What is it with China?

[kingriku]

I'm British and I hate tea.

But im sure plenty enjoy it there.

[Deleted]

But im sure plenty enjoy it there.

Moot point. It was still a stereotype and racist.

[Pann]

A prepaid time card costs about 30 RMB in China, it lasts for about 4000 minutes, or a little more than 2 days. If you extend it to a month then it's about close to 300 RMB, which is about 48 dollars. But then you say it's less per subscription. Why?

It is not to do with how much they pay as it is paid to Netease not Blizzard when Blizzard announce their results it is the amount they receive in payment from Netease for licensing WOW that is important. Oversimplifying the figures the income for Blizzard is around the $2 mark (I can't remember the exact amount) opposed to an income of roughly $15 per Western account plus value added services.

[corebit]

It is not to do with how much they pay as it is paid to Netease not Blizzard when Blizzard announce their results it is the amount they receive in payment from Netease for licensing WOW that is important. Oversimplifying the figures the income for Blizzard is around the $2 mark (I can't remember the exact amount) opposed to an income of roughly $15 per Western account plus value added services.

I know Blizzard gets the payment from royalties, but how did you figure that $2 amount? I'm curious. WoW is NetEase's most profitable game by far. Most of NetEase's games are pretty crappy F2P MMOs, as a result I don't think Blizzard would let it get away with such slim royalty figures.

To answer the OP's question about the drop in sub number, it's simply declining everywhere and in China's case, the numbers are simply a bit bigger. It has nothing to do with MOP really (other than the expansion getting old and losing its freshness) China's sub numbers tend to fluctuate more than their Western counterparts because there is no option for recurring monthly subscription, just time cards. And because of their massive population, where 300K may be a huge number for the US, but not much considering the Chinese population.

[Sam the Wiser]

I sure wish I could pay for wow by the minute.

[Deleted]

A prepaid time card costs about 30 RMB in China, it lasts for about 4000 minutes, or a little more than 2 days. If you extend it to a month then it's about close to 300 RMB, which is about 48 dollars. But then you say it's less per subscription. Why?

More or less yes, it's actually pay per minute. There are only time cards available for purchase which you charge up to your battle.net account.

if those cards are like that and there is an absence of a long term subscription contract like they have over here I can certainly see accounts more likely expire.

Over here the subscriptions keep ticking away without us doing anything or even noticing. How many accounts would expire if we could only pay by making an effort and buying pre-paid cards?

[Deleted]

WOW China has more accounts than NA/EU so both could suffer the same percentage loss but China would lose more accounts. Plus a Western account brings in roughly eight times more money than a Chinese one so Blizzard will always be keen to let investors know the losses are in the less lucrative market. Also I would not too much weight on the statement on the front page as it can mean so many possible outcomes; it could mean that 399k of the 400K accounts were lost in China, 201k were Chinese and 199k were Western subs or it could even mean that overall WOW gained 1 million subs and then lost 900k in China and 500k in the West and would still be factually accurate.

This pretty much explains how. As for the why? Of course because a loss of 100.000, 400.000 or 600.000 is much easier to stomach and get over for a Western player if he believes it did not affect his own gameplay that much. We still got more than 9 Million left, correct?! And most of the losses where Chinese anyway, correct?! They don't even play on our server, correct?!

Contrary to, say, up to 199.999 Western player lost out of already less than 5 Million Western. Or say, up to 4-5% of the Western player base gone. Makes a whole different tune.

It's called marketing.

But OP must have suffered from selective perception, because they never mentioned a greater loss of Eastern player much more than 3 times in WoW history for +30 reports.
I suspect it is due to the fact they never report when the Western loss is greater and many player picking up the "more losses from China" line and bring it up them self even when it wasn't announced. On the other hand Blizzard nor player ever explicitly emphasize, when the latest peak or rise in subs was primary or only due to Chinese or Eastern player growth.

[ghotihook]

It is not to do with how much they pay as it is paid to Netease not Blizzard when Blizzard announce their results it is the amount they receive in payment from Netease for licensing WOW that is important. Oversimplifying the figures the income for Blizzard is around the $2 mark (I can't remember the exact amount) opposed to an income of roughly $15 per Western account plus value added services.

4000 mins = 66 hours. And you're saying they pay 300 rmb which would be 660 hours?
I really doubt any Chinese playing wow for 22 hours a day.

[willtron]

I'm British and I hate tea.

prepare to be lynch mobbed. Get him lads.

[corebit]

4000 mins = 66 hours. And you're saying they pay 300 rmb which would be 660 hours?
I really doubt any Chinese playing wow for 22 hours a day.

He's not saying that, he's simply saying that even though it is more expensive for the Chinese player to play WoW monthly, the profits go to NetEase first, and then Blizzard gets a share of that through royalties. How much of the share is that we don't know.

[iggie]

So on the front page it says that most of the 300k subs lost in the last quarter were in China.

It feels like every time that a new quarter comes around, Chinese subs are the ones that drop the most. I find it interesting. Why is this?

As someone who plays on Chinese servers, I can see why. Many players are unable to play every day, and only have time at internet cafes. The content is trash (and has been since cata) and dailies are annoying as hell. Pug groups? Forget about it. The "novelty" of an Asian themed expansion is lost in China as well. I use an English client, but it's really obvious to me the names/terms/decor is dumb.

Also I forgot to mention in my first post that as in China players do not pay for the game or expansions it is much easier for them to leave and pick up a new game, whereas a Western sub might give the game more chances and end up playing for longer as they had spent so much on buying the game.

This is true. Having no subs/freebie expansions takes a lot of pressure off when quitting. We're pay as you go (in telephone terms) while you're stuck on a contract.

[Mawnix]

Might be due to the fact that WoW isnt as challenging as other asian mmo's. Could be a whole host of things, but ide place my chips on that one.

Why exactly do the Chinese and Koreans go so hard when it comes to gaming?

It's kind of frightening.

[corebit]

As someone who plays on Chinese servers, I can see why. Many players are unable to play every day, and only have time at internet cafes. The content is trash (and has been since cata) and dailies are annoying as hell. Pug groups? Forget about it.

And our resident China-expert has appeared.

[Buu]

Just a wild guess, but China has passed harsh new restrictions on Internet cafes, banning minors and demanding operators register users and keep records of what information they access on line in November.

Oh, and MoP launched in China on October 2nd.

I guess the government is good on industry money. Once they need taxing on other things, subs will rise again.

[Djuntas]

I sure wish I could pay for wow by the minute.

That, would be lovely.

[iggie]

I guess the government is good on industry money. Once they need taxing on other things, subs will rise again.

The reason WoW had trouble with China was a matter of power. It was China flexing it's authority. The model changes were very, very minimal. The government just wanted who they desire in control of distribution. Anything in mandarin needs regulation.

And our resident China-expert has appeared.

I've also played on Taiwan.

[BenBos]

The reason WoW had trouble with China was a matter of power. It was China flexing it's authority. The model changes were very, very minimal. The government just wanted who they desire in control of distribution. Anything in mandarin needs regulation.

I've also played on Taiwan.

This is one factor yes.

Other factors are that it is just terrible to sell ANYTHING from a western company in China. EVERY western company needs to have a Chinese partner or you simply do not enter the country. This protectionism leads to very hard regulations and of course the Chinese governement promotes in land copies of MMO s (or any product really).

By changing a partner 3 years ago WoW was put on hold by the Chinese governement. For more than 4 months the WoW servers were simply closed.

WoW never recovered from this closure in China.

Several Chinese servers were merged, the situation was quite dramatic back then

Another reason is the fact a WESTERN company made a CHINESE theme in their MMO. That was not really good marketing,

Do you want to see cowboy films in German, filmed in France and then launch them in the US with he hope of getting blockbusters?

[iggie]

This is one factor yes.

Other factors are that it is just terrible to sell ANYTHING from a western company in China. EVERY western company needs to have a Chinese partner or you simply do not enter the country. This protectionism leads to very hard regulations and of course the Chinese governement promotes in land copies of MMO s (or any product really).

By changing a partner 3 years ago WoW was put on hold by the Chinese governement. For more than 4 months the WoW servers were simply closed.

WoW never recovered from this closure in China.

Several Chinese servers were merged, the situation was quite dramatic back then

Another reason is the fact a WESTERN company made a CHINESE theme in their MMO. That was not really good marketing,

Do you want to see cowboy films in German, filmed in France and then launch them in the US with he hope of getting blockbusters?

If you read my first post, I mentioned the point about the Asian theme being a bad move. What you don't know is a large portion of the CWoW player base migrated to Taiwanese realms during the delay of wotlk. Believe me, the government hates all games. What they love is control. Unregulated companies = lack of control. This is only for servers located inside of China and or in mandarin. Kind of like why Chinese image boards get blocked quickly, while 4chan is still accessible.

[Exorte]

Do you want to see cowboy films in German, filmed in France and then launch them in the US with he hope of getting blockbusters?

Funny you said that...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_Western
There is a reason Spaghetti western is called Spaghetti western.
It was made by mainly Italian or other Europe countries.

[Buu]

The reason WoW had trouble with China was a matter of power. It was China flexing it's authority. The model changes were very, very minimal. The government just wanted who they desire in control of distribution. Anything in mandarin needs regulation.

But since Hong Kong came back to them, money is playing a great deal on the power hunger. I can't see a reason for them to take back those regulations for now, but if anything comes up I'm sure the rise on subs will be as swift as the drop.