The9 and Blizzard launched WOW in China on June 7, 2005 and in less than one month the game exceeded 1.5 million paying players and continues to grow at an breakneck rate. Currently, out of the more than 8 million World of Warcraft players reported by Blizzard, 3.5 m are Chinese, making Blizzard’s creation the most popular online game in the South Asian country.

Because of the popularity of the game, the profit is rather considerably huge.

“The9 said it posted $66.3m in second quarter 2008 revenue, an immense 69 per cent increase from the same period last year. The lion’s share of revenue came from being the Chinese proprietor of the immensely popular online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Revenue from running subscription-based games was $60.7m — contributing over 90 per cent of the company’s earnings.”

While the wealth comes to the game company, the negative side comes to be seen gradually.

It is not long before people begin to understand the danger of the game addict, and try to educate especially the young generation to be far away from MMORPG, like World of Warcraft, but all the efforts seems in vain.

During my campus life two years ago, I had the experience to tutor a problem boy aged 16. He was shy. The first time we met, I asked him to sit down, while he preferred to stand there, with his two hands crossed upon his stomach. He was trembling and never looked into my eyes when he was speaking or rather murmuring.

He was at the third year of middle school and soon would attend the high school entering examination, which is a crucial point for Chinese young kids. He was good at school grades two years ago, but now he can hardly pass lessons like Chinese, English, Science, English etc. His elder sister complained: he is a smart kid, only too addicted to the online game, especially World of Warcraft online. He spent almost all his spare time during the past two years playing wow. When I asked him to why he stopped reading English, he simply replied he couldn’t put his mind on it. He was too indulged himself in World of Warcraft.

There was the other side of the coin. When I asked him about future, he was so resolute that he was determined to have a game career. That’s good but there will be a long way. Maybe he can find his way out. Maybe.

Not long before, there was the news that a Chinese 17 year old kid pours gasoline all over his classmate. When the reporter asked why he did it, the boy claimed he had lost himself in World of Warcraft and when he committed the crime he had transformed into a Fire Mage.
Besides under-aged players, the adults get their own problems too. Lin, Feng, Gui and Hua are colleagues. They play for weeks trying to move up 50 levels. All of them eating junk food, drinking Rockstar energy drinks to stay awake and not stopping to use the bathroom. As a result they become obese and unsociable with horrible acne and a lack of motivation while trying to defend themselves against a player who has reached the maximum level.
So is World of Warcraft all bad that people can be better off without it?
Imagine if there were no World of Warcraft this game at all, wouldn’t people create other successful “wow”?
Besides the game design, which emphasizes the time you spend rather than the skill you master, the players or the social environment are most responsible for their tragedies or whatever comes to them. And every one in the society takes his place to make how the society looks like.

The9 and Blizzard launched WOW in China on June 7, 2005 and currently, out of the more than 8 million World of Warcraft players reported by Blizzard, 3.5 m are Chinese. What are the consequences?

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