China's 'Warcraft' Cuts Skeletons

[Ian David]

HONG KONG (AP) -- The operators of "World of Warcraft" in China have replaced skeletons with healthy human bodies in the local version of the popular monster-killing online game, a spokesman said Friday, amid a recent government campaign to clean up Internet content.

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President Hu Jintao ordered regulators in January to promote a "healthy online culture" to protect the government's stability, according to state media. In April, Hu was quoted in state media as urging Communist Party leaders to "curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online."

Though China's communist government supports Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material it considers obscene or politically subversive.

<snip>

The report identified a second change to the current game - bones symbolizing dead characters in the game were replaced by graves. Spokesman Zhao said he wasn't aware of any changes other than the bodies for skeletons swap.

More:
http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_WARCRAFTS_SKELETONS?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Greeby]

1. As someone who's been playing and been into the storyline since

Warcraft III, I gotta say :wtf:

[Ian David]

2. All Your Avatars Are Belong To Us. n/t