Nepal Bans PUBG for "Causing Aggression"

When you think of the most popular, addictive games on the planet right now, what jumps to mind? Fortnite, probably. Then Minecraft if I had to guess. I’d follow that up with any number of big-name mobile games, like Clash of Clans – or has that one been replaced by now? I don’t know. And I barely care, even for the purpose of this introduction.

Regardless, the game you would probably only think of if you were a time traveler from early 2018 would be PUBG, but apparently, that’s the year that Nepal is living in, because, starting today, PUBG is effectively banned there.

Metropolitan Crime Division chief Dhiraj Pratap Singh explained the decision:

"We received a number of complaints from parents, schools and school associations regarding the effect of the game on children… We also held discussions with psychiatrists before requesting the Kathmandu District Court for permission to ban the game. Parents and schools had complained that the game was affecting their children’s studies and making them more aggressive. When we consulted with psychiatrists, they also said that the violence in the game can make people aggressive in real life.”

First of all: no.

Second of all, fine, whatever. PUBG is banned. If you weren’t already aware, Nepal isn’t exactly a bastion of free speech anyway, considering they frequently and routinely suppress political opinions, religious views, and what they view as “obscenity”. Banning this one video game is actually a pretty inconsequential issue when you consider all the other ways they oppress their citizens, like preventing the press from critiquing or expressing political opinions or public displays of religious ceremonies that aren’t expressly Hindu.

So while this is probably super annoying for some kids and adults in Nepal… I mean, ya’ll got bigger issues to worry about.

And you can just go back to Fortnite.