Chinese Bureaucrats Duel Over Right To Regulate WoW 128
upto0013 writes "Chinese bureaucrats are battling each other for the right to regulate World of Warcraft. They hope to gain the political clout and the revenue that comes along with controlling a new industry with potential for explosive growth. 'If you supervise a more dynamic area with a lot of growth potential, you have more budget and more administrative muscle,' said Edward Yu, president of Analysys International, an Internet research firm in Beijing. 'They see this pie is getting bigger and bigger, so it is no wonder different administrations are fighting over pieces of that territory.' It's absurd how orcs and elves (and Moonkin) can affect so many different faraway places."
they really want to stop any anti chain chat in ga (Score:3, Insightful)
they really want to stop any anti chain chat in game and they want to tax the gold farmers.
Re:they really want to stop any anti chain chat in (Score:2)
So, I'm curious. Did you cut and paste from your subject line or did you mistype China twice in a row?
The first seems really, really lazy to me, but the second seems statistically unlikely.
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Can we watch? (Score:5, Funny)
Can they fight within the game so we can all watch?
(So. Would being mod'ed a "troll" be good or bad for this thread?)
Re:Can we watch? (Score:5, Funny)
It's gonna be a big hit.
Crouching Tauren, Hidden Draenei
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Re:Can we watch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't have a problem with the Crouching Tauren thing, since they keep having to duck down to get through most doorways without wedging their horns in the frame...
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We are suchs nerds.
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Minmatar will kill you all!
Ok, wrong game.
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(Honestly though, this is a non-story: Several government department have partially overlapping areas of control so they argue about which one has the control on those areas. Those things happen a lot, especially with the internet and other new technology. In other areas those fights have already been settled a century or so ago.)
It's not really a non-story when last I heard, there are something like 6 MILLION accounts in China. Even if each of those only pays $1 a month (they're charged on a different schedule to us) that's a $72M/year business they're talking about. No wonder there's a turf war over who 'owns' it legislation-wise.
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I was thinking I'd much rather see them fight it out in real life, with a stadium full of raucous fans: 2 bureaucrats enter, 1 bureaucrat leaves!
I've been playing WoW too much... (Score:5, Funny)
My first mental image was a conference room full of bureaucrats and a duel flag dropping down in the middle.
Or two opposing teams of bureaucrats playing a Warsong Gulch match.
Hmm. Does anyone else think this could be the next big MMO? "That's not a red health bar on the boss -- that's how much red tape you have to cut through!"
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Let's pit them against the IRS!
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They'd just let you win and then tax 60% of your points.
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Evander Holyfield lost a few fights as well, but you won't hear me utter a 'meh' if I faced him even today (or in 10 yrs)
The first line of the story tells you everything (Score:3, Informative)
OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Western reporters in Beijing are total dumbasses. They constantly write stories colored by their own blinders they're not even aware that they're wearing. The story doesn't even mention that WoW/Netease problems getting a license in China has been going on for a while now and is nothing new. It's not really even a story, just a space filler - bureaucratic turf wars between communist ministries are news now? Anyhow, I just wanted to mention whenever you see that line at the top of the story, immediately mentally activate your BS detectors. If you want China news, there is no shortage of primary sources in English. Even my own small city district has its own website, with a translated English page. Here is a much better story from Shanghai Daily [chinadaily.com.cn], which lays out the issue in a much clearer fashion:
Compelling story, eh? This is typical of what comes out of Western media in Beijing.
Re:The first line of the story tells you everythin (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Western reporters in Beijing are total dumbasses. They constantly write stories colored by their own blinders they're not even aware that they're wearing.
So, pretty much like every reporter and newspaper?
Re:The first line of the story tells you everythin (Score:5, Insightful)
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The state controlled media has assured us of their lack of bias from of an investigative report they did on themselves assuring us they were unbiased.
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The BBC as a company is different from the BBC as a broadcaster. The broadcaster may well be unbiased while the company protects its own interests. The difference is obviously that the broadcast is public and the company affairs are behind the scenes.
Re:The first line of the story tells you everythin (Score:5, Informative)
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That would clearly cause conflict with their mission as a public service.
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You seem to be mistaking reporting bias with corporate interest.
BBC programs are required to be objective and unbiased, and it seems they live up to that requirement more than most broadcasters.
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You seem to be mistaking reporting bias with corporate interest.
No. I consider corporate interest ("corporate" in the sense of group not in the sense of corporation) of a news media organization to be a subcategory of reporting bias. And I am not mistaken in this consideration.
BBC programs are required to be objective and unbiased, and it seems they live up to that requirement more than most broadcasters.
I don't even see the point of making statements like the above. It doesn't matter what they are "required" to do. Being funded by a particular tax introduces a bias in their outlook that can't be removed with a "requirement". For some reason, I routinely read on Slashdot, smug yet naive boasting a
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"corporate" in the sense of group not in the sense of corporation
Three guesses what the "C" in "BBC" stands for.
I consider corporate interest of a news media organization to be a subcategory of reporting bias.
WTF?
And I am not mistaken in this consideration.
Wow. Feeling self-confident today, aren't we?
I don't even see the point of making statements like the above. It doesn't matter what they are "required" to do. Being funded by a particular tax introduces a bias in their outlook that can't be removed with a "requirement".
You seem to have a propositional fallacy.
As an aside, I've googled "BBC bias" [google.com] and have come up (though trivial effort) with several examples of BBC bias, including favoring "political correctness" [wnd.com] and "liberal culture" [timesonline.co.uk], a tendency to assign racists [blogspot.com] to the right hand side of the political spectrum, and slanting the coverage of some religious groups [blogspot.com].
Way to go. You link to an article by News Corp, the largest, most biased media organisation in the world which jumps at every chance to take a stab at the BBC.
Your other links are to a blog that is fixated on the BBCs coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, despite being the only major western news organisation with an extensive network in Palestine.
But if you think about it, everyone employed at the BBC is paid in large part from a tax. Why wouldn't they be so biased?
People will have
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I don't even see the point of making statements like the above. It doesn't matter what they are "required" to do. Being funded by a particular tax introduces a bias in their outlook that can't be removed with a "requirement".
You seem to have a propositional fallacy.
Only if the statement isn't strictly true.
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And it isn't.
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That would clearly cause conflict with their mission as a public service.
Once upon a time, all corporations were viewed as having a public service responsibility. [sigh]
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Isn't this just a cynical way of describing ones "perspective"? Every mind perceives the world from it's own perspective, has it's own world view coloured by it's experiences.
Sure you can compare perspective to "blinders" and call those people "dumb asses" but they are the same blinders worn by your dumb ass.
What I think is more likely (Score:5, Interesting)
Or maybe they found the right people, but they're asking too much for CWoW to be profitable?
obvious solution (Score:2)
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Surely, Comrade... (Score:2)
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...now what if we establish a small backyard gold furnace in every commune and in each urban neighbourhood. I believe that will be a great leap forward in the gold farming economy.
A real WoWHead (Score:1)
"It's absurd how orcs and elves (and Moonkin) can affect so many different faraway places."
A truly obsessed WoWHead would know that the proper term is "Boomkin."
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You dare call is Oomkins and we will drop a Starfall on your collective arses.
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We could definately use more boom though, the hybrid tax was also over-compensated for in WotLK, though it's better than it was.
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Oomkins, Huntards. Fucking rogues.
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I would hardly equate Starfall (instant cast, mobile player centred AOE) with Starfall (3 seconds cast, targetted nuke). The only things they have in common is they both have 'star' in the name, and they are both arcane spells.
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I would hardly equate Starfall (instant cast, mobile player centred AOE, only available via talents) with Starfire (3 second cast targeted nuke, core spell). The only things they have in common is they both have 'star' in their names and are both arcane school spells.
EDIT: retyped to correct typo and browser crash posting
New race? (Score:3, Funny)
Worse than that... (Score:5, Interesting)
They still only have level 70 because the government STILL hasn't "filtered" every last quest in WotLK for any themes that might contradict the Chinese government policies. I'm dead serious. The "censorship" is that horrific.
Not only that, but there are some really weird censorship issues you wouldn't expect. For example, there are no undead in Chinese WoW because the Chinese government won't allow any human bones to be shown in the game. So anywhere you see a skeleton, it had to be removed by Blizzard.
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Not only that, but there are some really weird censorship issues you wouldn't expect. For example, there are no undead in Chinese WoW because the Chinese government won't allow any human bones to be shown in the game. So anywhere you see a skeleton, it had to be removed by Blizzard.
Well, if I made a MMORPG where everybody is naked and targeted it to the 13+ audience, I bet I would have to make some changes before it was published in the US. It is ultimately my problem if I designed thousands of NPCs while ignoring the culture of my target market.
Some things are cultural. Don't expect them to make a lot of sense. If Blizzard had planned for the Chinese market from the start, instead of undead you would have a different race and they wouldn't have to change a thing.
Re:Worse than that... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm if it's truly a cultural issue, then wouldn't it be a self-regulating feedback loop?
In other words, if you're that offended by the game diong something repugnant to your culture, you won't play... end of problem.
It seems to me that the whole bones thing may go against certain cultural norms, but that the government is the one who has a problem with it.
I honestly don't know enough about Chinese cultural norms to know if showing bones is equivelent (to the Chinese) as your hypothetical MMORPG would be to America.
I keep trying to think about this from an outsider's perspective, but I keep getting back to "dude, it's just bones. if it bothers me, I won't look, but it doesn't so where's the harm?". There are one or two substitutions for the word "bones" that you could add that would make it illegal in the US, and where most members of our culture would even agree that it should be a crime.
Cultural relativism is a damn minefield.
I'll just go back to LFM H ToC 25 now and be happy that my culture allows me to waste my evenings and weekends in this manner.
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Well.. (Score:1)
It's a sign that China is modernising (Score:5, Insightful)
* anyone who thinks China is Communist doesn't understand either (a) the meaning of communism or (b) history.
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China can't be communist! Communists aren't evil fascists like China!
No true Scotsman...?
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Instead of warlords fighting for turf, you have civil servants fighting for budget
Civil servants fighting for budget in China has been going on for several thousand years.
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China would appear to me to meet the definition of a fascist state more than it does a communist state. The Chinese government is single-party, authoritarian, nationalistic, and while it plays lip service to old communist tropes like class struggle, in point of fact it has increased the stratification of its society into classes radically over the last two decades. It plays host to a large contingent of corporations that are hybrids of state and private control, and it manipulates its society through direct and active control of religious institutions and public discourse.
That's the classic communist definition of 'fascism,' but it's also what most communist states invariably end up looking like. There's always a 'new class,' there's always lip service to communist tropes while the new class stratification is implemented, there's always corporations or corporation-equivalents, sometimes foreign based or sometimes 'design bureaus,' whose presense benefits the New Class more than the old one, and there's always control over public discourse and religious institutions. It happe
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That's the classic definition of fascism according to the fascists themselves.
The real question is.... (Score:1)
...will the Chinese WoW turn into Evony?
Government at its Most Honest (Score:2)
I guess... (Score:5, Insightful)
US bureaucrats are also falling over each other to regulate whatever they can because it gives them power. Bureaucracies work the same the world over, communist or not.
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That applies to elected positions as well. It's not that bureaucrats suck, it's that everyone sucks.
get real already (Score:3, Insightful)
Bad timing... (Score:2)
I know the game is far from over, but I have seen the start of a movement of people just fed up of playing so much for so long, and wanting something different...WoW had its day, and even though I am a die hard fan, have my account and play alost everyday (.5 to 1.5 hours) I have to say I think WoWs days are limited, they are taking too much time between expansions (being the limit for lvling is rumored to be 100) so the next expansion is lvl 80 - 85, instead of the usual 10 lvls.....I think this is a mista
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"25$ character transfer, 25$ character name change, then 15$ per month to play, 50$ per expansion or game.....it adds up quick as being the most expensive game to play EVER."
First off your prices are wrong. $15 to change your name, and xpacs are only $50 on release day.
$20 for the game, $20 for the first xpac, and $40 for the second xpac equals $80 to buy the game outright, today. In order to match the price of a SINGLE set of golf clubs, you'd need to buy (after the game) a name change, a character transf
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Context, context.
He is talking about computer games. I mean, come one.
Golf is now where near as expensive as owning a football team, but that would make no sense in this context, would it?
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He said 'game' not 'video game', and if I was to assume what he meant from the context, I would have assumed 'mmorpg' and not 'video game' in general anyways.
And it's not like your nitpick actually has anything to do with my point. Judging game to game, $20 for WoW is pretty fucking good, even if you only get the first 60 levels and all the dungeons that go with it. Spend another $20 for BC, and you get many more hours of play, new dungeons, a new continent, etc. Now you've spent less than you would have bu
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Anyone who thinks WoW is expensive by any metric needs to spend some quality time with a math book.
WoW only looks like a bargain if you compare it with other disposable forms of entertainment with limited replay value....compared to buying a new console game every month WoW is a great deal. Compared to buying a chess set, WoW is a terrible waste of money in terms of both potential hours of entertainment and opportunity for meaningful social interaction.
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Most expensive video game, you dolt.
As for pricing, I guess in your neck of the woods, but I am telling you what spending is like HERE, in my neck of the woods, no, expansion packs are 50$ until 1 year has passed minimum, so the real hardcore players that all have their friends raiding within the first week, all the new raids and dungeons make you feel like your totally useless if you can't help out on the raids, so you go and buy the expansion that same week (not a year later when it is at 20$ as you say).
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Well I gues mr.moneybags, that's the difference between us,
I could send you a screenshot (ctrl+printscreen)...but I wont bother...
as I can tell you seem a little too close minded to hear what
someone is saying other then your own opinion.
I have no other games I play at the moment except WoW, and I plan to not have any other until I finish WoW...(lvl100)...because I am that cheap.
I am a bit too old to be wasting money on games , more then about 100$ per year...is enough for me...so WoW gobbles all that up pre
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".5 to 1.5"
The barely qualifies you as a player~
Anyways, whoever gets WoW, will probably get any future games.
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Most with a normal life and a girlfriend they intend on keeping,
don't play more then that, else they look like addicts....
and yes I still plan on getting cataclysm....next wow expansion...
I may get a splinter cell MMO or hitman MMO if they ever come out with one, however, I have been playing WoW exclusively for the last 3 years now, with much enjoyment, but without touching
any other games, as I just a have no more time then that to play.
ps- before you reply again about the time spent playing = a REAL player
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- The "B" team is obviously in charge. So many immersive RPG elements have been removed this year (3 days between server moves or name/race changes). And they continue to remove any sorts of barriers that make the game world feel real and not just a grind fest of teleporting to an instance then teleporting to another instance.
- The ToC raid (3rd in the series, Naxx -> Ulduar -> ToC) was a piss poor "toss the players in
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Most players have gotten all of the alts they could want to level 80. Most have finished grinding out all WotLK reps to exalted that they care about and are basically biding their time (or trying to keep up with the raid progression).
Well, I guess I'm in the minority then. I'm still working on getting my first level 80 to exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord and with any luck and time this coming weekend, I'll get my 2nd level 80, but hey, I have a life.
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I agree, but blizzard having made over close to a billion dollars off this game alone, with all the expansions, and time cards etc...etc... I have to say, when I have an issue and they tell me to just live with it, or when the server is down for a couple of days, and they do not bother giving a few extra days to your account to compensate, I have to say I am pretty darn furious, they are greedy, and the fact they keep milking their players trying to limit the lvls per expansion....what gives.
All I got to sa
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Is it just me or has the WoW is dying meme replaced the BSD is dying one?
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Death of Usenet predicted! Film at 11.
Protip! (Score:1)
Act of War? (Score:2)
So; if a Western gamer spots a Red Chinese chekist in-game and chops him down, is it considered an act of war?
];)
heh (Score:1, Offtopic)
It's absurd how Orcs and elves (and Moonkin) can affect so many different faraway places."
You mean like Hobbiton?
Stupid Jackson missing the ENTIRE point of the book by changing the Hobbiton ending.
Do they need a visit from a free market advocate? (Score:1)
Shut up foo! (new window) [youtube.com]
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Modern China ain't communist by any real meaning of the word.
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Where societies diverge is usually in how they deal with problems and people who don't tow the line for whatever reason. That's where China becomes a scary place... nothing says oppression quite like killing a dissiden
Re:Power hungry money grubbing grab-asses (Score:4, Interesting)
Ummm, your ignorance is astonishing. Or your hyperbole.
If you're trying to draw a parallel between the Chinese Gov't and US Gov't because of some difficulty you had with taxes or some annoying permit you were required to get (probably by your local Gov't, and not even the Fed)... ahh, why am I even bothering trying to answer this rationally. Dude, read a book. I'd start with the dictionary and the definition of the "Authoritative." Then try reading a year's worth of articles about life in China. Then, reflect on how much of that information you wouldn't be reading if you lived in China (or what hoops you'd have to jump through to read it, and what consequences there would/could be for disseminating it.)
Then, put your money where your mouth is and move there and take your flippant attitude toward gov't with you. Please, express it loudly and unabashedly as much as possible. And then, after ten years, let's have this discussion again.
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It's really easy to seem insightful when in reality you're spewing garbage if you're surrounded by people who agree with you.
I can tell you with certainty after living in both China and th
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China is a nightmare communist dictatorship hell hole.
Yeah, this is like those despicable Christian that eat children and celebrate the execution of an innocent man!
It's funny, though, how Chinese people keep moving back to China - makes you wonder, perhaps it isn't such a nightmarish hellhole after all.
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It's accepted insanity. But it isn't the Chinese.. it's everyone. People accept crazy things when they are desensitized to them. Security theater, windows, death, living in garbage, and so on.
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Normally, if you move back to China from say USA or Canada, you're probably some business people or finance people or
So long as you don't try to anger the government, life in major cities are not so bad (except the housing pri
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People - and expecially in the US - I'm sorry to say, tend to judge others exclusively from their own background, without trying to understand what the actual differences are. Thus, "it must be bad to live in China" - because you can't earn as much money as in America and you don't have the same sort of freedom as in America and so on. However, if you talk to people, as I have, you find that they don't see it that way.
My own background is that I am married to a Chinese - ten years, now - and have family the
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Yeah clever. Why don't you move to China?
I own an apartment in Beijing, I speak the language, I am married to a Chinese. Which all goes to show that I have done my homework; I have experience. Do you?