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Blizzard replaces corpses with bags of sand...

Blizzard replaces corpses with bags of sand...
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Blizzard replaces corpses with bags of sand in Chinese World of Warcraft
Aug. 10, 2009 (9:50 am) By: John Brownlee


Most games undergo some sort of localization for foreign markets. The removal of a culturally offensive symbol here, or the addition of a sympathetic one there. Translations change metaphors and idioms. And local versions usually try to take the mores of its culture into consideration while retaining the core experience globally.

Even the world’s biggest game, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, isn’t truly universal for some modifications, but the latest localization change is rather bizarre. In China, where World of Warcraft subscribers number in the millions, the tell-tale pile of bones of an old player corpse are being changed… to bags of sand.

The culprit is a wide-spread Chinese news report from a year ago that showed that a local advertisement at one of Shanghai’s subway stations scared small children. The ad showed the zombified Undead race from World of Warcraft in public places. The controversy was used to spark a discussion for the need of a Chinese organization managing the explicit classification for games and their advertisement.

Since Blizzard can’t just remove the Undead as a race from the game, they’ve taken the odd step of removing all other skeletons. Now, when a play is killed, their corpse will turn into a harmless bag of sand. There’s a history of this in RPGs, of course: the “bag of loot” left behind a dead comrade. But it still seems strange that Blizzard would censor out all of the skeletons in China’s version of World of Warcraft with the exception of the ones that inspired all the public relations trouble.


Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/blizzard-replaces-corpses-with-bags-of-sand-in-chinese-world-of-warcraft-20090810/


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"You navigate like a blind chick." -Locklear
www.twitter.com/peligrie
"You know how when you grab a woman's breast... it feels like... a bag of sand..."


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^ Who are you quoting?


--
"If we ever get a dog and cat, they should be named "Come-on" and "Goddammit", so that when you yell "Come on, Goddammit!" you'll be surrounded by their love." -Locklear (paraphrased)

"You navigate like a blind chick." -Locklear
www.twitter.com/peligrie


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