to prevent from disasters to happen . Like the school Shooting , They believe Video games are the cause of that violence Acts .
Comment has been collapsed.
Basically. Between the world wars and everything else they want to limit the exposure to violence.
Comment has been collapsed.
i think videogames will be the cause of violance in germany, i mean with all the good things they ban from games (sometimes the game itself) someone will not take it anymore and go bashit
TL;DR dont doit anymore germany
Comment has been collapsed.
It's a bit more complicated than to say it's just some rules.
It starts with laws to protect minors from explicit things. This is basically a good thing, but since some products must not even be advertised to minors, it starts a chain reaction:
=> No advertisement is a big problem for shops, since they need an 18+ corner, where they can assure that no minor gets in. Many shops can't afford that or just don't want to do so for some few titles.
=> No resellers is a big problem for publishers, that have titles for adults.
No advertisement + no resellers = no buyers. So many publishers cripple their games to sell them better.
There are 2 more problems:
1.) In the 90ies the rating was decided very slow -sometimes up to months after the release- which lead to major deficits for publishers/resellers that had a localized indexed game in stock. Ever since then most of the publishers are afraid of uncertainty on the German games market. So they do not publish adult versions of their games, even though there are already shops, that could deal with digital releases (obviously not Steam since they just don't care about the age verification problem).
2.) Germany isn't even THAT strict overall, but Germany and the US differ pretty much in what is suitable for minors and what is not. Doom got trouble because of swastikas. Call of Duty because you are encouraged to shoot civillians. For the US market you won't see nude people or children in these games. It is just the easiest way to rigorous cut things out to fit the German market.
Comment has been collapsed.
Of course. Someone had to find exceptions. ^^
Still: Violence against children, sexual content and sometimes drugs-use are something that is far more considered by the developers than extremely excessive violence or encouraging violence (like the bonuspoints for killing pedestrians in Carmaggeddon). I don't say that you can slay children in German videogames or something. It is just all about your ethical values. The Witcher 2 for example is USK 16 (Germany) but PEGI 18 (Europe) and ESRB M (17) (US).
Comment has been collapsed.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/foruncut
'nuff said! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Unlike the USA, Germany does have no right to free speech, thus laws that restrict free speech are perfectly ok. In the USA you have free speech, which is why they put all the regulation not in the hand of the state, but in private hands with the ESRB. The effects are however very similar, an AO rated game is just as unsellable in the USA as a indexed game is in Germany, thus developers do what they can do avoid it. See Manhunt2 or Fahrenheit which both had to be censored for the US market.
Another difference is that Germany focuses only on violence and doesn't really care about nudity. Fahrenheit, which was censored for the US market, is completely uncensored here and only got an "age 16" rating. GTA:SA hot coffee incident, which was a big issue in the USA, was a total non-issue over here, the game already had an "age 16" rating and some fucking minigame didn't change that.
Another special thing we have in Germany and some other European countries is laws against use of Nazi symbols, this is obviously a result of WWII. It seems to be enforced harder in games then in other media (Indy3 the game was censored, Indy3 the movie was not), but that's probably more due to games being still a young medium then anything else.
Also worth to mention: Even so the USA has a right to free speech, not everything is allowed in the USA. Obscenity laws make it actually illegal to distribute stuff that is considered "obscene" (fake childporn for example, even when everybody involved is 18+). Doesn't matter much for games, but some porn producers have spend time in jail for that.
Comment has been collapsed.
Australia isn't tough on violence in video games they just don't have a rating to go with the more violent games
Comment has been collapsed.
Comment has been collapsed.
Don't know if you're just kidding but this is not real. This kid has a bunch of videos uploaded from himself where he does stupid things.
Comment has been collapsed.
And the strict rules are mainly, because German politics like to blame the Games for "shooting spree"'s from children at schools.
Or at least it's mostly the thing you hear if one of these sadly happens.
And brutality and blood are always cut out in Germany, also in Movies. But for this sexual content isn't as censored as for example in USA :D. (Yaye we have nipp's) :D
Comment has been collapsed.
And don't even forget the TV^^ But yeah, as we know, the great joke "50% of all disasters happened because they played Counter Strike... but 100% of them ate bread but it isn't forbidden yet"... yeah yeah, we Germans with our strict rules (cough GEMA cough)
Comment has been collapsed.
"Low Violence: German low violence version only available with German language ", it's explicited mentioned because it's not common, even for cut games.
Comment has been collapsed.
And surprisingly, it actually proves that both violence and sex in young age affects kids in their life.
America slowly starts to have random shootings to be quite normal occurrence, while Germany is known to spread 'love' on streets (all those Love Parades).
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't know statistics, so it's hard to tell how bad it is in truth. But I remember right now 'we' cried three times this year that "Someone went on bloody rampage in America" (Batman, mall and school weeks ago). Maybe it's that other countries doesn't make a big fuzz about it, I don't know...
Comment has been collapsed.
Comment has been collapsed.
They probably think you become a mass murderer if you play violent video games.
Comment has been collapsed.
You don't know how that is here in germany. I think like 65% of all parents are against that violent video games and think this games are the cause of the shootings, 10% think they must protect their children of games wich should be played with 12 years even if their children are above 12. and the rest of the parents (25%) doesn't care. BUT i think 90% of the children gives a fuck about that and just let's a friend buy the games for them, or over steam, where the parent's can't control it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Or just pirate the uncut version. I'm fairly certain that in countries, where the game is cut/made less violent, piracy is higher for that game.
Comment has been collapsed.
You are mixing the violent cuts in some games and the age verification on a very few sites here. Steam for example hasn't such a functionality.
Comment has been collapsed.
The thing is: we have our own rating agency: the USK. They decide what seal your game get. BUT they can decide, that a game is too violent or violates German laws (e.g. Nazi symbols). In that case you will get no rating. The problem with not getting rated is, that they put your game on a list and you will not be allowed to advertise your game (Attention: people are allowed to buy and play it). The only exceptions are these, which are not allowed at all. So publishers are saying: uhmm we don't get a rating so we can't advertise=>nobody will buy it, because nobody knows about it. So they cut games to get an USK 18 rating.
Example: the darkness 2: the German version only allows three executions in a row, the PEGI version endless. (so 3 execution are ok, 4 are bad!), Half live 2: grey blood; also there must not be friendly fire in multiplayer shooters,...
The easy solution is: Grey-imports from the internet (just buy in a store outside Germany). Evemn Steam could sell them, I still don't know why they don't. They obviously don't care about youth-protection laws anyway, every 12-year old buy can buy CoD...
Comment has been collapsed.
Still, few shooters and action games have more graphic violence than L4D and Dead Rising, showing bloody dismemberment all over the screen
Comment has been collapsed.
Hmm, I suppose, but that's an odd way to look at it. The only mildly sensible root purpose of censoring violence is to attempt to minimize the amount of people that want to commit similar acts of violence in the real world. Not because people shouldn't see what the inside of a zombie arm looks like, but because the government thinks people shouldn't experience something that could lead to similar acts being committed in the real world.
Therefore, games that are only mildly violent but portray the player killing other humans should be considered much more forbidden than any zombie killing game.
For example, why isn't Postal 2 on the forbidden list? I can go in that game, grab a shovel, and chop innocent, screaming, frightened people's heads off. Then I go and blow a police office's head off with a shotgun and empty my bladder on his body and his still-alive partner's body, which causes her to vomit. When her head is down because she is vomiting on her shoes, I kick her in the face until she dies. Then I go into a bank, rob it and burn all the bodies (despite whether they are dead or alive). I head over to the police station and start shooting dozens of rockets at police officers and inmates. I watch them explode and disintegrate, while I shoot more rockets at people that are still alive, some trying to pointlessly stop me and some running around, screaming. I run over to one that is still alive and tell him to get on the ground. He crouches, cries, begs for his life, and then I pull out a small but still lethal pistol and shoot him point blank in the head. I pull out a canister of gasoline and burn his and everyone else's body and watch as the skin melts off of their bodies, leaving piles of very charred, skinless, dead bodies. If I find an unlucky soul that is still alive or/and that saw any of this, I burn them alive.
How is killing zombies worse than that?
Now, someone tell this to an intelligent German politician.
Comment has been collapsed.
POstal 2 is on this Index thing we have here.
you'll never see any ads for that.
Comment has been collapsed.
Postal 2 is not allowed to be sold/displayed - I' m aware. But according to the exceptions, games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Dead Rising are not even allowed "at all", which I can only assume means you aren't even legally able to play them in Germany.
Comment has been collapsed.
It was already said that Postal 2 is on the Index, so it mustn't be advertised. That also means that shops are not allowed to have the game visible in their store, which of course is a huge disadvantage.
Left4Dead might have met a similar fate, so it was cut and is now freely available for people at 18+. It would've been possible to release the game uncut, but not without monetary losses.
Comment has been collapsed.
But the main problem is not the game itself, it's the fact that a bunch of stupid assholes believe that playing violent videogames could lead to violent acts, which is a wrong fact.
The hard and ugly truth is that a mentally disequilibrated person can commit these acts regardless of playing a game or not, sooner or later the person will burst in a violent rampage like the one recently seen in USA and the videogames may not be the cause.
As for myself I can tell you, throughout my childhood I've seen countless action movies, some softer some harder. Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris, Van Damme, Seagal and a lot more, and I also played lots of action games. So, following the logic of these very smart people, I'm a potential psychopath killer. Did I ever kill someone? Nope, I'm just a regular guy who enjoys playing videogames and hanging around with friends, and I brawled very few times in my short life.
Comment has been collapsed.
As far as I know you can shoot off body parts from Zombies and whatnot in L4D. And you may or may not agree that this is more violent than just "some blood" and an "unscathed" dead human body.
Besides zombies are humanoid beings and hence § 131 StGB (German version) / § 131 StGB (English version) applies.
Comment has been collapsed.
every game which is also available at stores will have it's uncut version there.
i guess the main problem is that steam can't ensure the USK (german rating centre) a proper age check like it's the case when you go into a store
a vendor can ask for an ID if he/she is not sure about the age
steam can't
Comment has been collapsed.
Exactly. If Steam had a proper age check you could buy everything but games with Nazi symbols in it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Maybe they should ask their friends at Amazon, Origin or Ubisoft how they made it, but as I said: with age verification you can't sell all these CoDs to kids anymore, so this won't happen.
Comment has been collapsed.
What they should be careful with is board games. Look what Hitler's addiction to Risk caused.
Comment has been collapsed.
Because the government thinks, videogames make you kill your schoolmates... We had some "school massakers" as they are called. They were hyped to the max and the media, as it is in direct competition with video games as media, told people counterstrike was the cause.
Think about it. If you play videogames or use the Internet, you don't spend that time watching Tv. But the Tv channels want you to watch TV. So they will do anything to let videogames look bad. It's just a "clever" marketing strategy. Total Biscuit made a great video about that.
tl:dr The problem in america is nearly the same. "Video games make you violent". The difference is, The German government believed that.
So they cut out stuff that the people can't take... even 18+ old people... somebody has to protect grown man/woman... they can't decide for themself, whether they play a "violent" game, or not. sarcasm off
As 18- old people could play the game, so 10% of our population, they have to be protected too.
Comment has been collapsed.
Because video games kill people, according to German politicians.
Comment has been collapsed.
I think it's pretty obvious, just think of it for a bit
Comment has been collapsed.
german society is based on being a pussy (I live in Germany and I'm not saying germans are pussies, the system tries to educate germans to be pussies)
Comment has been collapsed.
+1
but 90% of the children (boys) play violent video games. so the system fails
Comment has been collapsed.
407 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by Vodeni
200 Comments - Last post 5 minutes ago by Vodeni
16,598 Comments - Last post 9 minutes ago by WaxWorm
1,082 Comments - Last post 11 minutes ago by amst4d
157 Comments - Last post 20 minutes ago by OneManArmyStar
209 Comments - Last post 24 minutes ago by ComNguoi
31 Comments - Last post 1 hour ago by OneManArmyStar
35 Comments - Last post 1 minute ago by Vasharal
2,842 Comments - Last post 7 minutes ago by JMM72
206 Comments - Last post 8 minutes ago by softbearcas
28 Comments - Last post 17 minutes ago by VahidSlayerOfAll
17,324 Comments - Last post 18 minutes ago by Warriot
217 Comments - Last post 22 minutes ago by Zipsy
2,670 Comments - Last post 29 minutes ago by Furty
explication?
Comment has been collapsed.