Lhasa lives

[CultureManiac]

Living in China, I'd been afraid that hard copies of ciV (I prefer my copy on DVD) would be altered in some way, since I assumed the Chinese government wouldn't be too happy about seeing a city state of Lhasa, which they consider an inalienable part of China.

Chinese language versions of Civ 4 had no Mao, the Great Wall and Forbidden Palace were renamed as other structures and the names of Chinese cities appeared in garbled English - in an otherwise Chinese language version.

However, my English copy of ciV from the local game store seems to be untouched - at least by comparing notes with what I read here. (There's no Chinese version yet) And yes, there is a city state of Lhasa, and no changes have been made to any of the wonders, as far as I can tell. Maybe they only worry about the versions in Chinese ...

BTW, Lhasa is alive and well and giving me some cultural love while I lay a little licking on Oda.

On a side note, my copy only cost me the standard game price here of 69 RMB, that's about $11.50, and no it's not a pirate copy ... pirate DVDs only cost $2. This is the real deal with a colorful box and nice DVD case. The only time I paid $50 for a game here was when I bought a Chinese language box collectors set for Civ 4 that included the vanilla and BTS versions, bonus discs, full color tech tree, a T-shirt, playing cards and a figurine.

Now if THAT doesn't tick a bunch of you off ...

 

[lissenber]

I bet you can buy the game for 1 euro if you have a friend who is also aware of the civ series but is hugely dissapointed after trying the latest one.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Cool to hear. Either it's a bow to sanity or an oversight, but I appreciate letting the game stand.

BTW, why would they rename the Great Wall in previous Civs? I understand Mao, but I don't understand that one.

 

[BjoernLars]

Well, at least the Chinese government didn't block this forum. They've already blocked Facebook and othe Blogs...

 

[Wuzetian]

I bet you can buy the game for 1 euro if you have a friend who is also aware of the civ series but is hugely dissapointed after trying the latest one.

I see your point but the copy OP got is a brand new one I guess. That is really cheap.

 

[CultureManiac]

@ Wuzetian
Yes, this one's the real meal deal, in cool color packaging. Pirates are just a plain DVD with the name scribbled in felt pen. Or so I've heard. Not that I've ever bought one

@ BjoernLars
Maybe I should watch what I say, or I might need to use a proxy server to get my Civ fix.

 

[Wuzetian]

Can you get access to steam with this copy?

 

[CultureManiac]

Can you get access to steam with this copy?

Actually, I didn't need access to Steam. I tried registering it on Steam but couldn't get that to work for some reason. So I searched the game files until I found one called "Start" and hit that. BINGO.

There could be several reasons for this, like it was actually WAS a pirate version, just very nicely packaged, or it could have been a concession from Steam to get the game into the country - since the government likes to block social neworks and Steam could fall into that category, so this could keep gamers from playing and communicating online. Just a nefarious thought.

Maybe if I worked hard enough at it I could find a way to get onto Steam. I never play online, though, so it's not an issue for me.

 

[Wuzetian]

If it doesn't grant you the right to get access to steam, then it's no difference from a pirate version I guess

 

[Describer]

Why they removed Mao from Civ 4?

 

[sputnik323]

Why they removed Mao from Civ 4?

Could be because Mao is like Hitler in many aspects and is responsible for more loss of human life than any other leader on the planet. So if Germany wont allow Hitler, China just might be starting to get embarrassed of that man.

 

[Describer]

Could be because Mao is like Hitler in many aspects and is responsible for more loss of human life than any other leader on the planet. So if Germany wont allow Hitler, China just might be starting to get embarrassed of that man.

At the same time as having his picture on country's main square? Nonsense. Current CPC, although capitalist in nature, wont say a bad word about him.

 

[Melchizel]

at the same time as having his picture on country's main square? Nonsense. Current cpc, although capitalist in nature, wont say a bad word about him.

qft ....

 

[Louis XXIV]

Could be because Mao is like Hitler in many aspects and is responsible for more loss of human life than any other leader on the planet. So if Germany wont allow Hitler, China just might be starting to get embarrassed of that man.

It's actually the opposite. They don't want people to have the opportunity to play as another civ and defeat the Chairman.

 

[Wuzetian]

Could be because Mao is like Hitler in many aspects and is responsible for more loss of human life than any other leader on the planet. So if Germany wont allow Hitler, China just might be starting to get embarrassed of that man.

I guess it's because of a mix of several reasons, but definitely not this one you listed.
In ancient China when emperors instead of chairmen ruled the nation, people were not even allowed to use the emperors' names. For instance, if the emperor's name is something like William, then William will be banned from use as if it is deleted from the vocabulary. I think banning Mao from the game is kind of a modern version of this thought.
Moreover, politic issues in China have always been cosidered seriously. Just the thought of putting a national leader in a computer game could be somewhat unbearable in the government point of view.
But anyway, those are just my best guesses. I really don't know why they are doing it... I have no idea,to be honest. Just as I have no idea why they are banning youtube, facebook and even banned IMDB for quite a while.