The government of Brazil has imposed a ban on a pair of well-known PC games.
Judge Carlos Alberto Simoes wrote that first-person shooter Counter-strike and MMORPG Everquest, both released in 1999, needed to be banned because they:
…[Encouraged] the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security.
As reported by AFP, the ban was immediately applied across the country. It’s unclear why these two games, both originally released in 1999, were targeted. Each, however, has garnered its share of negative publicity over the years. In addition, local sensitivities may have been inflamed by a particular CS mod:
An adapted version in Brazil permitted players to take on the perspective of either a police officer or a narcotrafficker in Rio de Janeiro’s infamously crime-ridden slums.
Kotaku has a bit more, including letters from several Brazilian gamers who provide their take on the situation.
