German Past Haunts Gamers' Future 134
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."
Here you all go. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hello all, I decided to finally write this down in response to some people asking me why I enjoy immeasurably violent video games and movies. This explanation is written using the game "Manhunt" as it's primary example, mainly because of it's subject matter (which can best be described as a "snuff video game"). PLEASE read it in it's entirety before responding, it's easy to think i'm making an uninformed point without reading the whole thing; I explain EVERY viewpoint I express.
Think about this, folks.
This "game" is not about sneakin' around, trying to see what the biggest mess you can make is. It's about much more than that. This game is in direct relation to the JTHM (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, for the uninitiated...) in all of us, the little black beast that we keep to ourselves.
Ever say "I wish he were dead", or "he makes me so angry I want to kill him"? Of course you have. Everyone has. This game is the digital manifestation of those thoughts. It's not about suffocating some guy, or creating the pink mist... This game does one thing and one thing only: it asks you a question. A very simple question to state, and frankly a very simple question to answer:
Is your black beast fictional or real?
Do you have a little playground for the demon inside of you, someplace it can go and harmlessly let out it's frustrations and rage? Or are you so jaded and blind that you cannot discern the difference between reality and fantasy?
Frankly, if you enjoy this game (along with ANY violent video game or movie, regardless of it's subject or presentation) you are not sick. You are normal. You are provided an outlet for the most primal emotions that you, as a human, have. Your most carnal instincts. If you don't like this game because the graphics suck, or the control is wonky, fine. BUT. If you despise this game because you say it's "too violent" and "unneccessary", and "too realistic", and whatever else, guess what: YOU are the sick one. That's not to say that you can't see it as being gross, or that you don't like it because you supposidly don't like violence (then why do you slow down to look at car accidents, hmm?) What it means is that if you say that violent things such as this push sane and "normal" people into being murderers in real life...well, I'm sorry, but you are wrong.
The first step anyone takes to becomming a murderer in real life is not being able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Manhunt is fantasy. Does that mean something similar has not happend/could not happen? No. But your experience and memories of it happening are. It's a video game. It is designed to be a playground for your little black beast.
If you take it as being anything more serious than that...well, turn yourself in now.
You have to allow the little monster to come out every now and then and release it's frustrations. If you don't, you risk becomming a quivering mass of nervous and dangerous flesh. What better place to do this than in a simulated environment with simulated violence where the only things harmed are your eyes for staring at the screen?
Re:How long does this need to go on? (Score:4, Interesting)
Because I've NEVER heard the Japanese-American interment camps discussed publicly, except on a rare occation on some PBS history special (which is then usually touted as liberal propoganda).
The fact is, we are only open to discussion of the civil rights movement and slavery because we were eventually able to bring closure to a lot of it. The civil rights movement was largely successful, and you don't see AS MANY hate crimes as before, and slavery was finally abolished by our own hands (or so we like to claim... most could really care less about slavery, to the north, the civil war was about control of resources, not about slavery). The only reason we can talk about our abuses aginst the indians is because it happened so long ago... and even then, we're a lot more open about slavery than we are about that.
The bottom line is, Germany is ashamed of their Nazi past because someone else had to come in and correct them on it. Abolishing slavery and civil rights were all corrected internally. But as for Japanese-American internment camps, forget it, you almost never hear about that, and every time it's brought up, it's blown off as leftist propoganda.
Re:How long does this need to go on? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How long does this need to go on? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How long does this need to go on? (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? How exactly do you know when trans-fat is used at a restaurant?
For years, there have been health laws about restaurant food preparation, e.g. for preventing the contamination of restaurant food with rodent feces. Like the New York trans fat ban, these laws are intended for the customers' benefit but are a pain for restaurants to uphold.
If we can require customers to have the smarts to know whether trans fats are in their food, what's fundamentally different about requiring them to know whether their food was prepared in a clean environment? Why have health regulations at all? Let the market decide.
not quite right (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the software companies' choice to only produce one version and sell that to everyone. As an adult, I could (the law allows it) buy whatever brutal, bloody games or movies there are. It's just that most software companies decide to not make a difference, probably because it wouuld be more expensive to ship two versions.
There are limitations that apply to adults as well, and which have been much more appropriate to mention after the introduction of the article. For example, the display of nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, except for historic purposes. That means that most games set in WW2 can not show the nazi cross. Wolfenstein and others circumvent this by using the eagle (symbol of the armed forces during the pre-nazi period) instead.
Re:Whats worse, fake violence or real censorship? (Score:3, Interesting)
The BPjM [wikipedia.org] is there to enforce the laws on the protection of minors ("Jugendschutz"). Its job is, in short, to check on request of certain bodies whether some game (or movie, etc.) should not be available to children. Yes, violence and sex are the usual criteria.
If it is bad for minors, the BPjM will put the title on an "index". That doesn't mean it's censored. The two main effects of being on the index are that a) you can't sell this game to minors and b) you can't run advertisement for the game (because ads are visible to minors). Yes, critics claim that this is de-facto censorship.
And, contrary to what the article claims, Counterstrike is not on the index. There was a request in 2002 and the BPjM checked the title, and decided to not index it. Since there had been a school-shooting earlier, that decision was widely critized, but the fact remains that this
For videos, books and music the BPjM regularily decides against indexing due to artistic merit. All in all, the BPjM used to be one of the hate-figures of my teenage days, yes. But that was when computer games were new and "weird", and they've shaped up to a much more reasonable world-view recently.
Maybe the article authors view should be updated to the 21st century.
The Past has really nothing to do with it. (Score:2, Interesting)
Understanding what the German attitude to games censorship requires a certain amount of anthropological observation. Germany is a society concerned with avoiding responsibility for negative things and constantly obsessing about the future. The need to be correct is overpowering and results in the often amusing three-minute lectures that student frequently provide in answer to a simple questions. A student's question is often not a question at all but simply a mini-lecture. Contrast this with the primary need of the English speaker to be polite and respectful.
The range of skill sets within any area of society (commerce, academia public service) is very narrow and there is less of the eclecticism common in English speaking countries. It is not unusual therefore, for people to rely heavily on "experts" to provide the necessary decision making information. Decision making is a process fraught with difficulty for the individual in German society. It is not unusual for the entire family to be involved in buying a car and for the process to be a long drawn out activity. My mother in law spent over a week "buying" a VW van whilst I took about 26 seconds to buy a new Toyota - behaviour regarded with incredulity here.
The excitement about games is a combination of a number of things including the most elderly population in Europe, moribund political arena and fear of being wrong. The model of television and print media is again very different from that of English speaking countries: The Janet Jackson Superbowl boob is fine example. In the US media, they pixelated her entire chest area. On the BBC they simply showed the clip uncensored and on German television they digitally zoomed in on the nipple. Germans find the Superbowl fiasco hilarious. Two American colleagues felt uncomfortable when I showed The English Patient in class - apparently it had some scenes of a sexual nature (Juliette Binoche washes her hair in the shower!)
At about 11 am every day most TV shows have some sequence with men's naked bums in shot (I have no idea why! They're not attractive!) and from 5:45 pm to about 6:30 pm news magazine shows often find some reason to have bare breasts on show. German newspapers don't have a page three - they have a page one. Sex is not anything anyone is at all concerned with and sexual attitudes are almost completely liberal, the sex industry is legal and subject to state regulations (the local brothel is opposite the supermarket next to the DIY store, a concept that always makes me smile).
Germans however are very concerned about the depiction of violence and have a rating system for games and DVD's and other media based on the American Hays Code known as Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft or FSK. This rating system is voluntary and self-regulating and was deliberately intended to remove the state from the control of censorship after 1945. Gore fest movies are rated as Keine Jugendfreigabe (not for under 18's)
Violence in games is or was a big issue when some nut job who shot up a school was found to be a Counter Strike fan. and blaming all of this on that keeps things nice and simple.
Don't imagine for a moment that any of this self regulation is regarded as sinister or anti-democratic it isn't, it is thought of as a sensible approach to creating a healthy environment for children.
Some points about the war. Anyone who was 18 at the end of the war would be 80 years old today. Most of the area where I live in Germany lost 75% of the buildings and population so most of the Germans here are new, born after the war and a significant proportion are about as German as me. Here we celebrate the German resistance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance [wikipedia.org]
Finally it is all rather hyped-up to be honest. A survey of my computing students put Counter-Strike near the top of their favourites but not as high as anything with a Ferrari in it. My German copy of Panzer Elite Action Field
Re:How long does this need to go on? (Score:3, Interesting)