China sparks fury over game changes

BONES and skeletons have disappeared from the Chinese version of the popular on-line fantasy game, World of Warcraft, sparking fierce criticism from the nation’s army of players, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

Chinese mainland gamers have waited half a year longer than their US counterparts for the upgraded version of WoW, only to find the appearances of familiar skeletons have been fleshed out.

The skeletons, regular characters, grow flesh in the new version and the bones symbolising dead characters have been changed to graves.

A member of staff with the public relations department of The9, which runs WoW in China, was quoted by a Guangzhou-based newspaper as saying the changes were made according to “China’s particular situation and relevant regulations”.

However, Zhao Yurun, public relations director of The9, told Xinhua the changes were made as part of an “operational strategy”.

Some gamers thought the changes made the game dull and voiced their scorn on the official WoW website, filling more than 10 pages with criticism.

The monster-killing game, first launched by California-based Blizzard Entertainment in 2004, is one of the most popular online role-playing games involving multiple players.