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Blizzard CEO Mike: We have a panda for the Chinese market

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Comments

  • BabyChooChooBabyChooChoo Member Posts: 29

    @Uhwop

    If there was a way to rate other members, I would give you 6 stars. I haven't read every post in this thread so there may be others, but it's good to see that some people haven't forgetten what all this is. They're games. They're things.

    If something as insignificant as a fictional animal in a video game offends you then you  have bigger things to worry about, folks.

  • UhwopUhwop Member UncommonPosts: 1,791

    Originally posted by headphones

    Originally posted by Uhwop

    The blizzard hate is getting beyond the state of sad at this point. 

    Seriously, it's a frigging videogame. 

     

    Here's an experiment. 

    Go to a bar and complain to a girl about Blizzard putting pandas in WoW, and see how she responds.  Seriously, if a woman will look at you like you're a retard for complaining about it, odds are you are.

     

    It's a vieogame, guy.  Let it go. 

     

     

    i don't need to go to a bar to complain to a girl about blizzard putting pandas in wow. i just look up at my wife and complain to her. and she doesn't look at me like i'm a retard for complaining about it. instead, she looks at the same sites and looks at THEM like they're retards for even contemplating putting it into the game to begin with.

    my advice to you: thinking girls don't play mmos is the kind of thinking that belongs back in the 1990s.  let it go.

    (for the record: my wife refuses to play healers and prefers pvp. bucking yet another misconception about female gamers...)

    Imagine a world were people didn't take things so serious?

    Probably be lot fewr heart attacks and divorces.

    My advide to you:  Get a sense of humor?

     

    PS:  As a single 35 year old.  WAY fewer people play MMO's then don't, and WAY, WAY fewer wemon play then you seem to think do. 

    Reality, it's more then what you experience inside your home.

  • headphonesheadphones Member Posts: 611

    Originally posted by Uhwop

    Originally posted by headphones


    Originally posted by Uhwop

    The blizzard hate is getting beyond the state of sad at this point. 

    Seriously, it's a frigging videogame. 

     

    Here's an experiment. 

    Go to a bar and complain to a girl about Blizzard putting pandas in WoW, and see how she responds.  Seriously, if a woman will look at you like you're a retard for complaining about it, odds are you are.

     

    It's a vieogame, guy.  Let it go. 

     

     

    i don't need to go to a bar to complain to a girl about blizzard putting pandas in wow. i just look up at my wife and complain to her. and she doesn't look at me like i'm a retard for complaining about it. instead, she looks at the same sites and looks at THEM like they're retards for even contemplating putting it into the game to begin with.

    my advice to you: thinking girls don't play mmos is the kind of thinking that belongs back in the 1990s.  let it go.

    (for the record: my wife refuses to play healers and prefers pvp. bucking yet another misconception about female gamers...)

    Imagine a world were people didn't take things so serious?

    Probably be lot fewr heart attacks and divorces.

    My advide to you:  Get a sense of humor?

     

    PS:  As a single 35 year old.  WAY fewer people play MMO's then don't, and WAY, WAY fewer wemon play then you seem to think do. 

    Reality, it's more then what you experience inside your home.



    i wouldn't know about the single 35 thing. it's been a few years since i was that age. but being the sort of person who likes to get involved in guilds which are geographically close, i'd say you're still lost in misconceptions.

    as for my sense of humour; i have one. as proof, i offer you the fact i'm not taking you very seriously at all. ;)

    reality: it's all around you if only you'd open your eyes.

  • UhwopUhwop Member UncommonPosts: 1,791

    Originally posted by headphones

    Originally posted by Uhwop


    Originally posted by headphones


    Originally posted by Uhwop

    The blizzard hate is getting beyond the state of sad at this point. 

    Seriously, it's a frigging videogame. 

     

    Here's an experiment. 

    Go to a bar and complain to a girl about Blizzard putting pandas in WoW, and see how she responds.  Seriously, if a woman will look at you like you're a retard for complaining about it, odds are you are.

     

    It's a vieogame, guy.  Let it go. 

     

     

    i don't need to go to a bar to complain to a girl about blizzard putting pandas in wow. i just look up at my wife and complain to her. and she doesn't look at me like i'm a retard for complaining about it. instead, she looks at the same sites and looks at THEM like they're retards for even contemplating putting it into the game to begin with.

    my advice to you: thinking girls don't play mmos is the kind of thinking that belongs back in the 1990s.  let it go.

    (for the record: my wife refuses to play healers and prefers pvp. bucking yet another misconception about female gamers...)

    Imagine a world were people didn't take things so serious?

    Probably be lot fewr heart attacks and divorces.

    My advide to you:  Get a sense of humor?

     

    PS:  As a single 35 year old.  WAY fewer people play MMO's then don't, and WAY, WAY fewer wemon play then you seem to think do. 

    Reality, it's more then what you experience inside your home.



    i wouldn't know about the single 35 thing. it's been a few years since i was that age. but being the sort of person who likes to get involved in guilds which are geographically close, i'd say you're still lost in misconceptions.

    as for my sense of humour; i have one. as proof, i offer you the fact i'm not taking you very seriously at all. ;)

    reality: it's all around you if only you'd open your eyes.

    No sir, I'm well aware girls play games. 

    You sir, like the OP, are taking things way to serious.

    There is no sensible reason to be upset over pandas, or an asian theme in a video a video game.

     

  • MMOSareDEADMMOSareDEAD Member Posts: 47

    Originally posted by Aori

    Panda's have been in the game since vanilla why bitch now? ffs.

    I think what's going on here is that some paranoid and depressed americans (dare I say sad pandas?) feel butt hurt about Blizzard targetting another nation besides their own...and not just any nation, the one that's taking over America's old role of number 1 super power.

    Pandaren have been in Warcraft since way before WoW, as have Taurens. The playable race itself is a non issue.

    First Moody's downgrades the US economy, then Blizzard releases the Pandaren.

    It's all downhill from here folks. You'd better start stockpiling that mineral water and sugar before it's too late.

  • marinridermarinrider Member UncommonPosts: 1,556

    Originally posted by Aori

    Originally posted by marinrider


    Originally posted by MMOSareDEAD


    Originally posted by Aori

    Panda's have been in the game since vanilla why bitch now? ffs.

    I think what's going on here is that some paranoid and depressed americans (dare I say sad pandas?) feel butt hurt about Blizzard targetting another nation besides them. And not just any nation, the one that's taking over America's old role of number 1 super power.

    Pandaren have been in Warcraft since way before WoW, as have Taurens. The playable race itself is a non issue.

    First Moody's downgrades the US economy, then Blizzard releases the Pandaren.

    It's all downhill from here folks. You'd better start stockpiling that mineral water and sugar before it's too late.

    Wow, I'm not even sure what to say about this post.

    What country are you from? I'm sure we can spout of random crap and then assume something about your entire nation.  

    I'm fairly certain there are more than just Americans complaining about the pandas.  I dont play WoW anymore, and I havn't for about a year and even I think the pandas was a stupid idea.  The whole expansion pack is just full off bad ideas.  I think people are a little more pissed that there are much better areas of lore that are much more thought out that blizz could be doing but instead they give the players one race for BOTH factions and throw in some pokemon to make it burn a little more.

    But I understand your sarcasm, however misplaced it was.

    Alot of the new expansion is what the community has been begging for.. the majority is getting what they want. Pandarens have always been wanted, pet battles have been echoed many times.. more focus on faction vs faction has been VERY much desired.

    So saying this expansion is full of bad ideas is just an opinion of the minority.

    I've never seen anyone say "Damn, I wish this game would throw in Pandarens, thats a race I really want to play." We will see how the focus on "Faction v Faction" comes out, because ever since BC they have proved that they aren't really sure how to do that anymore.  

    And how about not having a big bad boss your supposed to be fighting?  And when this expansion comes out and the content is more of the same + pokebattles, we will know that blizz has lost thier touch.

  • EmhsterEmhster Member UncommonPosts: 913

    Quit complaining and vote with your wallet.

  • marinridermarinrider Member UncommonPosts: 1,556

    Originally posted by Emhster

    Quit complaining and vote with your wallet.

    Pretty much.

    I think that effect has started with all the negative sub growth we have seen.  I am excited to see what happens regarding sub numbers and "satisfaction" 6 months after this releases in the East and the West.  

     

  • MMOSareDEADMMOSareDEAD Member Posts: 47

    Originally posted by marinrider

    Originally posted by MMOSareDEAD


    Originally posted by Aori

    Panda's have been in the game since vanilla why bitch now? ffs.

    I think what's going on here is that some paranoid and depressed americans (dare I say sad pandas?) feel butt hurt about Blizzard targetting another nation besides them. And not just any nation, the one that's taking over America's old role of number 1 super power.

    Pandaren have been in Warcraft since way before WoW, as have Taurens. The playable race itself is a non issue.

    First Moody's downgrades the US economy, then Blizzard releases the Pandaren.

    It's all downhill from here folks. You'd better start stockpiling that mineral water and sugar before it's too late.

    Wow, I'm not even sure what to say about this post.

    What country are you from? I'm sure we can spout of random crap and then assume something about your entire nation.  

    I'm fairly certain there are more than just Americans complaining about the pandas.  I dont play WoW anymore, and I havn't for about a year and even I think the pandas was a stupid idea.  The whole expansion pack is just full off bad ideas.  I think people are a little more pissed that there are much better areas of lore that are much more thought out that blizz could be doing but instead they give the players one race for BOTH factions and throw in some pokemon to make it burn a little more.

    But I understand your sarcasm, however misplaced it was.

    Please note the use of the word "some" in my post as indeed I don't think all americans are sharpening their pitch forks as we speak, on their way to lay siege to the Blizzard head quarters.

    Infact most americans don't know about this and surely wouldn't care if they did.

    Still though, I'm pretty sure I'm right, for the most part. I don't see too many people complaining about the actual expansion. The fuss is usually centered around the pandaren (stupid animal!) and the chinese theme (wtf they pay less than us, they don't deserve their own expansion!!!1) so I don't see how else to explain it.

    ps: I'm from the country that surrenders all the time ;)

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Originally posted by GameOvr

    *snip* (read the OP)

    Now the problem is an xpac full of chinese architecture, the national animal of china, and designed just for the chinese market and they expect Americans and Europeans to pay for it. Chinese players only pay 6 cents an hour to play WoW, 90% of the income comes from us, including the money to pay for the chinese xpac.

    I am not so sure they do. Sure, 6 cent an hour isn't much but many Wow players do spend a lot of time in the game.

    I would assume a regular Chinese Wow player pays 1-3 bucks in subs, and that does not count anyone buying anything in the RMT shop, a thing that Pokemon thing probably will increase.

    If Blizzard counts to have 7-8 times as many Chinese players as NA/EU by 2013 when the expansion probably releases then it makes sense, and maybe they will.

    I am willing to bet that most of the 1.1 million lost subs the last year (as Morhaime himself mentioned) are mostly Western subs. So from Blizzard perspective is it not that stupid, do the most work for the largest playerbase.

    There is of course another possibility: That they actually plan to make Wow F2P when the expansion releases. Sure, it is just speculation but not that unlikely, several other older MMOs have increased profit by going F2P and it would strenghten Wows Chinese market even more against Perfect World and similar games.

    And it isn't like you can't play the Xpac so there is no real need to complain. If you don't want to pay for it you can just quit the game now.

    Blizzard seems to know what they are doing with Wow, they have been getting a profit few computer game companies even imagine from that game. If you believe they suddenly gone mad you should probably rethink, even though some companies have messed up in the past.

  • DaitenguDaitengu Member Posts: 442

    I doubt the OP's claim that Mist of Pandaria is catering to China.

     

    1. Pandaranians have been around since Warcraft 3

    2. Everytime they do Pandaranian april fools, people actually want it and clamor about it on the forums.

    3. He only has speculation, and not actual quote-able proof. (You're going to trust Google translator, really?)

     

    as a side note:

     In China, it's illegal to harm or depict harming of pandas. Fake or not.   I'm curious to know if the Chinese Government will ban the expansion altogether because of Pandaranian killing, and Pet battles where you can beat up panda pets.

     

    If you remember Wrath was banned for undead and necromancy. So It's not a stretch for Mists to get banned.

     

     

  • czekoskwigelczekoskwigel Member Posts: 458

    Originally posted by Daitengu

    as a side note:

     In China, it's illegal to harm or depict harming of pandas. Fake or not.   I'm curious to know if the Chinese Government will ban the expansion altogether because of Pandaranian killing, and Pet battles where you can beat up panda pets.

     

     

    This is untrue.  Kung Fu Panda was a HUGE success in china, and it regularly depicts a panda being harmed.

  • aRtFuLThinGaRtFuLThinG Member UncommonPosts: 1,387

    Originally posted by GameOvr

     

    The site is in Chinese but you can see for yourself

    1) go to translate.google.com

    2) set from chinese and to english

    3) enter blizzcn.com in? text box

    I don't know how you get those information from a broken Chinese translator but please, do not proclaim some information from a language that you don't even speak advertise them as fact.

    I can read chinese, I read through the whole site and found no article of the nature you speak of. I've found random words from several unrelated articles that if you forcibly jam them together like a good conspiracy theorists you might come up with something remotely readable, but there is no one concise essay or article in there about them putting panda in because of Chinese market.

    Fail slandering is fail.

     

    PS: Stop assuming people here can't read Chinese just because they can type English. There are people here who is born overseas and who has worked overseas you know. 

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Originally posted by Daitengu

    I doubt the OP's claim that Mist of Pandaria is catering to China.

    1. Pandaranians have been around since Warcraft 3

    2. Everytime they do Pandaranian april fools, people actually want it and clamor about it on the forums.

    3. He only has speculation, and not actual quote-able proof. (You're going to trust Google translator, really?)

    as a side note:

     In China, it's illegal to harm or depict harming of pandas. Fake or not.   I'm curious to know if the Chinese Government will ban the expansion altogether because of Pandaranian killing, and Pet battles where you can beat up panda pets.

    If you remember Wrath was banned for undead and necromancy. So It's not a stretch for Mists to get banned.

    That was really for political reasons, not the undead. They screwed over the company that had the Wow license.

    As for harming pandas, pandarens aren't exactly pandas even if they look similar. You can argue that pandas can't speak and so on, so pandarens ain't pandas.

    If they just are careful with how the quests are made it shouldn't be a problem, depicting people saving pandas is not illegal in China.

  • DLangleyDLangley Member Posts: 1,407

    Let's keep political discussion out of the thread guys. Thanks.

  • pharazonicpharazonic Member Posts: 860

    Originally posted by marinrider

    I've never seen anyone say "Damn, I wish this game would throw in Pandarens, thats a race I really want to play."

    Then maybe you're not looking hard enough.

    We will see how the focus on "Faction v Faction" comes out, because ever since BC they have proved that they aren't really sure how to do that anymore.  

    Is this a joke? 3.0-3.2 Wintergrasp was pretty damn epic. Too bad it caused all of Northrend to lag, but the fact was it rocked. I say this as someone who played Alliance on a low population server. Sure, Tenacity had massive problems but WG was great, once you got used to and accepted the lag.

    Anyway, forget WG. Halaa and the Isle of Quel'Danas were awesome too.

    And how about not having a big bad boss your supposed to be fighting?

    Because it sort of backfires - they can never find the perfect medium. Either the boss is AWOL a la Illidan, too Saturday-morning cartoon villain like Arthas, or too one dimensional like Deathwing. Besides, lore is fluid. By not having a box boss, they can take the story where they want to without confines of the story.

    In both TBC and WotLK, it bit them in the ass: Sunwell and Ruby Sanctum. Likely it will bite them in Cataclysm as well.

     And when this expansion comes out and the content is more of the same + pokebattles, we will know that blizz has lost thier touch.

     

    Content is not the same. Anyone with basic cognitive skills would see the clever thing that Blizzard is doing by tweaking game mechanics forcing vets and new players alike to relearn their classes. Sort of like how people had to adapt to learning the Death Knight or even certain specs like Feral in WotLK.

    I hope I have established to both readers and yourself that you obviously are pulling things from the air. Consequently, anything that you say is suspect.

    "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

    I need to take this advice more.

  • DaitenguDaitengu Member Posts: 442

    Originally posted by DLangley

    Let's keep political discussion out of the thread guys. Thanks.

    edited just in case <.<

     

    really? but I thought it'd be fine.  It's not like dems vs republicans political debate vomit. >.<

     

    now I can't discuss T.T

  • pharazonicpharazonic Member Posts: 860

    Hey Daitengu,

    While I cannot confirm about the "harming/not harming pandas" thing (I am inclined to NOT believe it), I know for a fact that WotLK was delayed, not banned, in China because in Chinese culture, it is distasteful to show skeletons.

     

    There was an extensive MMO Champion post showing what Chinese WotLK looked like: skulls looked more demonic rather than like skulls, the zombies had no bones showing, frostwyrms looked like Undead Gryphons etc.

    "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

    I need to take this advice more.

  • DaitenguDaitengu Member Posts: 442

    Originally posted by pharazonic

    Hey Daitengu,

    While I cannot confirm about the "harming/not harming pandas" thing (I am inclined to NOT believe it), I know for a fact that WotLK was delayed, not banned, in China because in Chinese culture, it is distasteful to show skeletons.

     

    There was an extensive MMO Champion post showing what Chinese WotLK looked like: skulls looked more demonic rather than like skulls, the zombies had no bones showing, frostwyrms looked like Undead Gryphons etc.

    Oh, you'd be surprised... 

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/23/content_7133797.htm

    Believe it or not Kung Fu Panda has ruffled some feathers too. But like always it really depends on the mood of the Government that day if they ban it or not.

     

     

    Aye, and that was in my post before self edit lol.  Took a LOOONG time for Bliz to get approval. They only got Wrath something like august of 2010.

     

     

  • pharazonicpharazonic Member Posts: 860

    Originally posted by Daitengu

    Originally posted by pharazonic

    Hey Daitengu,

    While I cannot confirm about the "harming/not harming pandas" thing (I am inclined to NOT believe it), I know for a fact that WotLK was delayed, not banned, in China because in Chinese culture, it is distasteful to show skeletons.

     

    There was an extensive MMO Champion post showing what Chinese WotLK looked like: skulls looked more demonic rather than like skulls, the zombies had no bones showing, frostwyrms looked like Undead Gryphons etc.

    Oh, you'd be surprised... 

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/23/content_7133797.htm

    Believe it or not Kung Fu Panda has ruffled some feathers too.

     

     

    Aye, and that was in my post before self edit lol.  Took a LOOONG time for Bliz to get approval. They only got Wrath something like august of 2010.

     

     

    Interesting about the pandas.

    And yeah, I think the inside joke among NA/EU players was that how everyone and their mum had Warglaives and Thoridals in Chinese WoW simply because they had 3 years of TBC :P

    "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

    I need to take this advice more.

  • DaitenguDaitengu Member Posts: 442

    Originally posted by pharazonic

    Originally posted by Daitengu


    Originally posted by pharazonic

    Hey Daitengu,

    While I cannot confirm about the "harming/not harming pandas" thing (I am inclined to NOT believe it), I know for a fact that WotLK was delayed, not banned, in China because in Chinese culture, it is distasteful to show skeletons.

     

    There was an extensive MMO Champion post showing what Chinese WotLK looked like: skulls looked more demonic rather than like skulls, the zombies had no bones showing, frostwyrms looked like Undead Gryphons etc.

    Oh, you'd be surprised... 

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/23/content_7133797.htm

    Believe it or not Kung Fu Panda has ruffled some feathers too.

     

     

    Aye, and that was in my post before self edit lol.  Took a LOOONG time for Bliz to get approval. They only got Wrath something like august of 2010.

     

     

    Interesting about the pandas.

    And yeah, I think the inside joke among NA/EU players was that how everyone and their mum had Warglaives and Thoridals in Chinese WoW simply because they had 3 years of TBC :P

     

    There is a bit of difference to common misconception though.  Pandas are not sacred to the Chinese.  But they are viewed as national Treasures.  Like Bald Eagles are in the USA.  Messing around with the image of national treasures is touchy. Especially in countries that technically don't have free speech.

     

    and lol to the warglaives.

     

    PS: Though it doesn't affect me in the slightest, It'll be interesting to see what the changes will be for MoP to get clearance in China.   hmm..I suppose I should get back to the topic of poking at the OP's Xenophobic sounding disdain to MoP.

  • VolkmarVolkmar Member UncommonPosts: 2,501

    Originally posted by Loke666

    Originally posted by GameOvr

     

    I am willing to bet that most of the 1.1 million lost subs the last year (as Morhaime himself mentioned) are mostly Western subs. So from Blizzard perspective is it not that stupid, do the most work for the largest playerbase.

    Really??

     

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2546-WoW-Down-to-10.3M-Subscribers-PTR-Build-14966-Class-Balance-Q-A-TCG-Art

     

    Quote : "Most of the subscriptions were lost in China."

    I just want to reiterate what most have said: Guild Wars made an Asian expansion, Age of Conan (arguably the most Western MMO you can think of, based on books by a very nationalistic western writer) made an Asian expansion...

    Guess what? neither of those had this sort of backlash and most people agree that the AoC expansion was actually quite cool.

    So either people REALLY hate Pandas or they REALLY hate Blizzard.

    In either case, stop hating, it is bad for you in the long run.

    "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"



  • RazeronRazeron Member Posts: 180

    Originally posted by MMOSareDEAD

    WotLK did the same thing with Scandinavia...I didn't see anyone complain about it.

     

    1.) Nobody hates Scandinavian culture or peoples.

    2.) All "caucasian" themes or cultural elements (Irish, British, French, German, Russian, Norse, et al) are fairly well received in Europe and North America, for obvious reasons.

    3.) It's perfectly reasonable for them to capitalize on their new target audience, since they've given up on North America and Europe (See: Cataclysm and My Little Panda) but it doesn't mean they should degrade the game or pollute it with this twelve-year old weaboo nonsense that I'm betting the majority of NA/EU would rather not be associated with, let alone subjected to.

    4.) There's a reason every Asian MMO "westernizes" before releasing in NA/EU, and then they still fail because you can only "westernize" a Asian themed game so much.

  • MMOSareDEADMMOSareDEAD Member Posts: 47

    Originally posted by Razeron

    Originally posted by MMOSareDEAD

    WotLK did the same thing with Scandinavia...I didn't see anyone complain about it.

     

    1.) Nobody hates Scandinavian culture or peoples.

    2.) All "caucasian" themes or cultural elements (Irish, British, French, German, Russian, Norse, et al) are fairly well received in Europe and North America, for obvious reasons.

    3.) It's perfectly reasonable for them to capitalize on their new target audience, since they've given up on North America and Europe (See: Cataclysm and My Little Panda) but it doesn't mean they should degrade the game or pollute it with this twelve-year old weaboo nonsense that I'm betting the majority of NA/EU would rather not be associated with, let alone subjected to.

    4.) There's a reason every Asian MMO "westernizes" before releasing in NA/EU, and then they still fail because you can only "westernize" a Asian themed game so much.

    Well yeah that was my point, all this fuss about MoP is mostly an anti chinese sentiment expressed by disgruntled xenophobes more than anything else.

    But you can't be serious about the 12 year old weaboo comment. Pink haired gnomes, talking cows, cartoon graphics, gameplay a 5 year old can master in 2 hours? This game has always targetted kids.

  • EmhsterEmhster Member UncommonPosts: 913

    Originally posted by Volkmar

    (...)

    I just want to reiterate what most have said: Guild Wars made an Asian expansion, Age of Conan (arguably the most Western MMO you can think of, based on books by a very nationalistic western writer) made an Asian expansion...

    Guess what? neither of those had this sort of backlash and most people agree that the AoC expansion was actually quite cool.

    So either people REALLY hate Pandas or they REALLY hate Blizzard.

    In either case, stop hating, it is bad for you in the long run.

     

    World of Warcraft comes from Warhammer. Orcs vs human. Add trolls or dwarves in Warhammer and it's all good. Add kung fu pandas and uhhh... nope, it doesn't fit in the picture. So, it's the pandas, in my humble opinion :)

    And there were some critics at Funcom for their asian theme expansion pack. At least they didn't add some cute furry race so they kinda kept it in the spirit of Age of Conan.

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