Curse

Lawnmower · Dec 14, 2006, 09:43 PM // 21:43

??? Do you think it will be able to make an impact, and sell some serious amounts of copies?

Knightsaber Sith · Dec 15, 2006, 01:43 AM // 01:43

I think it'll sell atleast a reasonable amount. I don't really see what it might impact though...

lyra_song · Dec 15, 2006, 01:44 AM // 01:44

:|

i sense a disturbance in the force

icedragon981 · Dec 15, 2006, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Well, I've heard that the chinese servers will be completly instanced away from all the others (I.E. American, European) so I'm not sure if it'll have much of an impact...

Tachyon · Dec 15, 2006, 01:57 AM // 01:57

They'll probably sell 1000 copies and all the rest will be pirated knock-offs! Just like all the other digital media in China.

lyra_song · Dec 15, 2006, 02:01 AM // 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

They'll probably sell 1000 copies and all the rest will be pirated knock-offs! Just like all the other digital media in China.

you cant pirate GW keys :P

Tachyon · Dec 15, 2006, 02:06 AM // 02:06

Very true, but I don't think the pirates will care about the keys. As long as they can flog copies of the software they'll be more than happy.

Anarkii · Dec 15, 2006, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

Very true, but I don't think the pirates will care about the keys. As long as they can flog copies of the software they'll be more than happy.

The entire 'copy' is freely downloadable from the GW site anyway. The key is the only thing that's charged for.

But anyway, more customers=more money for ANet...always good.

Cataclysm · Dec 15, 2006, 03:22 AM // 03:22

China's gov't is making it be seperate from eveyone else, so they don't get their good communist minds contaminated by us evil capitalist pig-dogs. I dont think anyone's going to notice a difference unless you own stock in ANet (Or NCsoft or whoever)

MMSDome · Dec 15, 2006, 03:47 AM // 03:47

if China does i hope that they combine all the asian countries to fight for favor together, they still have their own districts but they fight for favor as Asia. Even though im American and we dont get favor as it is i would like to see another dominant group of people fighting for halls rather then just America and Europe, i mean they never get favor at all!

Poison Ivy · Dec 15, 2006, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Well this is China, and China has alot of kids, which 50% of them spend their childhood playing video games behind their parent's back, while the parents are thinking their studing hard at school like their suppose to.

I asked my school around about this game, seems like everyone is very excited about it, and can't wait.

But my guess is Asia will domionate the game entirely, Chinese are no different from the Koreans, except their are more of us than them...alot more Chinese than Koreans, unless Anet seperates Asia somehow from GW, Asia will have the favor almost 24/7 after a few months of release.

Although I am worried about Icedragon's claim, I wanna do high end no lag GvG with my school mates

Tachyon · Dec 15, 2006, 04:21 AM // 04:21

Yeah, I also think that you Chinese players will have to suffer seperate servers. If your government thinks that Google should be censored then what chance do you have of playing alongside us free thinking Westerners in a game that allows us to say what we want when we want?

Don't get me wrong, I love China and the Chinese people. Many times I've had to go over there for work and have recieved nothing short of perfect hospitality, but your government seriously "sucks the big one" as they say.

Angel Netherborn · Dec 15, 2006, 05:23 AM // 05:23

No government's perfect. You just don't like the curb on the freedom of speech and expression. There's no need to go and slam the whole of it.

Seeing the dropdown on the login screen though, it's very likely that China, and possibly other countries as well, will be instanced elsewhere.

Qual · Dec 15, 2006, 05:51 AM // 05:51

Nahh... The Chinese government does sucks. Noting to discuss there.

ogami_ito · Dec 15, 2006, 06:51 AM // 06:51

The more you bring up politics, the more chance this thread will be locked. threads with "China" in the name always get locked in this forum.

Also, Europe and North America are already instanced in different territories. China will have its own territory...and that is probably what that drop-down menu is about.

Why do you assume that Chinese people will not be allowed to join in international districts? What's the point? And for example...Chinese people play Diablo 2 and can join any regional server. Chinese people can install any game and play with people all over the world. Chinese people can install American Wow and play that (although the lag sucks). And install any messenger program and chat with people from anywhere.

Big_Iron · Dec 15, 2006, 11:09 AM // 11:09

From the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6173293.stm

Quote:

China is enforcing more monitoring of online games after some were found to contain banned religious or political material, a state news agency reported.

The announcement adds to government controls on Chinese newspapers, television and other media.

China has more than 23 million online gamers, generating revenues of more than $850m (£440m) a year.

Distributors must now obtain approval before releasing new games, reported Xinhua news agency.

Companies must also submit monthly monitoring reports, confirming developers have not added forbidden content.

The latest round of enforcement was prompted by "a rash of problems with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes", Xinhua said.

It said some were criticised as pornographic or too violent.

Chinese officials said distributors concealed the content of the games when applying for approval, and operators sometimes upgraded games with improper content, Xinhua reported.

Yarly · Dec 15, 2006, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Its not going to make much of an impact on anything, thousands of chinese players all around the country play guild wars already, Its just going to get its own server thats all, but id doubt many of the existing players will switch to this server. Most will prefer to reside on either the US or EU servers.

Poison Ivy · Dec 15, 2006, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azagoth

Yeah, I also think that you Chinese players will have to suffer seperate servers. If your government thinks that Google should be censored then what chance do you have of playing alongside us free thinking Westerners in a game that allows us to say what we want when we want?

Don't get me wrong, I love China and the Chinese people. Many times I've had to go over there for work and have recieved nothing short of perfect hospitality, but your government seriously "sucks the big one" as they say.

The result of giving too much power to too little people, indeed.

Thank god I'm moving to Canada soon /cheer.

I'm afraid Yarly might've hit more though, giving all the reality facts, Chinese servers are going to be completely seperated from GW.

Also, the existing Chinese players, a huge amount of them are eBay gold farmers, the rest can't take the game too seriously since the lag here...is just ridiculous.

Which is a good thing, in a way, since most Chinese players I've met in the game make me ashamed of being Chinese, moving to Canada...oh yeah.

Thallandor · Dec 15, 2006, 07:00 PM // 19:00

I wonder if they will have the same sales model as tawian:

Limited Buy game and play for free online (like the rest of us here) and the widely advestised pay to play monthly model (subscription and timecards).

From some other discussions in the past, it seems China may have their own servers and districts and remain Isolated from the rest of the regional servers, ie no international District/HoH encounter which is brewing some discontentment and possible boycott. The info was shared by another forumer who reads Chinese game forums for GW. Hes banned so i suppose he wont be able to comment.

Edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ogami_ito

Why do you assume that Chinese people will not be allowed to join in international districts? What's the point? And for example...Chinese people play Diablo 2 and can join any regional server. Chinese people can install any game and play with people all over the world. Chinese people can install American Wow and play that (although the lag sucks). And install any messenger program and chat with people from anywhere.

You raise an interesting point. Though the Iron Fist is strong, there is a limit on how far it can reach through censorship of the internet with some content providers located offshore without removing internet access to the public altogether. Hence with this in mind it can only do its best to impose those limitations and censorship as part of the public policies implementation when considering distribution of media for mass consumption.

Meaning to say someone in China can still buy/order copies of the US/EU GW (keys) through the internet or the online store and play with the rest of the free world. But keep in mind not everyone would prefer this option which infact may be a minority. Advertising and retail still plays a big role to influence the market in China where the masses gets introduced to the game through traditional media and plays it with their friends. Not forgetting some players may actually prefer to play within their own communities. Traditionally, other than gold sweatshop farmers, the common Chinese(Nationals from China) player seldom join or interact with western communities often prefering their own and hence justifying their own servers due to the projected market size. Which in this case, Anet wants a piece of the MMO cake in the market share which is mainly still dominated by...yes you guessed it, WoW and other free to play online games.

As i probably mentioned in many other similar threads to this one, my prediction will be that GW will sell well from the hype and make good initial box sales but would not be successful in the long term since the gameplay as it is currently may not capture the attention/appreciation of the Chinese/Asian gaming mentality.

coldplay · Dec 15, 2006, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poison Ivy

Which is a good thing, in a way, since most Chinese players I've met in the game make me ashamed of being Chinese, moving to Canada...oh yeah.

Moving to Canada doesnt change you are Chinese , wtf so "yeah" about, if you can be ashamed of being Chinese by little crappy game things like that, I think you will always stay in ashame for who you are, azzhole. Nothing would make me ashamed of being Chinese, even azzholes like you. Chinese government is only in its 50s, it does much better job than most western governments when they were in their 50s.