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China gov’t rejects WoW again

November 3rd, 2009 (Visited 1067 times) Tags: china, world of warcraft

Massively is reporting that WoW is caught in the battle between the Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Press and Publication over who gets to regulate online games — and has been denied permission to operate (again).

The Ministry of Culture was, I believe, the arm of the government there that recently banned gold farming, but also the one that last gave WoW permission to operate there.

The GAAP was the group that issued the recent regulations on foreign companies operating in China.

The Ministry of Culture gave the last approval; the GAPP is the one now saying that the game is in “gross violation” of regs.

Massively’s got all the links for you!

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17 Responses to “China gov’t rejects WoW again”

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David Fisher said on November 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 am:
Whenever I read about this, I feel that I have to be reading a bad joke. Its hard to imagine a country so large that so much dominates its people and has such a poor idea of what actually matters.
Yegolev said on November 3rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm:
Serious Business. Also: China.
len said on November 3rd, 2009 at 1:13 pm:
A bit left of topic, but you may find this interesting:

Props to Tim Bray for passing this along.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4510/125/
We Fly Spitfires said on November 3rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm:
Wow, I’m surprised Blizzard even continue to bother operating in China. Seems to be so difficult. Kind harsh I think
Stabs said on November 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm:
They continue operating because if they can break through they earn a lot of money. They are basically selling a product that’s very solidly established reputation-wise and for which the development costs are already paid.

Activision probably have about one staff member dealing with the China licence, even if it’s anyone’s full time job. It’s a horrible stressy job for that particular employee but it’s worthwhile for the company.

A larger issue is whether countries can resist globalisation. I think it’s very bad news in the economic medium and long term if we let China opt out of buying foreign imports while continuing to export. Western countries already owe more money than is healthy to China, if they can manipulate their balance of payments with us by using protectionism it is to our economic detriment.

I hope more politicians become aware of how damaging this could be. In a world where the major revenue earners of the West are mainly cultural or in some way involve specialised knowledge protectionism stops us earning.

I think this is aggressive economic imperialism disguised as a cultural matter. They’re not offended, they don’t want Westerners to get rich from Chinese consumers.
Stabs said on November 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 pm:
Afterthought: another element may be defence exports from the West.

If the West’s current position is “we’ll sell you computer games, but we won’t sell you missile guidance chips” China could be slamming the door so they can say “want to sell to us? We’ll take video games if you’ll also sell us missile guidance chips.”
Yukon Sam said on November 4th, 2009 at 7:28 am:
Gotta love that phrase, “aggressive economic imperialism”. I wonder from whom our Most Favored trading partner might have learned such reprehensible behavior?
len said on November 4th, 2009 at 7:51 am:
if we let China opt out

And your strategy for twisting their arm is?

I wonder from whom our Most Favored trading partner might have learned such reprehensible behavior?

The British. Same as India. They are the cats who think a remake of V is just what we need, so a really bad product gets a fresh coat of CGI and is still really bad.

America, take off the hair coat no matter how fashionable you think it is and get back to making good product.
Morgan Ramsay said on November 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pm:
They are the cats who think a remake of V is just what we need, so a really bad product gets a fresh coat of CGI and is still really bad.

I like the remake of V. I also like the remake of Battlestar Galactica. Many other people do, too. I was really getting tired of the medical and crime dramas, which dominate television programming. A “new” sci-fi show is just what I need. “We” isn’t a factor here.
len said on November 5th, 2009 at 7:27 am:
I liked Battlestar. They took it to a new level of storytelling. V is reshredding the same old same old.

It’s fantasy, Morgan. No science involved unless you count Anna’s double-blinks.
len said on November 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am:
Ok, it had Morena Baccarin. Not all bad.
Morgan Ramsay said on November 5th, 2009 at 3:37 pm:
It’s fantasy, Morgan. No science involved unless you count Anna’s double-blinks.

To say that there’s no science involved is, well, naive. Science is everywhere! With that said, sci-fi is a very broad genre and the term does not mean only Hard SF. Believing otherwise is a purist’s fantasy and I don’t buy into that.

FYI: I’ve never seen the 1983 version of V, but my dad (who read everything sci-fi as a kid) told me about a similar short story awhile ago. In the short story, vastly technologically advanced beings come to Earth and they send a message that the humans decode as “we would like to meet you” (or something like that.)

So the humans get on the escalator to the space ship (how I imagined the story anyway), and at the end of the story, someone realizes that there was an error in translation. The final scene is of the translator running to and screaming at the people leaving to the ship. The message was “we would like to eat you.”
Yukon Sam said on November 6th, 2009 at 7:28 am:
The message was “we would like to eat you.”

Sounds like the classic Twilight Zone episode in which aliens present Earth with a book whose title is translated as “To Serve Mankind”. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a cookbook. Yes, I just spoiled the punchline. If you’ve never seen it, feel free to hate me.

To get back on the last tangent from the original topic… I haven’t seen the new V, but I always took it to be a metaphorical revisitation of the French resistance movement of WWII (or more broadly, any resistance movement). From that perspective, the timing of the remake in terms of current events is… interesting.
len said on November 6th, 2009 at 11:28 am:
The comparison to current events even the use of taglines from different campaigns is being noted by critics everywhere. Some are praising, some are noting the story as presentation is being whacked by the development of it (too much too fast). It is obvious the current political issues are being sucked into it.

The original was often compared to the Nazi take over of Europe right down to the uniforms. The end was very 70s kitchy for an 80s series (balloons instead of jets, soft power over might tricking them with their own paranoia), etc.

When a major production like that gets dumped into the spewosphere, if it resonates with the current emotional zeitgeist, it can have a turning effect and that is how I measure it’s expressive success. Let’s see how it goes. I was discussing this over dinner last night with a prominent screenwriter, that the industry is tending toward recycling formulas whereas the creative juices once again are flowing in the garages and the webisodes.

Meanwhile, Morena is to die for.
Morgan Ramsay said on November 6th, 2009 at 4:01 pm:
Sounds like the classic Twilight Zone episode

That sounds right; although, I think the episode was a short story before it was an episode.

I was discussing this over dinner last night with a prominent screenwriter

I wouldn’t put much stock into the trade opinions of most Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters, etc. The lot of them aren’t at all familiar with the works of their colleagues, unlike we in the games business. The standard excuse is that they’re too busy to do our equivalent of playthroughs, so they focus on reels, synopses, and reviews. But we all know that’s rubbish.
len said on November 7th, 2009 at 12:43 pm:
I dunno, Morgan. She is one smart woman. I don’t know how comfortable they are with the content but they are quite familiar with the work. I believe some A-listers are beginning to see they have responsibilities to the young turks and to ensure the social contract plays through. I’m not dropping names but Academy Awards and Grammies do carry a certain amount of cred and that couple has both as well as double dose of social sensibility. At some point the garage needs access to capital. A means to ensure the narrow top of the long tail isn’t choking the wide brim can be developed better when respect becomes real and genuine.
cube said on November 8th, 2009 at 12:01 pm:
“we in the game business”
Like the game industry is SO different than film and tv..lol

And the Twilight Zone as “ancient history” so funny, shows how truly repetitive this so called meta age is.

please, stop this long tail myth…. the proof is that V from 83 is his fathers, and the Twilight Zone is like an ancient tablet to this person.

BTW- only Corporations and non corportial beings will be “alive” long enough to capitalise from the “eternal tales” being told by wireds latest whats his name… (yes i know it, but he deserves no google points)

all others Len will have died off in the garages, not being able to afford the “house” decades earlier….

same as it was.

China, no surprise.

2000 remakes of 1980s toys/ games/ etc…– no differnt than the remakes of products from earlier years.

brand names…. in fact MUCH more rampant in a GTA 56 — and actaully, i think the very deep sequals up to 6.7. in film are due to the growth of markletign of video games from the 80s on.

Formulas that HIT get fomula Sequels, and since unique story is NOT the THINGthat drove games sales primraly.. (game “play” as so often reminded here is) then the reason for 7 titles of zombie shopoting uner a same brand all seems logical..

anyhow– back to you show.

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