Thai junta bans run-your-own-junta game Tropico 5

Thailand has been having a pretty rough time of it recently, and not just with worldwide attention around a certain surrogate child. Last year the country was taken over by its army in a military coup, which suspended the country’s constitution and put in place a strict curfew. Now the governing Military junta gone one step further and started banning video games, possibly angering (but largely bemusing) gamers everywhere.

The game banned was no other than Tropico 5 which is a simulation in which you can run your country as, you guessed it, a military dictatorship. Apparently this was a little close to the bone for Thailand’s film and video censorship office, who said that “some part of its content might affect peace and order in the country.”

The local distributor, New Era, had sold Tropico 3 and 4 in the country in recent years, so it does seem that the current political situation in the country is the blame rather than other issues that might be levelled at the game.   

We have to start wondering what next? Will Far Cry 4 be banned anywhere with a charismatic and despotic warlord, will Assassin’s Creed Unity be banned by governments fearing popular uprisings? And will Sunset Overdrive be lobbied against by soft drinks manufacturers? It’s even possible that a coalition of shifty-looking, planet-invading types from the horsehead nebula is thinking of taking action against their depiction in Destiny right now …

The real winners of course are developer’s Haemimont games and publisher Kalypso Media, who will lapping up all this additional publicity for this now venerable series of games. Which gives us an opportunity to link to our review of the original Tropico title from way back in 2002. If you’re keen for more junta-based action then try the classic board game Junta.