Straight out of the “are you f#cking kidding me” file comes World Joyland, a theme park located in Changzhou, China. What makes this theme park so special is that is based off of Blizzard’s popular World of Warcraft and Starcraft intellectual properties, which by the way it’s not paying Blizzard to license.
That’s ok though because the theme park owners have an iron-clan solution to avoid being sued into the ground. One, they’re located in China and two they named the WoW area, Terrain of Magic, while the Starcraft area is called Universe of Starship, so no one will know it’s based on WoW and Starcraft.
Legal matters aside, do they realize that the reason Disney was so successful at one point was because they made a theme park targeting kids? What 5-8 year old is going to bug their parents to take them to a WoW or Starcraft theme park? And if you’re not a kid and excited to go to a WoW theme park I think you might have to re-evaluate your life or at the very least stop playing WoW.
Continue below to see some of the images from World Joyland.
Source: GamesRadar
If you can’t see the joy of visiting a theme park dedicated to your primary hobby, regardless of your age, you need stop and smell the roses. Have some fun in your life. If this was nearby, I would go in a heartbeat even though I quit WoW years ago and am now in my 30′s.
You also need to remember that not all kids were the same as you growing up. I have never liked anything Disney outside of a mild interest in the movie Lion King. Yet I had a blast at Disney Land because of the rides; not because of the ‘Disney-ness’ of it. As I grew older I went to other theme parks aimed at older kids for the rides. Unless you know something I don’t, I’m pretty sure there will be some responsibly exciting rides for kids bigger than 8 like Disney’s Space Mountain, etc. at this Blizzard themepark.
Just because you have a problem with IP infringement, doesn’t mean it would not be a fun place to visit for those of us that still know how to have fun away from the computer.
July 19th, 2011 at 7:19 pmQuote
Disney stole most of it’s properties, which were in the public domain at the time due to better copyright laws. Then after stealing, they claim it as their own, and bribe politicians for stronger copyright laws which we are now suffering with today.
So while this is obviously taking from Blizzard, it’s not like it’s just China or something new. Yes, China is probably one of the worst offenders, but most have stolen from others.
And don’t even get started on patents, a huge monopoly racket for corporations to screw over the little guy.
Just because they don’t follow our laws doesn’t mean that our laws aren’t broken and wrong.
July 19th, 2011 at 9:22 pmQuote
@qix. I probably would go if it was nearby out of curiosity, I just think theme parks like this are made for kids and don’t have much to offer adults aside from a ride or two. Plus my patience to wait in line for 2 hrs for a 30 sec ride eroded away long ago.
I’d much rather go to Blizzcon.
July 19th, 2011 at 11:08 pmQuote
I bet the rollercoasters lag. The customer service is crap. The content is boring. The hackers take your credit card info. The park is filled with whiny 16 year olds. And their upcoming new attractions are nothing like the original park. THEN that is a true WoW park!
July 20th, 2011 at 3:01 amQuote
Great idea, if I were a kid I’d love to go there. This post reminds me how influential WoW have gotten!
July 20th, 2011 at 6:12 amQuote