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."

It's such a shame

[Vengeance]

If only Adolf Hitler had not had access to videogames, the history of modern Europe would look entirely different.

Vote them out?

[Jaysyn]

I don't know how it works over in Germany, but over here pissing of most of your younger generation seems to be political suicide.

Whats worse, fake violence or real censorship?

[Shatrat]

They clamp down on violent games by using government censorship? It makes you wonder how much of a lesson they really learned from the failures of national socialism.

How long does this need to go on?

[east coast]

Let's face facts, and not to make light the tragedy of the holocaust, but how long does a society need to live with the sins of it's past?

It's a fairly safe bet that today's German gamer isn't the same guy shoveling the bodies of holocaust victims into mass graves.

When can we get over this image of German = Nazi? How long until I don't have to feel bad about being a white American male because of slave owners who have been worm food for over a century?

We need to stop pinning the past of a society on today's citizens.

Re:How long does this need to go on?

[MWoody]

Make you a deal: I'll stop mentally drawing a line from "Germans" to "Nazis" when they stop attempting to solve their problems with fascist edicts and restrictions.

Re:How long does this need to go on?

[whathappenedtomonday]

You do have a point there, and of course I didn't RTFA, but being German I know one thing for sure: the current plans for anti "killer games" legislation - that's what violent games are called in the public discussion - have nothing whatsoever to do with the fascist / national socialist past of the country. It's the ususal "think of the children!" activism, used by politicians around the world to get a good headline in the press to suppress something they don't like (=understand).

The majority of German internet users have a very sensible opinion about the current discussion and deny the (scientifically unfounded) claims that banning certain content/games/movies/whatever will accomplish anything, while the majority of the German population - getting their education about new technology they don't use mostly from the tabloids - say that whatever will be banned will help save the kids.

So, there you go, it's once again a matter of information and - I guess - education. Lack of proper education and medienkompetenz in both politics and population mixed with overzealous right-wing politicians, guess what kind of laws this will spawn... [/rant]

Re:How long does this need to go on?

[KDR_11k]

And I'll stop treating Americans like a bunch of radical Christians when they stop considering sex worse than violence and seriously attempting to teach religious dogmas in science class...

Re:It's such a shame

[zippthorne]

You can't "invoke" Godwin's law any more than you can "invoke" Moore's law. They aren't formal debate rules. They're just observations. And if the discussion in question is about actual Nazis, it's pretty moot as others have mentioned.

Re:Whats worse, fake violence or real censorship?

[pluther]

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

That isn't true. None of these games are attempting to incite hate or violence against people, nor are they trying to overthrow any government system.

I bet you that no country would tolerate it if you handed out leaflets calling for a Coup d'Etat.

I bet you it would.

"And, if any man should advocate the dissolution of this union, let him stand free and unmolested as an example of how even the most egregious error of reason can be tolerated in a free society." (Thomas Jefferson)

Re:Vote them out?

[DoktorTomoe]

You seem to suffer from the missconception that democracy actually works.

Forbidding (we are not talking "ban for minors" here) of CS is the least of Germany's IT problems. Currently, Judical battle is waged on wether to allow a "Bundestrojaner" or "Federal Trojan", a tool that would allow our Federal Police to actively and secretly swap trough the files on every of our computers (and most likely we're supposed not to enforce a strict security concept for our networks, as it'll rise suspicion.

Those were the news that led me to an active encryption of all my harddisks and an cascade of firewall servers. Not because I am child molester, terrorist or criminal, but because I handle data too sensitive for some idiot at the BKA to read.

They say it's against terrorism. Sure. Like the times our bank secrecy was abandoned for the "fight against terrorism" (Nowadays, most the time "Vater Staat" looks at bank accounts, it's for the "fight against tax evasion") Not a time to be proud being a German... Just like the rest of the western world, we again are taking huge steps towards a facist system.

UK Censorship Bill

[Garrett Fox]

Right now, the UK is working on a "hatred bill" meant to outlaw certain criticism of religion, largely to protect Muslims. (Because you know, theirs is a religion of love and peace and crowds of them will firebomb you if you deny it.) It looks like the bill has been weakened [bbc.co.uk] with inclusion of pro-free-speech amendments, partly because Tony Blair failed to show up for a vote. From researching the bill a bit I see that it's already, or rather, still illegal to denounce the Church of England.