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They Banned These Games For The Craziest Reasons · Be Amazed

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Video games have been a wash with controversy for nearly as long as they've existed.
0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But some have proved so offensive that entire countries have demanded they be censored or even completely outlawed.
0:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reasons why I get pretty don't wild.
0:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So from a cursing hedgehog to a drunk princess, let's explore some band and censored video games and the weird reasons behind their censorship.
0:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Few video games have been more influential than 1998's Half-Life.
0:47
[SPEAKER_00]: This violent first person shooter follows theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman as he's forced to defend the human race against an empire of extra-dimensional beasties.
0:57
[SPEAKER_00]: sounds cool huh?
1:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, not to the German government.
1:02
[SPEAKER_00]: See Germany has historically had some of the strictest video game censorship in the world.
1:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Excessive violence has mostly been a huge no-no, but when Half-Life came out it was widely hailed as a masterpiece, so despite the violence German gamers desperately wanted to play it and developer Valve definitely wanted to sell it to them.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: To tackle the issue, they came up with some rather interesting ways of appeasing the sensors.
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: To start blood and gore were toned down significantly, and human enemies were completely replaced with a robot, so they wouldn't bleed.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Most notably, however, were the changes made to friendly human NPCs.
1:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And the original release players could choose to straight up attack their fellow humans, and even send them to sleep with the fishies.
1:51
[SPEAKER_00]: rude, and the German version though, well, any NPC you try to unalive instead sits down on the floor across like it and begins shaking their head disapprovingly at you.
2:03
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want a lower base to reason for this, well, you're a lot of luck, but it does kind of make you feel bad.
2:08
[SPEAKER_00]: What have I done?
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I love a good meme, some people however hate them, and they have to make it everybody else's problem.
2:18
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2019, small Taiwanese game developer RedChandle games found this out the hard way.
2:23
[SPEAKER_00]: They just released their second title, a horror game called Devotion, to overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.
2:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly, this little known developer got super popular.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But then only two days after it's acclaimed release, devotion found itself the target of a massive review bombing campaign.
2:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Floods of negative reviews came in and the positive scoring it up completely replaced with a mostly negative rating.
2:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So what the heck happened?
2:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, some gamers had discovered a little easter egg hidden in one of the game's assets and scribe on a seemingly innocuous talisman adorning a wall where the words, G-G-Ping Winnie the Pooh.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me explain.
3:07
[SPEAKER_00]: G-G-Ping is the leader of China and some people say he looks like everyone's favorite honey-loving bear Winnie the Pooh.
3:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Naturally, then the internet are ruthlessly roasted, ggping, making countless memes comparing him to whenay.
3:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, the Chinese leader didn't take kindly to this and in response banned any reference to whenay across the whole country.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, any reference.
3:33
[SPEAKER_00]: The censorship is so strict that when Square Enix released the Chinese version of Kingdom Hearts 3, a game that heavily features the little Yelafela, the devs had to completely obscure him with a white blob.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: subtle.
3:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Red Candle game snuck a reference to the whole debacle into devotion, Chinese gamers found out an angrily review bomb did.
3:55
[SPEAKER_00]: After the discovery the game was swiftly banned in China, leading Red Candle to make an apologetic statement,
4:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently the offending material was a placeholder they'd forget to remove.
4:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Big Boo Boo!
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: To avoid further criticism, they updated the game to remove the reference, but the damage was already done.
4:13
[SPEAKER_00]: With Port Reviews continuing to pour in the devs pulled the game from steam and never re-uploaded it.
4:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no.
4:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't despair, if you're brave enough, you can still buy devotion directly from Red Candle Games' website, that's the only place it exists, though, and all because of one guys insecurity.
4:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, bother.
4:34
[SPEAKER_00]: To help me out with my own massive insecurity, why not give us a follow wherever you're listening.
4:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll never miss another episode and I'll feel slightly better about my life choices.
4:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright onwards.
4:47
[SPEAKER_00]: 2005 Shadow The Hedgehog is notorious for starting the decline of the Sonic franchise's best-written character.
4:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Shadow went from the ultimate life form to the ultimate edge lord.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Shadow of the Hedgehog actually swears in this game.
5:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, what a bad word, yeesh.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Guns, mild curses, aggressive angsts, into hummus.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But what if I told you the game was initially intended to be a whole lot, again?
5:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Seriously, during a initial development it targeted a T for teen rating and featured bloody violence with alien enemies spurting the forbidden tomato juice when they were attacked.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: The cursing was also stronger and more prevalent, and some more intense scenes like the death of Shadow's friend Maria were shown outright rather than fading to wood like in the release version.
5:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So why didn't we get that version?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, just a few months before the game was set to release the ESRB, that's the US rating board for video games, and introduced the new E10 Plus rating which certifies a game as appropriate for everyone aged 10 and over.
5:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Seemingly getting COVID about the more mature direction the developers have to detone down the content to meet this new rating.
6:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Sonic already had an established appeal to kids, so taking the brand and pushing it into older territory is an odd risk that would have limited the game's audience.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So the edges son of game was actually a victim of self-sensorship all along.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If like me, you're morbidly curious to see how controversial the OG Shadow really was though, you're out of luck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Supposedly all copies of the uncut original version were destroyed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Croaky.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I guess nobody can outrun their own mortality.
6:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Sensitive little souls will often trick that games like Call of Duty are too violent or crass and shouldn't be sold, which is why I'd love to see their reactions to Postal too.
6:42
[SPEAKER_00]: This first-person open-world game came out back in 2003 and gets seriously dark.
6:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, being able to drop a WMD onto an unsuspecting town, setting NPCs on fire and wielding a variety of outrageous weapons from sides to her.
6:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Being baggons?
7:00
[SPEAKER_00]: A wild violence doesn't stop a human's either, you can also attack innocent animals like elephants.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, but the craziest part, there's a dedicated P-button.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Anything or anyone you see, you can pee on.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Very high brow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As you can imagine, this super bizarre game is only suitable for adults, but some countries considered it suitable for nobody.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Germany, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand banned the game entirely, signing the depravity is unacceptable.
7:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Postal's developers running what scissors have noted that every violent act is optional, and players can complete the game entirely peacefully, but come on.
7:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I guarantee nobody that has ever played Postal 2 has played it peacefully, not even the Supreme Court justices that had to play it in 2011.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, here at that right, in order to rule on a 2005 California law banning the sale of violent video games to children a number of U.S. Supreme Court members gave Postal 2 a spin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: that would have been a sight to behold.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately the law was struck down but the fact postal 2 was the game chosen to champion a white sweeping video game ban, says it all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think was the controversy surrounding postal 2 overblown or did the game deserve to be banned?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let us know in the comments if the platform allows it.
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, Pokémon, the biggest media franchise of all time.
8:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely such a family-friendly series would never have issues with censorship.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd think so, but hilariously Pikachu and Bows have faced some serious government Iro over the years.
8:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Back in 2001, the series was banned in Saudi Arabia for being a form of gambling.
8:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, what?
8:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It's unclear whether it was the random Pokémon encounters or the existence of slot machines in certain areas of the early games, but the franchise remains banned in the country today.
8:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not the only place, both Egypt and Qatar also banned the series setting as un-islamic as it promoted Darwin's theory of evolution and even claiming it was part of a Zionist plot.
9:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite this madness, some avid Saudi Arabian fans have reported being able to find the games if you had nowhere to look.
9:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Outside of the Muslim world, you might be surprised to find out that the franchise has also been censored in Western countries.
9:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember those slot machines I mentioned?
9:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, as attitudes towards gambling and games changed, the game corners that they resided and were slowly phased out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: First, the 2009 release of Platinum in South Korea and Europe removed the ability to interact with the slot machines.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then 2010's worldwide release of Heart Gold and Soul Silver replaced them with a card flipping mini game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Afterwards, no mainline game entries featured a game corner or slot machines at all.
9:51
[SPEAKER_00]: but that's still not the end of the controversy.
9:54
[SPEAKER_00]: While certain creatures worked well in their home country of Japan, their designs had totally different interpretations overseas.
10:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about jinx, a generation one Pokemon that was introduced in the very first entries of the series.
10:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Its design is likely influenced by Japanese folklore, specifically the Yama Uba, a supernatural being with a feminine appearance, the Yama Uba is often depicted in a tattered red kimono and has a pinch in for entrancing its victims, much like jinx is a psychic type Pokémon.
10:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Some western gamers, however, saw something more nefarious in the design, and D.J.
10:32
[SPEAKER_00]: was accused of being a racial caricature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So from the worldwide release of Generation 2's Golden Silver in 2000, Nintendo altered Jinks' design worldwide.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Its black skin was changed to purple in nowadays, most people don't even remember the original.
10:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Phew, Christ has overheard it.
10:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's safe to say the ever-popular Metal Gear series is not for kids.
10:57
[SPEAKER_00]: With complex plots about war, economy, private military organizations, and online censorship, there's little for children to enjoy before we even get to the violence.
11:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, old solid snake riding and big balls do their fair share of blasts and in their many video game appearances, but sometimes they find themselves on the receiving end of the violence.
11:19
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 2010 PSP entry piecewalker Big Boss is captured by the enemy and prodded with electrical runs for information.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nasty.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Nasty in fact that the scene was censored in its own home region of Japan.
11:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, not in a way you might expect.
11:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Get this.
11:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than electrocuting the player, the villain instead zaps them with a tickle rod.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm dead serious.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The scene is otherwise the same except Big Boss' voiceover has been altered from screaming, the laughing.
11:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm not sure if it carries quite the same way as the original, but hey, at least they tried.
11:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few decades, you've almost definitely heard of the Mortal Kombat series.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ultra-violent action-packed fighters where brutal dismemberment is as common as disappointing your loved ones.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Just me?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Naturally, all that brutality means it's become the mortal enemy of sensors everywhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout the 30-year lifespan of the franchise, it's been edited,
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[SPEAKER_00]: The original game from 1992 was censored for the SNES Sega Genesis Game Boy and Game Gear to tone down the violence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even today I can't show you any uncensored footage on YouTube.
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: In Germany the game was outright band due to the country's strict censorship laws.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Heck Mortal Kombat was so shocking that it was partly responsible for the creation of the ESRP.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that first game was only the start.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If I were to list every instance of censorship for each entry in the franchise, we'd be here all night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So instead, let's take a look at one of the more bizarre ones.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 2019's Mortal Kombat 11 was banned in Japan for low and behold, it's extreme violence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But it was also canned in Ukraine and Indonesia for a completely different reason.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A pre-order bonus skin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The outfit dressed one of the fighters and unmistakably Soviet military garb.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Complete with the red star and hammer and sickle imagery.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See both countries have a blanket band on communist symbols and media so all that Soviet inspired guard was a big fat no-no.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even today, the most recent installment of reboot continues to spread controversy for its ultraviolence.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can probably guess that's about to happen here.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, Uzbekistan and Malaysia took so much offense they blanket banned the entire franchise.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jeez!
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I think Mortal Kombat is so over the top it's just silly, but sadly, I'm not in charge.
14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely everyone's favorite plumber Super Mario has had a squeaky clean history devoid of controversy
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[SPEAKER_00]: Wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Mario has been a very naughty boy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, now he's not been getting up to any riskation and against behind closed doors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His friends on the other hand?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, wait and see.
14:20
[SPEAKER_00]: In the original 1993 Super Mario Cart when a racer comes in first place, they get their time in the spotlight to top the Victory Bodium.
14:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Some characters cheer, some throw pea signs, others binge drink.
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, what?
14:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, in the original Japanese release of the game, Bowser and Peach both glug hardly from a bottle of champagne when they went.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Peach even has Rosie Red Cheeks that a note she's definitely drawn.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just hope she's a happy drunk another mean one.
14:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Nintendo went to look-lies the game for the U.S. they had to make some changes.
14:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Nintendo of America had strict rules against the patience of alcohol use in games.
15:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than glug-nown champagne, Peach and Bowser were altered to simply cheer with it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Much more in line with Nintendo's family-friendly image.
15:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean binge drinking, what's next?
15:11
[SPEAKER_00]: To Chablifting, Dr. Mario engaging in medical malpractice.
15:15
[SPEAKER_00]: While according to Mario's creator, Shiguru Miyamoto ad might not be so far from the truth.
15:21
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not familiar, Dr. Mario first appeared in his own puzzle game in 1990.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And from there's made a number of appearances in other Nintendo games.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But in a 2020-threaty interview with IGN Miyamoto made a shocking statement.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently despite Mario's blue collar, he has no medical background.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So when he dresses up as Dr. Mario, he's a total fraud.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Croyking.
15:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, okay, he was definitely joking, but give you something to think about, doesn't it?
15:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, earlier when we talked about Chinese censorship, while China has some of the strictest video game sensors around, because it's one of the largest markets in the world though, devs will always want to sell their games there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Which means they need to play ball.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Usually, the help producer's specific version for China, Ubisoft, however, neglected to do this with 2015's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they took the lazy approach.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See, creating and maintaining two separate versions of a game is obviously more difficult and expensive than having just one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Ubisoft decided to make just one version that would be toned down enough to be legal everywhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, and a gritty first person shooter revolving around criminal activity, they tried to remove any and all instances of, well, anything criminal.
16:42
[SPEAKER_00]: At least it substances, gambling, and even blood was originally planned to be cut.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Needless to say, when gamers outside of China caught one of this, they weren't happy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, Ubisoft came to the backlash and dropped their plans, or did they?
16:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out, censorship has gradually crept back into the game with updates, slot machines and the online of a woman dancing, and even a graffitied skull have all been removed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jeez, the influence one market can have on the rest of the world is shocking, huh?
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But want to hear the funniest part?
17:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Siege is still considered taboo in China and can't be streamed there.
17:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha, what a joke.
17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Though Chinese gamers have found some interesting work arounds, hmmm.
17:27
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't see anything resembling the game, is there really any point?
17:31
[SPEAKER_00]: One game that did have a separate Chinese version is Fortnite.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Although developer Epic Games had to work hard to get the Blackbuster Battle Royale
17:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So how did they do it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Probably not in the way you'd expect.
17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Many character skins that were designed with skeletons or schools were reworked or entirely removed.
17:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Depicting these features isn't outlawed in China, but their censorship guidelines are so vague that most publishers sell censor to avoid any trouble.
18:02
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, one of China's guidelines specifies that anything promoting superstition is not allowed.
18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: What's cold and swollen to that category?
18:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe?
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's impossible to know.
18:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Violence is also heavily controlled in Chinese video games, so as a work around of this, the game was adapted to take place in a training ground where all players are actually hauling or abs.
18:24
[SPEAKER_00]: This way, there were no depictions of actual violence.
18:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Sneaky.
18:28
[SPEAKER_00]: This might epic games is best efforts, though.
18:31
[SPEAKER_00]: The ever-taining restrictions on Chinese gaming lead Fortnite to entirely shut down there in 2021.
18:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Ouch.
18:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But titles have even been banned in China because of their players.
18:43
[SPEAKER_00]: 2020's Animal Crossing New Horizons is a delightful game about maintaining a small island and making cute animal pals.
18:50
[SPEAKER_00]: However, to the iron of Chinese censors, it's also about Brace yourselves, Self-Experation.
18:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, gamers can customize their island paradise as much as they like and many chose to in ways that the government deemed big no-noes.
19:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But what did they do?
19:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Arrange trees into nutty pictures?
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Nah, some players created anti-government messages in-game as a form of protest.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, they protested for a free Hong Kong just as mainland China began to make moves to restrict the region's autonomy.
19:23
[SPEAKER_00]: As they do with any and all criticism or dissent, the Chinese Communist Party responded by banning new horizons.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Classic.
19:31
[SPEAKER_00]: The 90s was a hard time for game developers, violence in games like Doom and Mortal Kombat had created a massive conversation about what was and wasn't acceptable in a video game.
19:42
[SPEAKER_00]: This came to a head in 1997, one racing game, karma, get-and-drop, and immediately became one of the first games to get banned in multiple countries.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So, what is Carmageddon?
19:54
[SPEAKER_00]: At first it appears to be a pretty box standard racing game, but here's a twist.
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Points are scored by mowing down innocent pedestrians, chees.
20:06
[SPEAKER_00]: The sheer nihilism and violence on display led to a swift backlash and the game was a few sale in Brazil and Buenos Aires.
20:14
[SPEAKER_00]: In other countries, it was eventually allowed to be sold, but with heavy censorship.
20:19
[SPEAKER_00]: In the UK civilians were all replaced with zombies, this few cartoony green blood when they were run down.
20:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But this was still too much for India and Earl Pell Germany.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And those countries, the pedestrians weren't allowed to be flesh and blood at all.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: They were changed into robots that leak oil.
20:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite this, the media buzz meant it's so pretty well, and it ultimately spawned two sequels and a reboot.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Have you played any of them?
20:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us know in the comments if the platform allows it.
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It's learned to understand just how impactful the 2008 release of Fallout 3 was.
20:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But as to Game Studios, first attempt at the franchise catapulted it back into the line light with an utter banger.
21:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But did you know the violent post-apocalyptic romp was hit with censorship before it even released?
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: See if each is an endgame consumable called Med X?
21:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But originally this was the real-life painkiller morphine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because taking it increases the player's damage resistance, Australia viewed it as rewarding
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: This resulted in a big old band being planned for the game, so but as the rename the consumable Metax.
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: The band was lifted and the change made it into every other release of the game worldwide.
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But that wasn't the end of the title censorship, though the decision was reversed years later, initially all the blood and gore was removed from, you guessed it, the German version.
21:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Japan references to the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of World War II were removed.
21:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And India, however, the game's publisher chose not to sell it at all, likely because of one specific creature in the game, a mutant, two-headed cow.
22:04
[SPEAKER_00]: See, and India accounts are revered as holy creatures, so a game where your actively encouraged to shoot mutated two-headed versions was probably seen as a recipe for trouble.
22:14
[SPEAKER_00]: In game, the animals are even referred to as Brahmin, which is the name of a prominent concept and Hinduism.
22:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can see why the blood was pulled on this one, because they didn't want anybody to have a cow.
22:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's time to discuss those little rascals again.
22:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Bo-gamon!
22:34
[SPEAKER_00]: What have they done this time, eh?
22:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're not talking about the main series of games, but rather it's super popular spin-off Pokémon Go.
22:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Just in case you've been on the moon for a decade Pokemon Go is an augmented reality mobile game that allows players to hunt Pokemon in the real world using geolocation data.
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is the Pokemon could appear anywhere, from your backyard to a highly secure military base.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And some goofballs didn't care, if they wanted that high level chores or they'd have the fence and get it.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Other dovices would continually inner-restrict the areas, private property, or even dangerous locations, or the chance to capture a rare Pokémon.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: This rash behavior led to Pokémon go-being banned in several countries including Iran and China.
23:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Saudi Arabia on the other hand banned it for a different reason, its depiction of evolution.
23:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
23:31
[SPEAKER_00]: A bunch of other countries avoided blanket bands, but instead prohibited it in specific areas, like graveyards and memorial museums.
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Seems reasonable to me.
23:41
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a weird one.
23:43
[SPEAKER_00]: On the one hand, I'm not a fan of censorship and think everybody should be able to play a video game like this, but on the other one that encourages players to go walk about into potentially dangerous situations should probably have some limitations.
23:57
[SPEAKER_00]: If any of you guys play Pokemon, go exercise some comments, since please.
24:01
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's a time of motion on the train tracks, just leave it be.
24:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Makes Marshall Arts, or MMA is a popular combat sport that's come under heavy criticism over the years for its violent nature.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: At one point, it was even banned across the United States.
24:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I tell you 2010's EA Sports MMA video game isn't for Salem Denmark, I know what you're thinking.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because of the violence, right?
24:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Wrong.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Energy drinks.
24:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not for sale because of energy drinks.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Seriously.
24:32
[SPEAKER_00]: See, most energy drinks contain touring in the central amino acid with a plethora of anecdotal benefits.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: However, Denmark has always been concerned about its long-term effects, so much so that Red Bull was actually banned in the country until 2009.
24:47
[SPEAKER_00]: While EA sports MMA game features tons of rockstar energy sponsorship, the logo is plastered all over the place.
24:54
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is, Denmark treats energy drinks like cigarettes, they're legal, but aren't allowed to be advertised like regular products.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So having them advertised in a video game that a kid could get their hands on, big no-no.
25:09
[SPEAKER_00]: In response to this, rather than censoring the ads, EA chose not to market the game and Denmark at all.
25:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's an odd decision if you ask me, but not as odd as the Danish government treating rockstar energy commercials is more harmful than two guys beat in the heck out of each other.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that, I'm just about headed with Bander since or anything.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Did any of those surprise you?
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us know in the comments if the platform allows, and if you enjoyed this episode, hit follow wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss the next one.
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening.
25:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the podcast.
25:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you again next time.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll want to be amazed.