Baalthazaq said:
Greg Tito said:
Baalthazaq said:
This is awesome, thanks for sharing, Baalthazaq. But if there is no banning then why did ME Gamer report that there was? What did they mean?
Greg
I actually don't know. I *know* the Pokemon thing was Sharjah. I know Origins was actually banned countrywide (Messiah was censored if anyone remembers that game, but even that was available).
I don't actually have Dead Rising 2, but I'll go to the store and see what they say on Thursday. I was talking about the list of games it joined.
"Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II". Origins I got when I was in the UK. I'll also ask about the other titles and see if they got banned after I bought them.
Hello again Greg, dunno if you're still reading this thread. Some interesting stuff.
As I said, I was confused about some of the titles. Red Dead Redemption is not banned at all. Mass Effect was banned recently, not when it was released, and not for months afterwards (I got my copy in July). Dead Rising 2 is currently under review and therefore it's stalled and unavailable.
I went to the store, and talked to the guy in charge of contacting distributors and stuff and he gave me a bit of an inside scoop. The media council doesn't play games. Games come under review when there is a ruckus, and he puts that ruckus' blame on the USA's escalation in going after games this last year.
Effectively, the campaigners going on about violent videogames are shouting so loud it's making waves across the globe, and whilst you have people counter lobbying it, they're not as loud, and we don't have an equivalent.
Something he didn't say but I'm saying, is that additionally, games in the ME still have the reputation as a child's toy. The US average age for videogamers is over 10 years older than the ME's average gamer.
I also found out GTA was banned last month. All of GTA. It had no problems until the end of 2010. Now GTA from 1 to IV to San Andreas, to Chinatown, to Vice City have been banned. Despite all being allowed to date. Since 1998.
As for the "revealing clothing" comment by the above poster... er... no. I really don't think so unless there's actual nudity or they've been told there is by the same groups I spoke of earlier. You know how you Americans fight for survival in broken down saloons in between invasions by native Americans and alien invasions? No? TV stereotypes aren't always valid.
Saudi would definitely ban something like that, but comparing laws like that between Saudi and the UAE are preposterous. Saudi Arabia is basically "What would the US be like if only the Republicans existed", and the UAE is like "What would the US be like if the Republicans were in power" when it comes to laws like this.
Hope that was informative if a bit rushed.
