The Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) fired the first shot making a public statement ordering WoW servers to be closed down because NetEase (Chinese WoW publisher) began charging players for gametime before they had the GAPP's approval. Soon after the Chinese Ministry of Culture fired back stating WoW has been approved by them and is allowed to resume operations, while at the same time the Chinese Ministry of Culture also noted the GAPP does not have the rights to police WoW.
Why the mass confusion?
The GAPP generally approves new foreign games so they may operate in China. After they have been approved it is the job of the Chinese Ministry of Culture to police the content to make sure they meet Chinese regulatory standards.
Recently though Blizzard has changed publishers to NetEase. When NetEase filled a request to begin operations again, it gave in applications to both the GAPP and the Chinese Ministry. Technically they are a new game again since they have wiped clean all of the player's data but at the same time the game has already been approved by the GAPP in the past.
Why fight so aggresively against each other?
Whichever agency that will win this will be the clear authority over online games, a very lucritive business in China. The gaming population is growing at an impressive rate and there is a lot of money involved in every step of the approval.
Which Agency will reign supreme?
According to The New York Times the Chinese Ministry of Culture has a slight advantage with its many connections with other ministries but it is close and may go either way.
This entire situation stinks. From the start, the exchange of WoW publishers from The9 to NetEase was suspected of foul play because of a huge payout from NetEase to Blizzard. And just recently the Chinese Ministry of Culture put sanction on 188 other games for breaking regulatory standards but World of Warcraft is suspiciously missing from the list.
At this point I think most Chinese gamers just wants to play at ease, with that said most are hoping for the ministry to win.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/world/asia/07china.html?ref=asia
