10 Iconic Video Games Banned For Ridiculous Reasons
2. Tropico 5 - Thailand - Peace And Order
In 2014, New Era Thailand marketing manager Nonglak Sahavattanapong told the media that Tropico 5 was a good game but, despite having brought the series to the country previously, that “the story line has developed further and there might be some part of it that's not appropriate in the current situation."
What he was referring to was Tropico 5’s plot that puts the player in the role of a leader of a nation and gives them morally different ways to play. They can choose to either build their country benevolently and through democracy, or take more of the iron fist approach and form a military that controls the media and forces their civilisation into line.
The issue here specifically was that a day before Tropico 5 was due to release, Thailand’s leadership had been seized by a military coup that was controlling the media and forcing their civilisation into line. Oh.
This one isn’t ridiculous as in a little strange, more like a little scary and it was unfortunate timing on the franchise's part. The military junta called themselves the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and that’s exactly the line they used to ban the game from distribution: that it might disrupt “peace and order”.