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Government Games

Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion (arstechnica.com) 128

Posted by BeauHD from the it's-all-fun-and-games-until-war-breaks-out dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, has publicly called on "all game development companies" to "temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts" in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In a tweet from his verified account, Fedorov also called on esports platforms to "temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding [sic] on the territory of Russia and Belarus."

These moves, Fedorov suggests, "will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression" by the Russian government. "In 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers... and missiles." In an additional note directed at the Xbox and PlayStation Twitter accounts, Fedorov wrote that "if you support human values, you should [leave] the Russian market!" In a follow-up tweet, Fedorov also asked Riot Games, EA, Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Wargaming to "close your office in Russia" in solidarity with Ukraine. "There's no place for [an] aggressor on the global technological map!"
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Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion More

Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion

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  • or is this a ridiculous thing to be talking about? I'm sure this will stop Russia in its tracks. I don't see how any country engaged in war could stand up to being cut off from online gaming.

    • It's all fun and games...until there's no games. Then there's just fun. Oh, well...

      • May not even be necessary. Russia could possibly do this to itself because apparently it is getting difficult for them to control the public narrative:

        https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]

        The word is that the Russian Federation Council has schedule an emergency meeting for March 4th to pass some kind of anti-crisis laws. Something tells me that anti-crisis doesn't involve a therapist.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tyr07 ( 8900565 )

      I don't think it's an end all, but anything you can do to antagonize the russian civilian population over retalitory behavior due to their governments actions is considered a positive.

      The hope being if enough things upset the population of Russia it could put Russia is a position more likely to operate some diplomatic channels and actions, slow or halt advances and or future plans etc.

      No one is like "That will do it." but mounting pressures combined might achieve something is the goal.

      At the very least, shr

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

        I don't think it's an end all, but anything you can do to antagonize the russian civilian population over retalitory behavior due to their governments actions is considered a positive.

        Is it? Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one? I on the other hand can easily name several that went the other direction. Creating a Russia-sized North Korea does not seem like a great idea.

        All democratic revolutions that have occurred in history occurred during a time of growing prosperity. Ukraine itself is an example of that. The opposite does not seem to be true, as countries in economic distress tend to turn to dictators for lead

        • And the world did nothing for a long time while Germany was launching war after war in the 1930s. That did us a fat lot of good.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by djinn6 ( 1868030 )

            You realize Germany was under harsh economic sanctions right? The Treaty of Versailles was the reasons the Weimar Republic failed and Hitler rose to power.

            If you mean military intervention, then yes, I would agree. NATO intervention in Ukraine is an effective way to stop Russian aggression*. Economic sanctions on the other hand do the opposite of what you want. To me, this is a case of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do it".

            * Assuming we win and don't accidentally end the world (

            • Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one? I

              Economic sanctions on the other hand do the opposite of what you want. To me, this is a case of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do it".

              The problem with this way of thinking is survivorship bias. Nobody remembers, or even knows, the nations that "would have" caused a world war sans world actions, but didn't. But everyone remembers Germany, because Germany did cause one.

              The world has sanctioned North Korea, Cuba, Russia, India, Pakistan etc. at various times, and we have not had a world war for a while. The willingness of sanctioned countries to cause world wars probably increased unless the economic hardships caused regime change, but their

            • It was NATO aggression that got us into this circumstance in the first place. Moron.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by lurcher ( 88082 )

          "Is it? Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one?"

          South Africa

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by oic0 ( 1864384 )
      Its about making it inconvenient for his people so they care about whats happening.
    • I'm not sure. It certainly won't change Putin's mind directly, but a barrage of similar bans may begin to crack the wall of propaganda in Russia that Putin is building around his actions. Perhaps it will convince some of his citizens that this is not a just war of de-nazification but actually the exact opposite. A nazi style war of aggression. If similar messages from sports, math conferences, etc. also convince their cohort then Putin may find that he has lost a lot of support at home. It would be nice to

      • I have it on good authority that Putin is a huge fan of Among Us. Cut him off, and you just might be punching him where he really feels it.

        Or he might just start WW3. Hard to tell with that guy.

    • Several of my friends have been pointing this out. We're all in support of the Ukraine fighting for its freedom. But it's unprecedented and feels "weird" how (at least in the USA), people are jumping on-board to support them like its another social justice cause, vs a foreign war we're not even directly involved with.

      In the big picture, nations like China have done just as many unjust things that we've just looked the other way at and ignored. The vast majority have zero concerns about such things as the Ar

      • It has gotten just plain stupid really. It feels like just more war propaganda, and social media type messaging. I guess now it is all about narrative management (which is what used to be called war propaganda). But people just eat it up. I'll put a like on the next anti-Russia meme I see. (Not).

      • people are jumping on-board to support them like its another social justice cause, vs a foreign war we're not even directly involved with.

        I'm glad that they've managed to turn warfare into more peaceful activism, but I'm also concerned that ratcheting tensions will eventually cause activism to spill over into a hot war or genocide. It's a strange dichotomy.

    • Not just you. And it is ridiculous. It's the social media version of pretending to do something. Once upon a time it was bumper sticker politics.

      Remember "Freedom Fries"? "Liberty Steaks"? We have governors banning Russian Vodka now. In the short term that only harms the poor retailers who can't sell what they have.

    • or is this a ridiculous thing to be talking about? I'm sure this will stop Russia in its tracks. I don't see how any country engaged in war could stand up to being cut off from online gaming.

      I think you underestimate the suffering of Russian parents after access to Fortnite gets cut off.

    • I mean, the only ones who actually come over here to our section of the internet are fucking miserable assholes who are paid to cheat, grief, scam, hack, shill for and shit on everything. I think this is less about helping the war effort and more about doing what we've all wanted an excuse to do all along, which is just block them wholesale.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vlad30 ( 44644 )
      It would be smarter to add information in the games e.g. show pictures of whats happening in Ukraine, as news is heavily censored in Russia and Belarus

  • Would you rather have conscript-age young men playing games, or being brain-washed into the army by Putin?

    Same with Netflix and other media...

    Wisdom considers the roll-on effects of decisions.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      The roll on effect will be Russians hating Putin's guts more than they do already, they don't want their sons killing Ukrainians or being killed by them. When a Russian soldier dies, Putin compensates the family, he gives them $80, kind of shows how much he cares about his own people.

  • Re: a Tom Nichols' Twitter thread (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Frank Burly ( 4247955 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:23PM (#62320597)

    1) Tomorrow Russia is planning to have schoolteachers lecture on why invading Ukraine is a good thing, actually.
    2) Gamers are telling Russians what they know about the invasion from the outside.

    IOW, in-game chat is a good way to get information to ordinary Russian citizens, who may not have independent (or alternative) media. I understand the desire to make life in Russia as abnormal as possible, but what is the downside of maintaining some social contact that doesn't help Russia economically?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      1) Tomorrow Russia is planning to have schoolteachers lecture on why invading Ukraine is a good thing, actually.
      2) Gamers are telling Russians what they know about the invasion from the outside.

      IOW, in-game chat is a good way to get information to ordinary Russian citizens, who may not have independent (or alternative) media. I understand the desire to make life in Russia as abnormal as possible, but what is the downside of maintaining some social contact that doesn't help Russia economically?

      Oh yeah, Russi

    • 1) Tomorrow Russia is planning to have schoolteachers lecture on why invading Ukraine is a good thing, actually.

      2) Gamers are telling Russians what they know about the invasion from the outside.

      IOW, in-game chat is a good way to get information to ordinary Russian citizens, who may not have independent (or alternative) media. I understand the desire to make life in Russia as abnormal as possible, but what is the downside of maintaining some social contact that doesn't help Russia economically?

      Good point. Don't cut them off, make them play on European servers.

  • Or maybe stop glamorizing war? (Score:3)

    by quenda ( 644621 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:25PM (#62320603)

    Heck, I like Call of Duty as much as the next middle-aged guy. But it does occasionally make me wonder if making war such fun might have some downside.
    We know that militaries use these sort of games as recruiting tools, or at least try to.

    I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children. No, everybody is a hero, picking off "bad guys" at a ridiculous rate. Its not turning me into a homicidal maniac, but is must have some sort of desensitizing effect.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Does anyone here actually *know* someone whose feelings about *actual* war have been changed by playing a war video game? I've never even heard a "friend of a friend" story to that effect.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kubajz ( 964091 )
        Try playing "This war of mine". It is a great game by Polish developers and is now on official school curriculum in Poland, because it does change one's view of what war is like... However, I do admit that it is not the standard run-of-the-mill "shooter".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Exactly! It's pretty well known that Putin is a huge COD player, and look what he's doing now!

    • ... making war such fun ...

      Boys and girls need to learn at a young age, who makes the babies and does the killing. Go look at toys for girls and count the super-girl, bat-girl, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel costumes: Most shops will have zero.

      Social conditioning aside, we compete to survive, although as complex organisms some of our needs can only be satisfied through co-operation. Still that need to compete, to fight even, affects our brains as much as the need to fuck. I've seen in-browser games, where there is no dying: Sure

    • I don't think the kind of moronic dictators who destabilise the world by starting wars do so because of the glamour of video games.

      Violence is inherent to some people and those who enjoy it will seek out entertainment which causes them to desensitize. Ban video games, but lets go watch Saving Private Ryan to see what a real hero is. Oh fat slob get off the couch and turn off the TV... yeah okay I'll take up boxing or shooting.

      This isn't a problem you can fix by addressing just one source.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Desensitising is what militaries want, and sadly what Ukraine needs right now.

      After WW2 there was a study conducted on American soldiers who fought in it, and it found that most of them didn't even try to kill anyone. They would deliberately fire over the heads of the enemy, and only kill when absolutely forced to. Turns out human beings are just really averse to killing other human beings.

      From that point on army training started to focus on making killing automatic, a reflex reaction, and on de-humanising

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Heck, I like Call of Duty as much as the next middle-aged guy. But it does occasionally make me wonder if making war such fun might have some downside.
      We know that militaries use these sort of games as recruiting tools, or at least try to.

      I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children. No, everybody is a hero, picking off "bad guys" at a ridiculous rate. Its not turning me into a homicidal maniac, but is must have some sort of desensitizing effect.

      Firstly, COD stopped being fun years ago.

      Secondly, the war mongers in society are not the ones playing video games. They're the ones lecturing others about "patriotism" whilst sabotaging their own country and listening to demagogues of misinformation like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. If they were to unwind with a good game every once in a while, they might see how pointless war really is.

    • I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children.

      For some reason, now I'm really in the mood for a "Papers, please"-like game of soldiers doing routine tasks in a trench...

  • Russian solders will get blue balls and surrender trying to get back home to their girlfriends...

  • Russia is eventually going to win this, unless other nations start actively assisting Ukraine. They simply cannot overcome Russia alone.

    Ukraine is certainly faring better than I think anyone expected, but Russia is more than powerful enough compared to Ukraine that they can brute force a victory here. The only reason they really haven't so far is that they are trying to minimize collateral damage, but considering that Ukraine is not going down without a fight, I think it's going to very soon get to the

    • The only reason they really haven't so far is that they are trying to minimize collateral damage, but considering that Ukraine is not going down without a fight, I think it's going to very soon get to the point that Putin stops caring.

      It started yesterday. With the humiliation of Russian troops, Putin has given orders to do what it takes to seize Ukraine. The rocket, artillery, and aerial bombardments picked up considerably. At this point, Russia is now doing the same thing they did in Grozny.

      Pictures fr

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xwin ( 848234 )
        IMHO, Ukraine should capitulate and minimize the collateral damage and the damage to the infrastructure. Russia will suffer economically but not as much as Ukraine after all the infrastructure is destroyed. After the war is over, negotiations will happen but at least killing and destruction will stop.
        It is very easy to sit in a comfortable chair and speculate about what will or should happen. The war, however, is messy and seldom goes as planned. It most likely did not go as Russia has planned. Russia is m

        • Ukraine capitulated in Crimea - there were barely any sanctions against Russia, and the few that were declared were not enforced.

          Even in Feb 2022, sanctions increased only after Ukraine impressed the world with its fight back.

          People in other countries don't feel like helping people who don't help themselves. And if Ukraine capitulates again, it reinforces Russian propaganda that Ukraine regime was oppressive hence Ukrainians are welcoming Russian army as liberators.

          • Everything you said is correct.

            But this all will apply again no matter when Russia will win and how in this invasion. So Ukraine has the option of
            a) being under Russian occupation and a completely leveled capital and a hundred thousand dead.
            b) being under Russian occupation with few destructions in the capital and less than ten thousand dead.

            All of the options are shit. But some are less shit than others.

            • Good points, the cynic in me wants to agree.

              But there is a third option, endless guerilla war with Russian soldiers. It will be bloody, but maybe worth it for Ukrainians.

              They'd be thinking, Afghanistan defeated USSR and broke it up into pieces, even though Afghanistan was not the sole reason. Afghanistan had lower nationalistic tendency than Ukrainians, lower education levels. Ukraine is likely to get equal, or more support from the West. Afghanistan had the advantage of terrain, I'd concede.

              If Ukraine cont

              • Afghanistan did not break the SU, several things did it, including Chernobyl (1 M soldiers wasted there, and a propaganda campaign that failed spectacularly).

                What Afghanistan has / had and Ukraine has not are
                - a unifying religion contrary to the Russians
                - a culture or religious interpretation that encourages suicide attacks
                - a vastly different language and high cultural barrier, making spying and infiltration harder and more expensive
                - a thorougly decentralised society
                - densely populated urban areas
                - the ab

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by abies ( 607076 )

                  I think that you are seriously overestimating 'will not recover this century'. If we assume a scenario where Ukraine gets Russians running and sanctions are kept in place, they can ask a serious reparations from Russia. Regardless of that, there will be a huge international aid for Ukraine as soon as situation is resolved. See at what happened to Germany after WW2 - Marshall plan helped to bootstrap them into probably most economically powerful country in Europe in 20 or 30 years and level of destruction of

                • Afghanistan did not break the SU, blah blah.

                  Do you understand the meaning of "They'd be thinking, Afghanistan defeated USSR and broke it up into pieces, even though Afghanistan was not the sole reason" ?

                  - Ukraine will make inroads in defeating the Russians and the Russians disable their electricity grid for years to come. Millions will die. Ukraine will not recover this century.

                  Ok, so now you agree that there is a third option. In your last post, there were only 2, roughly analogous to the first 2 options in this post of yours. That is some significant inroads I have made.

                  Now, the meaning of "recovery".

                  1. Since not living under Russian control is apparently important for Ukrainians, it is already "recovery" when Russians hav

        • IMHO, Ukraine should capitulate and minimize the collateral damage and the damage to the infrastructure.

          In fact, Ukraine should do just the opposite. They should destroy their infrastructure. Electrical stations, water plants, factories, docks, everything. They should, to the best of their abilities, do a scorched Earth policy. Anything and everything they can do to make the Russian occupation as painful and expensive as possible. Let the Russians repair things.

          As mentioned in my OP and others also said

          • I think the way they've been handling themselves is good, letting Russian soldiers go and such. It's clear they are the victims and righteous. Your proposed manner could lead to them losing support of other nations. Anyway, something that I heard is that the Russians have mobile cremation facilities, to avoid proper body count. Since you seem to follow events closely and with confirmed sources, did you come across anything trustworthy that confirms that?

            • For now, yes, the Ukrainians are letting the conscripts go home or simply holding them until a later time. Ukraine is even offering Russian soldiers compensation if they surrender [imgur.com]. The same cannot be said of the formal Russian [twitter.com] army personnel. Within the past day, a Major General [imgur.com] of the Russian armed forces was killed. We also know various paratroops have been annihilated trying to take over Ukrainian airfields.

              As for the mobile crematoriums, I have heard the same thing but have not had any confirmation.

              • Thanks and thanks, and yes, phrased that way I agree. It's really stomach turning... As I've said before, eventually the Russians will lose, they're fighting on orders, that apparently aren't even clear, and the Ukrainians fight for their country, their culture and their lives ones. The only questions are, how long will it take and how much will it cost.
    • Ukraine really isn't faring any better than expected, it is more so far the Russian military has been very restrained. Those that thought it would be over in days were simply delusional and don't realise how big Ukraine is. This was always going to take weeks if not months, I think at the moment Russia have been farely restrained in their approach but that could escalate very very quickly as you rightly point out.
  • If they keep punishing those who had nothing to do with this decision those people will end up aligning with Putin. Punish criminals, not the people who randomly know or also suffer by those criminals. This is like knowing who stole the car and arresting someone he bullied at school.

    • There is dilute criminality in all of Russian people in allowing Putin to remain a dictator, and hence allowing this violence against Ukraine, and hence causing this violence.

      In that respect, there is nothing wrong with dilute punishment to all of Russian people. Except in cases where the said punishment is itself counter-productive in reducing violence.

  • Sure, being cut off from gaming does not matter much. Being cut off from app stores and related services does not matter much. Being cut off from movie releases, Eurovision competitions, soccer, hockey and Formula 1 does not matter much. Losing a math conference don't matter much. Having RT banished from our TV does not matter much.

    None of this compares to having their airlines and ships banned from Western space, boycotts by global shipping companies, being kicked off SWIFT, and the seizure of their

    • Anything Russian is now persona non grata pretty much everywhere except perhaps China. Bet they never expected that.

      Totally without precedent. Were you born after 1989 by any chance?

      • Anything Russian is now persona non grata pretty much everywhere except perhaps China. Bet they never expected that.

        Totally without precedent. Were you born after 1989 by any chance?

        Mid sixties. Closest thing I can remember was South Africa and the end of Apartheid, and that was not even close to the same scale. Even during the Cold War I don't think Russia was ever as isolated as it is today.

  • The Russian citizens are not the ones attacking. Many of them have family in Ukraine and many of them are also victims.

    The one doing the attack is the Russian GOVERNMENT. Blame the Russian Army, blame Puttin, blame other leaders in the government giving the order. Russian kids playing Robox have nothing to do with this. They should not have to pay for the sins of their government.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Corbets ( 169101 )

      Government rules by the consent of the governed.

      Citizens, speak up and take action. Or carry the consequences of your inaction. These are your choices.

    • Economic sanctions, or war up close and personal. Those are the choices absent peace. Should take those kids away from Roblox for a moment and teach them what freedom is, and why they don't have any.

    • OK so who is pulling the triggers?

      Aliens? Americans are pulling triggers and bombing schools and hospitals?

      Sanctions are much more humanitarian way to stop them then war.

      • > OK so who is pulling the triggers?

        Military.

        • So how do you propose to stop this "military" ?

          And don't you think that economic sanctions are much milder response than what 'military' is doing?

          I also add that according to poll from the beginning of the war more than half of non-military supported this 'military'

    • The Russian People have nothing to gain from the invasion, so making it clear that they have much to lose erodes domestic support for the invasion and regime, encouraging resistance and demands for new leadership. This spreads to their soldiers as well, demoralizing them with the knowledge that their families are suffering because of what they are doing.

      Putin doesn't care much about international opinions, but he can't escape his own people.

  • the bigger story is Ukraine wants ICANN to yank their domain. That would create chaos in their economy. Folks don't realize how heavily business relies on the Internet (a nearly free, super fast telecom network). Doing that would make getting kicked out of Swift look like kid's stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      the bigger story is Ukraine wants ICANN to yank their domain. That would create chaos in their economy.

      You do realise that Russia is capable of running their own DNS? Their domains would still work domestically, and anyone outside Russia who wants to use their domains can just change DNS server.

  • We see the larger game here.

    The purpose of the whole operation now is to raise up a new Iron Curtain. Some politicians have clearly said as much. Destruction of Russian economy, isolation from the world, stress and pressure.

    Where have we seen this recipe before?

    Correct, the color revolutions. Any US-orchestrated regime change.

    No, I'm not saying the US is behind everything bla bla - but someone sure seized the opportunity and had all of that - the sanctions, the SWIFT exclusion, closing of airspace, etc. etc

    • Any US-orchestrated regime change.

      I'm always hesitant to advocate for a regime change, but when a leader threatens nuclear war with the rest of the world because they speak out against his premeditated and unprovoked invasion of another country, I won't lose any sleep over cutting off the citizens of that leader's country from video games. And I don't see how any reasonable person can characterize this conflict as being orchestrated by the US since the whole thing was precipitated directly by the actions

  • There is actual problem with propaganda in the games...

    I've met dozens of cases of spreading Putins view in game chats...

    UE bad, USA bad etc.

  • ... going to do this stuff for every conflict, from now on? Just wondering.

    You do know there's a war going on almost all the time somewhere, right?

    Do we cut off DNS and stuff to the next, say, African country who's dictator goes on a rampage? Why or why not? (It would be just as (in)effective, so you know the difference if any isn't that.)

    And do we stop at war? Once tactics like these are used, it's always easier next time. Maybe border skirmishes? Trade disputes? Inadequate global warning responses?

    • Didn't you know? This is a war between white European people. In truth, we don't really care what happens to Africans, except for that African American actress Charlize Thieron, or the Arabs being bombed in Yemen. We're so weak & feeble in our maorals.

    • Are we going to do this stuff for every conflict, from now on?

      I think it's safe to reserve it for instances where the country's leader threatens nuclear war.

  • Given the sanctions, how are they paying the employees?
  • OK, who can guess what the Ukraine govt are going to call for next? Wrong answers only, please.

  • Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion

    Or airdrop a hundred thousand portable units over the Russian positions and encourage gameplaying.

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