Chinese bureaucrats are involved in a handbags at dawn fight with each other over who control over what players get up to in the fantasy game World of Warcraft.

The bureau that licenses publishers said this week the game's Chinese operator failed to obtain required import approval and should stop signing up customers. However the Chinese Ministry of Culture's cultural products department, fired back that it was the regulator of online games and said the website's paperwork was in order.

The spat between government departments is a big power play and shows that public servants are wanting to stake their claim in what is being seen as the new political force of online gaming. The country went through similar struggles as regulators fought earlier this decade over who would control and tax online commerce. This round is nastier because regulators see the internet spreading to nearly every industry, bringing a windfall of status to any official associated with it.

The General Administration of Press and Publications released a statement on Monday saying the "Warcraft" operator, Netease.com, failed to get the administration's permission to bring the game into China. It said the company should stop signing up customers and apply for approval. However the Ministry of Culture rejected the publishing bureau's claim to control over online games.

"These online games and publications are fully subject to administration by the Ministry of Culture," the director of its department of cultural markets, Li Xiong, said on Tuesday at a news conference.