As seen on Terra Nova and Pacific Epoch, if you’re an MMO provider in China, for the love of Mao, don’t ever put up anything in your game that even looks remotely like a Japanese flag.


Evolution of a flash mob, in three easy steps!

Players created protest characters with names like:

Name of player: \’e5\’b9\’b2\’e6\-\’bb4\’e5\’b0\’8f\’e6\emdash\’a5\’e6\’9c\’ac (“Kill the little Japs”)
Name of guild: \’e6\’8a\emdash\’e6\emdash\’a5\’e5\’90\’8c\’e7\’9b\’9f\’e4\’bc\’9a (“The Alliance to Resist Japan”)

Because, as we all know, the best way to protest the conduct of an MMO company is, as Delusion memorably put it,

OMG YOU NERFED DUAL WIELD DARK ELF DUAL CLASS PALADIN ASSASSINS? WTF? I’M GOING TO LOUDLY THREATEN TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT, AND INSTEAD JUST GO TO THE MAIN CITY AND BITCH FOR A FEW HOURS BEFORE PLAYING NORMALLY!

In a followup, the provider, NetEase, wielded the Serene Banstick of Righteous Fury and sought to appeal to the mob’s sense of reason.

Patriotism is a form of respect, and it is a belief. Patriotism is the soul of our people, it is the soul of our nation. But we sincerely hope that everybody’s patriotic actions are rational . We hope and we believe that everybody can make rational expressions.

If only.