Chinese government may outlaw World of Warcraft

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By Ryan Burns

Chinese players of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment's phenomenally popular MMORPG, may never log on again. Due to "gross violations" of China's laws, the Chinese government has revoked the operation permit from NetEase, Blizzard's localization publisher.

Most American World of Warcraft players will remember that a number of gold-farming companies exist in China and other Asian countries. These companies employ people whose entire job is to play World of Warcraft, earn gold and sell it online for real money. While Blizzard is trying to crack down on gold-farming, China is an undeniably huge market for the game.

China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) had previously allowed NetEase, the company who recently acquired the rights to license World of Warcraft, to begin testing the game as long as it did not charge existing players and did not allow the registration of new accounts.

Allegedly, NetEase broke that arrangement, and recently the GAPP responded by pulling its approval of the game. It also reportedly denied NetEase's application to localize the first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.

In a written statement, NetEase stated it had not been officially notified of the GAPP's decision, and was "currently seeking clarification" from the relevant authorities.

At the time of this writing, existing players of World of Warcraft are still able to play without trouble, but that may not be the case for long. If the game is permanently shut down, Blizzard will lose more than 1 million players from the Chinese mainland.

The GAPP is not the only government agency interested in online games. The Ministry of Culture (MOC) claims that online games are within its territory to regulate, not the GAPP's. Technically, the GAPP presides over "publications," and whether online games qualify as "publications" or "culture" has become a big issue in China.

"As long as they're online, these online games and publications are fully subject to administration by the MOC," Li Xiong, head of the MOC's Department of Cultural Markets said, according to China Daily. Li insisted that the MOC has the sole right to regulate online games.

The GAPP had earlier threatened to cut NetEase's Internet service, which Li said it had no right to do. This turf war over a public domain is an interesting phenomenon and is, according to msnbc.com, due in no small part to the Chinese Government's growing interest in Internet censorship. Government agencies have recently been more eager to enforce that censorship in order to "reap the regulatory fees," according to msnbc.com.

The fact that an effectual turf war has broken out over a public domain like online gaming seems to support this idea. Back in October, the GAPP banned many forms of foreign investment into the country's online gaming industry, which was expected to grow at the time. Because of the GAPP's decree, NetEase's stock is already suffering a substantial drop, and that trend is expected to continue.

For a country that has 217 million online gamers, there seems to be an awful lot of trouble getting a staple of the industry to stick in China. One thing is for certain: if you want to bring an online game to China, you had better mind the GAPP.

Originally Published: Issue 823 - November 11, 2009

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