4G is good, Minecraft is bad

Turkey’s government is asking for 2.3 billion euros from the telecommunication industry for its new 4G tender. The English 4G tender resulted in 2.3 billion pounds years ago. The government is very keen on getting the most out of this tender.

However, I believe that, in government ranks, there is a serious misunderstanding about the current situation of the industry and definitely no idea about where the industry is heading. I suspect that the government still thinks that voice is important for telecommunication companies and that data only consists of emails and holiday photos.

My suspicions could be true because there is no logical way to explain the simultaneous call for 2.3 billion euros for 4G and the attempt to ban social media outlets and games such as Minecraft at the same time.

I bet that the government authorities don’t know what drives the demand for 4G. If they knew that in order to play Minecraft seamlessly you need broadband, then they would think about what they are doing.

Turkey’s Family and Social Policies Ministry called on authorities to ban the game. I find it very disturbing to see that this ministry is doing almost nothing to stop violence against women and doing absolutely nothing to encourage women to take part in the workforce but rather making headlines by seeking such a ban. Turkey has been shunned once more by the international community as the first country to ask for a ban.

 However, as the BBC says, Minecraft has different modes depending on how you want to play. There’s Creative, which doesn’t have monsters and is all about building, destroying and exploring. Then there’s Survival, where you face battles with mobs and have to find food to stay alive. Mojang, who make the game, says it’s up to you which setting you prefer: “The world of Minecraft can be a dangerous place: it’s inhabited by scary, genderless monsters that come out at night. It might be necessary to defend against them to survive. If people find this level of fantasy conflict upsetting, we would encourage them to play in Creative Mode, or to enable the Peaceful setting. Both of these options will prevent monsters from appearing in the world.”

So, there is absolutely no reason to ask for a ban. All the ministry should do if they are really concerned about the game is make kids more informed about the choices they make. However, for a decade now, letting people choose what to do is out of fashion; banning or suing people is the new trend. Recently, a young politician, Cenk Sidar, was sued by the prime minister because he said there was no freedom of speech in Turkey.

I like to remind authorities that the only reason why they can ask for such a high amount for 4G is the games and social media platforms that they are hell-bent on banning and destroying. The 3G tender resulted in 812 million euros. If the authorities would like to earn even more for LTE tenders in the future, then they should realize that with applications such as Whatsapp entering the voice business, the only way the Turkish telecommunications industry will thrive is by making peace with games and social media.

I will belive in the future of this country a thousand times more when I am able to see the Family and Social Policies Ministry organizing online lessons to make software engineers out of Turkey’s unemployed women instead of trying to ban games.