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My Friends

24Jan 08

As of January 18, 2008, no more EverQuest in Brazil. But the newly imposed banning doesn't only apply to this MMORPG, but also affects the Counter-Strike fans in the South American country. Nevertheless, these are not the first games to be prohibited in the "samba" nation; others like Grand Theft Auto and Postal have also been banned in past years.


Bad news for Counter-Strike and EverQuest players living in Brazil - both games have been banned after a judge ruled they are "harmful to consumers' health".

As reported by AFP the judge, Carlos Alberto Simoes, made his ruling in October 2007 - but the ban is only coming into effect now. Simoes stated the games encouraged "the subversion of public order". He also ruled they were "an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security".

Counter-Strike and EverQuest were first released in 1999. One modded map for the former game saw players taking on the role of either a police officer or drug dealer in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.

It's alleged EverQuest is harmful because players are asked to accept both "good" and "bad" quests, the psychological burden of which is said to cause problems. The game was never officially released in Brazil.


The South American nation famous for its ability to create great soccer players, attractive swimsuit models and land that used to be rainforests has brought the banhammer down upon two of the world's most popular online games. Both Counter-Strike and EverQuest, each now nine-years old, were said to promote "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security" by the judge enacting the ban.

According to the AFP report on the matter, the prohibition on selling CS and EQ was actually passed in October of 2007, but was only recently enforced by PROCON, the national consumer protection agency. Good work, Brazil. Glad all of your problems are sorted out now that the video game police are tackling the tough issues!


Around the 1990s, Brazil did not have a video game rating system, such as ESRB, but some games such as Carmageddon, Postal and Grand Theft Auto were banned in the whole Brazilian territory via juridical decision. Due to a gunman's rampage through a movie theatre in Brazil, Duke Nukem 3D was also banned in that country along with Quake, Doom and several other violent first-person shooters. The Brazil rampage was allegedly inspired by Duke Nukem 3D's opening level "Hollywood Holocaust" (Episode 1, Mission 1), where a firefight with aliens takes place inside a cinema. Despite this ban, Duke Nukem 3D was subsequently being published in a computer magazine (Revista Senha, a) and other titles such as Quake and Doom are still sold openly in Brazil.

On January 18, 2008, the Brazilian justice banned the games Counter-Strike and EverQuest. Counter-Strike was banned due to cs_rio — a map which simulate a favela in Rio de Janeiro.


Following some conclusions:

On Counter-Strike: Lots of other videogames teaches "war strategies" and entices to "terrorist behavior" as the game is alleged to do and was banned due to.

On EverQuest: Seriously! This game isn't even sold in Brazil. Oh... about the "good" and "bad" decisions you must take... just remember BioShock.

Many videogames have already been banned in several countries but I actually haven't heard of some game veto when this isn't even sold in the country (I know I'm rephrasing this annoying fact, but it just freaks me out).

First excerpt: EuroGamer

Second excerpt: Kotaku

Third excerpt: Wikipedia

For more information:

http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7954.jhtm (Brazilian portuguese)

http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7956.jhtm (Brazilian portuguese)

  • Posted Jan 24, 2008 11:24 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 11 Comments

11 Comments

  • OtakuRay

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 1:02 pm PT

    mmmm I have to see some stadistic data to deliver an opinion since I don't know how are the people behavior in your country

  • nickscho

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 6:41 pm PT

    That is really, EQ is one of my favorite games.

  • chandu83

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 2:53 am PT

    That is really crazy. I don't know what they hope to accomplish from this, except make a lot of people unhappy.

  • kishmish

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 9:11 am PT

    that really sucks man!! Good for me that iraq doesn't care about games.

  • polsci1503

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 9:17 am PT

    um, it's a little late isn't it? Maybe next time they can ban a game only 4 years old.

  • kishmish

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 10:29 am PT

    Better late than never.

  • Primo295

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    wow i didn't knew that Oo

  • wildnine00

    Posted Feb 1, 2008 11:56 am PT

    Well I guess there's only one thing left to do --- rename Brazil to Nazi-Germany. Try no to read too much offense into that btw, I'd still love to visit Brazil.

  • kingrich06

    Posted Feb 3, 2008 10:37 pm PT

    too much governement interference

  • rocabator

    Posted Feb 5, 2008 5:45 pm PT

    Man, that sucks, they shouldn't ban a game just because some crazy people do some crazy stuff

  • huriona

    Posted Feb 14, 2008 7:56 am PT

    I still can't believe it. It really just shows how out of touch and clueless these government officials are.

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