faq

I live in China, and I have decided to play World of Warcraft there. What do I need to know about the Chinese version?

魔兽世界 is different from World of Wacraft. First, monthly fees do not exist. A reload account has been settled instead, and the price to pay is 30RMB/66 hours (about 3€ or 4US$). This system is ideal for casual players, contrary to the monthly fee system which encourages hard-core gamers.

You can pay with a reload card, that you can find in every kiosks in China. You can also pay through a Chinese bank account. Be careful if you choose this second option, as Chinese bank accounts do not necessarily offer you to credit cards or online payment. The reload card is the most convenient way to reload your account, and is worth 30RMB.

To create an account, You have to register to the website The9. You will need a Chinese ID number. You cannot play under 19 years old.

During the registration, you will have to choose between different areas according to where you live:
- Shanghai 1, Guangdong 4
- Beijing 2, Beijing 6, North provinces 9
- Sichuan 3, Sichuan 7
- Shanghai 5, area 8...
Choose carefully because you will not be able to change it, except if you buy another CD key (you don't need to create a new account).

You will not find any CD key with the game if you buy it. The CD key is furnished by the reload card. So, even if you prefer to pay by bank account, you will still need to buy a card.

The game costs 29RMB, and can be found cheaper if you absolutely don't want to spend money for the CDs. You can also download it at the official website for free.

Like the US/EU version, you can have a 10 days trial.

The game content is almost the same, except for a few events and items (Chinese New Year, special pets...).

Is migration possible from a US/EU version to the Chinese version, or in between the Chinese servers?

No migration from the US/EU servers is available for 魔兽世界, unfortunately.
Migrations have happened intra servers, but for technical reasons like creation of new servers. In cases like this one, no players can create characters on these servers until the migration is over. But punctual migration does not exist yet.

How to create an account at 魔兽世界?

1st, for those who can't (or don't want) to buy the game which is only 30 kuais (you skinflints), you will have to download it.
For the English version... well, a friend, a store or a donkey can help you....

• Download the Chinese version of the game

for the Chinese one, go to http://www.wowchina.com/
The website changes often but basically, the main page is the download page for patches and the full version.

When you find a size of 8Gigas and more written somewhere, it's where the full version is.

You just have to choose a link to download it (BT is for Bittorent, the rest are full download mirrors links).

• Create an account

While you're downloading or installing the game, you can subscribe at http://www.wowchina.com/support/register.shtml
take the 2d step to create an account, the 1st is for those who already have an account (we'll see this part here: http://wow-in-chinese.forum2jeux.com/general-f1/reload-a-chinese-account-t5.htm ).
You'll have to register at the website THE9 (9 cities).

1 : account name between 6 and 10 letters or numbers
2 : password between 6 and 10 letters AND numbers
3 : password again
4 : real first and last name. well, it is time to find you a cute Chinese name...Yes, you have to write it in Chinese, otherwise it won't work.
5 : ahah !!! ID number. 18 numbers to enter. You can't be under 18 years old to play. My advise, find a Chinese friend to give you his/her card number.
The first 6 digits = the district or county where the cardholder registers, the 7th to 14th = birth date.
the 15th to 17th digits = the sequence number for people born on the same day who apply for the card in the same district or county, with odd numbers for males and even numbers for females.
The last digit is a number obtained after calculating the first 17 digits through a formula, with X representing 10.

go to this age for more detailed info (not the solution to get an idea card):
http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2005/04/19/chinese-id-cards

6 : Email to choose
7 : rewrite the picture on the right

• Choose your game

here is what you should get: "you haven't chosen your game yet."

Choose WoW by clicking on the WoW image...

• Choose your group of realms

Next step is very important, it is the region realm where you will be.

The account you see above has registered to the 2 first groups of realms and can register to the 2 next groups.

Groups of realms:
- Shanghai 上海 1, Guangdong 广东4 and soon area 区 10
- Beijing 北京 2, Beijing 北京 6, North provinces 北方 9
- Sichuan 四川 3, Sichuan 四川 7
- Shanghai 上海 5, area 区 8

DO NOT MAKE MISTAKE HERE! Once you have chosen a group of realms, you will need another card to change.

• Get your CD Key

- 1st, you must have a reload card. You can find it in the many newspaper kiosks all over the cities (2 at Zhongguangcun for instance). Once there you can ask them a moshoushijie ka （魔兽世界卡）. 30 kuais each.
- 2d, you have to click on the right of the blank CD key input space, it will lead you to a submenu that will give your CD key after entering the hidden number of your reload card. Once you have your CD key, go back to the previous screen, enter the CD Key and the other information required, and then JOIN US IN GAME (after registering you have 20 hours free)."

Accept…

For the rest, it's just accepting everything.
If you understand Chinese, you can manage your account a bit more in deepth on THE9 website. It's not really complicated...

How to reload an account at 魔兽世界?

• Buy a reload card

Go to the place where you bought your first WoW card that you used to get your CD key.

• Sign in

Go to this page to sign in your account:

• Reload your account

- choose the payment method: normal card, bank, cybercafe, bank again and another card. The method to reload here is only done with a normal card that you can find in kiosks.

- you will surely be asked to sign in if it's not done yet. Enter pseudo, password and repeat the picture you will see.
(first choice top left. Second link).

- write the security code on the picture first, then the digits that you find on the back of your reload card, after having scratched the grey parts.

- choose the realm you want to reload in. (IMAGE NOT UPDATED, but still useful to show you as it might be quite similar to what should exist now)

Then again, it's just a question of validating everything.

I don't know any Chinese, can I still play the Chinese version?

The community has been created so that players who don't necessarily know Chinese can play with English speakers. In the guilds chat, we speak English, and most of our community players don't speak Chinese and don't consider it a difficulty.

But if you cannot read Chinese, you will not be able to understand general chats or players names. Moreover, being in our guilds does not prevent from playing with Chinese players who do not necessarily know English.

How to change the language from Chinese to English/French/German/Spanish?

Here is a very important topic for those who cannot speak Chinese.

Once the English version (or any non Chinese) is installed, and updated in your language( you don't need any account, just launch the game with any fake account name and it will update by itself), you just need to modify the realmlist.wtf file at the root of the repertory where you installed WoW.
Just switch the address with the address of the Chinese realm:
"cn1.grunt.wowchina.com"
Change the number according to the region where you are. This address for instance is for Shanghai 1.

For instance, the european one is:
"eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com"
Don't lose this address. If you lose it, you will not be able anymore to update the game in you version. Thus you won't be able to play with the Chinese realm.

Updates are not the same according to the versions. China has the version 1.12.3 right now. Be careful about this when you update your patches, the US/EU version are updated faster.

You can now enter your real account name and enjoy your game!

I prefer the Chinese version, but I have trouble understanding. What to do?

Using the Chinese version can be a hard challenge if you want to learn Chinese or understand the game. This is why we have created a glossary which is constantly updated with new information.

We strongly advise that you have a look at it regularly for ingame most used names, expressions and prononciations which, weither you speak Chinese or not, are commonly used.

Don't hesitate to ask the guild some help about comprehension problems, some of the players understand a very good Chinese, or are Chinese themselves and speak a good English.

I cannot see the characters. What to do?

You have to download the following .rar file here.
Create a folder called Fonts in your WoW root ( eg: C:\WoW\Fonts ).
Extract the contents of the downloaded .zip file into this newly created Fonts folder.
You are now able to see Chinese characters in EVERY part of the game.

I cannot write characters. What to do?

This problem comes from a computer language compatibility. So, Have your Windows CD ready, because you will need it.

First, open the control panel and double click on Regional and Language Options.

From there, a window will open. Go to the SECOND TAB (Languages). And make sure in Supplemental Language Support you have selected both options.
(At this point, if you did not do that during the installation, Windows MAY prompt you to insert the installation CD again. Do it.)

Now, last but not least, go to the THIRD TAB (Advanced) and make sure to chose Chinese PRC (or Taiwan, if you want traditional characters) in the Language for non-Unicode Programs part.
Windows will ask you to reboot.

You are done. You can now SEE and WRITE in chinese in World of Warcraft.

Addendum: You still do need a chinese keyboard layout. We strongly suggest to download and install IME3 input instead of the chinese preferred QuanPin.

I am in Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao, can I play at the mainland China version?

If you have bought the game over there, you will play on the servers offered by the game over there. But like for the US/EU version, you can change the realmlist to play 魔兽世界. The only difference will only be in the fact that the game will be in traditional characters.

Where can I get simplified and non-simplified fonts?

If you check online, you can find fonts about everywhere. Here is the file. You can also go on www.curse.com, they have Chinese fonts too to be downloaded.

I am back to my country. Can I still play 魔兽世界 or should I use the version available for my country?

You can use your account without problems. But time difference can be a problem.
Unlike US/EU versions in China, the ping and lag is not that high, but it is still high enough to be annoying.

I am back to my country. Where can I reload my 魔兽世界 account?

We advise first that you buy lots of reload cards before going back to your country or that you find someone you can trust in China to reload your account for you. Some of our members (see this thread) offer this service through Paypal in $ or €.

Then, you can buy your card online here. The website in in English and Chinese, and you have to subscribe before you can buy anything. Once you have logged in, you will be able to purchase your card with Paypal.

I have a patch incompatibility with the Chinese current patch and my language version. How to resolve it?

Chinese and EU/US versions are not necessarily updated at the same time.
When you update an EU/US version to play in a Chinese game, be careful that the EU/US version is not higher than the Chinese version. Otherwise, you will not be able to play at all unless you uninstall the patch you have just installed.

To be aware of the last Chinese patch existing, it is written on your game opening menu and on the first page of the official website http://wowchina.com/.

To resolve the problem, as the versions are changing all the time, please go to the technical support of the forum and have a look at the existing topics.