Ben-DutkaMaybe it's not all that surprising that the country in question has a problem with big-name military shooters.
According to a new Fox News report , Pakistan has banned the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Medal of Honor: Warfighter .
Store owners that sell these products will face unknown consequences (that's a little frightening), and the country claims they've always been against such games. Here's part of the official statement released along with the ban:
"The Association has always boycotted these types of films and games. These (games) have been developed against the country's national unity and sanctity. The games (Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Call of Duty: Black Ops II) have been developed against Pakistan, and the association has completely banned their sales. Shopkeepers are warned and will be responsible for the consequences if found purchasing or selling these games."
APCDACTM president Saleem Memon apparently received dozens of complaints concerning the content in those titles, as both games feature segments set in Pakistan. A Pakistani official took another step by saying that the games "are an effort to malign the minds of youth against Pakistan" and are actually "American attempts to convince Pakistanis that they should accept Pakistan as a failed country and one that is home to terrorists."
I wouldn't touch this topic with a ten-foot cattle prod and a giant bag of cash tossed in my direction.
Sure, ban the games but treat women and your kids like s–t. Good logic there.
The women's right in Pakistan is the same as Arab?
@ Snaaaake:
It depends on what you mean by Arab. It also depends on what you mean by rights. We're not talking about a developed nation that strictly follows UN International Laws. While Pakistan doesn't specifically follow strict sharia law (which depends on interpretation, itself), it does follow a number of very sexist/misogynistic laws that disenfranchise and disadvantage women. So, Nas Is Like is right (IMO) to question their treatment of women.
Take it easy, there, tiger. The ban is laughable at best. Most vendors and games sold are bootleg, anyhow, so it's not like they got any control on the market. Regarding the rights of children and women, you may want to take a look at your country's drone attack civilian death toll (98%) on their country, before you get preachy about human rights.
Not all man in there treat woman like that u know….
I can understand banning MoH, but BO2?
Imagine if the Russians got mad about every war game their the badguys in. Ha, right, almost every war game.
*russian accent* – Getting mad is for pussies, my friend.
LOL, do they think our game developers have hundreds of millions of dollars to blow on making anti-Pakistan propaganda. This is for our entertainment and they are free to outlaw it in their country but not everything we do is directed toward them, in fact very little that we do is directed toward them.
I'm kind of waiting for a game that pits the Player against the US Military, and not as some rogue group or a military from the past. The current military, the one that invades other countries to facilitate the extraction of that country's resources.
I wonder if the US gov't would ban that game from being sold in the USA. I'm guessing that it wouldn't, but I can only imagine the controversy and protests from many extreme nationalistic groups who'd want it banned. Bigger [capitalist] questions: would the game sell well in the US? would the game sell well outside of the US?
They wouldn't ban it, but they would issue lots of statements and make lots of speeches about how terrible the game is, and how people who play it need to re-evaluate their lives and also might not be the most patriotic Americans.
I believe I should put my 2 cents in, being Pakistani. The thing is, Ben and the rest of the PSXE readers, that you'd be hard pressed to find original copies of video games here in Pakistan. I'd eat my shoe if you can go into a store and find a genuine Xbox 360 copy of a game. Everything on the shelves is pirated, except for PS3 games. In that case, people bulk buy PS3 games from places like UAE (one of the reasons I don't own Heavy Rain yet, I wish I could find it here) and then they sell it online or by word of mouth.
So, the gamers here will just laugh at these so called, "laws," which are never really enforced. Consider Pakistan as Gotham, there is no real law here unless you murder someone, even then if you know a politician, you're clean. I find it funny that FOX is reporting this, as I can't see it on any of the local news channels.
Oh, and one last thing. The majority of Pakistanis doesn't even acknowledge video games as a proper entertainment medium. It's still regarded as children's toys. And no publisher or manufacturer related to the video game industry acknowledges Pakistan as a proper region, so no games are "officially" sold here. So it shouldn't be a problem to anyone, as all the people I know who own a PS3, also own Black Ops II. As for me, I dunno what people like in CoD, it's the same thing since CoD4.
So there's your solution then – anyone that doesn't like COD should move to Pakistan.
Hehehe