'Minecraft' might get banned in Turkey for being too violent
In a move of absolute ridiculousness, Turkey wants to ban Minecraft because its Family and Social Policies Ministry's deemed it too violent for kids. Yes, a game where you build fortresses and punch trees is getting called out for its content, because in Survival Mode, you have to defend yourself from the zombie-like Mobs and that sometimes means killing them. As the region's Hurriyet Daily News reports, the Ministry also says that some kids could confuse Minecraft's blocky, pixelated landscapes for the real world which would make them think that torturing animals was totally fine. Sure; okay. The reason for the outfit casting its gaze at Microsoft's $2.5 billion purchase in the first place? To see if the game encouraged violence against women. At least its heart was in the right place at the outset.
Even if all you have a cursory knowledge of Minecraft, the entire thing likely sounds too bizarre to be true. Sadly, that isn't the case. As VentureBeat notes, Turkey would be the first country to ban the game if the Ministry's petition succeeds, but it doesn't have a history of banning games (you know, like, actual violent ones). Given the government's history of blocking access to things like Twitter and YouTube, however, it isn't clear if it'll follow suit with Mojang's baby.
