An official word will come halfway into January

Jan 4, 2010 08:43 GMT  ·  By

While most games rely on it, no other genre in the industry abuses it quite like the MMO. Addiction and obsessive repetition are the foundation that holds every MMO on its feet and generating subscriptions, and no one does it better than World of Warcraft. The game has already surpassed 11 million monthly subscriptions, and with that many people playing WoW, Blizzard could at any time wage war on most of the world's countries, and if not necessarily win, since gnome mages don't really make the best infantry marines, at least give them a run for their money.

Asia is known for its close correlation to the MMORPG genre, and while its players tend to stick to another style of multiplayer online role-playing games, Blizzard's “addiction generator” still has a lot of dedicated fans. If anything, the fact that in December, last year, a Taiwanese gamer was awarded the title of “man who finished World of Warcraft” is proof of just that. So, when China lost its access to WoW last year, there must have been a huge shock in the community, first for the players that spend their lives inside the game, and second, for the company that received the monthly subscription fees.

In November 2009, China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) stripped NetEase, the company responsible for maintaining the game servers in the country, of the right to collect subscription fees and also the right to allow further account registrations. But it looks like things might come back on track, and there's a chance that WoW servers will return to life once again in China.

An inside source that preferred to remain anonymous has revealed that China's General Administration of Press and Publications and the Ministry of Culture (MoC) have reached a decision regarding the NetEase situation, and a punishment for the company has been agreed upon. An official announcement will be made somewhere in mid-January, and most likely, the company will have to pay a gigantic fine and then be allowed to continue operating the game in the country.