Today Microsoft Banned My Country Iran from Minecraft

Post by wizardwes » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:16 PM UTC

willismichael wrote: post #35

amluto wrote: post #27

I don’t play Minecraft, but I’ve noticed that there are plenty of what appear to be open source Minecraft clients and servers. Presumably one could connect an open source client to an open source server without any particular involvement from MS. It’s not even immediately obvious that doing so would infringe on any of MS’s rights. So why do people, especially in places like Iran, use Microsoft’s Minecraft implementat…

I had my children playing one of the open source Minecraft clones for a few years, but after they saw all their friends playing Minecraft, they wanted the "real thing". It's not exactly the same game, and don't discount the value of shared experience with other people. Minecraft is as much about the community that you play with, and it's hard to get people to play an open source clone that sits in this uncanny valley…

Post by Johnssmithss » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:18 PM UTC

thriftwy wrote: post #46

Johnssmithss wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by Johnssmithss » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:20 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #39

Johnssmithss wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then what about ending all trade with China? Or what is the difference?

Post by nashashmi » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:20 PM UTC

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.

Post by Alupis » Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:20 PM UTC

lupusreal wrote: post #59

Alupis wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also about making sure the common person in $SANCTIONED_COUNTRY feels the pain. This is exactly it - otherwise the populace can just ignore their government's foreign policy decisions. There's consequences for being a bad actor on the global stage... and today that means no more Minecraft, of all things. Perhaps the OP can write a letter to their representative and pressure them to work on easing sanctions...

Their government says that America is an evil spiteful bully. The apparent truth of that claim has now been demonstrated to any Iranian who plays Minecraft. You think the result is more Iranians questioning their government? I doubt it.