China’s Ministry of Culture tightens grip on MMO industry

It’s tough for a Western game developer, working with partners in the region, to maintain creative control of its product in China. And it is getting tougher every day. The Chinese government announced late Wednesday night that it will tighten regulations on online games even more.

China’s Ministry of Culture said in a circular that it would require game operators to re-examine the content of the games they offer to make sure it doesn’t contain and “obscene or violent content” or anything that might be considered “lowbrow.” But what it really means is that the Ministry of Culture wants to stamp out any themes that go against the government’s socialist views. The circular also said that operators must limit the number of virtual marriages and player-versus-player combat sessions in these games.’

The circular says as much plainly enough: they want game operators to “enhance socialist values” and hire “specialist” to monitor content. No doubt these “experts” will be provided or recommended by the Ministry of Culture.

The changes will affect a lot of operators including Shanda Games, NetEase, The9, CDC Games, Tencent Holdings etc. Most of these companies will simply comply with these requests. But do game developers in North America, Europe and other parts of the world want the Chinese government to say what it can and can’t have in its games?

On the other hand, Blizzard learned the hard way that you can’t win against the Chinese government when it tried to switch operators (from The9 to NetEase). Now World of Warcraft is no longer running in that region.

As harsh as this truth is, it should be troubling to any MMO creator who wants to maintain their original vision and have it running in China.
Operators in the region have no choice. NetEase’s Chief Executive Officer William Ding said in an earnings call on Thursday, that, while he had not seen the full details of the circular, his company is willing to comply..

China’s online game industry is incredibly lucrative and growing; by the end of 2009 it should record growth between 30 - 50 percent, with estimated sales revenue of 24 - 27 billion yuan (that’s $3.5 - $4 billion USD). The total number of online game players is estimated to be more than 50 million.

Chinese government cracks down on World of Warcraft

Activision Blizzard and top Chinese online gaming company NetEase continue to have problems in China as government regulators put the squeeze on the duo related to World of Warcraft. NetEase announced this week that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has returned its application to operate the latest version of Activision World of Warcraft in the region due to “gross violations” of regulations.

The Chinese government run agency emphasized the point by posting a statement on its Web site demanding that NetEase suspend charging users to play the game, and started rejecting new account registrations. This news certainly puts into question World of Warcraft’s future in the lucrative region and also didn’t help both companies’ stock prices, which took slight hits.

Analysts familiar with the region believe that this is tantamount to a turf war, after Blizzard walked away from a contract with another Chinese online games provider The9, which the Chinse government apparently favors. While that is certainly a factor, the Chinese government has been cracking down on game content that it sees as undesirable. It especially enjoys cracking down on companies that have foreign investment; in Oct. the government banned many forms of foreign investment into the country’s online games industry.

And the news certainly isn’t hurting NetEase’s competitors; Shanda Games saw a bump of 3.1 percent, while The9 closed at 4.3 percent yesterday on the news. But it does hurt Western companies like Activision and EA, who want to crack the market and take some of the profits being generated there; the Chinese gaming market is projected to grow by 30 - 50 percent this year to $4 billion.

Aion, Champions Online top Sept. PC charts

I’m sure that NCsoft is delighted and more than a little relieved that its newest massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Aion, has topped U.S. retail charts for the month of Sept., according to sales data from NPD Group.

Another MMO, Champions Online, also managed to take the number 3 spot in Sept., followed by World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and the Aion Collector’s Edition SKU.

That means that 4 out of the 5 top spots in Sept. were occupied by MMO releases. Out of the top ten, six were MMO products  - and of those, 3 were World of Warcraft related. Go figure. Anyway here’s the top ten for the moth of Sept.:

Best Selling PC Game Software for Sept. 2009:

1. Aion (NCsoft)

2. The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts)

3. Champions Online (Atari)

4. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard)

5. Aion Collector’s Edition (NCsoft)

6. Mumbo Jumbo Assortment (Mumbo Jumbo)

7. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe (Electronic Arts)

8. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest (Blizzard)

9. Reel Deal Slots: Treasures of the Far East (Phantom EFX)

10. World of Warcraft (Blizzard)

F-Secure details World of Warcraft scams, trojans

Players of Blizzard’s ultra popular MMO World of Warcraft are under attack by a phishing scheme that lets the attacker steal players’ gold and rare items by luring players with an offer of “free in-game mounts,” anti-virus and security researchers at F-Secure point out. This is common knowledge to many WOW players (read the official forums for proof), but not to those few of us that don’t play World of Warcraft, or security experts who don’t pay too much attention to virtual worlds.

The attacker lures the player in by using the in-game World of Warcraft chat system to spam links, which victims then click on to go to a site that looks a lot like the official World of Warcraft site. There they divulge their information (account name, login, password) to complete strangers. Once the attacker has this information they find their way to that account and unload their virtual goods to another account and then sell it for real money in online auctions in places like China.

Another way of getting robbed of your precious WOW commodities and loot is much more malicous - a family of trojans called “WOW” (Trojan-PSW.Win32.WOW ). How you get it isn’t perfectly clear (F-Secure mentions banner ads on malicious web sites), but this malware steals account information and passwords related to World of Warcraft. F-Secure describes it as follows: “The WOW trojan is designed to steal account information in order to allow a remote hacker access to the player’s account. The hacker can then logon and steal the player’s virtual assets by transferring them to another player account. Such assets are often sold or auctioned off for real-world currency. With millions of players, such trojans can easily affect thousands of users.”

A good visual walkthrough of how this might happen can be found on F-Secure’s Blog.

As always, if something is probably too good to be true, then it probably is a scam.

Tankard O’ Terror pre-order available

3 Point Entertainment’s TavernCraft is producing the Tankard O’ Terror, a special tankard based on the featured item available in Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft during the annual Brewfest in-game event. If you were at BlizzCon you probably saw some of this company’s craftsemanship first hand. The company says that the tankard is an exact scaled-up replica of the in-game version. Taverncraft is now accepting pre-orders for a mid-November ship date in time for the holidays.

The Tankard O’ Terror is the largest tankard or stein Taverncraft has offered to date: it weighs over 4 lbs (1.8 kgms), has nearly a two-liter (1/2 gallon) capacity and stands 9 3/4” (24.8 cm) tall. Made from fine-grain stoneware, the Tankard O’ Terror is currently available to pre-order at for a retail price of $39.99.

Please, if you buy one put what it is intended to have in it if you are over the age of 21. No Mountain Dew allowed!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm revealed at BlizzCon

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was announced today at BlizzCon 2009, revealing a tiny fragment of what this latest expansion will do for Blizzard’s ultra popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game for PC and Mac. The expansion will offer some new adventures in an Azeroth that has been destroyed by some sort of major world event that was not revealed at press time.

Blizzard also reiterated that Goblins and Worgen will be the new playable races in the expansion and that the game’s level cap will be raised to 85. The new level cap means new high level raids, dungeons, and quests for everyone play. The old world raid dungeons will also be revamped and a new secondary skill called Archaeology will be introduced.

The Goblin will have the Death Knight, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior classes available to them, while the Wargen will have the Death Knight, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Warrior classes as options.

In fact, with the new expansion new class combinations will be available for different races: Orcs will gain access to the Mage class, Taurens can now be Paladins and Priests, Undead can be Hunters, Trolls can be Druids, Humans can be Hunters, Dwarf pick up Shaman and Mage, Night Elf gains Mage, and Gnomes can finally be Priests.
 

We’ll have nore information on this and other breaking news coming out of BlizzCon as it happens. In the meantime, check out Blizzard’s freshly launched World of Warcraft: Cataclysm web site.

Exclusive: Minor Booyah: One Good Thing about the G.I. Joe Game & Movie

One of the things I’ve been pretty concerned about as I write my book, “The Game Changers,” is how popular culture has influenced videogames over time.

Along those lines, the movie industry and the game industry have not only been strange bedfellows over the years. They’ve been angry, mocking bedfellows. How bad? Probably like the last days of Kate and Jon. (”Please don’t squoosh the cereal in your anger!”) Probably like the long bouts of arguments in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (”If you start in about this other business, Martha, I warrrrrnnn you!”)

But now, you can see that the blockbuster movie is influenced more and more by games (despite crappy movie games, which will always be with us — remember Coraline). Look at the action in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” for instance. Looks like someone watched (or maybe even played) Burnout for inspiration.

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