Around an hour ago, at 2 PM today, two inspectors from the Ministry of Information raided a "Euphoria" shop in Seef Mall and confiscated all Grand Theft Auto IV titles, Both PS3 and Xbox 360.
Two men, wearing traditional dress, came in, identified themselves to the man behind the counter, took his CPR and started writing down his details in an official inspection form. They also wrote down what they took (Around 4 or 5 titles of GTA IV for PS3 and the same for X360). They gave the receipt to the man and walked out with the titles in a plastic bag.
Now this does not necessary mean that GTA IV is banned in Bahrain, but it means at least that someone (individual or the ministry it self) complained about the title and the ministry is looking into it.
Given the nature of the title and the notion that games are (still) for kids, I expect the title to be banned very soon.
The title was banned for some time in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Saudi gamers have always came here to get their GTA fix. it seems that will continue no more.
I am appalled at this movement especially since other types of media (Video, Audio) are not dealt with in this manner. I do agree there are some questionable materials in the game, however, I would suggest that age ratings are enforced as they should be rather than simply banning the thing altogether.
This blog will keep an eye out on the matter.
7 comments:
GTA series was never the most family friendly game, it contains violence, Sex, Drugs, gore, stupidity, the lot and I am not a fan of the game.
now that I got that out of the way, the government should change their approach to media in general, there is not such thing as stopping media in its "new" electronic form, you can still download everything from the internet for free, instead we need to create a none government organization that rates movies and games and it must not be the MOI, we need people who understand what ratings are and what bases games should be rated.
then comes the parents role, and we have some ignorant parents in this part of the world, they should understand that games are not only for kids and some of these games are not meant to be played by kids and that is where this organizations comes to action, Parents should at least bother checking what these kids are asking them to pay for and if such an organization is formed and ratings are out before the game is out, parents can check them before hand.
Manaaf, let's talk about this, the least we can do is create a blog for this.
My thoughts exactly Eyad. I'm all up for it of course. I'll post this up in KrazyKamel.net and see if we can rally up some people.
All readers willing to help are thanked in advance.
It may banned "officially", it can be banned officially.. however "pirated copies" which are extremely popular.. can't be banned.
It's parents role here ..
stupidity.
we've got real live GTA going on a few kilometers away in exhibition road anyway.
they'lll never learn how to fix things the proper way (ie, look at ratings, enforce them, and away goes your problem). the solution is always 'BAN IT' to them.
dumfucks.
Hey Redbelt ..
I heard about this a week ago and i'm getting an article i wrote published to as many newspapers and magazines as i can arabic & english..i'm also going to organize a petition.. first we need to know how many people are willing to go behind this cause and what the next step is to get what we want. any way i can contact you?
"we've got real live GTA going on a few kilometers away in exhibition road anyway." LOOOL.. soo true!
I agree with eyad!
When i saw my brothers (who were 14/13 at the time) playing GTA i was really uncomfortable. I mean a game which is based on roberies/ violance/ street corner sex/ strip clubs and drug abuse isnt something which i thought was appropriate.
Just follow the stupid age thing! it has 18 highlighted in red all over the cover!
LMAO @ homers secret mistress. Good one.
All games should be available in Bahrain and the ratings on the cover by the ESRB should be given importance, games that have T (teen), M (mature), 18+ must be sold after customers have shown their ID's to the seller, the same system that the US follows.
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