It is estimated that around 100,000 players in China lost access to their favorite MMORPG World of Warcraft in January when Blizzard’s agreement with local partner NetEase expired. For many, this is a major turning point in their lives.
This is the situation:
The MMORPG had lost many “occasional players” since a change was made to the payment model in 2018: previously, the Chinese could play 4,000 minutes for the equivalent of €4 – since then they have had to pay €10 for a month. It wasn’t worth it for many Chinese, they got out.
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How do players deal with their loss? The World of Chinese site spoke to a WoW player who had been playing WoW for 15 years and had to stop abruptly.
28-year-old office worker Hu from Beijing says: “When the servers were shut down and you couldn’t even get to the login screen with all your characters, I was a bit sad at that moment.”
The man didn’t even take screenshots of the final moments. He said he didn’t want to feel that sadness when he looked at the pictures again.
The player estimates he has spent around 10,000 hours playing WoW. It all started when his cousin fell in love with WoW in 2008. But when he stopped doing that in 2010, the 28-year-old took over his account and then it really took off.
He remembers the little things more: He says that when he took a break from the game, around 2008, a friend sewed him a pink T-shirt and sent it to him via in-game mail. The player says: He kept the shirt until the servers shut down:
“Of course there’s a feeling of having lost something… so many memories and experiences.”
What are other players saying? Another player born after 2000 had only started playing WoW 5 years ago. He says:
Last night I had already saved my character through the “Digital Urns” system and made a new character to say goodbye to the world and my friends. What a pity, at that moment it felt like my youth spent in the game had come to an end.
Many Chinese blame Blizzard
How do the Chinese see it?? As the page “The World of Chinese” writes, one is angry at Blizzard and not at the state leadership. Above all, that Diablo Immortal continues, Blizzard seems to take offense.
Blizzard is believed to be willingly neglecting the PC and keen on the booming and lucrative mobile market in China.
Can’t they just keep playing somewhere else? Yes, you can. The site writes that the Chinese forums are full of tips on how to start with WoW on other servers, such as Japan or Korea. You have to set up a PayPal account, get a phone number in Hong Kong and buy “boosters” for the Internet connection.
Some Chinese take it upon themselves and then say they feel at home again on a new server.
But others write: They could not overcome the feeling of having lost everything in WoW. Then start somewhere at 0 on a foreign Asia server and find new friends there, do all the quests again – and do it all alone. That’s too much.
In any case, the 28-year-old with 10,000 hours says:
When it’s over, it’s over for me. What I cherish most are the memories WoW gave me and the friends.
There are always moving stories in gaming:
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The cover photo is a symbol photo: photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash