German Past Haunts Gamers' Future

Wired has up a very thoughtful article examining the current anti-violent gaming trends in Germany, and reflecting on their connection to WWII. Article author Bruce Gain discusses some of the history of post-Nazi Germany, and points out how violent games rile politics in that country by reminding it of its past. Says Gain: "Some German officials link these games to an increase in violence among the young and cite at least one instance where a gamer applied the lessons learned from a first-person shooter to a real-life murderous rampage. Remove the connection, they argue, and you prevent further violence. Germany has a lot of gamers, but the violence found in many of these games is widely criticized there. It has some of the strictest video-game censorship laws in the Western world. For example, laws prohibit the sale of Counter-Strike and other titles with blood-depicting graphics switched on. But for many politicians, the laws don't go far enough."

Re:So they finally decided to index CS?

[KDR_11k]

Oh and a slight inaccuracy in the summary: CS isn't banned from sale (only Manhunt, Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3d are), indexing prevents advertising (which includes putting it on a shelf) and sale to minors, theoretically it can still be sold to adults under the counter or in areas minors can't enter (though I don't think anyone but video rental places have such areas, sex shops and gambling dens certainly don't sell indexed games) but most stores don't stock games they can't advertise.

This is different from an 18 rating which prevents sale but still allows putting the games on store shelves and I haven't seen any stores refusing to stock these.

Re:Whats worse, fake violence or real censorship?

[KDR_11k]

The only real censorship is of titles that reward the player for being very brutal and contain very graphic violence, namely Mortal Kombat 1-3 and Manhunt. They also censor games that include Nazi symbols without proper context (though games remove them completely because that context requirement is vague). The rest of the "censored" games can still be sold to adults in adult-only stores or below the counter.

Re:Whats worse, fake violence or real censorship?

[KDR_11k]

The law is very clear about the kinds of propaganda that get banned, namely anything attempting to incite hate or violence against people or attempting to overthrow the government system as that's a disturbance of the peace. I bet you that no country would tolerate it if you handed out leaflets calling for a Coup d'Etat.

Re:So they finally decided to index CS?

[Zatic]

I see you get the problem here. In this case, there is no formal definition of advertising. I remember a few years back, a video gaming magazine ("gamstar") decided to not publish a review of some FPS because they feared an attorney on a save-the-world trip would have all copies seized should the game be banned (which was about to happen that month).

The sad thing is, they said they would have given the game the worst rating and advise against buying it. Still it could have been interpreted as advertising.

As for a video game store, I guess they would have to install a separate area which you would only be allowed to enter if over 18. They could advertise all they want in there. Oh, yes, it's only forbidden to advertise to minors, I should mention.

For the sake of completeness, 3 levels of "rating" in Germany are of interest here:

- Completely banned: Applies only to content that endangers constitution and state (only Manhunt, Wolfenstein 3D and Mortal Combat are banned - don't ask my why). Possession is legal as far as I know, distribution of any form illegal.

- "Indexed": Here's a list:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbotene_oder_indizi erte_Medien#In_der_Bundesrepublik_Deutschland_indi zierte_Spiele [wikipedia.org]
Advertising and sale to minors illegal

- USK 18: Sale to minors illegal