back to article China bars WoW expansion for showing bone

Stupendously popular online game World of Warcraft's second expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King" is being blocked by Chinese censors for showing too much bone. According JLM Pacific Epoch, China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has twice rejected applications from Blizzard Entertainment and its …

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  1. ThinkingOutLoud
    Paris Hilton

    "Extremely nude people"

    X-Ray specs, night vision camcorders... We've had the means to observe "extreme nudity" for some time now. China's old guard may be afraid to see themselves caricatured in the game.

    Paris, well, you can work it out for yourselves...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Figures...

    They just don't want us to see how many of those skulls have a little bullet-hole in the occipital bone.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    I'm not complaining

    If The9 goes under, most of the gold farmers and account hijackers will be disconnected.

  4. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
    Coat

    @AC, re gold farmers

    That was my first reaction, would have been nice.

    But I think the Chinese edition is played on completely different servers - the gold farmers/scammers/spammers use the US or Euro edition and play on those servers.

    Now, if the Chinese think skeletons are pornographic (or osmethne), it puts a whole new spin on "getting a boner"...

    Mine's the epic one from Heroic Naxxramas...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Pretty ridiculous, coming from the country that brought us ...

    ... spare ribs!

    *drools*

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    gold farmers

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/16/

  7. Frank

    Cultural?

    Could this be a 'cultural thing'? i.e. is it something to do with respect for the dead, even if they're the evil dead?

  8. Filippo Silver badge

    re gold farmers

    Gold farmers play on US and Euro servers, as it's unprofitable to sell gold to other Chinese players. If Chinese WoW servers were shut down, nothing would change on that front.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    heh

    "bone" is a funny word

  10. Anonymous Scotsman

    @ Cultural

    Quite possible; cremation has been the norm as opposed to the exception for centuries, and i'm pretty sure there is a shortage of skeleton-types in east asian mythology.

    Give the man who thought up "extremely nude" people a pack of hobnobs.

  11. Seán

    Relax

    China seems to look on WoW as an alien influence to be controlled whereas it would be closer to the truth to say China is the home of WoW. In much the same way as BeBo is Canadian but for some reason is full of Irish types. A network of WoW capable machines is a resource worth having in any country. The actual players at worst are addicted to a harmless enough drug compared to the alternatives. China should be hosting international WoW conferences rather than dicking around with a bunch of semi-skilled tax paying voters.

  12. Allan Rutland

    Re: Gold Farmers

    I think thats actually the exact opposite. By giving China it's own server, part of the idea was to get them off the western servers and on their own to try and reduce gold farming, as well as increase the gold farming for the companies involved. A few of the MMOGs seem to do it, Blizzard, Turbine, etc all are on the attempts to keep the gold farmers home. Isn't working totally, but even a slight help is better than nothing. And if you get licensing fee's, all the better for the companies.

    Just imagine it without local servers, a shedload of extra players from China showing up on the western servers.

  13. Tsu Dho Nimh

    Religious influence in Communist China?

    Interesting: Extreme reverence for the bones of the dead is a pre-Mao cultural thing, from Confucianism. I guess the Great Revolution wasn't as far-reaching as they thought.

  14. darrin allen

    sports games

    I dont really like the gory stuff either. I mainly play sports games.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Chinese

    Maybe they don't want to see all those "boners" running around?

    Mine's the one with the bone in the pocket.

  16. Will

    The9

    From "syndicate wars" I assume (oh how I long for another one)? But is it really so nefarious to own a fast server or 6? You guys are actually making them out to be "The 9"! Personally I'd quite like to see the church of the new epoch entering the market, so hopefully you're right.

  17. Tony Paulazzo
    Flame

    Global censorship - Shudder

    So if a skeleton is an 'extreme' nude according to Chinese censorship, wouldn't that mean, by extension, that the UK's IWF would have to then censor / block 'any' website that contains a child image since a UK male might inadvertently see it and turn him into a paedophile?

    Australia will just have to turn off the internet since it is full of drug, violence and sexual references, whilst France and Italy will simply make peer to peer completely illegal.

    Divide and conquer baby.

  18. Russ Williams
    Paris Hilton

    Re: Cultural

    Yes, as I understand it, it's a Buddhist thing, at least as practiced in the Far East - a prohibition on showing bone. Allegedly it's the same reason why Japanese women cover their mouths when they giggle.

    Paris, as she knows all about covering bone...

  19. Nick Davey
    Flame

    Leaps of logic for uk.gov

    If the gov get hold of this story I can see it now, extreme nudity=extreme porn = all WoW playesr own extreme porn and need to be jailed.

    Dammit, now I sound like Daily Fail columnist.

  20. Paul

    D'oh

    There goes the farming industry. Maybe they'll get government subsidies...

  21. Paul

    Re: re gold farmers / filippo

    They might play on US and European servers, but they'll probably end up getting the server IPs blocked by the Great Firewall of China as part of the ban (if not now then eventually)

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Leaps of logic for uk.gov

    Well they want to put minimum prices on Alchole (coz it's bad mm'kay)

    Use tax to disuade you from doing anything they or their sponsors don't like (smoke,drink,drive,fly)

    (look to) Make things illegal based on no evidence what so ever (extreme porn, cartoons)

    Ignore science when their dogma says otherwise (drugs)

    Blindly enact law that devistates our global reputation (much of the anti terror legislation)

    Place child offenders with foster families that have children (it's too hard to check these things mmm'kay)

    the list goes on and on,

    however back to WoW,

    I can see our puritan overlords wanting to "deal" with it on several levels.

    1) There are children and adults in the same location, therefore everyone should be vetted.

    2) It is possible to send communications to people all over the world, this means it should be monitored becouse you it could be used to form underground networks terrorist/peadophiles/bdsm/train spotters.

    3) At least one "scientist/guy" has said that it's a dangerous addiction like crack, that means it should probably be banned, controlled, taxed or/and have a minimum fee.

    Anyway, yeah the UK wont let China be ahead for long.

  23. Nick G
    Coat

    The9?

    Surely that's Lord of the Rings...

    Mine's the 1st Age one with +9 Pedantry...

  24. Alistair
    Coat

    "Wrath of the Lich King"

    I think their problem stems chiefly not from the gratuitous showing of skeletal remains, but rather from the very idea that a rich foreign ruler might possess metal-turning equipment.

    Mines the one with the measuring spanner in the top front pocket.

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