Today, CCP announced that the re-launch of EVE Online in China with new partner TianCity is complete. This marks the first time since April of this year that Chinese players will be able to log into the Serenity server, which powers New Eden in China.

Not to be outdone by Blizzard with their fancy-shmancy Battle.net World Championship, Wargamimg.net today announced their World of Tanks Championship to be held at the World Cyber Games 2012 Grand Finals this week in Kunshan, China. It's such a big deal, they even sprung for a slick new teaser trailer. While we can't embed the video, you can check it out on YouTube right here.

Since its launch in 2004, World of Warcraft has dominated the gaming industry, regarded as the most-successful and popular MMO in history. Throughout the past five years, Blizzard continued pouring its blood, sweat and tears into WoW, ensuring its legacy by retaining a multi-million-player subscriber base. And with each passing year, as Blizzard reported, the MMO's subscribers continued to grow. Players grew from 5 million to 8 million, followed by a staggering 10 million. Around this time last year, Blizzard boasted more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide after Wrath of the Lich King's release.

For the first time since its inception, WoW's seemingly-boundless momentum might be leveling off, according to Activision-Blizzard's recent end-of-fiscal-year conference call with its investors. As we reported last week, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that the company's upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, will launch in 2010. In addition, Morhaime revealed that WoW's current subscriber base is 11.5 million; the same figure announced in November 2008. Has the MMO finally reached the pinnacle of its success, or is there another reason behind the stalled numbers?

As we all know, MMOs can be highly addictive, with some players spending more time in a virtual world than the real one. In attempt to avoid addiction in its gamers, the Chinese government will soon require MMO players to register their real names when they create their online accounts so their play time can be monitored. Ars Technica has the full story:

Zhang Yijun, director of the General Administration of Press and Publication's technology and digital publication department in China, said this week in Qingdao that the Chinese government will begin taking in personal information from any players who register to play MMO, free or otherwise. Gamers will need to register their names along with the code for their government-issued ID cards.

The program, which will start this year, will be open to the community so parents can check in on the gaming habits of their children. Yijun said Wednesday the operations of four online game companies were suspended because their software didn't have the mandatory anti-addiction system.

Chinese players will not have their in-game actions affected in any way. This program will only be used as a monitoring tool to see how much time each player spends in their MMOs. So what do you think? Is it a good idea or too much like Big Brother from 1984 ?