Talk:Region

Number of players (active/non-active) per region?

If anybody knows of any sources which help indicate how many players (active/non-active) there are per region, please do add. Aegonostic (talk) 03:52, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

I will certainly add this info if I come across it, but it seems it's never been released by Blizzard up to this point. Also very unlikely they'd state more than the total number of accounts registered in the region, which wouldn't be especially accurate regarding current player levels. -- Taohinton (talk) 00:09, 26 June 2016 (UTC)

Citation

Can you explain what you're looking for a citation for? Generally we don't cite info that doesn't need a special scenario set up to test it (in other words, that any player can verify extremely easily). When you start the Blizzard launcher, you can select North America, Europe, or Asia, but not China. So it seems pretty self-explanatory. - jerodast (talk) 04:24, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

The statement in reference from the article is:

"Each player [...] can choose to play Hearthstone in other regions if they wish, with the exception of China, which is handled separately from other regions."

Any reference that says people in China can't play in other regions would be much appreciated thanks. Aegonostic (talk) 04:05, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Adding, I'm a player in NA, so I can never verify it. Aegonostic (talk) 11:46, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

So, this is a difficult topic, because China intentionally creates a restricted internet environment, and suppresses discussion of that restriction. Blizzard is in business in China and therefore is not going to upset the rules by doing something as crazy as, say, mentioning mainland China on its Global Play page: [1]. It is well documented that Chinese company NetEase runs Hearthstone within China, whereas Blizzard itself runs Hearthstone outside. However I'm assuming this corporate separation is not what you were looking for. NetEase certainly is not going to have a page (in Chinese or otherwise) saying "sorry, you can't play Hearthstone on the America, EU or Asia regions using our client" because they don't particularly care to remind anyone that other regions exist! If you're looking for an official page saying "this is how it all works", you're simply not going to find one. Welcome to government censorship.

Your best bet for a clear source is to find a news article on Chinese censorship/isolationism/business arrangements that spells it all out. However it's unlikely you'll find one specifically regarding Hearthstone out of all the other possible examples out there. The best we can really do in terms of actual written information is various forum posts that talk about what a pain it is to do Hearthstone in China, e.g. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].

Perhaps it's worth noting that it ISN'T necessarily impossible to connect to other regions from inside China, it's just dependent on the Great Firewall and Chinese ISPs being cooperative that day - most people seem to report that they're usually not. While I can't verify this myself, it's almost certain that NetEase's client for accessing Hearthstone does indeed not contain options for other regions - why on Earth would it provide support for services it doesn't run/profit from and that usually don't work in China anyway? You won't find anyone saying this because it goes without saying. But if you have a pen pal in China and want to get him to post about it on the forums, be my guest.

I don't think a main page of the wiki, as a collective work with open access (not to mention semi-endorsed by Blizzard), is the place to get into a discussion of such a political issue, so I left it pretty vague. I guess I'll rephrase it to mention NetEase which is at least documentable. - jerodast (talk) 03:54, 5 September 2016 (UTC)

Unbelievably insightful, thank you. Aegonostic (talk) 00:20, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Makes me wonder if there exists an Asian (Chinese) wiki out there. Separate from this one. That would be unfortunate. Aegonostic (talk) 00:43, 10 October 2016 (UTC)