back to article Ban Minecraft? That's jive, Turkey!

The wildly popular sandbox game Minecraft is facing a possible ban in Turkey. English-language Hurriyet Daily News reports that the nation's Family Ministry will soon file a legal complaint seeking to halt sales of the game and ban its playing in Turkey. According to the report, officials are worried that the combat elements …

  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Trollface

    It will only be days before someone builds a total Mohammed ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Eh, when that happens you'd better hope that you didn't build a blocky embassy nearby...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Turkey banned "Ms. Pacman" too...

    Because that harlot never covers herself!

    (OK, cheap shot, but I took it anyway)

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Turkey banned "Ms. Pacman" too...

      That and she didn't walk 10 paces behind Mr. Pacman.

  3. stucs201

    the combat functions .... encourage the mistreatment of animals

    No, it's the efficiency of building automatic breeding and cooking machines that does that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the combat functions .... encourage the mistreatment of animals

      with the correct mods you can automate the process of turning pigs into milk shakes and maccrapolds burgers.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    cubes

    If Turkish people can't tell the difference between large coloured blocks, and real people and animals then they have waaay worse things to worry about than Minecraft.

    Presumably Rubik's Cubes are also facing a ban, incase they encourage people to strangle one another?

  5. veti Silver badge

    YHBT

    This has all the hallmarks of a fluff piece by Minecraft's (admittedly, excellent) PR department.

    Deals with a game that's been available for a long time and already has a large established base in the country in question, and frankly sales have been flagging lately? Check.

    No major Minecraft-related stories in the past two weeks? Check.

    Based on one internal government document, not an actual process under way? Check. (How did this news "leak" out, I wonder?)

    Instantly picked up by every tech media outlet in the world, including those who have hitherto shown absolutely no awareness that there is even a place called "Turkey", much less its censorship rules? Check.

    No mention in any of those sites of what other games are already banned under the same rules? Ayup.

    In fact, I can't find that list anywhere on the internet. There's a suspiciously similar story about 'Game of Thrones', but it seems that nobody, in the history of the internet, has ever bothered to compile a public list of things that are banned in Turkey. Which makes me think that maybe, nobody actually cares that much. Except when they're trying to sell stuff.

    1. streaky

      Re: YHBT

      I hope this is a joke.

  6. MrDamage Silver badge

    Huh?

    If they are truly worried about something promoting children to be violent towards others, perhaps the regime should back away from its fundamentalist islamic stance.

    You know, the same stance that promotes the destruction of Israel, death to jews, christians, unbelievers, apostates, atheists, woman who show their ankles in public etc etc etc.

    1. stucs201

      Re: Huh?

      Perhaps their real problem with the game is that it encourages the raising of pigs for food and hence the eating of pork?

      1. Thorne

        Re: Huh?

        Maybe if Minecraft had halal meals.......

        1. WraithCadmus
          Pint

          Re: Huh?

          Maybe if Minecraft had halal meals.......

          Well there was a guy who as an experiment tried to live an Islamic lifestyle inside the minecraft world.

          Icon: Haram

      2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Re: it encourages the raising of pigs for food

        It does not encourage the raising of pigs. You can raise cows or chickens just as easily. There is no in-game bonus for raising pigs.

        And, if you think about it, cows give meat and skins, chickens give meat and feathers, whereas pigs only give meat.

        So, on a per-effort basis, there is no encouragement to raise pigs, it's quite the opposite.

        But hey, they're in the game, that's for sure.

        1. dogged

          Re: it encourages the raising of pigs for food

          > And, if you think about it, cows give meat and skins, chickens give meat and feathers, whereas pigs only give meat.

          o rly

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: it encourages the raising of pigs for food

          "And, if you think about it, cows give meat and skins, chickens give meat and feathers, whereas pigs only give meat."

          cows give milk and meat and skins. Chickens give eggs and meat and feathers. Pigs give skins, meat and bristles and a great deal of entertainment.

          There's Babe, Pinky and Perky, Pig from Pipkins, Warner Brothers Porky Pig, The Tamworth Two, Napoleon (Animal Farm) etc.

          What's not to like?

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: it encourages the raising of pigs for food

          And to follow on from Pascal's comment

          The easiest food stuff to make is bread. Within a half hour in vanilla you can have a perfectly functioning wheat farm and make enough bread to keep you forever fed.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Huh?

      > If they are truly worried [loads of nonsense]

      What part of Turkey did you miss in the title? You know, the secular republic in Asia Minor which was one of the first countries in the World to recognise the State of Israel, and which happens to be a member of NATO?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Huh?

        Exactly. *WAS*. Before the neosultan Edogan reached power...

      2. MrDamage Silver badge

        What part of Turkey did I miss in the title?

        What part of world news have you not been watching that has been recounting Turkey's slow slide back into fundamentalist islam, as lead by Erdogan?

  7. lawndart

    says

    Politicians! Don't just do something, stand there!

  8. werdsmith Silver badge

    Forget the violence, many a GCSE grade has been lowered because of Minecraft obsession over schoolwork.

    And it uses Java.

    More than enough reasons to banish it forever.

  9. Avatar of They
    FAIL

    This actually a real story?

    Turkey want to be part of the EU. Ban free speech like Twitter, Google books and youtube then it is unlikely they will find the EU to their liking. But when your country has a civil war going on with the PKK, its good to concentrate on the little things. Helps distract peoples gaze.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This actually a real story?

      > Turkey want to be part of the EU.

      Actually, they don't.

      Some EU members wanted Turkey to be part of the EU, until they realised how much of a bad idea it was to invite a regional power to the party and changed their minds. Turkey's government was mildly in favour at the start but lost all interest a decade or so ago.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Change it to beat and collect women to cook for you...

    .... and Turkey will accept it gladly and make it compulsory in schools.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Turkey is a corrupt, filthy, backward shithole

    Having visited a few times now I have experienced all it has to offer and will never set foot in that shithole again.

    1. dogged
      Stop

      Re: Turkey is a corrupt, filthy, backward shithole

      I love Turkey and the Turks are a very welcoming, friendly, generous people. With great food, secular attitudes and a determination to see the bright side of everything.

      I don't know where you went. Must have been a UKIP fact-finding trip.

      1. Martin 47

        Re: Turkey is a corrupt, filthy, backward shithole

        Istanbul is one of my favorite cities, and that's mainly down to the people that live there.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Turkey is a corrupt, filthy, backward shithole

      You sure it wasn't France?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Probably not relevant to the Turkish viewpoint

    But I notice there are a lot of mods for Minecraft that move it out of the 9-10 year old gamer bracket.

    Various zombie themes eg along the walking dead lines, - I tend to tell my son that he can't have them because the version is incompatible with the version he's got.

    At least it's only violent themes they are worried about, and nothing unnatural like sex....

  13. bigtimehustler

    Perhaps their president has been playing this too much then... might explain things.

  14. Amorous Cowherder
    Facepalm

    You couldn't make this stuff up!

    One of the best practiced human right's abusers on the planet is banning a simple computer game that involves tasks we have to do on a daily basis, killing animals for food and skin, because those actions in the game are seen as too violent?

    ROFL! LOL! Brilliant! Sorry? You're serious? Oh!

    I want my kids to understand that food doesn't just arrive on the plate, it has to gathered from crops or got from killing animals. This is taught to young kids in this game in a safe way so when they do find out about industrial level food production, it's no great surprise to them to learn that burger and veggies don't just magically appear down TESCO.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And, as if to prove my point...

    ...the unedited version of the following comment was REJECTED by El Reg:

    « ...if a pair of <part of female anatomy> were shown anywhere in the game it'd have been <expletive> banned in the US and the UK and no <female genitalia> would bat an eye.

    Though I do not believe that games actually encourage violent behaviour, I'd rather shun something on the basis of violence than on the basis of offending ridiculous puritan mores.

    Give the <expletive> Turks a break.

    [ Tip to the game developer: make the enemy characters look vaguely Greek and you're in for a smash. ]

    »

    Glass houses, etc.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    remember?

    Remember about all that talk how Turkey would soon join the EU? Much like the talk about how the euro would replace the dollar haven't heard a lot of that lately.

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