Popular Mobile Game Plague Inc. Removed From App Stores in China

[jonplackett]

I was thinking about this recently.
What Plague should have done a few weeks back is announce they’re giving 10% of their profit to help people with Corona Virus. They’d have sold millions of copies and immunised then self from this criticism.

On a side note- I’ve been looking at all these maps of the Corona spread and pondering them as if playing plague, and (unfortunately) thinking, hmmm looks like I might win here.

 

[Nunyabinez]

You mean less authoritarian correct? They are already pretty far to the left of the political spectrum.

I think you misunderstand his use of the term liberal. It is not liberal as in democrats are liberals and republicans are conservatives. It's liberal in the sense that the United States is a liberal democracy.

Liberal democracy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[nitramluap]

These kinds of decisions make societies implode. The current regime will crumble and hopefully be replaced with something more liberal.

As long as it's not based on the fustercluck that is the USA's 'democracy'... because that's just a different flavour of awful.

 

[omihek]

Separately, while I dislike app banning in general. The game publishers should probably revise the App with a splash screen warning and reminding users that it’s just a game for entertainment and is not based on any actual cases or news.

I totally agree. BloonsTD6 also doesn't have a splash screen telling you that the game is in fact a game and earlier today I was playing and I kept running to look out my window to see the monkeys fighting against the big bad bloons in REAL LIFE! I never saw them though, which kinda makes sense, but mostly just makes me super mad, cuz I automatically assume whatever I'm doing on my phone is an exact reflection of what's happening in real life. The fact that they don't tell me it's a game every single time I open the app is just ridiculous. I mean sure it's all cartoony and it was in the Games section of the App Store when I purchased it and the app description says it's a game and monkeys don't generally throw bombs and breath fire at bloons in real life, but seriously they gotta be way more clear about the fact that it's actually a game cuz people like me and you obviously still don't get it.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

same country that banned Winnie the Pooh over a meme. I for one am not surprised

This is (very likely) a myth by the way. China only allows for 34 American films each year and Christopher Robin didn’t make the cut. None of the old Pooh content or merchandise were actually banned. Not saying China doesn’t ban stuff all the time but this is one is probably based on poorly sourced hearsay.

 

[Rainshadow]

Gents please change the featured image. That dashboard will create tons of panic and confusion.

Separately, while I dislike app banning in general. The game publishers should probably revise the App with a splash screen warning and reminding users that it’s just a game for entertainment and is not based on any actual cases or news.

You’ve GOT to be kidding - on BOTH counts... Right?

NOONE could be dumb enough to think they are actively mutating a virus and wiping out the human race...

 

[Rafterman]

You’ve GOT to be kidding - on BOTH counts... Right?

NOONE could be dumb enough to think they are actively mutating a virus and wiping out the human race...

Never say never.

 

[nylonsteel]

"...the Cyberspace Administration of China,"
sounds like something out of the cold war circa 1950-1980
oh yeah china is still a communist state - i guess

 

[mi7chy]

Oooooor they could enable side loading. Then it's out of Apple AND China's hands.

EDIT: I just saw the thumbs down... What do people have against sideloading? If they implemented it, it would be completely optional; you could happily keep using the App Store and never sideload a thing. It would just be a good thing to have in the event of censorship.

He's no Jim Keller.

Side loading isn't necessarily bad as many major open source projects offer apps for side loading like Retroarch, Kodi, etc. On the other hand, going through the app store doesn't guarantee safety either since, for example, Jeff Bezos' iPhone was compromised through WhatsApp from app store. With an app ipa file, you can run it through VirusTotal and decompile to audit instead of relying on blind trust so you're more correct.

 

[Shirasaki]

These kinds of decisions make societies implode. The current regime will crumble and hopefully be replaced with something more liberal.

Something one can only hope.

 

[Abazigal]

Oooooor they could enable side loading. Then it's out of Apple AND China's hands.

EDIT: I just saw the thumbs down... What do people have against sideloading? If they implemented it, it would be completely optional; you could happily keep using the App Store and never sideload a thing. It would just be a good thing to have in the event of censorship.

Side loading brings with it its own share of problems.

One of the reason why the iOS App Store is as successful as it is is because the App Store is, for most people, the only way they can purchase an app. This results in a win-win situation for Apple, developers and customers. Developers can charge a fair price for their apps knowing that customers have to purchase them the old-fashioned way (as opposed to pirating them), consumers benefit from a curated App Store, and Apple is able to use its tight control over its ecosystem to ensure a safe environment for all.

Conversely, one of the key reasons why apps aren’t as profitable on android is due to the high incidence of app piracy.

So if Apple were to bring side loading to iOS, more people are definitely going to use it to install apps from outside the App Store. Why purchase LumaFusion for $20 when I can side load a cracked version for free? This is going to kill app developer support because then, it won’t be sustainable to continue developing for said app.

Back to your main question - the problem I have is that even if I don’t use side-loading, other people will, and that has repercussions on the state of the App Store and app development, which ends up impacting me all the same.

 

[libertysat]

Apple bending backwards to make the Chinese government happy as can be or Xi will be very mad.

Simply sad, and embarrassing.

Replace Apple with US Senate and Xi with trump
Simply sad & embarrassing