so this is just a thing that people might find interesting.
germany wont get dead space like everyone else on the 27th, but rather at some unspecified date.
this is because of one of the most ridicolous systems in game ratings of all time.
so heres how this works. in germany, the usk (which is pretty much the same as pegi or esrb) gets the game from the publisher before release so they play through the entire game. then they present it to a board and they suggest an age (in germany, we have 0,6,12,16 and 18) and the board either agrees in which case the game gets allowed to be released immedieatly. but if not, the publisher has to censor the game himself in order to get permission to release it in germany. this has lead to many many germany exclusive versions (many censored versions i mean)
for instance in every single version of resident evil 4 that was released the mercenaries minigame was cut.
if they dont get a rating the game cant be advertised or sold openly in stores, but they may be sold to adults when they ask( you can do that at gamestop here, but only when you preorder, not after a game was released.
the government then can go ahead and ban games. this is the job of the bpjm.
now with dead space 2, they gave the game a total of 5 times to be reviewed to the usk.
finally they got the permission, but now a german politician from bavaria (which is pretty much the most conservative area of germany) found another way to force a sixth review. that means there propably wont be a dead space in germany till febuary.
so this is the weird stuff that is going on with censorship and politics regarding games in the current situation.
just for the fun of it, some of the crap that the somewhat arbritary censorship caused in the land of germany
first, no swastikas. EVER. they had to recall silent hunter 5 because a misprint in the manual contained a swastika. (swastikas are okay in the movies)
this makes sense i guess regarding our history and that most games with nazis arent exactly sensitive with the matter (wolfenstein 3d
)
Portal was censored. all blood was coloured black.
in stark contrast, dead space 1 wasnt. at all.
as i mentioned mercinaries games were cut from resident evil 4.
left 4 dead one and two were cut to a pretty extreme degree, so there is no way of cutting zombies, so no dismemberment and they fade away when they die. the german version is the one they sell in australia too. the international ones are banned.
gears of war 1 and 2 banned.
call of duty mw2: if you kill a civillian in the airport mission you loose the mission
saints row 2 contains hardly any blood, cutscenes that depict violence are covered with a black screen saysing something like "were sorry but there are very bad things happening behind this screen", words that sounded offensive were made less offensive, for instance, kill became eliminate and so on.
manhunt, which is famous for its violence, was banned by the bpjm and was confiscated by german police. this is no joke. the police collected the game from stores because it was declared. illegal. also the collected disks were destroyed by the police forces.
so this is just some stuff about how "violednt" or "mature" games are dealt with in germany.
i thought this may be intresting for some to read.
ps: dont be too hard on the grammar mistakes please
germany wont get dead space like everyone else on the 27th, but rather at some unspecified date.
this is because of one of the most ridicolous systems in game ratings of all time.
so heres how this works. in germany, the usk (which is pretty much the same as pegi or esrb) gets the game from the publisher before release so they play through the entire game. then they present it to a board and they suggest an age (in germany, we have 0,6,12,16 and 18) and the board either agrees in which case the game gets allowed to be released immedieatly. but if not, the publisher has to censor the game himself in order to get permission to release it in germany. this has lead to many many germany exclusive versions (many censored versions i mean)
for instance in every single version of resident evil 4 that was released the mercenaries minigame was cut.
if they dont get a rating the game cant be advertised or sold openly in stores, but they may be sold to adults when they ask( you can do that at gamestop here, but only when you preorder, not after a game was released.
the government then can go ahead and ban games. this is the job of the bpjm.
now with dead space 2, they gave the game a total of 5 times to be reviewed to the usk.
finally they got the permission, but now a german politician from bavaria (which is pretty much the most conservative area of germany) found another way to force a sixth review. that means there propably wont be a dead space in germany till febuary.
so this is the weird stuff that is going on with censorship and politics regarding games in the current situation.
just for the fun of it, some of the crap that the somewhat arbritary censorship caused in the land of germany
first, no swastikas. EVER. they had to recall silent hunter 5 because a misprint in the manual contained a swastika. (swastikas are okay in the movies)
this makes sense i guess regarding our history and that most games with nazis arent exactly sensitive with the matter (wolfenstein 3d
)Portal was censored. all blood was coloured black.
in stark contrast, dead space 1 wasnt. at all.
as i mentioned mercinaries games were cut from resident evil 4.
left 4 dead one and two were cut to a pretty extreme degree, so there is no way of cutting zombies, so no dismemberment and they fade away when they die. the german version is the one they sell in australia too. the international ones are banned.
gears of war 1 and 2 banned.
call of duty mw2: if you kill a civillian in the airport mission you loose the mission
saints row 2 contains hardly any blood, cutscenes that depict violence are covered with a black screen saysing something like "were sorry but there are very bad things happening behind this screen", words that sounded offensive were made less offensive, for instance, kill became eliminate and so on.
manhunt, which is famous for its violence, was banned by the bpjm and was confiscated by german police. this is no joke. the police collected the game from stores because it was declared. illegal. also the collected disks were destroyed by the police forces.
so this is just some stuff about how "violednt" or "mature" games are dealt with in germany.
i thought this may be intresting for some to read.
ps: dont be too hard on the grammar mistakes please