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Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

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Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#41

Post by giancarlostoro »

geff82 wrote: post #30

From my experience with and in Iran: every western sanction leads to more products and services from China. Life becomes a bit more difficult, yes. But the government does what it wants to do. And China essentially takes over the economy. At the expense of the West. Is the Western behavior wise? I do not know. Sometimes, I hear a "boom" in the air, coming from far away. Those are the bottles of champagne that Chinese…

So Roblox will take Minecrafts place? Trying to remember if they were Chinese owned. Theres definitely plenty of open source knock offs that are just as good.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#42

Post by mynameismon »

esprehn wrote: post #32
mikestew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all about preventing the creation of nuclear weapons. It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. User UncleEntity says it better than I could in a comment that is buried a few levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40158797

That would seem to suggest countries should do extensive sanctions on wine and cheese?

I think its a metaphor alluding to the black market trades of the wealthy leaders?

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#43

Post by sevagh »

jbm wrote: post #31
webdoodle wrote: post #29

Minecraft is a psyop platform used to cultivate certain personality types, to be exploited by other organizations that buy the data. Many intelligence organizations built them specifically to use them for recruiting tools. Iran being blocked suggests to me that the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence was using it too...

So... when my daughter is building a train track and a house in the game, what specifically is the psychological effect that the intelligence services want?

Trains? She's being indoctrinated to public transport socialism and won't buy a Ford F350.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#44

Post by philipov »

esprehn wrote: post #32
mikestew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all about preventing the creation of nuclear weapons. It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. User UncleEntity says it better than I could in a comment that is buried a few levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40158797

That would seem to suggest countries should do extensive sanctions on wine and cheese?

Perhaps not the best turn of phrase, since alcohol is illegal in Iran. However, they can make their own cheese just fine.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#45

Post by kbolino »

mmis1000 wrote: post #12
red_admiral wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barely a week goes by without some variant of "Iranian Hackers" in the tech/security press - maybe, inshallah, they could release a version that lets you play on Iran-hosted servers without needing to connect to the US for a login?

No, they don't need a 'new' client for that. That already exists. Since minecraft is basically open source, it's not really a secret that how to make a client that simply don't require login. (Surely you don't want to say it loud or legal team of MS is going to chase you hard, but lots of client just slip that function in silently) Besides that. The minecraft login is basically a license check allow you to join 'lega…

Open source means the developers release the source code willingly and encourage other people to use it. Minecraft is not now and never has been open source.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#46

Post by thriftwy »

Johnssmithss wrote: post #34
geff82 wrote: post #30

From my experience with and in Iran: every western sanction leads to more products and services from China. Life becomes a bit more difficult, yes. But the government does what it wants to do. And China essentially takes over the economy. At the expense of the West. Is the Western behavior wise? I do not know. Sometimes, I hear a "boom" in the air, coming from far away. Those are the bottles of champagne that Chinese…

Selling stuff to dictatorships is bad, even if you make money from it.

It seems that most of the world (population- and GDP-wise) is drifting towards authoritarian rule with immutable Dear Leader. Russia, then Turkey, then China, India is arguably getting there too. You're placing Iran in the same bucket. Maghreb countries? Middle East? Central Asia?

As far as dictatorships go, Iran actually has some political life.

That would eventually make your position untenable.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#47

Post by resource_waste »

I just realized how scary this is.

I've been pretty concerned about Microsoft since their quality is low and their customer service is AOL tier.

My kid loves minecraft, I've made some cool worlds, my wife is/was into it. I have realized that everything ends, and I think Minecraft is going to end before and of us 3. It has got to be Greed at this point? Minecraft becomes p2p or similar.

I'm really hoping the FOSS variants can catch up before its too late.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#49

Post by megous »

unclad5968 wrote: post #24

It is known and at least somewhat documented that some criminal organizations have used video games "for children" for communication. US intelligence agencies see multi-player video games as a way for terrorists to communicate, so it makes sense they would sanction if that's their fear.

Using a completely unprotected communication medium channelled via US located servers is a reason to monitor it.

Pushing "terrorists" to better secured means of communication is no way helpful to the US.

Re: Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

#50

Post by tichiian »

waffleiron wrote: post #40
UncleEntity wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the point of sanctions is making the life of average people difficult so the leaders fear them revolting over not being able to play a game or, you know, feeding their children. The other half is to reduce their ability to wage war on their neighbors. Either way, the leaders are still sipping wine and eating cheese.

Honest question; has that ever worked? Cause I could see it just as easily weaponised by a sanctioned state to cause one to dislike "the west" more. Would you be more likely to overthrow your government when other governments start making your life more difficult?

Sanctions may be a very weak measure when it comes to inciting revolutions. But in general, yes, sanctions against non-military goods do work to change the minds of greedy leaderships if they can be tailored to remove a sufficient part of their income. However, that is not always the case, e.g. in Iran it is rather a measure of the "we are doing as much as we can, more than sternly worded letters, less than violence or war".
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