Panvel gamer Mann Bhopi launches petition against FIFA game-maker to take down nation's map sans Kashmir

While gaming enthusiasts are gearing up for the Thursday release of FIFA '18, touted as EA Sports' most awaited game of the year, Mann Bhopi, a Panvel-based gamer, has raised a red flag over the game's illustration of India's map, which doesn't have Jammu and Kashmir in it.



Mann Bhopi

He has reached out to an EA Sports help centre representative, who has said it should be fixed in the next update. Avid FIFA gamer Bhopi, 26, observed the anomaly when he was playing the 'squad battles' mode of the game, as part of a subscription to EA's Origin Access portal, which allowed him to play 10 hours of the game before its launch.



The map of India in the game

Bhopi, who games on his PC said, "While playing Squad Battles, a new mode that features squads of players around the world [with an illustration of the map of the country they represent] and allows one to play with/against players from different nations. I saw an Indian player online, but then saw the map of India up close and thought to myself: where is the crown of India? I had never seen the Indian map like this."

Bhopi then enquired on all his WhatsApp groups whether Jammu and Kashmir was still a part of India. "Even Google shows the map with J&K in it. Why has EA removed it? My and friends and I decided to do something about it, that's when I formed the petition on change.org." The petition went live 72 hours ago and had garnered 494 supporters till the time of going to press.

EA speaks

On Wednesday afternoon, Bhopi also got in touch with Vipin from the EA Help Centre online via chat. He sent Vipin the screenshot of the India map in the game. Vipin told Bhopi, "You're right; there seems to have been a bug while creating the map in the game. It should be fixed in the next update."

When Bhopi asked him whether it was done intentionally as people are taking offence to it, Vipin said, "No, I do not think it was done intentionally. Thank you for reporting this to us. I will forward this."

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