Arabic developers self-censor to better game success

With the conservative nature of the Middle Eastern society, Middle Eastern developers face a moral issue on what content should be included in their games.

Taboos in the Middle East are numerous, they can be religious, political or sexual. Censorship is practised by governments on almost all products, with a great focus on media output.

Movie scenes are cut in order to not offend the traditional conservative population, even if it affects the story narrative of the movie itself; that's if it doesn't get banned altogether.

Many video games have been banned from the MENA region, such as GTA V, Darksiders, South Park, Dragon Age and the Saints Row series amongst others, for nudity, sex scenes, religious references and derogatory terms. Even SimCity had to be re-coded for the Middle East release due to the gambling and casinos in-game.

People mistook Arabic calligraphy for verses from the Quran in a bathroom in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This, of course, is bad enough, and although there were no verses from the Quran, the immediate response demonstrates the conservative nature of the region. Religion is NOT to be messed with, especially in a game that is already depicting the region and the people as the enemy. Not surprisingly death threats were sent to developers for disrespecting the religion.

Activision Blizzard however, does recognise the potential in the region.

The company’s chief executive and president Bobby Kotick said in an interview with The National that the company was moving away from traditional games and IP marketing strategies.

“We’re trying to move away from selling western games in non-western markets,” said Mr Kotick.

TV channels and content have always been censored, even traditional console-based gaming, but how do mobile games differ, and can they be banned too?

ArabicGamers asked Samer Abbas, the co-founder of the Jordanian based game publisher Play3arabi whether governments can control mobile games in the Middle East.

Abbas said: "Google and Apple don't give much attention to such requests, there is much freedom in mobile gaming."

"Coming from the region, we know that our culture is rather conservative, therefore and although we are not subject to governmental censorship we practise respect.

Abbas is keen not to offend his audience and to disrespect the gamers that support the industry. Although the mobile gaming giants aren't influenced by government guidelines, Abbas knows that to offend the Arabic audience would be professional suicide, and would have repercussions on future game releases.

"We do not want to offend our gamers, by giving them a game that would stir nationwide controversy."

Nationwide controversy would also mean the spotlight would be put on Play3rabi for all the wrong reasons, and would therefore, no doubt, have an impact on the industry with government bodies becoming more involved in the space and dictating what should and shouldn't be allowed on. By doing so, publishers and developers would have to be much more careful with the content they release.

“We wouldn’t censor religious symbols necessarily for example, as it might only offend some people. However, we would sensor things such as sexual content and gambling because it would offend the majority of society’s traditional values, irrespective of religion.

“We have to draw a line somewhere, and we have to make decisions based on our society on what should be censored.”

Ultimately, having publishers and developers self-censor means the industry is in safe hands, and allows developers and publishers to work within the confines of the boundaries the government sets, without having the governments input. It's a new space and it'll take some time for the governments to oversee output on all platforms, especially mobile where there are millions of apps.

For more on this and much more for the games developement in the region, make sure you check our MENA Games Conference content. We'll be live from the event on 26-28 March, and you can find more about it here.

Our very own Tamer Asfahani will be hosting the show and leading some panels on game development in the region.