The Coronavirus outbreak continues to wreak havoc in China and the rest of the world. Yet throughout this debacle China has been trying to keep things under wrap as much as possible. Whether it is silencing critics, trying to keep things quiet early on, and the assumption that it might be lying about the number of people infected and dying. In their latest move, China has removed Plague Inc from the country’s App Store because of “illegal” content.
Plague Inc developer Ndemic Creations made the announcement on its website stating, “We have some very sad news to share with our China based players. We’ve just been informed that Plague Inc. ‘includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China’ and has been removed from the China App Store. This situation is completely out of our control.”
Unsurprisingly, the developer was not informed as to what content the Chinese government deemed “illegal.” The eight-year-old simulation game recently experienced a resurgence in popularity because of COVID-19 and has even been recognized by the CDC as an important educational tool to help determine how to contain and control the virus.
So why would the Chinese government remove it from the store?
My guess is that the Communist Party of China is threatened by the game and sees it as a way for its citizens to inform themselves on how diseases spread. Or maybe its citizens, who are playing the game, are naming their virus COVID-19 or Coronavirus when they are playing the game. Personally, I call mine The Clap because everyone gets or wants the clap. Am I right?
Now that I think about it, I also name my religion in Civilization The Clap, too. Hmm…
Aside from naming it the Coronavirus or COVID-19, it could be that China is one of the best locations to start your infection. After all, it has the largest population and is connected globally to every other nation (India is a good place to start as well).
Whatever the case is, I am sure that it is China just trying to stop its citizens from focusing on the virus even more. All I know is that China has been trying very hard to fight the virus and trying to keep as much information about its origins, the extent of its reach in China, and anything else about it from the rest of the world. But what can you do when China refuses any help from foreign powers?
Of course, communist and socialist countries love to downplay or outright lie when things are collapsing in their country. Lies and propaganda pushed, not just by these regimes, but by people such as New York Times click-jock Walter Duranty who won a Pulitzer Prize for his articles about the Soviet Union in which he denied the widespread famine at that time which killed millions (his Pulitzer was never revoked for his fake reporting). Of course, this is just a side-effect of the combination of bad political systems further transformed by authoritarian regimes. Regimes that will hook their claws into anything they can.
China, for example, has continued to grab up game developers or invest in them at an ever-increasing rate in the gaming industry. And the effects are being felt throughout, though its effects are sometimes hidden from Western audiences. The most recent and notorious example would be Blizzard as it has been censoring both Chinese and non-Chinese players to appeal to China which the developer is invested in.
But in the case of Plague Inc, the commie censorship continues.
What do you think the reason is for China removing Plague Inc from its store? Sound off in the comments below!
Author’s Note: Feel free to check out other coronavirus-related editorials – Will the Coronavirus Affect the Price and Release Date of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X & Knighttime Gaming: The Coronavirus Strain
Support this site by donating via Paypal or even checking out our merchandise on RedBubble where you can find designs that cater to writers and readers. Money donated and
raised goes into paying for this website and equipment.
Interested in posting this article, or another article, on your website? Check out our prices to make that happen – https://tinyurl.com/mrxa56pp
[…] and support the values of the Chinese government. We saw a recent example of the latter when the CCP removed simulation game Plague Inc for the simple fact that players could use China as the origin for releasing a […]
[…] to push back against reports and accusations over the origin of the coronavirus which included banning games such as Plague Inc simply because China was one of the countries which could be chosen as an origin point. China’s […]
[…] the way, did you know that China banned Plague Inc: Evolved during the pandemic crisis because player could name their viruses Corona or COVID-19 and make China […]