Warcraft' in China replaces skeletons with healthy humans

HONG KONG — The operators of ""World of Warcraft"" in China have replaced skeletons with healthy human bodies in the local version of the popular monster-killing online game, a spokesman said Friday, amid a recent government campaign to clean up Internet content. The official Xinhua News Agency said the changes had sparked a backlash among Chinese players, and that 500 players signed a petition saying they would boycott the game. James Zhao, spokesman at the Shanghai-based online gaming company The9 Ltd. , which is licensed to run ""World of Warcraft"" in China, said the changes were made to match designs due to be unveiled in an updated version of the game called ""The Burning Crusade. "" ""These are just small operational changes,"" Zhao said in a phone interview, denying that they were motivated by government policy. Asked why the skeletons will be replaced by human bodies in the updated version of the game, Zhao said he wouldn't comment on details of the update. New York-listed The9 launched the new designs amid stricter government scrutiny of Internet content. President Hu Jintao ordered regulators in January to promote a ""healthy online culture"" to protect the government's stability, according to state media. In April, Hu was quoted in state media as urging Communist Party leaders to ""curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online. "" Though China's communist government supports Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material it considers obscene or politically subversive. The government has banned local authorities from approving new Internet cafes this year. Xinhua also reported earlier this week that the Chinese update to ""World of Warcraft,"" ""The Burning Crusade,"" is still awaiting government approval. Zhao declined comment. The report identified a second change to the current game — bones symbolizing dead characters in the game were replaced by graves. Spokesman Zhao said he wasn't aware of any changes other than the bodies for skeletons swap. Launched by Irvine, Calif. -based Blizzard Entertainment Inc. , ""World of Warcraft"" is the world's most popular online game. In China, it has more than 3. 5 million subscribers. Blizzard is a unit of French media company Vivendi SA. " """Sony Online is aware that it happens, and we do not condone it,"" said Courtney Simmons, head of public relations for EverQuest II publisher Sony Online Entertainment. ""It is against our terms of service. cheap wow gold You (cannot) give anyone else access to (your) account. "" Blizzard Entertainment, publisher of WoW, takes the same position as Sony Online. mp3 players ""Making use of a power-leveling service,"" Blizzard said in an e-mail statement Monday, ""is a violation of our account-sharing policy. This policy is discussed in World of Warcraft's terms of use, which players agree to prior to playing. "" Blizzard added that because customers paying power-leveling services give over full access to their accounts, there is no way to prove that the services perpetrated any fraud (if a customer has such a complaint) while those accounts were in use. world of warcraft gold Fraud or no fraud, if a customer wants to jump to level 70 of Burning Crusade and have a flying mount and a high riding score, but doesn't have the time to achieve such a goal, he can have someone else do it for him. Chen said Guy4Game's clients ask for all kinds of things. Some want to rise to their desired level as fast as possible. wow gold Others want steady progress, but still want to be able to play when they want. So they ask to have access to their own accounts for certain hours of the day. The rest of the time, Guy4Game is in charge. wow gold Similarly, some players demand to deal with power-leveling service representatives who speak English, or Japanese, or Korean. That's why Guy4Game has employees in those countries, Chen said. In the eyes of regular players, however, those who utilize power-leveling services aren't sticking to the spirit of the games. wow gold kaufen ""Using a service to level a character is pretty universally regarded as a 'lamer' move,"" said Eric Haller, a San Francisco investor and long-time WoW player.