GamePolitics is reporting (via Cnet) that the Thailand Ministry of Culture has officially banned the sale and import of five games. This is in response to the highly publicized murder of a 54-year old Thai taxi driver by an 18-year old gamer. Oh yeah, the gamer blamed his actions on GTA IV, saying, "he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game."

The games banned are:

  • Hitman
  • 300
  • Killer Seven
  • Hitman: Blood Money
  • Fifty Cent: Bullet Proof

That's not a typo. Those are the five games that the government banned. Let's take these one by one.

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Hitman: First released for Windows in 2000, turned into a rather unsuccessful movie in 2007.

300: A 2007 PSP game based on the hit movie of the same name. Panned by gamers and critics alike (average score of 55 out of 100 on metacritic).

Killer Seven: A decidely last-gen (PS2 and GameCube) release from 2005. A better than average rail-shooter, but hardly a current threat.

Hitman: Blood Money: The third sequel to the first game on this list. Odd that the first and fourth games of the series would face the ban, while the middle two are apparently fine.

Fifty Cent: Bullet Proof: 2005 Xbox release that, although it sold well, is not fondly remembered because it just wasn't a good game (metacritic avg: 50 out of 100).

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Obviously I am not in favor of governments censoring any entertainment media, least of all games, and I'd like to (for the moment) put aside the debate over whether games lead to real life violence. The point is that if the decision is made to pursue these tactics, there should at least be some consideration given to the games that may or may not be influential. If a gamer blames GTA IV for a brutal crime, what is the sense in banning GameCube games? Granted, I suppose I don't know if there had already been legislation to ban these five antiquated titles, but the fact remains that if games are a threat, there are certainly more relevant games to keep from impressionable minds. Like Fable II Pub Games.

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