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Animal Crossing: New Horizons reportedly taken down in China as players make fun of Chinese leaders with user generated content

Resetti

Resetti

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Oct 25, 2017
930
Edit 3: Now being reported by some big name outlets
time.com

'Animal Crossing' Removed From China E-Commerce Site After Hong Kong Protester Shared Pro-Democracy Messages

Nintendo's 'Animal Crossing' has been taken down from Taobao, some suspect due to Hong Kong protestors spreading pro-democracy messages on the game
time.com time.com
www.reuters.com

Nintendo game pulled from Chinese platforms after Hong Kong protest

A Nintendo Switch video game has been pulled off China's grey market e-commerce platforms, Reuters' checks show, after Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong used the game to protest against Beijing’s rule of the Chinese territory.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

Edit 2: Twitter thread by ZhugeEX explaining the situation
https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1248495056299778050


Edit: another report, from SCMP news


 
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TrueSloth

TrueSloth

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Oct 27, 2017
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Considering how the government fucked up the whole Coronavirus thing, I can imagine there are a shit ton of people feeling disenchanted and a total lack of trust in their government. Although I'm not sure what their normal stance is, but I figure most people are normally at least apathetic to their government there because of all the propaganda.
 
OP
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Resetti

Resetti

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Oct 25, 2017
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Could be related - few days ago, Hong Kong protester protesting in AC had made the news.


 
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Resetti

Resetti

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Thread updated with Twitter thread by ZhugeEX explaining the situation.

JustJavi said:
Gonna have to get a Winnie painting for my bedroom wall
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Psssssst, try this!
b14b49b95bfcd5f4134e81f014080c12.JPG

(saw this floating around the Internet but can't really trace its source, sorry about that)
 
Hours Left

Hours Left

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Oct 26, 2017
18,391
If the thousands of more dire examples didn't convince you, this is a reminder that the Chinese government is very, very bad.
 

Deleted member 8674

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Hours Left said:
If the thousands of more dire examples didn't convince you, this is a reminder that the Chinese government is very, very bad.
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The US government is not any less bad yet you don't see players putting Trump hair on the island. The Chinese government is bad but could people leave politics out of a video game for children?
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

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Oct 25, 2017
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Resetti said:
Could be related - few days ago, Hong Kong protester protesting in AC had made the news.


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Here's the previous thread on this specific angle from a few days ago. The takedown response from China is a new development, though.

For additional context on how ACNH is being obtained or accessed in China, totally separate from the question of any protest content, here's an article from 31 March. This is from the South China Morning Post, which is Alibaba-owned and does have a pro-government editorial lean in HK, but is otherwise still fairly reliable on the reporting side as the English-language paper of record.

Nintendo's hottest new game isn't officially available in China yet, so online peddlers are cashing in on the shortage by selling smuggled copies of Animal Crossing: New Horizons at soaring prices.

Chinese authorities, who enforce strict approval rules on games, have only approved three Nintendo Switch titles since the console launched in the country last December. All of them belong to the Mario franchise. So Animal Crossing fans have been left to rely on unofficial third-party sellers who import physical copies from Hong Kong and other places, where the latest installment of the popular franchise debuted on March 20.

On Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall shopping platforms, stores are selling imported copies for about 600 yuan (US$85), far more than it costs in Hong Kong (US$55) or the US (US$60). Even then, there seems to be no lack of customers: Sales figures listed on Taobao show some stores have sold thousands of copies. Meanwhile Chinese players who managed to get into Animal Crossing are already busy peppering their islands with pandemic-related references.
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Hours Left

Hours Left

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Oct 26, 2017
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hemo memo said:
The US government is not any less bad yet you don't see players putting Trump hair on the island. The Chinese government is bad but could people leave politics out of a video game for children?
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You think governments should be able to ban videogames with user created content because it might be used to mock them, or bring attention to their multiple atrocities?

"Leave politics out of gaming" is a spectacularly bad take.

P.S. Anyone wanting to use Animal Crossing to dump on the current US government, or any evil facet of society, has my full support.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

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Oct 27, 2017
19,026
Ah yes, China is just like a normal government guys. Something something Trump. Nothing to see here.
 
Hours Left

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hemo memo said:
I didn't say that.

And yes keep politics out of games for children.
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This game isn't just for children, it's played by millions of people, and there's nothing wrong with it being used to point out the atrocities in the world.

Also, there's nothing wrong with children being exposed to progressive political activism.
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

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Oct 25, 2017
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hemo memo said:
I didn't say that.

And yes keep politics out of games for children.
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Realistically, the way this would be enforced is if (a) supposedly offended users report political content to Nintendo as inappropriate, and (b) Nintendo complies, just like they would with reports of inappropriate language or comment drawings.

Stop and ask yourself for a second if that's really the world you want to live in—when we know for a fact that the favourite tactic of Chinese propaganda and its affiliated troll army, all along, has been to label any challenge to the CCP party line (over Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Uyghur detention camps, the mismanagement and misinformation surrounding COVID-19, or whatever else) as offensive, western-imperialist, racist, or an affront to their national sovereignty and pride.

If you would voluntarily prefer not to generate that kind of content in a user-content game yourself, be my guest. But don't presume to scold others for believing otherwise unless you actually have a proposal for how you think this behaviour should be policed.

I'm not even one of the people around here who thinks everything ought to be overtly politicized all the time (let alone progressive). What I am saying, however, is that the insinuation that politics is family-unfriendly—that is what you're saying, yes?—is ridiculous.
 
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Deleted member 8674

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Hours Left said:
This game isn't just for children, it's played by millions of people, and there's nothing wrong with it being used to point out the atrocities in the world.

Also, there's nothing wrong with children being exposed to progressive political activism.
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But it's against Nintendo ToS so it'll be removed regardless.

The game is played by all ages for fun and relaxation. You want to escape this awful world when playing and not to get involved more.

And to be very clear: Fuck a government that uses fear and violence to control the people. Fuck the Chinese government for the crimes against muslim minorities.


Serene said:
Nothing about politics is inherently bad for kids.

So... no.
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Except no one want their kid to be depressed.
 
Aprikurt

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So I guess in real life Nintendo would just let Ganondorf rule Hyrule huh
 
Serene

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hemo memo said:
Except no one want their kid to be depressed.
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Ain't no one's kid gonna be depressed over seeing some shit about Hong Kong. Most of them won't even register it.

Once you get in the business of policing where and when activism can happen, it ceases to be activism.
 
OP
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Resetti

Resetti

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Oct 25, 2017
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Some pics in question I gathered online.

From Joshua Wong (Hong Kong activists)
Top Left: A joint-funeral of Xi and Dr. Tedros, who is criticized by some for being China-centric in handling matters of COVID-19. On the floor it writes "Wuhan Pneumonia", terms referring to COVID-19 used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau (as indicated by Google Trends)
Top Right: Xi and the Wuhan wet market, which is speculated to be connected to the origins of COVID-19
Bottom Left: Hong Kong protest slogans/arts
Bottom Right: HK protesters attending the funeral of Carrie Lam


Here's a thread of Joshua Wong being harassed by angry Chinese gamers


People smacking Carrie Lam's head


From the USGamer article: Island filled with protest slogans, and Carrie Lam buried in a sea of trash bags.
Animal-Crossing-New-Horizons_Hong-Kong-Protest6.jpg
 
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Naga

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Wow, China going pretty far in terms of erasure.
Not much more than usual, but still.
 
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Resetti

Resetti

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Su Tseng-chang, Premier of Taiwan, writes on Facebook (roughly translated by me)

"Taiwan will not censor such branches-picking and turnips-planting games. Please feel free to make fun of Taiwan's Government. Democracy and Freedom of Speech is Taiwan's core values, everyone can say whatever they want through whatever media they like. Please treasure such freedom.

#Feel free to parody me
#Don't take the current pandemic as a joke though"
 
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Resetti

Resetti

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Oct 25, 2017
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starting to see more outlets reporting this
time.com

'Animal Crossing' Removed From China E-Commerce Site After Hong Kong Protester Shared Pro-Democracy Messages

Nintendo's 'Animal Crossing' has been taken down from Taobao, some suspect due to Hong Kong protestors spreading pro-democracy messages on the game
time.com time.com
www.reuters.com

Nintendo game pulled from Chinese platforms after Hong Kong protest

A Nintendo Switch video game has been pulled off China's grey market e-commerce platforms, Reuters' checks show, after Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong used the game to protest against Beijing’s rule of the Chinese territory.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

and ,uh, thanks for the shout out, Metro.
metro.co.uk

Animal Crossing: New Horizons unavailable in China due to 'offensive' content

Chinese fans had been importing copies of the new Animal Crossing, but a major online retailer is now no longer allowed to sell it.
metro.co.uk metro.co.uk
 
P-MAC

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Nov 15, 2017
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hemo memo said:
The US government is not any less bad yet you don't see players putting Trump hair on the island. The Chinese government is bad but could people leave politics out of a video game for children?
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I mean they could but it's harmless so no. Why the fuck does it matter ? It's not like it's potentially harmful content. Besides, the vast majority of AC players are not children
 
Lukar

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Poor Winnie the Pooh got his feelings hurt.
 
Firima

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hemo memo said:
The US government is not any less bad yet you don't see players putting Trump hair on the island. The Chinese government is bad but could people leave politics out of a video game for children?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Agreed, children might get the wrong idea about President Xi, and that could be damaging to the country's moral fiber and the party's attempts at creating and fostering a peaceful environment for all citizens. After all, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you are not thinking about others and only thinking about yourself.
 
abellwillring

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I was actually a little concerned Nintendo would be forced to make wholesale changes to the ability to download patterns off the internet due to the "lewd" stuff people were doing. Hadn't even considered this side of things. Curious if it results in any modifications.
 

Deleted member 29674

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hemo memo said:
The US government is not any less bad yet you don't see players putting Trump hair on the island. The Chinese government is bad but could people leave politics out of a video game for children?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And if players put Trump hair on the island the government would not pull the game from existence. Can you not be an apologist for China's suppression of its people?
 
Kolbe1894

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"leave politics out of a video game for children"

Ha, in China, even you don't want to talk about politics, the politics will still find you, and force you either obey Winnie or end of your "normal" life.
 
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