
The real question is, when will the pirated version of WoW hit the streets in China?
Heston Sep 18th 2009 10:07AM
The major reason for the delay is censorship and corruption of the Chinese government. Communism runs a little slow...
Plastic Rat Sep 21st 2009 3:00AM
Yep, and communism and corruption are pretty much synonymous.
mel Sep 18th 2009 10:59AM
Cold War 2.0: The MMO Wars.
Matt Sep 18th 2009 11:08AM
not cold wars trade wars. These are shorter and involve less proxy wars. However I agree I think there is a degree of censorship going on here more than its tit for tap trade war stuff. If your a Chinese player its just give up the ghost and play on the Taiwan servers like so many others have already done.
Cragger Sep 18th 2009 11:08AM
Ironic for them to worry about whether (according to the linked article) "severed heads and skulls have been covered up. Literally. Item icons that would show heads or skulls in other regions of the world are now bags, chests and crates in China." This is a government that doesn't bat an eyelash at the torturing and killing monks and nuns. Sad, really.
Todd Sep 18th 2009 11:12AM
I think China is having trouble defining this MMO from the west, when they've had such a good relationship with existing MMO's from the east. I think having to remove blood and skulls from the game, to be replaced with sweat and bags, is extreme censorship. But... the same thing was done with Mortal Kombat when that first came out. All the blood was replaced with sweat.
Llany Sep 18th 2009 11:32AM
Actually while this story does sound crazy, its definately not that far away from believeable, especially if you have been following the arrest of Stern hu, an aussie exec from the Rio Tinto mining corp over claims of espionage...not that wow has anything tide to it, but it is business related
Endless Sep 18th 2009 12:45PM
Well... what we need to do now is stop China from selling to OUR citizens. Let's see who can last longer.
ScytheNoire Sep 18th 2009 1:04PM
Of course it's politically motivated.
We're gamers, so think of it like culture in Civilizations 4. It's a way to win the game, by spreading your culture out to others, thus, influencing them. America didn't go around conquering other countries by means of force (although I'm sure some previous presidents would have enjoyed that and have tried), but America has done it through culture. They've used movies, television, sports (to a lesser extent) and gaming to spread their culture into other countries.
But countries often try to reject cultural influence from others, especially in Asia. We've seen how poorly the Xbox has done in Japan, because it's rejected culturally, and China is trying to use it's governmental powers to stop WoW, something that is a major cultural influence on many youth and often people who's viewpoints clash with the current government.
Remember, China is the country that has had young people die in their "internet addiction rehab" program. That's just how far they are willing to push against the cultural influence, which is a bit too far.
So of course this is political, it's all about keeping out cultural influence from the evil America.
Caerus Sep 18th 2009 3:33PM
Of course it isn't. We're talking about China here, not some insular, illogical, economically backwards hilarious excuse for a country. No sir.
scarab2501 Sep 18th 2009 5:31PM
There is most certainly a degree of political and social control imposed by China when it comes to the subject matter that is released to its citizens. It is a method of control not new to history. Censoring content to limit certain cultural interaction with said content. This is a nation sensitive to how much freedom the normal people have. This translates to their versions of free speech. WoW was developed by Americans and we have a much more liberal way of approaching the subject of death and violence. China doesn't want this game to effect people too much and let them think outside their box. Remember the US and China have had rocky international relations. It's not a slight to America as much as a method of controlling the people of China. Yes it is just a game but little ideas can turn into a snowball and the People's Republic of China does not want that. I just hope they get their game online so our friends in Asia can love the game like we all do, and the censorship will not likely diminish that.
Sleutel Sep 19th 2009 11:37AM
Really? You think that the delayed release of a game in a country notorious for corruption, cronyism, and oppression might be politically motivated? MIGHT?
GG, ace. That's some very sharp thinking you've done, there.
ashes Sep 19th 2009 5:48PM
Time to stfu, haters. WOW china just re-launched this morning. Guess this guess that doesn't make you smarter. Chinese gamers have more MMOPRG games to play than people in the states. (if you don't know any, check Shanda, The 9, Perfect World, Sohu etc) Why wow is so special and politically sensitive? Overthinking it doesn't make you smarter either.
http://www.warcraftchina.com/news/2009/9/19/3.html
Sleutel Sep 19th 2009 5:55PM
@ashes: So China ISN'T known for corruption, cronyism, and oppression? And WoW WASN'T just offline there for months? And there WASN'T just a two-month beta period while they waited for government approval?
So nice to know I just imagined all of that.
ashes Sep 19th 2009 10:35PM
Your logic is way off the point. 2008 is known for massive layoffs during the financial crisis. If you got laid off because you were playing wow in the office, you are not the victim of the financial crisis. GOT IT??????
The linkage between those two is your imagination.
yunkndatwunk Sep 22nd 2009 2:57PM
What is NOT politically motivated when it comes to government decisions?
More likely, Activision-Blizzard just has not paid off the right officials yet.
Though I doubt it has anything to do with U.S. protectionism, since the tire tariffs were much more recent, and Blizzard has been waiting longer for PRC officials to approve their game.