Everquest and Counter-Strike Banned in Brazil
 

Ok, i JUST saw the news, like, 10 minutes ago...

Counter-Strike and Everquest are officially banned products in Brazil, because they are too violent...

...ok, let that sink in...

...ok, go.

The Government says that it promotes violence, and shape the youth in wrong ways, thus, the banning. Take note that these are the only two games that got banned here...

...i Mean, you can still play Doom 3, Bioshock, Diablo and even god freaking damn Hellgate London!

The REAL problem was that students were ditching class (too much) to play Counter Strike in Lan Houses near schools (there are some...) or during School hours.

Now i have people coming to me saying we should put up a association or something to that effect in order to put up a voice on the matter before things get out of hand...

Ok, my Country is stupid now. I want a new one...

Wait, are they banned from being purchased or banned from being played online or played single player?
And what are the penalties and how would such a ban be enforced?

They have LAN houses? Neat! Why weren't they around when I was in highschool?

http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/comics/20030428.jpg

Here's something I found through a simple Google search.


Of course, this can (and might) cause an entire underground community based around these games in Brazil. First thing that comes to mind is a "Fight Club" kind of thing.

Well what I got from the article that Savage posted was that they were simply banned from selling and have been for some time, only it's just now being enforced.
So if one had a legally obtained copy, acquired before the ban, there should be no reason why you can't play it if there is simply a ban on selling.

from being purchased. the news report didnt mention penalties. and the ban is being enforced by what i woudl call "street sweeps" they have several state officers and fiscalization officers going everywhere where these games are being sold, and taking them right out of the shelves...

Mind you that they also claim that the level of violence and gore on Counter Strike was "too realistic"...

Counter Strike... realistic...

And... well... yeah... Land Houses... i mean, im sure those aren exclusives over here, right? Basicly just a house with a bunch of High end pc's linked by Lan where stupid kids pay 3~5 bucks an Hour to surf the web or play things like Warcraft, need for speed, Everquest, Ragnarok, Gunz and Counter Strike

... So does this mean that one can still legally play these games?

If so, people are just gonna find loopholes. *Coughbootlegscough*

Well, let me tell you about 2 aspects of brazil

We already have that... it's HUGE.... seriously... huge.

i'm not sure if the Playing of a legal copy is banned, i dont think so... i KNOW that players under 18 are banned from playing on lanhouses and such...

Now, yo usee, we are over 170 million peopel here... and i can easily strike a couple of millions when i talk about gamers... however, we dont have anythign remotly related to a Gaming industry here... they still sell NES consoles with differente packagings and names and the freaking Mega Drive! On stores!

around 99% of all games we play are in English (or japanese... eek) and we still play those...

i can surelly assure you that this ban wont do a thing about the gaming habit around here... Simply because i know i can buy Mario Galaxy for my Wii for about $250 on a store or for $10 on any street vendor. It's almost a "cultural" thing (i hate it, but it is)

The same rule apply to pretty much every single piece of software you can think of. Most Lan Houses already run on Bootlegs or flat out Torrent downloads (Only a few are trully Legit about it)

What i find stupid is that they ban those 2 games and make a fuzz about it thinking it will solve anything. Then i think that these are the people holding great companies and developers fro menterign the country, and it makes me a sad Panda...

Well, kind of hard to run a bootleg copy of Everquest, given you need to subscribe to begin with. But then, you can just buy the game direct from Sony and have it shipped to your house. Surely you could do the same for the original Counterstrike and Half Life, though those are much more susceptible to obtaining unpurchased copies.

If it's illegal to purchase in Brazil then Sony etc won't be able to sell it a Brazilian address