I am so ****** by our politicians (Germany) - "banning killergames"

[dnadns]

Some of you may have followed that the world of gaming is already quite flawed in Germany thanks to already great restrictions and the inability of some politicians to utilize proper age restrictions instead of simply banning everything that has a drop of blood in it (yes, I exaggerate here).

Today I stumbled upon a news article where they agreed on bringing out a law that will ban the production and sales of *any* videogame that focuses on "killing or other violent behavior".

Or in other terms "Bye, bye CryTek Germany".

It's not a law yet and I truly hope that this will lead up to a decision (similar to the request about banning paintball not so long ago) that will hopefully settle the issue and enforce freedom of arts as they are meant to be.
This just gets me mad about those guys pulling every string to get more votes for the upcoming elections by playing on public fear after the massacre of Winnenden.

The original (german) article may be found here: http://www.welt.de/politik/article3866764/Innenminister-wollen-die-Killerspiele-verbieten.html

Phew... sorry for all the heat, but I just had to let off some steam about this.

 

[traceur_]

Care to translate?

I suggest you move to another country, a life with no killing games is no life at all.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Isn't EVERY game a killer game in some sense?

 

[Pendragon9]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

 

[WrongSprite]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

*Sigh* How ignorant and small minded of you.

EDIT: Apologies, I read this as if it was racist, but it's not.

 

[MikeyTWolf]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

*Sigh* How ignorant and small minded of you.

Yes, quite. It's "Hyporcritcal" of them, not ironic.

I believe irony applies AFTER a statement in the present, not historical events.

e.g. "Fur is murder!" *accidentally reverses protest truck over cat*

Wouldn't really work if it was the other way around.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

*Sigh* How ignorant and small minded of you.

I don't think so, WW1 WW2 holocaust east germany etc. I found it amusing anyways.

I doubt a game ban will be put in place, maybe something along the Aussies with a 15 rating and no AO or M rated games.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

*Sigh* How ignorant and small minded of you.

Yes, quite. It's "Hyporcritcal" of them, not ironic.

I believe irony applies AFTER a statement in the present, not historical events.

e.g. "Fur is murder!" *accidentally reverses protest truck over cat*

Wouldn't really work if it was the other way around.

Hypocritical isn't really right since I doubt the people involved were alive during WW2
its because of germanys history that they do such things its the same with their music industry

 

[Skeleon]

WW1, east germany etc.

Those two weren't really the Germans' fault.
And I'm intrigued as to what etc. stands for.

Anyway, I still have faith that this law won't pass.
These are just blind, populist actions that are meant to garner cheap votes.
It won't pass and it won't pay off.
I think.

 

[razer17]

Kinda ironic, considering Germany's history of... er, killing based activities.

*Sigh* How ignorant and small minded of you.

I don't think so, WW1 WW2 holocaust east germany etc. I found it amusing anyways.

I doubt a game ban will be put in place, maybe something along the Aussies with a 15 rating and no AO or M rated games.

oh haha, funny bloody joke right there. lets link their actions of over 60 years ago to them today, they must be the same now as they were then.
what!? they don't still kill people for fun on their off time? damn that's right. maybe thats why they are trying to ban these games, to stop that sort of thing in the future. ( however that's really not going to work, violent gamed don't equal violent people)

 

[XJ-0461]

So basically Germany is left with driving games? Because virtually everything else involves killing.

 

[sneakypenguin]

WW1, east germany etc.

Those two weren't really the Germans' fault.
And I'm intrigued as to what etc. stands for.

Anyway, I still have faith that this law won't pass.
These are just blind, populist actions that are meant to garner cheap votes.
It won't pass and it won't pay off.
I think.

I was referring to the history of killing ppl, arguments could be made regarding WW1 but I suppose Europe as a whole looked forward to the coming of war.

I have a nasty habbit of using etc as "to name a few"

 

[kaziard]

So basically Germany is left with driving games? Because virtually everything else involves killing.

dont forget those fun fun fun golf games

 

[z121231211]

Either games in Germany would all be shovelware or more original games where the goal isn't to kill everyone come out. Though it's probably going to turn out to be the former.

 

[scnj]

So basically Germany is left with driving games? Because virtually everything else involves killing.

dont forget those fun fun fun golf games

Not necessarily. Those golf balls can be deadly.

 

[dnadns]

I whish that some people on the globe would realize how many gamers are out there.
Misinformation is a great deal here and goes up to radio shows that go on to the topic and claim that WoW is a violent game with the sole aim of two factions slaugthering each other.

I mean, I am used to fake studies and statistics, but that is sort of borderline between crying and laughing.

Not that a ban would have no effect at all thanks to those nice stores that ship abroad and you basically have to do that today if you want to get the "full" game. Most stuff is censored and I am even more annoyed by the fact that the german PSN does not offer certain downloads because of age restrictions.

On the other hand, you can not shop in the UK store with a german CC, but in the US Store which is not compatible at most times.

But my concerns with Sony about this is more of a follow up to the actual problem here.

For those who think that Germans (like me) are still running around killing people and draw conclusions from historic facts, I'd like to note that I am 28 and was born a long time after that. So take these ideas for a walk to the next pub, but please leave them out of this thread.

Thanks

 

[BloodyOne]

Some of you may have followed that the world of gaming is already quite flawed in Germany thanks to already great restrictions and the inability of some politicians to utilize proper age restrictions instead of simply banning everything that has a drop of blood in it (yes, I exaggerate here).

Today I stumbled upon a news article where they agreed on bringing out a law that will ban the production and sales of *any* videogame that focuses on "killing or other violent behavior".

Or in other terms "Bye, bye CryTek Germany".

Well dude, after The Holocaust and the laws about not denying it, this isn't much of a shock to me. I hope that it does not pass, for the sake of all you gamers in Germany.
Translated link;
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.welt.de/politik/article3866764/Innenminister-wollen-die-Killerspiele-verbieten.html&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=de|en|

 

[Flour]

Care to translate?

I suggest you move to another country, a life with no killing games is no life at all.

I hope the real post has proper text, the preview messes with non-standard English symbols

The following will be a rough translation of the major points in the article:

Spoiler: ?Für Spiele, bei denen ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Spielhandlung die virtuelle Ausübung von wirklichkeitsnah dargestellten Tötungshandlungen oder anderen grausamen oder sonst unmenschlichen Gewalttätigkeiten gegen Menschen oder menschenähnliche Wesen ist, ein ausdrückliches Herstellungs- und Verbreitungsverbot so schnell wie möglich umzusetzen.?

A ban on the sale and production of games where the goal is to kill humans or human-like targets.

Spoiler: Amokläufer haben sich vor ihren Taten immer wieder mit solchen Spielen beschäftigt

Idiots who decided it would be a good day to shoot people have played games.

Spoiler: Die große Koalition hatte nach dem Amoklauf im baden-württembergischen Winnenden Verschärfungen des Waffenrechts beschlossen, von einem ursprünglich geplanten ?Paintball?-Verbot nach massiven Protesten der Freizeitsportler jedoch wieder Abstand genommen.

Protests stopped the largest coalition to continue(?) with it's plans to ban Paintball after the incident in Winnenden [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertville-Realschule_massacre]

Can a German speaking member of this forum please clean up my (what I assume to be)massacre of the language

 

[PersianLlama]

WW1, east germany etc.

Those two weren't really the Germans' fault.
And I'm intrigued as to what etc. stands for.

Anyway, I still have faith that this law won't pass.
These are just blind, populist actions that are meant to garner cheap votes.
It won't pass and it won't pay off.
I think.

I was referring to the history of killing ppl, arguments could be made regarding WW1 but I suppose Europe as a whole looked forward to the coming of war.

I have a nasty habbit of using etc as "to name a few"

Every country has killed people. Sure, the holocaust was the worst genocide in history, but it's not as if every German supported that, most didn't.

 

[Ashbax]

Phew... sorry for all the heat, but I just had to let off some steam about this.

You have a right to let off steam. if this law is passed I have lost all faith in the human race and I will go on a politician KILLING SPREE. Except obama, becuase he rocks.