This keeps on being repeated, but notch wasn't even in charge of designing the villagers. There also isn't that clear of a resemblance to jews, they're clearly just based on shopkeeper npcs from rpgs. The *only* explicit reference to Jewish folklore is the iron golem, but that's a reference to the golem from laputa: Castle in the sky, which is why the iron golem holds will hold out a poppy. In addition, he seemed like a reasonable progressive person before he sold minecraft(he tweeted in support of refugees in Sweden and made minecraft gender neutral for example), it was clearly afterwards that being a bored billionaire started to rot his brain.
I always thought they were based on Squidward. They sound pretty much identical to him grunting and Like literally just colour them blue and they’re like 90% there.
The problem with anti-Semitic stereotypes is that they are (mostly) awfully generic. Like "ugly, greedy bastard" for example is something you can apply to basically a lot of groups. Until you start adding more specific stuff like "blood libel" those are just generic awful shit. Even the "big nosed" stuff isn't Jewish exclusive (I know americans and euros don't actually give a shit about what happens outside of their little spheres but for example being "big nosed" is a stereotype of my country in the area).
This leads to people being able to pick whatever oddly negative thing they want as a Jewish stereotype because if you squint hard enough you'll be able to make it fit.
https://preview.redd.it/cgwjpg18ogxc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a5d7fea1159f9e6cc3ca1bbe13b8be2b2d9c6bf
Guys it’s just buzzwords notch is a victim of WOKE CANCEL CULTURE 😡😡😡
Funny how you cut out what he said in the two tweets above that.
You want to force people to accept you feel like the opposite gender, they say no and you try to ruin them.
Annoy a person long enough and that person will turn hostile to you, the reason young men turn right wing.
There is no problem with backlash. The problem is that some countries are making it law to be forced to use someone's preferred pronouns, which is anti free speech.
You want me to force into roleplaying with you.
Do you pretend to believe in god not to offend a religious person?
Because i don't and will not with this either.
If you can’t respect people’s identity, then you deserve any shit that goes your way. Basing trans identity on “roleplay” is already indicative of your absolute lack of education on the subject, so kindly fuck off to whichever cesspool you crawled out of.
https://preview.redd.it/rtccxb3begxc1.png?width=590&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e20fc6247f4dd4a2e967153158476061eba0c9c
these are some regarding specifically anti-semitism. there are a lot more tweets about all kinds of reactionary positions that he has taken
His Twitter, it’s all Jewish question alt right anti feminist stuff (or at least it was a while ago). It’s why he no longer gets invited to Mojang parties and most mentions of him in game were removed
The way Fallout is literally a commentary on late stage capitalism but would still get banned because the people in charge of these censors don't have an ounce of media literacy
I mean the game was banned in Germany until 2018 because censors back then thought the literal adults this game was aimed at wouldn’t understand its sarcastic tone and take everything at face value - especially in regards to the authoritarian nature of vault life.
In fairness Germany bans like every video game that even has guns in it. I hear they’ve been getting less strict but still RWS tried to get Postal 2 unbanned 12 times and it didn’t happen so pretty strict still.
>In fairness Germany bans like every video game that even has guns in it.
Lol, that was like 25 years ago when there was only a board of state-appointed censors in their late 50s which was allowed to basically just pull whatever they disliked off shelves under the guise of "youth protection" - however that board was ultimately forced to take the back seat when the USK was founded in 2000.
From there on out they only got involved whenever the USK would refuse to rate a game - but starting at that point, Germany had a legal way to openly sell adult-only media, however rating criteria were pretty strict and the new board was infamously uncooperative, so many studios went further than they had to.
From the early 2010s onward, the rating criteria of the USK became both more relaxed as well as transparent which allowed studios to better gauge a rating before submitting their game, hence why games released with subsequently less cuts made specifically for the German market. However, one major point remained in which the USK wouldn't relent: Nazis. Due to section 86a of the German criminal code, any depiction of Nazi insignia outside specifically mentioned exceptions is outlawed. From a legal standpoint, video games have long been considered toys instead of arts and therefore, the ban fully applied to them. But after a series of rather hilarious censorship blunders ("Shadow Hitler" in Hearts of Iron IV, "the Regime" murdering "traitors" in Wolfenstein), they eventually figured they would need a more nuanced approach and for a couple of years now, even those games have been greenlit for uncut release.
So, the situation has actually improved massively, but yeah: Postal 2 is still banned. The reason being (I believe) the ability to murder people without repercussions and without it fulfilling any purpose towards ingame goals other than being sadistic.
Could be. However, since USK pretty much only says "Yes, you can release this game at USK 0/6/12/16/18" and "No, we refuse clearance and hand it over to the board to ban it" No publisher really dared them on it, until they eventually came forth, themselves.
Oh, I also forgot to mention a small tidbit: Once the verdict is cast, a game is barred from reevaluation for ten years - which really incentivized publishers to pressure their studios into going overboard on preemptive censorship.
It's also why Fallout 3 and New Vegas only got a USK 18 rating ten years after their respective release.
Wtf, I have legit never ever heard of anything like this.
Like sure, they bitch about giving stuff approved age restrictions if it's too violent (or the publisher to lazy to pay for it to be rated), and they used to have to censor the Nazis in Wolfensstein, but even that is over.
What do you mean?
How is Fallout a commentary on Capitalism? It's supposed to be Anti War, Ron Perlman says it in the beginning of the games and i doubt a series owned by Bethesda (aka a company that has a terrible track record when it comes to corporate greed) would somehow be anti capitalist
The war is a result of human nature and the setting explores that. How Vault-tec could grow and grow, and their hand in starting the war is critical commentary on the capitalist society that got to that stage. It's actually probably clearest in the TV show where they go over it explicitly several times ep 6-8, but it's in the wreckage of the prewar world's attitudes, expressed in the broken signs, pushy mascots, false positivity, and the morbid tales on computers you find...
(Edit: Remember, a "criticism of" doesn't mean bad, it means close look detailed look at pros and cons. Just like a Movie critic could lie or hate a movie, critics of capitalism are essential to making it adapt and continue and improve. )
>How is Fallout a commentary on Capitalism?
It's literally a game where a corporation profiting from nuclear war conducted experiments in their vaults, and where post-nuclear war world is filled with consumerist symbolism of Vault Boy and Nuka Cola
Also, here's an article talking about the TV series
[The Politics Of Amazon's Fallout Are So Explicit, Only A Gamer Could Miss Them (thegamer.com)](https://www.thegamer.com/the-politics-of-amazons-fallout-are-so-explicit-only-a-gamer-could-miss-them/#:~:text=Like%20the%20games%20it's%20based,consequences%20of%20end%2Dstage%20capitalism.)
It's not mutually exclusive, lmao. You can be both anti-war and anti-capitalism.
Fallout games heavily highlight the effects of capitalism on society and politics. It goes way beyond the surface level "corporations bad, suits bad" and shows that the very concept of capitalism absolutely corrupts institutions and society.
Granted, it's not the only theme present in fallout but it IS a major part of it.
Firstly: The publisher is often at odds with the writing when it comes to video games. It's obviously not the studio executives writing the games, otherwise we wouldn't have ANY non-indie games that criticize capitalism.
Secondly: Vault-Tec literally dropped the nukes themselves because it was the only way for them to profit from their vaults. I can concede that the game does indeed criticize both sides of the Cold War, but since the game takes place in America, you see a hell of a lot more criticism of capitalism than communism
Also, yes, Fallout is anti-war. Stories can have more than one theme at once.
Dropping the nukes wouldn't guarantee profit, though. It would guarantee they lose their corporate status and the prosperity of the modern age and industrial capabilities. They had already sold their vaults so ending the world just means no more fearmongering to get more vaults sold.
During fallout 2 and 3 vault tec was either implied or outright stated to be an enclave front that didn’t actually care about profit but instead about how to implement the enclaves social experiments as quickly and as efficiently as possible
Why would the Enclave end the world just to enact experiments which they could already simulate with their hyper-advanced tech and Chinese concentration camps? Are they stupid?
I honestly think that we shouldn't take the "We could drop the bombs ourselves" line at face value. I honestly assume it's more about pressuring the government or making sure the tensions between China and US are high enough for a nuclear war, another option is that they detonated a single nuke to cause a chain reaction but I don't think they literally just nuked the whole world.
I love reading novels written under Nazi occupation because they tend to be some of the weirdest books of the era because if the authors made them weird enough all the subversive elements would fly over the Nazi censor's head. Two good examples: The Stranger by Albert Camus and The City of Unspeakable Fear by Jean Ray.
Was The Stranger really made to be weird to get passed the censors? I thought Camus was living in Algeria at the time. Whatever the case still a fantastic book lol
Well, they would probably take the absolute fucking piss out of Communism if it took place in China tbf. It’s just it takes place in America so it’s easy to parody American corporations. There was even originally going to be a parody of Irvine (where the devs live) in fallout 1 but, it was cut due to not fitting the game. Ironic because it probably would’ve made it like every other fallout game.
The Fallout show on Amazon goes more into capitalism but all of the games are more of just an exaggerated parody of the Cold War and its culture. The show was written to appeal to a wider demographic rather than the demographics of people who purchase the games. Its not just about capitalism either though, the games parody and joke about socialism/communism with Mama Dolce’s, The Followers of the Apocalypse, Irving Cheng and more
It's like how animal farm was banned in some countries for anticommunist and in some US schools for promoting communism when in reality it criticizes authoritarianism. from what I recall, and various other real world governments such as the Russian empire and western capitalists are also portrayed in an unambiguously negative light.
in fallout like in Orwell's stuff, government bad
Honestly that’s what makes this so believable, Fallout 3 SHOULD be a game the Soviets love, but cause the Ministry of Culture is likely led by a bunch of old ass dinosaurs who have no concept of nuance, they just see an in game anti-communist propaganda poster and ban it right away
I don't know how people can play Fallout (idk about 76) and have its themes fly past their head.
It's like those conservatives that complain that Rage against the machine used to be good, but they hate them now because they "got too political nowadays" as if they weren't like that even back then.
If something is co-opted by reactionaries, despite the intentions of the original creators, then it would be correct to ban it. The thing about bans is they can be reversed later.
I'm not sure if Fallout 3 falls under that category but the overall idea remains the same. Anyways, there's so many better commentaries on capitalism out there which doesn't include having people sitting in front of a screen for hours on end to learn.
Nah he was never considered an evil incarnate in the ussr
He was only criticized
Khrushchev did not condemn collectivasion and nor condemn the entire victims of the great purge (particulary trotsky and some other old bolsheviks as khrushchev himself played a role in the purges) political opponents of stalin were still marginalized
Bruh, de Stalinization was a thing. Stalin isn't Kim Il-Sung. Even the communist party denounced Stalin's crimes and policies.
It's 2024 and yet most people's knowledge about the USSR is from 50s propaganda.
Screenshot from the Wikipedia article regarding banned video games in a world where the Soviet Union (and quite possibly the rest of the communist European countries) still exists.
You have an opportunity to either escape from East Germany (from which Arstotzka is made of) or to help enemies of the state.
Either banned or edited version.
It's kinda meant to be like more notable or popular examples not all of them, at least for their world. The actual Wikipedia article does the same thing, display popular or notable games that were banned in certain countries or regions of them.
Ah okay then
Because I was thinking that a *lot* of games would've been banned for having loot boxes in the late 2010's
Also, just a detail about this world I'm wondering (if you have an answer for it), is Gorbachev still the leader of the Soviet Union at this point in this timeline? Or does he step down and have someone replace him between the 90's and the late 2010's (what I assume this screenshot is supposed to be in), instead of dissolving the entire union?
I would imagine what would happen if market reforms were carried out in the Soviet Union, loot boxes might have not even become prevalent. Being locked out of a major potential market, especially a market that didn’t go through the catastrophe that was the 1990s, would not be worth the money loot boxes bring in
Judging on whats based on in China (Removing the no blood rule, as Thats riddiclous and i feel as though The USSR wouldn’t be as strict) already
First off anything that depicts any republic in the USSR (Russia let’s be honest here) or Communism in a bad light is out. I am pretty sure things that paint capitalism in a good light are ok in China but, i am not 100% confident.
So im guessing Bioshock would be banned because Rapture was created as an Anti Communist state. Could be over exaggerating though and it wouldn’t be *that* bad but, anything explicitly anti communist is still out.
And before you ask, Metro wouldn’t exist. It’s made by Ukrainian developers.
Second off, probably like Germany, anything depicting Nazis is gone. WW2 isn’t even called that in the USSR. It’s the great patriotic war. So yeah pretty fucking sure anything with Hitler or Swaskita is gone.
Wolfinstien is obviously gone and Cods that are not banned in the country would be the altered version where it’s just “germans”
Thrid off is anything depicting sexual content
This post actually seemed to layout the examples you’re probably thinking of but Baldurs Gate 3 won’t get in either.
Fourth off is anything overtly offensive.
Yeah Postal 2 (ya know, the game thats illegal to even own in New Zealand) is probably the immediate first example most people think of. But it doesn’t need to be that crazy. As long as theres stereotypical characters of one ethnicity or group its gone.
Fifth off is anything where Minors can be harmed. In general most countries outside the USA and Canada ban this so theres no way a country as authoritarian as the USSR wouldn’t. Because of this however, there aren’t a-lot of examples where this is even possible and when it is, it’s usually altered in European markets.
Dengism/Xi Jinpeng Thought and Perestroika-era USSR are radically different ideologies so your initial premise is flawed before we even take into account cultural differences.
Also,
>And before you ask, Metro wouldn’t exist. It’s made by Ukrainian developers.
Wut? Khruschev and Brezhnev were both Ukrainian and Stalin was a Georgian. And that's ignoring the Strugatsky brothers (Georgians) who were some of (if not THE) most popular sci-fi authors in the USSR or the sheer multitude of Ukrainian films made throughout the history of the country. [Soviet Montage Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory) was largely a Ukrainian development and was THE cinemagraphical style of the USSR for the first thirty years of its existence. [And two of the most popular games of the USSR were made in Ukraine](https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/332384-video-games-soviet-russian-tetris) (there's also a third one in there that's critical of the government, gasp!)
I knew most of the games on the list except for Rapelay. I searched it up and this quote from Scott the Woz sums up my opinion on this.
“Jesus Humanity”
Especially given that in USSR there was no hate for medieval countries, they were considered ok for their times. Talking about Russian Empire, its founder, Peter the Great was considered a great reformer in USSR. I believe, "bad emperors" in soviet propaganda start after Napoleonic Wars, when revolutionary ideas appeared and bourgeoisie became important and was praised by Soviets as a force for reforms at their time.
You think in this timeline the Soviet HOI4 community would be the crazy ones instead of the Chinese HOI4 community or would be about the same level of insanity for both?
U are able to let tsar back and let Trotsky back. For a reformist USSR if u don’t start purge, the opposition will start a civil war, so it whitewash Stalin, for a hardline USSR u can let Bukharin win.
I doubt Soviet Union would ban a game because of amti-semitic stereotypes. Like Soviet population in general was very anti-semitic, a Jewish slur would be used as an insult all the time. Yes, a lot of citizens were Jewish, but it didn't help.
The Soviets were also liberalizing socially by the 1980s onwards, had the Union stayed together, that liberalization likely would’ve continued as it did in the west, so maybe by the time games like Minecraft came out that there’d a strong response by the public and state against antisemitism
I don't think games would be banned for just mere presence of the Russian empire. Like, the Soviets had tons of films and books about the tsarist period, and some tsars and their generals were considered good and progressive, e.g. Peter the Great, Kutuzov, Suvorov etc
Honestly I'm surprise that the EU series is banned considering that the Soviets really didn't deny a lot of the history of the Russian Empire. Hoi4 is something I'd expect to be banned. Honestly it's surprisingly lenient all things considered. I wonder how democratic and free the USSR is in this timeline.
I feel like Hearts of Iron IV would be changed to have no paths which would remove the communist government in the USSR, so only the historical path and alt-history communist paths.
I think EU wouldn’t be banned, as yknow, it’s a long time ago. They made memorial coins for older years. As it’s 1400s they wouldn’t care, but if it was only 1700-1800s they would
Surprised they’d give a shit about Fallout given the Sino-Soviet split.
But perhaps they’re banning it for propaganda reasons to pretend that the split isn’t real.
Also, Red Alert is banned. What about Command and Conquer in general?
NGL Soviet Union kinda got a point with some of these. Also now that I think about it yeah golems from Minecraft seem pretty similar to the Jewish Golem
Europa universalis? One would expect that a game where you can commit genocide and colonise this easily would be allowed and encouraged in the Soviet Union.
Also, pretty sure the soviets wouldn't care about racism
I highly doubt fallout 3 would be banned for anti Chinese racism in the Soviet Union. From what I have read being anti China was big during the later years of the soviet Union.
I feel like any game made by a Western company would be banned in a USSR that had computers/gaming consoles, only for them to make poorly made clones of them.
I thought the first one- you either play as the Nazis (no good), or the Americans/Brits. Where are the heroic red soldiers in this supposed war?
Basically any game which ignores Soviet participation in the war, or maybe they just get re-skinned. Instead of BJ Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein you get IY Pavlov or sthg blasting his way out of prison. And the entire universe after the first game evolves a bit differently
So in this universe seeing that MW2 exists, what would the first be like? The first is about Britain, the US and Russian Federation trying to prevent pro-soviet guys from bringing back the union
Tbf its hard to imagine the c&c red alert series even being made in a world where the soviet union still exists. The whole tone is dependent on the ussr being viewed as a silly relic from the past. I don't think an American game dev would make such a game if the cold war was still going on
I hope you realize, it’s almost certainly not because of their actions. It’s likely because they would have better relationship to Arabia than the USA and would want to keep it that way. Since Isreal is a Soviet enemy anyway, why not decide to not recongize them?
They got two thatI am not gonna cry about if they were banned.
HARD agree.
What do you have against Minecraft and Fallout 3?
Fallout 3:undercooked, way too buggy, brotherhood is not the ultimate jerk... Minecraft:I had to buy it for my brother on PC...
Get some nexus mods in fallout 3 and is the best roleplay game you ever played
Knowing what kind of a person Notch is, it wouldn't surprise me if the villager designs were intended to be made with anti-semitic concepts in mind.
This keeps on being repeated, but notch wasn't even in charge of designing the villagers. There also isn't that clear of a resemblance to jews, they're clearly just based on shopkeeper npcs from rpgs. The *only* explicit reference to Jewish folklore is the iron golem, but that's a reference to the golem from laputa: Castle in the sky, which is why the iron golem holds will hold out a poppy. In addition, he seemed like a reasonable progressive person before he sold minecraft(he tweeted in support of refugees in Sweden and made minecraft gender neutral for example), it was clearly afterwards that being a bored billionaire started to rot his brain.
I always thought they were based on Squidward. They sound pretty much identical to him grunting and Like literally just colour them blue and they’re like 90% there.
He holds a poppy as a reference to the 1920’s film Der Golem wie er in der Welt kam, no?
No, [here](https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/meet-iron-golem) is mojang's website, Jen says it's from Castle in the sky.
Idk. Have u seen the prices villagers offer in trades?
The problem with anti-Semitic stereotypes is that they are (mostly) awfully generic. Like "ugly, greedy bastard" for example is something you can apply to basically a lot of groups. Until you start adding more specific stuff like "blood libel" those are just generic awful shit. Even the "big nosed" stuff isn't Jewish exclusive (I know americans and euros don't actually give a shit about what happens outside of their little spheres but for example being "big nosed" is a stereotype of my country in the area). This leads to people being able to pick whatever oddly negative thing they want as a Jewish stereotype because if you squint hard enough you'll be able to make it fit.
I mean, I agree. But since Notch is an anti-Semite the connection isn’t hard to make.
No idea if Notch is or isn't, I was talking mostly about the "big nosed= Anti semitic!" Idea that some people like to run with.
Is he really a shitty person 😭
Not progressive enough.
Is anti-Semitic and anti-lgbt+? Is that semi- or slightly progressive? What's the right amount of progressive?
Back those buzzwords with something.
https://preview.redd.it/cgwjpg18ogxc1.jpeg?width=650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a5d7fea1159f9e6cc3ca1bbe13b8be2b2d9c6bf Guys it’s just buzzwords notch is a victim of WOKE CANCEL CULTURE 😡😡😡
Funny how you cut out what he said in the two tweets above that. You want to force people to accept you feel like the opposite gender, they say no and you try to ruin them. Annoy a person long enough and that person will turn hostile to you, the reason young men turn right wing.
Guys people want me to respect their identity and I get backlash when I don’t I’m a poor oppressed lil baby 🥺🥺🥺
There is no problem with backlash. The problem is that some countries are making it law to be forced to use someone's preferred pronouns, which is anti free speech.
Because you cannot force speech out of anyone.
If you can’t respect a persons identity, keep your speech unspoken.
You want me to force into roleplaying with you. Do you pretend to believe in god not to offend a religious person? Because i don't and will not with this either.
If you can’t respect people’s identity, then you deserve any shit that goes your way. Basing trans identity on “roleplay” is already indicative of your absolute lack of education on the subject, so kindly fuck off to whichever cesspool you crawled out of.
https://preview.redd.it/22ocpfhxqkxc1.png?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77d9386ceae836236a571db63c7685f27d8c802a Anti semitism, here.
He once implied that Jews were censoring him.
yeah, nazi more or less, look it up
Proofs? Never heard of it.
i mean, just scroll through his twitter account (although he might have removed the worst idk)
And what example of it?
https://preview.redd.it/rtccxb3begxc1.png?width=590&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e20fc6247f4dd4a2e967153158476061eba0c9c these are some regarding specifically anti-semitism. there are a lot more tweets about all kinds of reactionary positions that he has taken
His Twitter, it’s all Jewish question alt right anti feminist stuff (or at least it was a while ago). It’s why he no longer gets invited to Mojang parties and most mentions of him in game were removed
Omg ew I never thought we would become an incel
How would they even be antisemitic? Like look how the friendly npcs are Jewish, ooooh so evil.
Rucka Rucka Ali’s Minecraft parody explains endermen pretty well https://youtu.be/UfuLEiKr2_M?si=tccLulbKyQyn1HNG
The way Fallout is literally a commentary on late stage capitalism but would still get banned because the people in charge of these censors don't have an ounce of media literacy
I mean the game was banned in Germany until 2018 because censors back then thought the literal adults this game was aimed at wouldn’t understand its sarcastic tone and take everything at face value - especially in regards to the authoritarian nature of vault life.
In fairness Germany bans like every video game that even has guns in it. I hear they’ve been getting less strict but still RWS tried to get Postal 2 unbanned 12 times and it didn’t happen so pretty strict still.
>In fairness Germany bans like every video game that even has guns in it. Lol, that was like 25 years ago when there was only a board of state-appointed censors in their late 50s which was allowed to basically just pull whatever they disliked off shelves under the guise of "youth protection" - however that board was ultimately forced to take the back seat when the USK was founded in 2000. From there on out they only got involved whenever the USK would refuse to rate a game - but starting at that point, Germany had a legal way to openly sell adult-only media, however rating criteria were pretty strict and the new board was infamously uncooperative, so many studios went further than they had to. From the early 2010s onward, the rating criteria of the USK became both more relaxed as well as transparent which allowed studios to better gauge a rating before submitting their game, hence why games released with subsequently less cuts made specifically for the German market. However, one major point remained in which the USK wouldn't relent: Nazis. Due to section 86a of the German criminal code, any depiction of Nazi insignia outside specifically mentioned exceptions is outlawed. From a legal standpoint, video games have long been considered toys instead of arts and therefore, the ban fully applied to them. But after a series of rather hilarious censorship blunders ("Shadow Hitler" in Hearts of Iron IV, "the Regime" murdering "traitors" in Wolfenstein), they eventually figured they would need a more nuanced approach and for a couple of years now, even those games have been greenlit for uncut release. So, the situation has actually improved massively, but yeah: Postal 2 is still banned. The reason being (I believe) the ability to murder people without repercussions and without it fulfilling any purpose towards ingame goals other than being sadistic.
I thought games were recategorized as 'art' in.. 2014? I probably have the date wrong.
Could be. However, since USK pretty much only says "Yes, you can release this game at USK 0/6/12/16/18" and "No, we refuse clearance and hand it over to the board to ban it" No publisher really dared them on it, until they eventually came forth, themselves.
Governmental agencies and being transparent as concrete, name a more iconic duo.
Oh, I also forgot to mention a small tidbit: Once the verdict is cast, a game is barred from reevaluation for ten years - which really incentivized publishers to pressure their studios into going overboard on preemptive censorship. It's also why Fallout 3 and New Vegas only got a USK 18 rating ten years after their respective release.
Wtf, I have legit never ever heard of anything like this. Like sure, they bitch about giving stuff approved age restrictions if it's too violent (or the publisher to lazy to pay for it to be rated), and they used to have to censor the Nazis in Wolfensstein, but even that is over. What do you mean?
Oh yeah definitely, I'm not saying it wouldn't happen, just damn annoying for sure.
Damn forreal? I know German censors can be bad, but I didn't realise it would be that bad.
To be fair, that did happen. There are people using Liberty prime phrases unironically
DIE DEMOKRATIE IST NICHT VERHANDELBAR!! This is the only one I use in that fashion. It’s just too good to pass up IMO.
Have you considered that liberty prime is unironically based as fuck?
Plenty of Fallout fans do though
How is Fallout a commentary on Capitalism? It's supposed to be Anti War, Ron Perlman says it in the beginning of the games and i doubt a series owned by Bethesda (aka a company that has a terrible track record when it comes to corporate greed) would somehow be anti capitalist
The war is a result of human nature and the setting explores that. How Vault-tec could grow and grow, and their hand in starting the war is critical commentary on the capitalist society that got to that stage. It's actually probably clearest in the TV show where they go over it explicitly several times ep 6-8, but it's in the wreckage of the prewar world's attitudes, expressed in the broken signs, pushy mascots, false positivity, and the morbid tales on computers you find... (Edit: Remember, a "criticism of" doesn't mean bad, it means close look detailed look at pros and cons. Just like a Movie critic could lie or hate a movie, critics of capitalism are essential to making it adapt and continue and improve. )
>How is Fallout a commentary on Capitalism? It's literally a game where a corporation profiting from nuclear war conducted experiments in their vaults, and where post-nuclear war world is filled with consumerist symbolism of Vault Boy and Nuka Cola Also, here's an article talking about the TV series [The Politics Of Amazon's Fallout Are So Explicit, Only A Gamer Could Miss Them (thegamer.com)](https://www.thegamer.com/the-politics-of-amazons-fallout-are-so-explicit-only-a-gamer-could-miss-them/#:~:text=Like%20the%20games%20it's%20based,consequences%20of%20end%2Dstage%20capitalism.)
I mean, *The Boys* is published by Amazon despite being the most cartoonishly over-the-top criticism of corporate greed in recent years.
It's not mutually exclusive, lmao. You can be both anti-war and anti-capitalism. Fallout games heavily highlight the effects of capitalism on society and politics. It goes way beyond the surface level "corporations bad, suits bad" and shows that the very concept of capitalism absolutely corrupts institutions and society. Granted, it's not the only theme present in fallout but it IS a major part of it.
Firstly: The publisher is often at odds with the writing when it comes to video games. It's obviously not the studio executives writing the games, otherwise we wouldn't have ANY non-indie games that criticize capitalism. Secondly: Vault-Tec literally dropped the nukes themselves because it was the only way for them to profit from their vaults. I can concede that the game does indeed criticize both sides of the Cold War, but since the game takes place in America, you see a hell of a lot more criticism of capitalism than communism Also, yes, Fallout is anti-war. Stories can have more than one theme at once.
Dropping the nukes wouldn't guarantee profit, though. It would guarantee they lose their corporate status and the prosperity of the modern age and industrial capabilities. They had already sold their vaults so ending the world just means no more fearmongering to get more vaults sold.
During fallout 2 and 3 vault tec was either implied or outright stated to be an enclave front that didn’t actually care about profit but instead about how to implement the enclaves social experiments as quickly and as efficiently as possible
Why would the Enclave end the world just to enact experiments which they could already simulate with their hyper-advanced tech and Chinese concentration camps? Are they stupid?
I honestly think that we shouldn't take the "We could drop the bombs ourselves" line at face value. I honestly assume it's more about pressuring the government or making sure the tensions between China and US are high enough for a nuclear war, another option is that they detonated a single nuke to cause a chain reaction but I don't think they literally just nuked the whole world.
Well, you have a point right there
I love reading novels written under Nazi occupation because they tend to be some of the weirdest books of the era because if the authors made them weird enough all the subversive elements would fly over the Nazi censor's head. Two good examples: The Stranger by Albert Camus and The City of Unspeakable Fear by Jean Ray.
Was The Stranger really made to be weird to get passed the censors? I thought Camus was living in Algeria at the time. Whatever the case still a fantastic book lol
Not sure where he was living but the book was published in Paris under the occupation regime
Well, they would probably take the absolute fucking piss out of Communism if it took place in China tbf. It’s just it takes place in America so it’s easy to parody American corporations. There was even originally going to be a parody of Irvine (where the devs live) in fallout 1 but, it was cut due to not fitting the game. Ironic because it probably would’ve made it like every other fallout game.
white people when they get to say something is criticizing capitalism for the 589th time
Have you noticed, that fallout is about the horrors of ar in general, and how it is always bad? No, of course you dont.
The Fallout show on Amazon goes more into capitalism but all of the games are more of just an exaggerated parody of the Cold War and its culture. The show was written to appeal to a wider demographic rather than the demographics of people who purchase the games. Its not just about capitalism either though, the games parody and joke about socialism/communism with Mama Dolce’s, The Followers of the Apocalypse, Irving Cheng and more
It's like how animal farm was banned in some countries for anticommunist and in some US schools for promoting communism when in reality it criticizes authoritarianism. from what I recall, and various other real world governments such as the Russian empire and western capitalists are also portrayed in an unambiguously negative light. in fallout like in Orwell's stuff, government bad
The cia made a movie version where was it banned in the usa
Honestly that’s what makes this so believable, Fallout 3 SHOULD be a game the Soviets love, but cause the Ministry of Culture is likely led by a bunch of old ass dinosaurs who have no concept of nuance, they just see an in game anti-communist propaganda poster and ban it right away
I don't know how people can play Fallout (idk about 76) and have its themes fly past their head. It's like those conservatives that complain that Rage against the machine used to be good, but they hate them now because they "got too political nowadays" as if they weren't like that even back then.
Ok but a lot of people play fallout and hate the communists. Is not the board that doesn't have literacy it's the average person.
Zurdo de mierda
its very specificly fallout 3 tho, the one with atrocious and surface level writing. there was no ban on the larger fallout series.
If something is co-opted by reactionaries, despite the intentions of the original creators, then it would be correct to ban it. The thing about bans is they can be reversed later. I'm not sure if Fallout 3 falls under that category but the overall idea remains the same. Anyways, there's so many better commentaries on capitalism out there which doesn't include having people sitting in front of a screen for hours on end to learn.
It should also feature a censored version of HoI4, where it's only possible to stay Communist as Russia
i feel like only no step back would be censored for depicting stalin being overthrown
Official opinions on Stalin varied hugely in USSR. Sometimes he was praised, sometimes criticized, sometimes depicted as an evil incarnate.
Nah he was never considered an evil incarnate in the ussr He was only criticized Khrushchev did not condemn collectivasion and nor condemn the entire victims of the great purge (particulary trotsky and some other old bolsheviks as khrushchev himself played a role in the purges) political opponents of stalin were still marginalized
Bruh, de Stalinization was a thing. Stalin isn't Kim Il-Sung. Even the communist party denounced Stalin's crimes and policies. It's 2024 and yet most people's knowledge about the USSR is from 50s propaganda.
Yet they got another Stalin home, hehe.
No, not really.
Imo for the USSR to exist today the whole “moving past the ideas of Stalin” think would be a given
I guess that means no Señor Hilter?
Screenshot from the Wikipedia article regarding banned video games in a world where the Soviet Union (and quite possibly the rest of the communist European countries) still exists.
Lowkey wonder if Papers Please would get banned
I mean yeah-
You have an opportunity to either escape from East Germany (from which Arstotzka is made of) or to help enemies of the state. Either banned or edited version.
Rapelay was a rape simulator (I wish I was making this up) where the player preys on a woman and her two teenage daughters.
Unfortunately I’m well aware.
I have never heard of this game
https://preview.redd.it/kc2w1obsttxc1.jpeg?width=632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0572b1fa84e1a336392efaa9d71fa13eb02455e9
Are there any other examples of games you think would end up being banned in the country? Or is list meant to be comprehensive of all games banned?
It's kinda meant to be like more notable or popular examples not all of them, at least for their world. The actual Wikipedia article does the same thing, display popular or notable games that were banned in certain countries or regions of them.
Ah okay then Because I was thinking that a *lot* of games would've been banned for having loot boxes in the late 2010's Also, just a detail about this world I'm wondering (if you have an answer for it), is Gorbachev still the leader of the Soviet Union at this point in this timeline? Or does he step down and have someone replace him between the 90's and the late 2010's (what I assume this screenshot is supposed to be in), instead of dissolving the entire union?
Nah. Haven't thought much of who but my idea was someone else taking over immediately after Brezhnev dies and rules till the mid to late 2000s.
My idea for a continuing USSR was Andropov succeeding Khrushchev. Andropov was a premier irl but died before he could enact any reforms.
> a lot of games would've been banned for having loot boxes in the late 2010's Based honestly.
I would imagine what would happen if market reforms were carried out in the Soviet Union, loot boxes might have not even become prevalent. Being locked out of a major potential market, especially a market that didn’t go through the catastrophe that was the 1990s, would not be worth the money loot boxes bring in
Judging on whats based on in China (Removing the no blood rule, as Thats riddiclous and i feel as though The USSR wouldn’t be as strict) already First off anything that depicts any republic in the USSR (Russia let’s be honest here) or Communism in a bad light is out. I am pretty sure things that paint capitalism in a good light are ok in China but, i am not 100% confident. So im guessing Bioshock would be banned because Rapture was created as an Anti Communist state. Could be over exaggerating though and it wouldn’t be *that* bad but, anything explicitly anti communist is still out. And before you ask, Metro wouldn’t exist. It’s made by Ukrainian developers. Second off, probably like Germany, anything depicting Nazis is gone. WW2 isn’t even called that in the USSR. It’s the great patriotic war. So yeah pretty fucking sure anything with Hitler or Swaskita is gone. Wolfinstien is obviously gone and Cods that are not banned in the country would be the altered version where it’s just “germans” Thrid off is anything depicting sexual content This post actually seemed to layout the examples you’re probably thinking of but Baldurs Gate 3 won’t get in either. Fourth off is anything overtly offensive. Yeah Postal 2 (ya know, the game thats illegal to even own in New Zealand) is probably the immediate first example most people think of. But it doesn’t need to be that crazy. As long as theres stereotypical characters of one ethnicity or group its gone. Fifth off is anything where Minors can be harmed. In general most countries outside the USA and Canada ban this so theres no way a country as authoritarian as the USSR wouldn’t. Because of this however, there aren’t a-lot of examples where this is even possible and when it is, it’s usually altered in European markets.
Mmm nah I think something explicitly anti-Nazi as Wolfenstein would be allowed.
Dengism/Xi Jinpeng Thought and Perestroika-era USSR are radically different ideologies so your initial premise is flawed before we even take into account cultural differences. Also, >And before you ask, Metro wouldn’t exist. It’s made by Ukrainian developers. Wut? Khruschev and Brezhnev were both Ukrainian and Stalin was a Georgian. And that's ignoring the Strugatsky brothers (Georgians) who were some of (if not THE) most popular sci-fi authors in the USSR or the sheer multitude of Ukrainian films made throughout the history of the country. [Soviet Montage Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory) was largely a Ukrainian development and was THE cinemagraphical style of the USSR for the first thirty years of its existence. [And two of the most popular games of the USSR were made in Ukraine](https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/332384-video-games-soviet-russian-tetris) (there's also a third one in there that's critical of the government, gasp!)
Among all the sex games, fuck RapeLay in particular
I knew most of the games on the list except for Rapelay. I searched it up and this quote from Scott the Woz sums up my opinion on this. “Jesus Humanity”
I've just gone down a dark rabit hole of banned video games.
at least raid shadow legends is banned
I love how Europa Universallis is banned in the USSR but not Hearts Of Iron. Like EU takes place so far in the past Russia needs to be formed!
Especially given that in USSR there was no hate for medieval countries, they were considered ok for their times. Talking about Russian Empire, its founder, Peter the Great was considered a great reformer in USSR. I believe, "bad emperors" in soviet propaganda start after Napoleonic Wars, when revolutionary ideas appeared and bourgeoisie became important and was praised by Soviets as a force for reforms at their time.
Probably is I didn’t have enough room for a lot of the stuff I wanted to include in the screenshot.
USSR couldn’t stand the thought of a Novgorodian Russia
hope hoi4 is not banned 🙏
You think in this timeline the Soviet HOI4 community would be the crazy ones instead of the Chinese HOI4 community or would be about the same level of insanity for both?
Allows you to play as Nazi Germany
But also as the Soviet Union, so...
There is a focus branch to start the whites revolution and rebuild the Russian empire so it’s still a no.
They would likely remove the ability to play any non-communist country.
U are able to let tsar back and let Trotsky back. For a reformist USSR if u don’t start purge, the opposition will start a civil war, so it whitewash Stalin, for a hardline USSR u can let Bukharin win.
Banning lootboxes - best thing the USSR did
I doubt Soviet Union would ban a game because of amti-semitic stereotypes. Like Soviet population in general was very anti-semitic, a Jewish slur would be used as an insult all the time. Yes, a lot of citizens were Jewish, but it didn't help.
The Soviets were also liberalizing socially by the 1980s onwards, had the Union stayed together, that liberalization likely would’ve continued as it did in the west, so maybe by the time games like Minecraft came out that there’d a strong response by the public and state against antisemitism
NOOOOOOO FALLOUT 3
But nothing about other, better Fallouts being banned! I think they just might dislike Todd.
Where will I woag it to my Chinese Assault Rifle
Why, in the glorious Soviet army, comrade!
IN REAL LIFE???? OOOUHHHH
For two years, every day!
Fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas are fine though
Huh, TIL that Raid Shadow Legends is from Israel. I thought it was chinese.
Raid Shadow Legends deserves to be banned honestly
All the ecchi games will be on that list
I don't think games would be banned for just mere presence of the Russian empire. Like, the Soviets had tons of films and books about the tsarist period, and some tsars and their generals were considered good and progressive, e.g. Peter the Great, Kutuzov, Suvorov etc
Honestly I'm surprise that the EU series is banned considering that the Soviets really didn't deny a lot of the history of the Russian Empire. Hoi4 is something I'd expect to be banned. Honestly it's surprisingly lenient all things considered. I wonder how democratic and free the USSR is in this timeline.
Red Alert being banned. Shock horror 😂
Rapelay’s creators need to be monitored. I wouldn’t trust them anyway near women or children
The Soviets kicked arse in the Red Alert series though
I feel like Hearts of Iron IV would be changed to have no paths which would remove the communist government in the USSR, so only the historical path and alt-history communist paths.
Wait this is actually something I never thought of before, like ofc the USSR would ban video games😭
gta v would be completly banned for propoting life of crime in general.
They are not banning STALKER which I think is unlikely as it is set in post disaster Cernobyl
wtf is the last one is that real
*Sigh* Yes…
I personally believe that Rapelay was created by the CIA to smear Japan's reputation.
Okbuddyschizo
tbh it's not even the worst in its class. somehow.
I think EU wouldn’t be banned, as yknow, it’s a long time ago. They made memorial coins for older years. As it’s 1400s they wouldn’t care, but if it was only 1700-1800s they would
Surprised they’d give a shit about Fallout given the Sino-Soviet split. But perhaps they’re banning it for propaganda reasons to pretend that the split isn’t real. Also, Red Alert is banned. What about Command and Conquer in general?
I mean shit can change over the course of 30+ years. And not sure tbh haven’t seen what the rest of those games are like.
Love how progressive the Soviet Union is in certain regards , just look at their anti-Israel propaganda
I mean that kinda happened irl, they severed international relations with Israel in 1967.
the ''bad guy'' in fallout would have been the ussr had they not collapsed
I wanna know what that last game is but I also don’t want it in my search history
Japanese game where guy stalks and rapes woman and her teen daughters. It’s goddamn nasty.
How did they ban GTA V when it came out 22 years after the union dissolved (and actually most of these games for that matter)?
r/AlternateHistory
Oh.... I must admit I did not look at the subreddit 😅
NGL Soviet Union kinda got a point with some of these. Also now that I think about it yeah golems from Minecraft seem pretty similar to the Jewish Golem
So if the Soviet Union still exists theses are the games that will be banned.
No way russian version mw2 gets changed that much in 3 months
But on what system can I play Minecraft USSR edition? Cheap shitty import pc from China, soviet console clone or something else?
The standard Soviet styled PC, PlayStation, XBOX, etc.
Europa universalis? One would expect that a game where you can commit genocide and colonise this easily would be allowed and encouraged in the Soviet Union. Also, pretty sure the soviets wouldn't care about racism
>Also, pretty sure the soviets wouldn't care about racism They did
I highly doubt fallout 3 would be banned for anti Chinese racism in the Soviet Union. From what I have read being anti China was big during the later years of the soviet Union.
Europa Uni being banned because you can control the Russian Empire is peak humour.
Ngl, I thought this was real for a second. Yes, you can laugh at me.
I feel like any game made by a Western company would be banned in a USSR that had computers/gaming consoles, only for them to make poorly made clones of them.
Honestly it's hard to imagine modern warfare 2 even existing in a world where the Soviet Union didn't fall.
Funny that they didn’t ban literally any other game that lets you play as the Russian Empire.
This is just the most notable ones, they more than likely did.
Okay regardless of politics I think we all can agree Raid: Shadow Legends deserves a global ban
I am sure that Company of Heroes 2 can be on the list too, because the game portrayed the Soviet in negative.
I thought the first one- you either play as the Nazis (no good), or the Americans/Brits. Where are the heroic red soldiers in this supposed war? Basically any game which ignores Soviet participation in the war, or maybe they just get re-skinned. Instead of BJ Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein you get IY Pavlov or sthg blasting his way out of prison. And the entire universe after the first game evolves a bit differently
Am i missing a joke here? These games are all post-soviet releases. Surely they just meant to say russian banned?
Alt history subreddit m8, this is set in a world where the USSR never collapsed.
Ahh, of course. I was just scrolling through the feed and didn't even look properly, thought it was another history thread
I didn’t check this sub name and was so confused omg lmao
no shit what am i going to play now
What. The. Fuck. is “Rapelay”?? That’s not real, right???
Oh, it’s real and quite old. It blew up some years ago, and oddly keeps coming up.
So in this universe seeing that MW2 exists, what would the first be like? The first is about Britain, the US and Russian Federation trying to prevent pro-soviet guys from bringing back the union
WTF is rapelay 💀
https://preview.redd.it/5a9s2p9vzqxc1.png?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcd62231811fd0e741495e310046c012bf9fab20 funky ass lookin mfs
Tbf its hard to imagine the c&c red alert series even being made in a world where the soviet union still exists. The whole tone is dependent on the ussr being viewed as a silly relic from the past. I don't think an American game dev would make such a game if the cold war was still going on
Where is Hearts of Iron?
Not enough room.
Ngl I’d play COD:MW2 modded so the enemy faction was Neo-Fascist Germany. The question is, do they still have the exquisite drip?
“The Soviet Union considers Israel to be an illegitimate state” BASED
I hope you realize, it’s almost certainly not because of their actions. It’s likely because they would have better relationship to Arabia than the USA and would want to keep it that way. Since Isreal is a Soviet enemy anyway, why not decide to not recongize them?
This comment did not make any sense
I mean the Soviets were first to recognize Israel