Saudi Arabia Bans Multiple Video Games After Children Commit Suicide

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Saudi Arabia has issued a list of 47 banned video games after two children committed suicide. The children aged 12 and 13 were participating in a social media challenge called the "Blue Whale." The Blue Whale Challenge consists of 50 levels of challenges with each new tier becoming more dangerous than the last. The challenge associated with unlocking the 50th level was to commit suicide.

Notable games included on the list are The Witcher 3, Assassin Creed 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Bayonetta 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Grand Theft Auto V, God of War series, Wolfenstein series, Watch Dogs, Hitman series and Thief. I love it when governments make holiday shopping lists. Missing from the list was Blue Whale and unsupervised children on social media.

The ban was in response to the deaths of a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy who reportedly killed themselves after playing the so-called "Blue Whale" social media game, though the agency did not say what the connection was. Also known as the Blue Whale Challenge, participants are said to be given a series of tasks to complete, capped with killing themselves at the end.
 
ecmaster76 said:
Read the linked article describing "Blue Whale". Not enough facepalms for that site
What a load of BS
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Wow.

The list of tasks, to be completed in 50 days, includes waking up at 4:20am, climbing a crane, carving a specific phrase on the person’s own hand or arm, doing secret tasks, poking a needle on the arm or leg Source...
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Why ban 47 games if this is clearly not a video game challenge?
 
thenapalm said:
Plays stupid games, win stupid prizes.


I'm trying to remember what harmful games I played at that age... Commander Keen? SkiFree? Street Fighter 2?

How did I make it out alive?
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Street Fighter V is on the banned list also. :)
 
modi123 said:
I thought 'blue whale' was a russian hoax started out of 4chan.. did shit just take on a life of it's own?
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a
thenapalm said:
Plays stupid games, win stupid prizes.


I'm trying to remember what harmful games I played at that age... Commander Keen? SkiFree? Street Fighter 2?

How did I make it out alive?
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Mortal Kombat.

I remember explaining to my teacher that it's "K" not "C" [Mortal Combat].
 
modi123 said:
I thought 'blue whale' was a russian hoax started out of 4chan.. did shit just take on a life of it's own?
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There have been several real life incidents attributed to the Blue Whale challenge over the years. This is hardly new.
 
kju1 said:
How is them committing suicide the games fault? Sounds like this was a social media issue not a video game issue...
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RogueTadhg said:
Wow.



Why ban 47 games if this is clearly not a video game challenge?
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Thinking for some people is a challenge.

thenapalm said:
Plays stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I'm trying to remember what harmful games I played at that age... Commander Keen? SkiFree? Street Fighter 2?

How did I make it out alive?
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Duck Hunt.... put the light gun to the side of my head and pulling the trigger.
 
The Mad Atheist said:
Thinking for some people is a challenge.



Duck Hunt.... put the light gun to the side of my head and pulling the trigger.
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All of those shooter games used the same method to see if you hit or where you shot or not. They flash the screen and an optical sensor in the gun picks up where the black dot was. As long as you are close enough in pointing at the black dot you hit. Smaller screens = easier game... if I remember correctly. The light gun actually never shot anything.
 
kju1 said:
Still not the video games fault.
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I'm sure there are some groups out there that say it'll might make someone into a mass shooter......

Grimlaking said:
All of those shooter games used the same method to see if you hit or where you shot or not. They flash the screen and an optical sensor in the gun picks up where the black dot was. As long as you are close enough in pointing at the black dot you hit. Smaller screens = easier game... if I remember correctly. The light gun actually never shot anything.
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Right, it was just a sensor with a few lenses inside.
 
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So, which games have just become big sellers in Saudi Arabia because they got banned? Also, how are you going to enforce it?
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
My mom beat the living shit outta me once in front of my friends when she caught me playing Mortal Kombat at West Coast Video when I was 12...times were rough.
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Wow. I was 10 years old the first time I played it at a laundromat, and it was with my dad.
 
Grimlaking said:
All of those shooter games used the same method to see if you hit or where you shot or not. They flash the screen and an optical sensor in the gun picks up where the black dot was. As long as you are close enough in pointing at the black dot you hit. Smaller screens = easier game... if I remember correctly. The light gun actually never shot anything.
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So up to this point kids have been playing games with sexual content in Saudi Arabia. Didn't know that.
 
Possibly it sounds like a knee jerk response to the horrible online challenge game, conflating every game with that horror. Saudi Arabia may be coming out of a long repression of individual liberty, where an unrestricted internet is a new phenomenon, and so suddenly "it's all bad." But it's hard to predict what's really happening there as the young Pribce consolidates power.

It also sounds like life imitating art, as there was a movie a couple years ago with a dangerous gane pretty much the same as this one.

The real challenges in life should be abiut whether we can be better to each other.

Pretty sad.
 
Totally not surprised that Saudi "government" arrived at that as a useful solution. I mean, they still think women can't be trusted, have human slavery building their Empire, have public beheadings as capital punishments, and so much more.

Of course such an ignorant society is going to make an ignorant judgement on such a thing. They just don't know any better on any real part of their society.
 
RogueTadhg said:
Wow.



Why ban 47 games if this is clearly not a video game challenge?
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You normally wouldn't ban games over 2 deaths either, you'd need an epidemic (and hopefully a correlation).

This was just their excuse for doing it. In all actuality, they banned these particular games for another reason they didn't disclose. Unclothed women?
 
What a strange list all three god of wars, but no postal.

If this list gets anyone playing the order 1886 then it's worth it ;)
 
Banning sex is the way to go then there are less kids to die.
Makes more sense than what they did!
 
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