Plague Inc. has been removed from the China App Store

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Quote

In a statement released on Ndemic's official website, the team explains that the reason behind Plague Inc's removal is because the game "includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China."

Source : https://www.pcgamer.com/plague-inc-has-been-removed-from-the-china-app-store/

 

 

Imagine being this weak as a nation:

“includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China” 
 

If anything, coronavirus is a textbook example of when censorship goes horribly wrong.
 

In the critical hours when this outbreak could have been contained and when the populace could have been informed, China chose to instead prosecute anybody who spoke out about it.
 

 

[Brooksie359]

China banning something because they are selfconsious? Not like we haven't see that before with a certain honey bear. Just goes to show how much china will do just to try and maintain what it thinks is a good image. 

[Retrodex Gaming]

Ah good old fashioned communism at it again!

[Velcade]

Why play it when you can go outside and live it

[3vitor]

Worst part is that China is spending money towards this kind of censorship instead of using the money to aid their people, study the virus or anything beneficial.

[Tristerin]

In China, Game Plays You

[TempestCatto]

So it's official. According to Winnie-the-Pooh, video games are to blame. Boomers were right this whole time!

[Techstorm970]

Hmm, let's see...

1.  China bans Winnie the Pooh because they didn't like memes.

2.  China cuts ties with NBA because they don't like free speech.

3.  China censors any insinuation of a possible disease outbreak, only making foreseen outbreak worse.

4.  China bans game about epidemics because they're embarrassed about #3.

 

Game show host: "YOU'VE WON A LIFE IN CHINA!!!"

Any sane person:  "Thanks.  I hate it."

[mr moose]

Or maybe they just cut it because it's in extremely poor taste right now.     Is that fair? Probably not. 

[Unixsystem]

4 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Or maybe they just cut it because it's in extremely poor taste right now.     Is that fair? Probably not. 

The game's been out for years and has been relatively popular, it's not like someone slapped together an asset flip to capitalize on current events. 

[mr moose]

10 minutes ago, Waffles13 said:

The game's been out for years and has been relatively popular, it's not like someone slapped together an asset flip to capitalize on current events. 

It doesn't have to be created after the fact to be in poor taste.   Anthrax were asked to change their name in the early 2000's due to terrorists supposedly using the virus as a weapon.    Things just happen, in the US when something is in poor taste or unliked it becomes the centre of a legal battle, in the china they just ban it.  

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

25 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Or maybe they just cut it because it's in extremely poor taste right now.     Is that fair? Probably not. 

PS
 

It's almost 8 years old game by now

It was popular when it came out

It was popular again during ebola

It again gained lots of popularity thanks to coronavirus

I think developers got much much more out of it than they put in during that time and it will surely resurge again in the future

but that did not stop the devs from removing it in Africa when ebola was a major threat did they? 

[Unixsystem]

21 minutes ago, mr moose said:

It doesn't have to be created after the fact to be in poor taste. 

That's basically the same argument that can be used for banning or modifying old books that use racist language that isn't considered kosher anymore. I know that an arcadey flash game isn't quite on the same level, but as an argument it's a fundamentally bad one. If you let current trends dictate what past media is in poor taste, then we may as well ban all media since it's going to offend someone sooner or later. 

 

Plague Inc hasn't infected anyone, Plague Inc hasn't killed anyone. If anything it may serve as a gateway for people to want to learn more and be better educated about the topic. 

[mr moose]

13 minutes ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

PS
 

It's almost 8 years old game by now

It was popular when it came out

It was popular again during ebola

It again gained lots of popularity thanks to coronavirus

I think developers got much much more out of it than they put in during that time and it will surely resurge again in the future

but that did not stop the devs from removing it in Africa when ebola was a major threat did they? 

 

It doesn't need to come out after an event to be in poor taste for people.

The devs didn't remove it in china, china did.   This just means Africa didn't care for what ever reason.

Popularity in one realm doesn't mean it is less offensive in another.

 

 

My point is not to say this is a move made because X, Y or Z.  But that people should not make the mistake of assuming china is some dumb arse country run by idiots who do futile things to avoid looking bad.  They are are very shrewd and very much on top of their game.  They don't do things by halves.  Nothing good ever came from a false confidence in knowledge when dealing with issues as large as china.

 

 

 

[mr moose]

4 minutes ago, Waffles13 said:

That's basically the same argument that can be used for banning or modifying old books that use racist language that isn't considered kosher anymore.

Not basically the same, exactly the same.

Quote

I know that an arcadey flash game isn't quite on the same level, but as an argument it's a fundamentally bad one. If you let current trends dictate what past media is in poor taste, then we may as well ban all media since it's going to offend someone sooner or later. 

 

Plague Inc hasn't infected anyone, Plague Inc hasn't killed anyone. If anything it may serve as a gateway for people to want to learn more and be better educated about the topic. 

I think you are missing my point, I never said it was fair or reasonable, in fact I did say it probably wasn't fair.  My point as I said in the above post, was not to assume the Chinese government are doing this for futile or seemingly image related reasons.  They are not school kids trying to be popular by force, they are ruthless controllers with more information than we have. 

[Deli]

Anyone remembers "Freedom fries".

[Deli]

2 hours ago, Retrodex Gaming said:

Ah good old fashioned communism at it again!

That is authoritarianism.

 

I bet my money that Russia and Saudi Arabia will do the same if the same scale of outbreak happens in their places.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

17 minutes ago, mr moose said:

But that people should not make the mistake of assuming china is some dumb arse country run by idiots who do futile things to avoid looking bad.

i think that's a whole other conversation, china at every possible opportunity has done just that, it's not run by dumb arse idiots, just the ones that are too scared to oppose the govt
 

there's no conspiracy here, china has done everything possible to censor the rest of the world in hopes of not damaging its name but it always leads to streisand effect. 

hell they even made the doctor who tried to warn the people apologize and



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-5136382

he later died from the same virus he was trying to treat people. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51403795
 

what i've shared here is just the tip of the iceberg, it's really hard to give a nation the benefit of the doubt when it constantly tries to censor everyone when it feels threatened of its name, last year alone, the NBA fiasco, Blizzard's tweet that was translated from china even though blizzard tried to cover it up, Mulan actress who was coerced into supporting the CCP, Jackie Chan's statements about the HK situation, arresting Journos who covered the Muslim concentration/organ harvesting camps, the rabbit hole goes so much deep.

when you put them all up together it sounds like a talk from a maniac, but all these things i'm talkin about happaned over different period of time over the last few years. 
i mean how many of the mainland people actually know about tiananmen square incident at all? you'd be surprised how many don't over the years of me playing online with friends from HK who have no idea what i'm even talking about and hearing it for the first time. 

[GreatZardasht]

What is this world becoming, also shouldnt this be on off topic? I remember playing that game , I always thaught it was a warning that something bad would happen and heres the funny thing, whenever I played I started the diseases in china and i won almost all the time.

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

snip

China do what they do to control the population absolutely,  and while an alternative solution is lacking, I don't know what else to say.

 

If you lose control of 1.3B people and have a civil war it won't end well (seriously not well at all for anyone).    Just remember life in china is absolutely leagues in front of where it was 15 years ago and it isn't even the same place as it was in the 80's.  I don't condone much the Chinese government is doing, but to try and insinuate they are going in the other direction to where they are actually heading is naive.

 

EDIT: just to be clear, China will not function if they were to be come a democratic country as we experience them to quickly.  I believe they are heading in that direction, as they have embraced capitalism, dropped barriers to personal wealth, slowly taking up better and better public health and control their economy in such a way as to afford as many people as they can of having a living without risking serious inequality issues as a social level.

[Andreas Lilja]

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

Anthrax were asked to change their name in the early 2000's due to terrorists supposedly using the virus as a weapon.  

By soccer moms? 

 

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, Andreas Lilja said:

By soccer moms? 

 

If I remember it was mainly journalists.  It was 20  years ago.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

China do what they do to control the population absolutely,  and while an alternative solution is lacking, I don't know what else to say.

 

If you lose control of 1.3B people and have a civil war it won't end well (seriously not well at all for anyone).    Just remember life in china is absolutely leagues in front of where it was 15 years ago and it isn't even the same place as it was in the 80's.  I don't condone much the Chinese government is doing, but to try and insinuate they are going in the other direction to where they are actually heading is naive.

 

EDIT: just to be clear, China will not function if they were to be come a democratic country as we experience them to quickly.  I believe they are heading in that direction, as they have embraced capitalism, dropped barriers to personal wealth, slowly taking up better and better public health and control their economy in such a way as to afford as many people as they can of having a living without risking serious inequality issues as a social level.

Honestly that is why they get away with the shady stuff they do. As much as they are fairly authoritarian they also use their power to push agendas that have increased the quality of life of their people compared to where they were. I mean there are alot of Chinese that generally like their government for that very reason. Its sorta like presidents in that sense. When the economy is good presidents generally win their reelection campaigns because as much as they may have done some stuff people don't like at least the economy is good. Alot of people that is mostly what they care about. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

China do what they do to control the population absolutely,  and while an alternative solution is lacking, I don't know what else to say.

i mean that failed so badly they had to scrap the 1 child policy as they don't have a working economy as everyone's too old or too young

i highly suggest you to watch this clip, also the full movie is on prime. 
 

 

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

If you lose control of 1.3B people and have a civil war it won't end well (seriously not well at all for anyone).    Just remember life in china is absolutely leagues in front of where it was 15 years ago and it isn't even the same place as it was in the 80's.

oh but there's so much more than the fake economy they are trying to build, building ghost towns at rapid rate to show growth, sure the life style has improved but the population that gets to enjoy that is way too disproportionate even compared to India, (in fact, most of the riches in China are paid by the govt to lead that life to either have a rich presence in tourist spots, or as i said boost a fake economy, i had a pretty good documentary about this which i can't seem to find)

 

 

almost all aspect of china is fake facade, not so fun fact, china is actively destroying old temples/historical places and building them with concrete and painting them to look old, coz ofcourse they do. 

time coded
 

surely the answer to control 1.4 Billion people can't be just what china's been doing right now with their social credit system or the global censorship or the concentration camps, can't really take the population size as the excuse to bully other nations, coz they are doing that in more ways than you think, this thread is gonna derail way too much if i start to post links/sources about how china is investing in Pakistan's roads knowing well they can't pay back to get an upper hand on Kashmir in India/UN, investing in Bridges in Africa knowing well they can't payback.
 

 

fool me once, fool me twice, but china's been fooling people left and right every other day, you can't seriously come to a conclusion maybe what they are doing is the only way, or they aren't acting in bad faith, they most definitely are, how do you know? talk to them, i've learned so much of these through few of my friends from HK who were raised on mainland china. 


also a good video about why china feels threatened of bad name 
 

PS the person i've linked of has been in china for over a decade and has been married to a chinese women, he knows his shit. 

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

SNIP

Your still missing the point.  Yes china is bad, but it's not getting worse, it's getting better (we have to wait the outcome of digital tracking to see what impact that has had).   And I personally speak to a lot of Chinese and people who work there.  It looks extremely bad from the outside to younger western people because they have no first hand experience with it or have been around to see first hand what it was like.  

 

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly that is why they get away with the shady stuff they do.

They don't get away with it because they do good stuff, they get away with it because they are an all controlling government.   The good stuff they do is genuinely the direction they want to go, the bad stuff they do is essentially to maintain that growth/direction in the absence of a better solution. As I tried to explain before, we can't judge their government using conventional western democratic government standards, the conditions just aren't even in the same ball park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guys, trust me, I am not supporting the shady shit they do, I'm just saying this thing is huge and a lot bigger than what you see on the internet.   

 

How many people on this forum were even alive when the Berlin wall fell and pro democracy protestors were exterminated in Tiananmen square?  I was of voting age and had already taken an interest in global social politics when those two unfolded.  There aren't any number of youtube videos that will change history.  Since then, QOL has grown 9.3% p.a in china over the last 3 decades. Given their population and resources and the governmental control this is huge.   Does this excuse poor human rights violations? shit no.  but there is an exorbitant amount of data you need to absorb and understand before you can even begin to understand what is going on.  All the shit on youtube and in supermarket tabloids combined with shit tweets from right wing americans only leads to a very superficial position.

 

 

 

https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-94-007-0753-5_3753

 

This is behind a paywall, but the important figure is in the abstract.