14 DAY TRIAL // The Chinese version of World of Warcraft has been offline for more than one month. The downtime has been a direct result of the change of operators from The9 to NetEase. Blizzard is set to get more licensing money from the new deal but it might also lose a lot from a possible reduction of the number of players of the game, especially now that there are reports that some aspects of the title have been changed because of requests coming from a Chinese government agency.
As part of the license transfer for the MMO, the General Administration of Press and Publication has reviewed the game in order to make sure that it complies with all the rules and regulations that govern videogames in Communist China.
The country has no videogame rating system in itself, so each title is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. And it seems that World of Warcraft might have all its bone-related content eliminated, while blood might become a black substance in the Chinese version of the popular MMO.
Some screenshots captured by MMOSite are showing that piles of bones have been replaced by piles of sandbags. Previously, the undead characters in the game had their visually exposed skeleton removed. Now, the icons representing talents with pictures including skulls, bones and blood are also modified. This is in line with the policy of the Chinese government of eliminating content that might impact on the fragile psyche of young MMO players.
At the moment, World of Warcraft is in closed beta in China, meaning that only those who already have an account are able to log in and play. The game is set to be back shortly. Blizzard has not commented on the changes, preferring to leave the Chinese version of the title in the hands of NetEase.