World of Warcraft Shut Down by Chinese Goverment

Apparently the only thing that can stop World of Warcraft is China, or at least Chinese government officials. According to Reuters, the latest expansion for WoW (in China) didn’t receive the proper approval, causing the General Administration of Press and Publication to go apesh*t:

Citing “gross violations” of regulations, the General Administration of Press and Publication said it had halted and returned NetEase’s application to operate “Burning Crusade” — the latest version of the game licensed from Activision.

The regulatory body posted a statement on its Web site that demanded the NetEase affiliate company that operates World of Warcraft to suspend charging users to play the game, and disallow new account registrations.

Hopefully the expansion gets approved soon, so that new users can register for WoW. I’m convince that WoW is an integral part of America’s strategy to compete with China economically. If the game can turn half the country into addicts then productivity will plummet. Really, this might be America’s only chance to get some of its currency back from China — the old take-advantage-of-the-unrepentant-addict routine.

Source