![]() After the shutdown, WoW’s estimated 3 million players in China found themselves barred from a game that many had played since childhood, and over 1 million players across the Activision Blizzard universe asked for a refund. Overnight, years’ worth of his efforts were brought to naught - all because of a business squabble.īlizzard’s departure from China’s gaming market marked a momentous farewell for an entire generation of Chinese gamers who had come of age playing Blizzard games such as World of Warcraft. He had spent over a decade in the Warcraft universe, leveling up his avatar Waterage, purchasing in-game skins and products, and making new friends in the Azeroth continent. A dissolved partnership meant that all of Blizzard’s games in China - including World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone - were shut down. Given the difficulty of acquiring game-publishing permits in China, foreign gaming companies usually partner with a Chinese company to enter the local market. American gaming company Activision Blizzard, the title owner of World of Warcraft, suspended services and shut down its servers in China, because of a licensing disagreement with their partner, the Chinese gaming giant NetEase. Once an after-school activity, WoW became a relaxing way to unwind at night, after Jiang had put his young daughters to bed.Īt midnight, on January 23, Jiang’s Warcraft journey came to an abrupt end. ![]() Since then, Waterage turned into a fixture of Jiang’s daily life. Spellbound by an online world of mythical creatures and epic battles, he named his avatar “Waterage” - combining his last name Jiang, which means “river” in Chinese, and the character Stormrage from the Warcraft Universe. Jiang Haoqing still remembers when he first started playing the multiplayer role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) as a high school student in 2011.
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