The Offending Game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

It seems that people want to ban games all over the world. Games can get banned for a number of reasons. Generally they are related to infringing on ratings board classifications or exceeding them (as happens in Australia because we do not have an 'R' rated category). Germany has strict guidelines for the release and use of violence in video games. As such, games are heavily modified before they are released in Germany. However, several places in Mexico are considering banning Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 because it is: "a crime against the intellectual capacity of Juarez residents." I think that saying a game brow beats them is a new classification for banning games.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 builds off of the events in the first game and places gamers in control of the U.S. military's elite fighting unit, the Ghosts. In the year 2014, the rising conflict between Mexican loyalists and insurgent rebel forces has thrown Mexico into full-scale civil war.

This is not the first time that a game has been considered to be politically incorrect. Another game which is receiving some negative press at the moment for similar reasons is Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. The Venezuelan Solidarity Network has come out and said that,

Mercs 2

"(Mercs 2) follows guns for hire as they help topple a "power hungry tyrant" in Venezuela. While no real names are used, protestors see the plot as a clear parallel to the Unites States' troubled relationship with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, and are labeling the shooter as anti-Venezuela propaganda."

A letter from this group adds to their concerns over the game.

The aim of the video game is full devastation, so any 'person' who moves should be 'shot,' and all the buildings, such as the headquarters of PDVSA, the Venezuelan public oil company, can be 'destroyed.' Our concern is that this game will only deepen an already antagonistic relationship between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments. Millions of Venezuelans fear an invasion from the U.S.; knowing that a company that works for the US military has created a game in which their country is completely destroyed will increase those concerns.

As Jack Nicholson said in Mars Attacks, "Can't we all just get along?"