Banned Games

[credop]

Many games have been banned over time and some i really think dont deserve it. Many titles such as a great Manhunt 2 was banned, yes it was a game based on gore and simply murdering people with everyday objects but there was a clear sign that no-one under the age (i think) of 18 should be playing. Even though we do.

My main question is do you know any games that were banned that seemed a bit outragous?

Also do you think the press is too hard on games today? My view is that a simple bit of programming and some lights cant be blamed for some kid shooting another.

 

[DrDeath3191]

In Vietnam, they banned Pokemon. I forget why.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia. Especially seeing as it's allowed around the rest of the world (to my knowledge).

 

[The_Deleted]

Australia and Germany are notoriously strict with games.

 

[j0z]

WoW was for awhile in China...
Fo3 in India because of the cows.
All game more violent than Peggle in Australia (except for the Peggle which came with the OB)
All are true except the Australian one.

 

[Sharpeye42]

Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia. Especially seeing as it's allowed around the rest of the world (to my knowledge).

They're just going to nerf the violence and give it a MA15+ just like what they did with fallout 3.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Rule of Rose

From what I gatherd it was like Lord of The Flies in an all-girls school. I can see why people would've been a little worried about it, but I still would've liked to check it out.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I think that no game should be banned. It's got a big sticker on the front that doesn't allow children under 18 to buy it so there's no reason to ban it. You're ruining it for the people who ARE over 18 that want to play it and kids can't even buy the game so you're not protecting anyone.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

South Korea had Video games for quite a while. Don't know if they still are. PC games have always been legal, and Starcraft solld 4.5 million copies there.

Also to answer your question, here is a complete list. I suggest you always check wikipedia, because usually they have a far more detailed answer than you would find here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games

 

[Crazy_Bird]

Slightly Off-Topic but I want to clarify the legal situation in Germany.

In Germany we have a method called "Indizierung" (roughly: indexing).

It's like an 18+ deluxe rating. If your game lands on the index you are not allowed to advertise the game and it may not be displayed openly in shops (i.e. in the sight of children.
This is quite common for the more gorey titles like "Gears of War 2" and I don't have a problem with that since I can get it anyway and I don't know if these games are really appropriate for small children. Sometimes publishers don't publish their games in Germany if they expect indexing because then you would fear substantial losses (don't forget: no advertising). But then again importing is legally no problem.

Banning (i.e. total prohibition of selling the game in question) games is uncommon in Germany.
I can only think of Manhunt and Dead Rising at the moment. Both gorey games and rightfully classified as adult content. Nonetheless I would have loved to get these games and play them since beyond the blood and entrails it seemed to be quite entertaining games with a robust engine.
By the way: Successors to banned or indexed title receive usually auto-ban or auto-indexing automatically because they share similar content to the original banned / indexed game.

 

[Ernie Devlin]

Postal 2 in Australia.
I can't see how that happened!

 

[ryai458]

here is an awesome banned xbox360 commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuRQmvykwk

 

[CrysisMcGee]

Many games have been banned over time and some i really think dont deserve it. Many titles such as a great Manhunt 2 was banned, yes it was a game based on gore and simply murdering people with everyday objects but there was a clear sign that no-one under the age (i think) of 18 should be playing. Even though we do.

My main question is do you know any games that were banned that seemed a bit outragous?

Also do you think the press is too hard on games today? My view is that a simple bit of programming and some lights cant be blamed for some kid shooting another.

After reading through this list, it seems PC games get a lot more Leeway than console games. IN fact, it seems while the PC version is released unedited, the console version does not. So either they think only 10 year olds use consoles, or games on the PC are les likely to harm our precious youth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games

 

[credop]

Many games have been banned over time and some i really think dont deserve it. Many titles such as a great Manhunt 2 was banned, yes it was a game based on gore and simply murdering people with everyday objects but there was a clear sign that no-one under the age (i think) of 18 should be playing. Even though we do.

My main question is do you know any games that were banned that seemed a bit outragous?

Also do you think the press is too hard on games today? My view is that a simple bit of programming and some lights cant be blamed for some kid shooting another.

After reading through this list, it seems PC games get a lot more Leeway than console games. IN fact, it seems while the PC version is released unedited, the console version does not. So either they think only 10 year olds use consoles, or games on the PC are les likely to harm our precious youth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games

Thanks for that Crysis, didnt know that wiki page existed! and its hard to censor online, and i guess thats the reason why?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Manhunt 2 was unbanned and is on general release. Unfortunately because of the release delay everyone realised it sucked and no-one was interested...

I the UK there aren't many games that are outright banned. The Japanese rape games obviously but even stuff like Carmageddon got an unedited release in the end.

But the Xbox 360 commercial <youtube=qNuRQmvykwk> and pretty much everything the Aussie classification board does.

 

[oppp7]

I don't get why they try it so much. Most of the games aren't that bad.

 

[fix-the-spade]

They banned Fallout 'cus of the cows? just remind me don't they have gods with frankly wayyy too many arms? seems hipocritical, surley another head could only improve a god.

Cows are sacred in India and it's illegal to deface their image (no seriously).

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

They banned Fallout 'cus of the cows? just remind me don't they have gods with frankly wayyy too many arms? seems hipocritical, surley another head could only improve a god.

Cows are sacred in India and it's illegal to deface their image (no seriously).

A friend of mine who had a chance to do aid work in India, had an experience being around a man who mistreated a cow (hitting it). Lets just say, in order not to horrify the him and the other aid workers, they didn't kill him, just beat him.

 

[j0z]

WoW was for awhile in China...
Fo3 in India because of the cows.
All game more violent than Peggle in Australia (except for the Peggle which came with the OB)
All are true except the Australian one.

They banned Fallout 'cus of the cows? just remind me don't they have gods with frankly wayyy too many arms? seems hipocritical, surley another head could only improve a god.

Well, those hindus hold cows sacred, and nothing bad may happen to them. They might have removed the cows, but I don't think so.

 

[atomictoast]

Didn't some rape simulator actually manage to get banned from Japan?

I mean, you know it's bad when Japan won't take it.