German Past Haunts Gamers' Future

[wraggster]

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."

via /.

[Broadus]

I HATE IT WHEN I'M REMINDED OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! ESPECIALLY THE HISTORY OF MY OWN COUNTRY! YEARGH!!!

Germany can't have blood in their games? Jeez.
I've never played a single World War 2 game, save Return to Castle Wolfenstein, that had any sort of "extreme" violence. Just look at Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, the two most popular (more or less) WW2 FPS series. They always strive to keep their games rated below mature. Even Brothers in Arms and Day of Defeat don't have all that much violence in comparison to most other first-person-shooters.

[fatdad]

i think its because in all those games germany is seen as the bad guys.....

[Broadus]

You think WHAT'S because the Germans are seen as badguys?

Hey, I know a dude in Germany that likes Call of Duty.
Though I made a modification for Call of Duty that switched the Allies for the Axis (making the player a German), which is probably why he was so interested in my mod...
I've always wanted to see one WW2 FPS game where the player is an Axis soldier in a single player adventure.

[voorheesda]

Agreed that the germans are painted out as the bad guys....but then again...hitler was evil we can all agree with that. but its partially wrong.... and games are just like "interactive-movies" so if these guys are for sure then ban all movies too.

and yes....i would really love a game where you played the "evil" side.

[Cless_Elric]

My opinion? Germany as a whole is crazier now than EVER! Only it's in a suicidal way that doesn't harm others. Can they just be normal like americans for one lousy decade? It's either the now post-modern nihilistic beehive people, the previous evil nazi empire, the ancient maurauding barbarians... There's no moderate position for those wackos.

[mufasacasinos]

And tell me, in what way are Americans "normal"? Why is it that you would consider people - people from many different ethnicities, religions, and cultures - "normal" merely because of the country from which they hail?

I agree, in large part, with Germany. Violence in games has become overextended. Why should we glorify the slaughter of humans, even if they are merely a series of ones and zeros? Yes, to the machine that is all they are. But to the human mind, they can be real people, or rather, they can become real people.

Moderation is the key. I love games like Warcraft or similar RTS's, and even though I do not really like shooters, I know that there are some that are quite decent as far as violence is concerned. But blood and gore is only a promotion of violence.

[souLLy]

My opinion? Germany as a whole is crazier now than EVER! Only it's in a suicidal way that doesn't harm others. Can they just be normal like americans for one lousy decade? It's either the now post-modern nihilistic beehive people, the previous evil nazi empire, the ancient maurauding barbarians... There's no moderate position for those wackos.

keep your borderline racist views to yourself, even been to Germany, ever met any German people? Tell me one nation that doesn't have a history of violence, the fact that they're trying to move on from it shows they're not happy with the events of their past.

I would also say that 'normal like America' is a completely subjective thing and probably most people around the world would not find the American lifestyle normal, particularly the countries America is currently at war with.

[HepburnFan]

Hi!

The german "hunt for violent media" began in the early 80s. Our politicans just used the upcoming wave of horror-videos to make some propaganda ("Let's do some action, it's election-time soon!").

This worked, the people buyed it and hundrets of "dangerous movies" (classics like Romero's "Dawn of the Dead") got banned.

At next, they "had to do something" against the violent videogames (yes, we're still in the 80s and talking about stuff like "Barbarian" and other c64 classics -wich are STILL forbidden to sale to minors, even today in the year 2007!).

In cause of that, german gamers had to play badly censored videogames. Silly "cyborgs" instead of terrorists, green blood if you hit an enemy -in german game-versions $#@! like this is normal...

I think, "Mortal Kombat II" and "Manhunt" aren't games for Kids, that's right. But in my country they're forbidden, even for adults. That's stupid.

Our basic law says, there ist no censorship.

...but it seems, gamers (and filmfans) have no rights in germany...


Ok, my grandfathers made a mistake in the past -but we can't recover losses with censorship.

So, german cencorship is'nt really about working up traumatics. It's all about making propaganda, affect "doing something" and collect votes.

Our Politics can't fight unemployment, crime and real problems like that.

So they createt a virtual enemy, they can mess with.


greets,
hep


PS: My english isn't really good in writing, i hope you understand what i wanted to say with that^^

[Billo-Exx]

the tabloids are the baddest >_<
tehy state us with murders and so on and the half of germany believe those f*cking papers
Now there is a lawconstruct which says:
"selling oder contributing games with violent content is getting 1 year of prison sentence... well im 18 now and it doesnt interest me anymore but its kind of sad ohw dumb the state of our country is >_>