while the earthquake is terrible, this takes it too far ^^

it is not only WoW, they have blocked almost anything on the net related to entertainement. Movies, online games, chatromms, almost anything besides news and online banking. If you want to browse for one of these sites, you get redirected to a official site whit only a banner reminding you of the mourning period.

while i feel strongly for the victims of these earthquakes, i also think that the internet should be free and i am honestly shocked that they can block access to such a huge variety of homepages.

I agree about the censorship being shocking but I wonder if it enrages the general populace or if they see it as respectful? Perhaps a mourning period means something different to the Chinese people than we would see it as.

It obviously does mean something else. As much as we might want it, but the world and cultures do not evolve at the same pace.

My mother still got punished by her parents for listening to the radio on All Saints day, 50 years ago when she was young.

--------------------------------

" while i feel strongly for the victims of these earthquakes" - I guess if I make a comment toward this, it will just turn this thread into another flamefest and off topic

i strongly doubt that it will enrage the general public in china. they live under quite heavy censorship all the time.

what ? what ? i tried to be as polite as possible :(

I had a brief chat with Maticus and Wuushu on it, and we basically came to this conclusion:

- It would be something odd (or perhaps "wrong" was the term?) with a person if he can't stop playing for three days when thousands of people of their own nation died recently.
- Blizzard wouldn't have done it (meaning that western companies wouldn't), perhaps a memorial silence in chat for a minute or similar traditional measurements.

Still, I didn't know about the forced censorship in this matter. I thought it was a nice initiative from The9. Apparently (well, doh!) the reality in China is a lot different from ours. I would also be interested to know what the general Chinese opinion about this behaviour is.

Edit: Well, yeah, I doubt they'll be enraged, but is this something they support or find intrusive?

The only people, who will mourn the victims, are the victims themselves. Victims of Chinese propaganda. I dare to think that Chinese goverment is somewhat thankful for this tragedy, because other countries and organisatoins such as IHF, Amnesty International will have to take it easier on China.

Yes, you were very polite :)

And Thomiek is already pouring gasoline on the fire...so I don't have to ^^

Wikipedia is worth a read to find out more about the extent of internet censorship in China wiki link.

I suspect Maticus' use of the word 'request' might be understating somewhat the choice The9 and others had in this.

i fully agree with the mourning period, im not chinese, but australian.
myself, i wouldnt mind losing the ability to play a GAME when all those other people are suffering.
a 15 year old girl had to have her legs amputated, while she was concious, in order to pull her from the rubble of her school and other classmates...
do you think they had any anaesthetic? and you're all complaining about taking away the 'right' to play video games. there is no such right written anywhere in any country's constitution.
det: "As much as we might want it, but the world and cultures do not evolve at the same pace."
who is to say which culture is more 'evolved' if you're insinuating that your culture is 'higher' than another, maybe you should take another look.

Thomiek:"The only people, who will mourn the victims, are the victims themselves. Victims of Chinese propaganda. I dare to think that Chinese goverment is somewhat thankful for this tragedy, because other countries and organisatoins such as IHF, Amnesty International will have to take it easier on China."
the chinese government started (at least) by trying to stop international aid, they wanted to be seen as able to be self supportive, that they can look after their own. albeit they tried removing themselves from the international community, to maintain their honour and pride. how dare you suggest that they are thankful for this! that is sick! they are denying aid, not welcoming the opportunity to suck up all your precious dollars...
victims of chinese propaganda? stopping people from playing WoW for 3 days is nothing to be a victim of, people are dieing.
sick, just sick that some people can focus on such things as these conspiracy theorist ulterior motive concepts...
im so ashamed of your reactions, i could nearly quit the game...

No one was doing that.

That a game needs to be shut down for people to mourn is pathetic.

It acknowledges that gaming is indeed addictive.

Maybe more of this should happen....to get people outside, in the fresh air.

/Amen!

I always tell myself: "this is just a game and don't expect too much from the gamers."

Give me a break here, will you? I used the term "evolve" which means "develop". The world evolves. You might say change. The word doesn't automatically imply that it "gets better" or has a "higher standard". And I didn't insinuate that my culture is higher. You did that, thank you ^^
Evolve is in the word evolution. Dinosaurs died out during the evolution. I think the world would be cooler with dinosaurs, so there!

You want my take on take on "i wouldnt mind losing the ability to play a GAME when all those other people are suffering" ?

600 000 people dying every year from traffic accidents
7.000 000. dying from cancer
30.000.000 dying from hunger.

Yes, that is right. 30 million dying from hunger. That is 100.000 per day. Actually more than died in the earthquake (71.000)

So just because 71.000 ppl die at once from one terrible tragedy means people need to be forced to mourn and show that by not playing a game?

You are puppets and being instrumentalised by the media. Can you only mourn the death and suffering of people on a large scale?

That girl having the legs amputated is a terrible tragedy. It is also a terrible tragedy because it is on the news and you are being made aware of it.

All around you, people die every day. People die every day in poor countries so that we can live our carefree western lifestyle. They die from pesticides so we can have our bananas and they die from dust lungs making the jewellry that you give your girlfriend for Christmas. They die from toxins making the little Mc Donald toys that you buy your kids in a Happy Meal.

It seems you do not mourn enough^^

i fail to see any connection whatsoever between some girl in china, some random stranger posting something on a forum and you playing a game. Emo much ?

dont get me wrong, it is a tragedy what is happening in china. but some reactions are a tiny bit over the top.

edit : thanks det, i wanted to post something along these lines, but i was scared it increases my bad reputation ^^but i think pretty much along the lines of what you said.

Fellwind how would you have felt if the Howard government had closed down all tv stations in Australia for 3 days following the Bali bombing? I realize you can't compare these tragedies, I am using the Bali bombing in this question as it is the most recent tragedy to hit Australia personally. It would be one thing for Kerry Packer as owner of Ch. 9 at the time to decide he would close down his station and forfeit his profits as a gesture of respect. It would be a totally different thing for the Prime Minister of the country to pressure the tv stations to do so.

The magnitude of the tragedy in China does not in any way lessen the issue of censorship. I think you are mashing these things together in a highly emotional way which makes it easy to accuse posters who critique censorship of not caring about earthquake victims when in fact no one has said any such thing.

Dear Fellwind.

I never said anyrhing about China taking any money or material goods.
I replied to Teacake's comment: "I agree about the censorship being shocking but I wonder if it enrages the general populace or if they see it as respectful? Perhaps a mourning period means something different to the Chinese people than we would see it as."

I meant that all the recent critisism regarding Tibet crisis is going to ease off.

---------


"stopping people from playing WoW for 3 days is nothing to be a victim of, people are dieing." Well, I agree. Tell me though, did I really say it?

Are you sure you don't work for the Chinese government? From an article in 2005:

Source

/bow

I for one do not think you have a bad reputation. I was always hoping that snowieken got his idea of the forum awards into action. And here it would be you and Shellar who get my votes ;)

well thanks for the flowers :) but i think quite a few people here see me as a flaming troll, as in the thread about DnT disbanding, which sadly even had to be closed down. I try to stay calm but sometmes it just wont work ^^

and yes, shellar would be a top candidate for these awards. i hope snow will get them rolling someday.

I must be a stealth gov't employee, since even I don't know about it....

What I said has nothing to do with chinese anything, though. It applies to people, and the addictive nature of games such as WOW.

LoL felwind, we make you sick? People are dying HORRIBLY everyday, why don't you just sit at home and meditate all day long to quell your conscience. Why is it so much more "terrible" of a tragedy where 12000ppl die when more then that die each and everyday. and yet THIS, THIS is the one thing we all have to stop playing video games about.

Forced silience meands nothing. A user can only be restrained, it won't make them mourn to any greater or any lesser degree. To mourn out of respect from free will, to choose not to do such things rather than being simply unable to do them, that is something respectful. I do not think that World War veterans want to be 'remembered' in any other way but people electing to do so, at an appointed time or otherwise. If people take those events seriously they will mourn, no amount of restriction is going to affect that, other than illusionary effects with no substance.

There are two separate debates being discussed here, and confused with each other.

1. The question of Chinese censorship of the internet in general.
2. This particular action by the Chinese censors.

IMHO the first is a much, much bigger deal than the second.

if you only meant in relation to tibet, then i can forgive you for that.
and of course i know about all the other deaths.
the howard government couldnt have shut down games for 3 days after the bali bombings, even for mourning the australian people dieing, not the actual incident itself. how many australians died? now how many indonesians died? and how many chinese have died in 1 event? yes they make up 1/6th or whatever of the worlds population, still people.

i was mainly shocked at the disrespect shown by the previous posters, ignoring the deaths and focusing on a 3 day ban on a game...

oh by the way, 12000 dead?
really? china? a country in the billions? a city the size of perth being built every month? 2 coal fire power stations a week?
i highly doubt 12000 died, thats probably either a 'release' by their govt, or an extremel estimate of what has been counted so far.
and deshezzdi, there are many things that should stop you from playing pc games, friends, family, education, work, other commitments. why is it such a crime to stop playing games in respect for those that have died.

there are many more unneccessary deaths occuring each day, starvation, poverty etc. we cant (and shouldnt) mourn them over a 3 day period or similar, because doing so then suggests that we can ignore them for the other 362/3 days of the year.
people not being able to play wow isnt making them mourn, but when they cant access the game, they still think of why, and yes, maybe they WILL think its all the stupid govt, but they will without a doubt think of those people who lost their lives, and chances are will never be remembered in any other way...


in short (i do apologise for the wall of text) it was the ignoring of the deaths and focus on just the ban that incensed me enough earlier for me to post in order to vent my spleen...

huh? Are you saying that the game operator was COMPELLED to shut it down?

I do not read it that way.

But, certainly censorship appears in different forms all over the globe. It is just easier to see in China.

In the US, the press controls the messages people see. It is just less evident.

I would put money on this being the case.

sure. and not only the game operator, the internet providers aswell. that s what i meant in my initial post, pretty much all of the internet is unusable for 3 days. I dont worry about these 3 days, but the amount of control the gouvernement has is scray.

But, that is hypothesis, until backed up by facts....

Sure, it is possible, even likely, but part of our leaning is affected by our own incomplete understanding of things that happen in China.

Agreed Mesonm - you might find this interesting: http://shanghaiist.com/2008/05/19/online_implicat.php which seems to confirm the "compelled" sentiment.

2. All websites are to stop all entertainment activities and services for three days. From May 19 00:00 to May 21 24:00, all gaming websites and gaming channels of major portals are to shut down; Cover all entertainment channels on websites and programmes with a message of mourning, and none of the other pages within these channels should be accessible; All entertainment BBS's are to be shut; All music and video search functions at search engine portals to be shut; All entertainment advertisements should be offline.

quote from that webpage.

the underlined part... now check just for a example wow china : http://www.wowchina.com/ i cant read chinese but there are no links to any further pages etc. scary.

big brother is watching you.

I didn't ask you if the Howard government could shut down games. I asked you how you would feel if they did shut down games (or tv stations). Would you applaud them for their respect for the dead or be horrified at their control over information?

That's where your emotionalism is hampering your ability to discuss. "3 day ban on a game" sounds like a small thing, but that's not what's going on. Government control and censorship, forced, is what is going on. I think you would find it easier to read the criticisms of that if the posters prefaced their anti-censorship comments with long emotional vents about the tragedy. But people can discuss each of these issues separately and as I said before the magnitude of the tragedy does not make the censorship a less bad thing.

Concerning the Tibet subject: I am quite that if you take the disaster in relation to the Tibet “problem” it does come in handy. I may sound harsh but it does take the pressure of the subject. Everything has (at least) two sides and the same goes for something as terrible as this earthquake. I think the saying goes: One man's meat is another man’s poison.

As for the actual subject of this article: I think this ban on all entertainment sounds a bit idealistic. Apart from the (ab)use of power it looks like a lesson they want their people to learn/remember. If this actually has such an effect I cannot say because I lack knowledge in managing a communist state ^^.

Is it something that only happens in communist states like china? To start with the second question: No. If you look more closely you’ll probably be able to see that almost every (if not every) country in the world enforces somewhat similar things on their people.

Is it a good thing to force a people into something like this? Well if I take a look at the other side off things I can say that it’s not really all that bad: it doesn’t really do any harm and doesn’t really change anything in the current balance off power. Personally I am very much against this level of governmental involvement and I very much value our basic rights such as the freedom of speech. Still from all the strange things they have done in recent years this is one of the few I can respect (the idea of a mourning period, not the forceful and very intrusive way in which it is executed).

My conclusion: If we are to worry about these issues I think there are way more serious matters that need our attention first.

Call my cynical but I do not believe that China essentially locking the internet down in their region of the world has even the slightest to do with mourning. While I realize it is hard for many of gamers to believe, the internet is more then just a vehicle for entertainment. It is a powerful source of communication. If you really want to give people the chance to mourn then shutting down this power source of communication does just the opposite. If someone is mourning they need a chance to talk to others share their experience. Family members and relatives who live outside of China would probably really appreciate this form of communication.

The only reason I can see to shut down a huge source of communication is not to mourn but to hide. So I guess really, the question is - what are they hiding?

What you're missing is the fact that china has the internet "locked down" to one degree or another all the time. The only difference here is that they've decided to ban online entertainment for a period.
If they want to hide stuff they have no need to do this, they can just (try to) hide it.

[tinfoil hat]

Note how the earthquake coincided with AoC's release! It fits... it all fits...

[/tinfoil hat]

This is a funny picture about it on Korean Times:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...195_24584.html

Speaks volumes!

Also, There are big news on StarCraft there:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2008/05/133_24407.html

so much for trusting links of blue posters on this forum. evil evil leord.

To the people saying that its wrong for people to want to play video games at this time, some people use video games to express their emotions and/or escape from reality. Some people can mourn playing video games, others can mourn by sitting in their living room. It's all personal and for China to take that away from people is just wrong.

I'm glad I don't live in China. I enjoy my freedom as a human being to do so with as I please. The servers for those sites that were being shutdown are located in China so China can do with them as they please. Its not so much as that they can control internet as they can control the providers in their country.