UI Improvements Preview, Hot Ulduar Topics, Wrath China Delays; The9 Bankrupcy

[WoRBot]

A preview of upcoming UI improvements for 3.1, DPS analysis in Ulduar on the PTR, a recap of blue posts including some hot Ulduar topics, the winners for the Design An Encounter Contest, and news of Wrath being delayed in China twice and its impact on The9's potential bankrupcy.Read More

[osirisfrost]

I wondered how well this xpack would play in China given their laws on undead type content. Apparently the answer is it doesn't.

[Nath]

Blizz should call it a day, let The9 get out of their mutual contract to help them with the bankrupcy problem, and make some snide remarks about censorship in China. With a little luck, that's enough to start an uprise of Chinese players that topples the government...
Well, one can dream

[zhakar]

WotLK without scourge and the undead? Well there are still the walrus-creatures and.. um. Cooking dailies?

[koenigsegg]

China...and we live in 2009. I know there are even worse countries politics than china. I think I need to be raised in china to understand why they aren't approving the game. :/

But, how come that vanilla WoW was ok with tons of scourges/undead and not LK? Or was Stratholme and Scholomance and Naxx closed on chinese servers? *confused*

[Fojos]

China is ridiculous. I feel for the people who actually have to live there.

[Leviathonlx]

Originally Posted by Nath

Blizz should call it a day, let The9 get out of their mutual contract to help them with the bankrupcy problem, and make some snide remarks about censorship in China. With a little luck, that's enough to start an uprise of Chinese players that topples the government...
Well, one can dream

A large portion of Chinese players just are getting the Taiwanese version of the game which is contributing to The9's problems.

[Chrono]

Poor The9

[Nath]

Originally Posted by Leviathonlx

A large portion of Chinese players just are getting the Taiwanese version of the game which is contributing to The9's problems.

I heart about that, and it's good they circumvent stupid laws, but that won't change the opinions of the Chinese officials.

[roxsand]

Those officials must lead a ronery life.

[Thoragar]

The fact that the Chinese, who had guilds that actually cleared through all content up through Illidan faster than any US/EU guild, cannot play WoW and rival with guilds like Ensidia is a big bummer.

Originally Posted by roxsand

Those officials must lead a ronery life.

But that, my friend, was bloody amazing.

[martinwgc]

First of all, I am a Chinese so I guess I am at a better stand than most Americans to comment on CWoW situation.

Actually it had nothing to do with scourage and undead and shit like that. There are MMORPGs that are much worse than this in China, and they somehow got approved. Things like EQ, EQ2 and LotR were approved. Maybe you have less 'scourge and undead' in those games, but you know, skellies and ugly trolls are everywhere in those games.

The reason why WotLK was not approved is a result of many factors IMO.

1) Blizzard pushed the9 so hard when signing contracts. As far as I've heard, blizzard took the majority of the profit, leaving the9 at a fairly pathetic position. When you have 5-6M playerbase each paying something like 20 bucks every month for the last four years, you will not go bankrupt in three months if you run your company reasonably well. Apparently, Chinese government doesn't like that. They hate to see a foreign company taking a big slice off the MMORPG market (something like $3b last year) while not giving a shit to the country (which is what bliz has been doing). The ministry of culture has declared that if any foreign company is involved in a lawsuit in China, its game will be rejected, and that's what's happening between blizzard and the 9.

2) WoW is the target of all the angry parents of game addicts in China, because, as you know, it's popular. You can see at least 1 story every day on TV about how a poor kid quitted school and played wow all day long. It's funny sometimes because you could see on TV the kid was actually playing CS or War3, but who cares, everyone was blaming WoW. TBC got delayed for something like half a year because of the huge resistance the goverment met. This time, maybe the9 cannot make it thru!

Well, there could be other reasons, but I'll just stop here and go work now

[Crusherix]

U.S.A free themselfs from England and make their own country.. now they shall rule da worldz and take as mutch as they can!!! RAWR!!

On a serious note.. i'd like to know more about how mutch China/The9 whatever gets from the deal With Blizzard.. i have no clue how mutch the should get or whatever but yeh.. going to bankrupsy so fast just doesn't make any sence o.O

Oh and.. plix no patch come, me must get Glory of da raider yaow! (i'm slow)

[Nath]

Originally Posted by martinwgc

As far as I've heard, blizzard took the majority of the profit

Hmm, I do think it's up to Blizzard to decide how much licensing their game should cost, it's not the duty of a government to regulate that, if The9 agreed to those terms. Hurting the economy... I think not letting this game be released causes much higher losses than having some "foreigners" do actual business with Chinese customers.

[Pouljin]

If Wow gets the axe in china maybe we will finally get a presence from the Pandarans!