Skellingtons in Heavensward

[JimboTCB]

wait im confused why dont china like skeleton mobs exactly?? O.O

Because they're 2spooky

You should have seen WOW when Wrath of the Lich King came out... seeing an almost entirely skeleton-themed expansion de-skellified for the Chinese market was "interesting". Really, it's more about preemptive over-caution, because the only thing worse than having to censor the hell out of your game before release is releasing it, then having to pull it and make changes post-launch because you didn't censor it enough.

[Lusavari]

In some more amusing statements, there are parts of China there it is illegal to die due to premium grave space, or local officials fearing higher ups if they exceed their yearly death quota. You'll also find Chinese laws are intentionally vague so that officials can make a law that sounds like its for the good of the people, but often there's something more sinister involved. The best example is the 2013 500 rule. If you post something on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) that they deem to be a "Malicious rumor" and it receives either 500 shares or 5000 views, you are subject to a prison sentence. And if you think they're not watching everyone.... There are a LOT of recent college graduates who can't find jobs in China due to a low job market, and the only job they can find is as a low paid internet censor in which they're expected to process about... If I recall correctly... 600 posts an hour? An automated system flags stuff, and then a censor reviews it and takes an action... They're usually allotted 10 seconds per post.

[Lusavari]

Jimbo has the right of it. There's a lot of pre-emptive censoring for the market (they essentially have a different game). Movies are changed for Chinese markets all the time. World War Z is a prime example of this between the movie and the book.

[Spawnie]

ooo honestly never even knew things like that were even happening in games :P learn somethin new everyday lol thnks everybody xD

[Riardon]

[Nalien]

The game in China is separated from our version, so it won't affect our game, the skeletons will be censored in the China version only, replaced with zombie I guess.

I suggest you look at Amon. In the art book they even basically comment that they had to use cloth for his mask rather than bone because of the Chinese version. Just because there are two separate clients doesn't mean they're going to double their workload. Kind of irritating really, considering the China client gets some nice unique things...

[Voltron_HD]

Communism.

[GenJoe]

Communism.

Awww throwing out the commy card in 21st century.. Because it can all be explained with just one word.

[LineageRazor]

I'm pretty sure I understand what Brannigan is worried about, and it IS a valid concern. Creating a model takes time and effort. Now that the game is out in China, you know that any creepy dead model you make, you WILL have to put in the extra work to make a second model for the Chinese version. If you want to save time and money, then, the obvious solution is to NEVER make a creepy dead model ever again. Always stick to creatures that would be acceptable both in China and elsewhere, and you'll no longer have to worry about duplicated work.

By the same token, suppose SE's coming up with ideas for a new expansion. Let's assume they have this great idea for an expansion focusing on Undead in the same way that Heavensward focuses on Dragons - but, whuh-oh, CHINA! An expansion like that would likely be banned outright there! How about we focus on this other expansion idea instead...

Truthfully, I think this is making mountains out of molehills. It probably isn't that difficult or expensive to slap some bandages on a product to make it acceptable in the Chinese market. I can understand the OP's concern, though. It does seem logical to assume that now that China is a customer, SE might take steps in the future to ensure that products they create would be acceptable both there and elsewhere!

[Mahri]

Just replace every skeleton with Edda's Ghost.

greatest enemy of mankind.

too spooked

shivers sent up their spines

I like the cut of your jib, son.