Geek Trivia: What Popular Video Game Is Called “Big Pineapple” In Order To Dodge Chinese Censorship?

StarCraft II Diablo III Angry Birds Draw Something geek-trivia-what-popular-video-game-is-called--and-8220;big-pineapple-and-8221;-in-order-to-dodge-chinese-censorship photo 1

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Answer: Diablo III

In the Spring of 2012, Blizzard launched their much awaited installment in the Diablo series, Diablo III, to global audiences. Unfortunately, heavy censorship policies left Chinese fans out in the cold–games entering China need approval from the Ministry of Culture. Approval from the Ministry can take anywhere from months to years and, for fans who had been waiting for the next Diablo installment since 2000, the wait was unbearable.

As a result, licenses for Diablo III started popping up on Chinese gaming sites listed as “Big Pineapple 3”. While to non-native speakers, that seems like some sort of absurd code word, those familiar with Mandarin Chinese will immediately see the mechanism at work–the words “Big Pineapple” when spoken aloud in Mandarin sound like “Da-Bo-Luo”, the English pronunciation of the game’s title.

There’s no word on whether or not the Ministry of Culture is investigating the gaming community’s sudden obession with fruit-based games.

Article Geek Trivia: What Popular Video Game Is Called “Big Pineapple” In Order To Dodge Chinese Censorship? compiled by Original article here

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