Brazil's Carmageddon Conundrum

Brasoft's Rafael Matsunaga, the company's lead product tester, responded to our news story concerning the Brazilian ban on Carmageddon.

Brasoft is the game's Brazilian distributor. Not only did the Brazilian government ban the sale of the title, it also required that Brasoft produce a "safe driving" CD-ROM. That arrangement currently states that Brasoft will coproduce a CD on driving safety and laws. Brasoft expects the instructional CD to be ready sometime in mid-1998.

Matsunaga writes:

I should have sent you this earlier, but I just wanted to drop you some lines about the Brazilian government banning Carmageddon around here. I work as the lead product tester at Brasoft, the company that distributes the game here. The following paragraphs in no way reflect Brasoft's opinion on the subject. It's my personal point of view as a gamer.

What I want to let everyone know is how stupid our government really is. Most of you probably don't know, but the Brazilian version of Carmageddon requires a password in order to be played in bloody mode. The password is chosen upon installation and a letter for the kid's parents is enclosed in the game box.

Without the password, the game is played in robot version and anyone who's ever seen that version knows that the robots in no way resemble real pedestrians.

More on the box: There's a clear line on the front of the box that says: "Inadvisable to kids under 21". We spent a lot of time and resources with SCi to build the two-version product.

Brasoft has done everything in range to avoid problems with kids and authorities, but the government insists on worrying about computer games instead of trying to solve social/economical problems well known in Brazil.

Thanks, Rafael