5 replies to this topic

[Soul]

As if being a gamer in Germany couldn't get any worse.

Quote

It appears that Germany's 16 Interior Ministers have banded together to ask the Bundestag (Germany's equivalent of Parliament) to ban the production and distribution of violent video games. Moreover, the ministers hope to see this accomplished before Germany's new elections take place on September 27th.

Although we're hampered a bit the language barrier, GamePolitics has received this information today from three German readers. Their accounts appear to coincide with this Google translation of a Spiegel Online report.

The move comes during a scheduled conference of interior ministers. School shootings, in particular the March 11th rampage committed by a 17-year-old in Winnenden, were prominently mentioned in relation to the group's demand for a ban on violent games.

If passed, such a move would affect not only German game consumers, but German game developers such as Crytek (Far Cry, Crysis). Under the proposed law, Crytek would apparently need to outsource development of violent games or even relocate its operations to another country.

Article here.

[Dutchygamer]

This government really does everything to get hated by the public

[CodeCat]

Curious how restricting violence can make you a nazi, too.

[TheDR]

Why not try to cut down on gun crime or something similar, it seems that would be a better option. It just seems odd that they have always been really biased Vs video games.
What I'm afraid is Violent movies might be next on the hitting list, but i suppose it might stop Uwe Bowl making movies, which is always a plus.

[Rayburn]

Meh, tried before, always failed. It's certainly a reason to worry, but then again, we've got a bunch of elections coming up and this kind of short-sighted barking is just a predictable attempt to get some more votes from 'concerned parents' and old folks who are afraid of the new media. These people are also reaching a point at which their endeavours collide visibly with the fifth article of our constitution which states the abolishment of all censorship. Sure there's already a lot of censorship going on but they CAN'T take it THIS far, especially since laws have to be approved by multiple institutions, one of which might be the Federal Constitutional Court which doesn't decide about whether violent games are dangerous or not, but whether banning them like this is constitutional or not. And even IF it turns out to be legit and such a law became real, it's merely illegal to produce and distribute these games in Germany. Most of the 18+ titles which'll be affected by this ban are already horribly censored anyway which is why people are used to buying them outside Germany and Crytek could easily relocate their activity to one of their four subsidiaries. Gamers are generally net-savvy enough to bypass these laws.

Edited by Rayburn, 06 June 2009 - 17:05.

[amazin]

hell... i think that music has more violent themes than games... some music makes violence seem cool

games like call of duty put you into (somewhat) realistic combat scenarios, and its not like its teaching you indiscriminate killing

besides, i think it should be up to the parent (i do wish some parents were more responsible however...)

also, while i dont blame games for these acts of violence, i do believe they can influence unstable people into commiting them... millions of people play videogames so some crazies are bound to get involved, but its not the videogames that are the problem in those folks