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A world of trouble

Chris Taylor

The War of Internet Addiction is full of references to problems facing online gamers on the mainland. According to mainland laws, United States game developer Blizzard needs a local partner to run World of Warcraft in China.

Its original partner was The9. But in May last year the contract expired and Blizzard gave it to NetEase.

During the changeover, WoW was unavailable for mainland gamers from June 7 to July 31, which forced them to flock to the Taiwan server, causing slowdowns.

More problems arose in November when the General Administration of Press and Publication told NetEase to stop operating WoW because of regulatory violations. Enter the Ministry of Culture, which ruled that NetEase could operate the game.

As the two government agencies fought over who had jurisdiction, NetEase continued to offer the game.

There has been talk of punishment for the company for illegally running its servers during the dispute.

Meanwhile, with some academics labelling internet addiction a 'mental illness' and deaths occurring in addiction treatment camps, online gaming last year raked in nearly 26 billion yuan (HK$29.6 billion).

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