According to an Associated Press article, Judge Flavio Rabello recently ordered that Rockstar's controversial game be banned from the country. This means that Brazilian stores (both brick and mortar and online) cannot sell the software, nor can the title be imported, distributed, or promoted.
So, why Bully over other violent games? State prosecutor Alcindo Bastos commented, "The aggravating factor is that everything in the game takes place inside a school. That is not acceptable." Yet, Bully isn't first game to be prohibited in the Latin American country; earlier this year, Counter-Strike and Everquest were banned as well.
It's a shame when governments don't take the time to understand something before following a knee-jerk reaction. Perhaps bullying is a touchy subject, since the issue involves children committing violence against other children, but pretending it doesn't exist by banning media that portrays it won't solve any problems.
[Via Game Politics]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-11-2008 @ 8:12PM
blackdogassault said...
Oh, great. The country's already a import-only for both Sony and Nintendo and now there's censor over games... Well. The law probably won't stick (yeah, the country's like that). Counter Strike is still heavily played in LAN Houses and that sorta thing.
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4-11-2008 @ 8:15PM
MarkLawliet said...
I'm brazilian, and i tell you, wii fanboys, this banishiment is stupid.
A game here costs the equivalent to 150 dollars. No sane person buys games in national stores, they just order it from international sites on the internet.
Doesn't really affects much people, i guess.
About our censorship issues, i suppose you're talking about Counter-Strike and Everquest being banished. Yeah, people still play it, just download the damn thing or buy it online.
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4-11-2008 @ 8:29PM
User said...
That's why here in Brazil EVERY console has a modchip. Besides things like these, games in USA are usually US$50,00, in Brazil original games are R$ 200,00(something around US$110). Brazil is far from being a good place for gamers.
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4-12-2008 @ 10:12AM
bleh said...
Doesn't seem like this is even about violence or about video games; it's more about control. The main protragonist is someone who wishes to directly challenge authority, and most of the game's plotline is based around this. Brazil, however, doesn't have such an enriching culture to allow such elements of freedom. Their current "administration," along with the wealthy elite, is making a lot of money off of the cane-cutting industry; this has reduced many working people (i.e. farmers) virtually to slavery and worse. The growing poverty and subjugation of those farmers is leading to rampant deforestation all over Brazil at the behest of corporate interests. If that wasn't enough, their current president's election was highly questionable, even more than our own. The list goes on, as you may have guessed.
I don't wish to troll, or make trouble with the other commenters. Trolling is highly unproductive. The only thing I ask is that the writers here take some social consideration into why games are banned from these countries, instead of immediately assuming that the reason is due to violence in video games. That reason doesn't fly anymore, because the political evidence clearly points the finger in another direction.
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4-12-2008 @ 1:26PM
blackdogassault said...
As a brazilian, and seeing that you aren't, I'm quite surprised that you know quite some about our country, but I'm just going to point out some things:
- Deflorestation has been on a high since the 70's, when growth of companies in the south of the country led to a politic of reallocating small farmers who lost their lands to the center-west and north regions of the country, where Amazon is.
- Sugar-cane is not the main component of the local elite; the market in question has always been present, but only grown in the last years.
- The current president (which I personally am against) had no suspicions of fraud on his election. He's a very popular president with almost 70% approval rate and that shown itself at his reelections results. What's questionable about him is how the hell he can keep his popularity with all the big and numerous corruption scandals, all of which he either said he didn't even knew about or he supported the responsible.
4-12-2008 @ 1:42PM
bleh said...
Thanks very much for pointing out my errors regarding deforestation and the sugar-cane industry. However, I urge you to read this article regarding your current president:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/braz-n08.shtml
You may or may not agree with the politics of this article, but I think it provides the most insight so far into Lula's re-election. Thanks again your response; I hope to solidify my facts the next time around.
4-12-2008 @ 11:43AM
Alex said...
With 90% piracy rate, no one can censor games. But wait, 110 dollars for games in Brazil? And I thought our 80 dollars per game in Mercadolibre were high... Of course, the guys who call themselves "Nintendo official distributors" sell games at 110 dollars, but only idiots would buy them.
BTW, I live in Argentina, and thanksfully, the goverment doesn't care about videogames. They have more important issues to deal with, like to make the people believe there would be a high speed train in Argentina, and meanwhile they steal the money from the farmers...
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4-13-2008 @ 9:25PM
chalito said...
Well, just to point out that not everyone thinks like you, I pretty much support argentina's current government, fully agree with argo export taxes, And don't think the "high speed train" (which is what passes for a normal train anywhere in europe, just that we're used to trains being slow) is silly at all.
4-13-2008 @ 8:17PM
Boo!? said...
I'm a Brazilian too. I agree that this ban won't make much difference in Brazil since most people buy pirated games or import original ones, AND that law simply doesn't work here. Saying that all Wiis have modchips was kind of farfetched (I doubt that it reaches 50% of them) but I understand your point.
And about Lula, yeah, he just manipulates the masses (which isn't difficult since most people in our country are very poor and alienated) and gets their approval. That's why even now, that he's been ****ing with our country for more than 7 years, most people still like him. But yeah
And @ Alex: Yeah, official distributors sell them for US 110 dollars just like in Argentina, and the console used to be sold for more than 1000 US dollars. Of course, intelligent/lucky people can buy stuff over internet for a much lower price.
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