Stricter censorship on MMORPGs in China
March 20, 2009 by Joel Tan
Filed under Asian MMO, Asian MMO Players
No surprise there, considering the Chinese government already has safeguards in place to reel in what it perceives as harmful to its more-than-a-billion youths. Take, for instance, its regulation early last year of online video.
This time around, China is setting its sights on regulating foreign online games, including the highly popular World of Warcraft, operated in the mainland by The9.
Here’s the lowdown on the plan for stricter censorship from China-based online games portal 17173:
China’s deputy director for general administration of press and publication (GAPP), in a recent interview, said that his office will enhance censorship on foreign online games, including World of Warcraft.
According to Kou Xiaowei, the GAPP will enhance censorship on imported games to protect Chinese game developers as well as prevent too much exposure of Chinese teenagers. Right now, the GAPP is imposing an identical censorship system on both China-made and imported games.
In addition, Kou revealed that the GAPP would host a conference with all major Chinese game developers and operators to notify them about the new changes in the censorship system.
World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has failed to pass the censorship of the administration department twice. According to Liu Binjie, director of GAPP and China’s National Copyright Administration, Wrath of the Lich King had improper content.
Now I’m left wondering about what will be left of these foreign online games after censorship.
