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German Ministers Try to Ban Violent Games


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German Ministers Try to Ban Violent Games

 

Country's 16 Interior Ministers ask for ban in wake of shooting.

 

 

by Martin Robinson, IGN UK

 

UK, June 8, 2009 - Germany's 16 Interior Ministers have put forward a motion to ban the production and distribution of violent videogames, a sanction that could come in to force as early as this September if passed by the Bundestag.

 

The move comes in the wake of March's school shooting at Albertville secondary school in Winnenden - a small town to the north of Stuttgart - where 17 year-old former pupil took 16 lives. Following the incident, ministers attempted to ban paintball – a motion that was ultimately unsuccessful.

 

Any ban pertaining to the sale and production of violent videogames would also affect high profile development teams such as CryTek, producers of both Far Cry and Crysis.

 

GIGA.de has more comment and insight on the story for our German speaking readers.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/992/992276p1.html

 

That sucks big time. Let's hope it doesn't pass. The last thing we need is precedent for other countries to do the same thing. I don't know if we have any Germans on this board but it'd be good to hear what they have to say.

 

I'm not familiar with German censorship laws but this seems like it should have an incredibly hard time to pass. Or I would hope so at least.

 

Discuss.

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The day they ban violent games they will have to look at movies next... and I don't think it will get that far.

 

To look at it from another point of view. Banning, or taking away objects from people, is never the way to go. There was an incident at a British school where a pupil cut someones face with the 'blade' from a pencil-sharpener. After the incident they started banning pencil-sharpeners from schools. But honestly, it is not the object that is the problem, this pupil would have found something else to do the deed with had the pencil-sharpener been at hand. It is the person that is willing to do something wrong, and it is better to look at the society around this person "why did the person think this was 'ok' to do?" And the answer will never-ever be movies or games or the like, this is just a petty excuse to avoid looking at a much deeper rooted problem. inhmo...

 

/Domantos

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Germans have always been pretty hot on censorship for computer games from what I remember so I wouldn't be that surprised if they pushed it through. What's worrying is that it will set the wheels in motion for similar moves in the UK and the rest of Europe. Banning it will only increase the market for it though, like the whole slasher movie thing from the late 80's. People got very excited about movies that were below-par at best purely because they weren't allowed them.

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YES! Let's all ban violent video games! Let's take away something of joy from people, a source of stress relief from the masses! There have been too many deaths to count! Too many kids getting ahold of guns and reinacting what they see! I say we take it a step FURTHER! Let's ban music with bad lyrics! Let's ban violent movies! Hell, while we're at it, let's ban the news! The kids can get bad ideas from it too!!!

 

Why? Because we're too busy! Where are these kids getting these guns from anyhow?! I have my gun safely hidden in the open drawer by my bed where my kid knows the location of! I told him not to touch it, and he'll listen because he's a good boy. SURE he has issues at school, and the faculty arebn't doing anything about it other then punishing him and making the situations worse! But my son's not dumb, he won't pull a Grand Theft Auto and shoot up the school! TV raised him BETTER then that! All those years I had little Joshua...Jocie...Jacob?....HAROLD!!! Sitting down in front of the TV while his mother and I argued about child support, and those late nights I got drunk and couldn't help him with his homework. It's not OUR fault that today's society is screwed up! I mean, it's not like we're the ones buying these games for our kids without looking at what's in them and then not pay any attention to the game when they play it, or what they're watching, or who they're with. My kid would NEVER abuse drugs! He said he knocked his girlfriend up, but that's the schools fault for not educating!

 

I say we sue the schools too! THEY are supposed to be reaching our children while we're at work! We do too much as it is! My wife and I work 20 hours a week, and our son is fine in comparison to his friend's, who are of single working mothers! So what if they have guns locked away so the kids can't get at them, it's not MY kid I'm worried about! I vote pro-ban on violent video games! Let's just get rid of everything bad so we don't have to do our jobs as parents and adults!!! I also move that Sesame Street and Barney be available 24/7 for children, with a child lock on all tvs but mine!

 

And while we're at it with guns, we need to ban everything that can be used as a weapon! Quickly! I propose a bill to outlaw pencils! Oh, and paper! Enough sheets can slit a kid's throat! And ink! I swear that little whore in his class writing her number on his hand will kill him with ink poisoning! I'll sue her! And let's also ban chalk! And lockers! And desks because they can be picked up and used as a weapon too! And books if enough force is used! And computers with those cyber predators!!! And no cell phones either, I don't want my kid sexting while he's out! Sure I can put a block on it, but I'm too lazy! I want the government to do this for me!!!

 

All those opposed?

Edited by ApochWeiss
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FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! i live in germany! i hate those motherfuckerssssssssssssssssssss! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

they have no idea of those games, because they're not playing them and they just want to bann the games because of the rampage's on schools (there were 3 in 3 years), but violent games are not the reason for it.

 

 

:boom:rant::rant::rant::rant::rant:

Edited by YouTube Freak
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I fucking hate how they blame random murders on video games, just because somebody has played a violent game and enjoys playing violent games, does it automatically make them more likely to commit murder? I don't play GTA and think, shit maybe I should go on a killing spree. The media and politicians just place the blame on video games simply because they can and because they haven't got sufficient evidence to pinpoint what the actual cause was.

 

I wrote an article for another site on this issue, check it out.

Link: Gaming Related Violence: Is there any correlation?

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Well that's one way to get your 10 characters. Has there been any coverage of it in the german media?

 

yes, as example in the orange box, the blood is grey, and dead bodies are disappearing immendiately and in fallout 3 you can't cut off body parts. but they are not censoring every game (gta4 or far cry 2 as example)

 

and there's a age limit too, as example you can't buy GTA 4, far cry 2, fallout 3, call of duty etc. as long as you're not 19 years old, or Splinter Cell, Battlefield, Mirror's Edge etc. as long as you're not 16 years old :mad:

 

 

EDIT: oops, i missunterstood coverage, so no, i don't think they said something about it, but i'm not sure

Edited by YouTube Freak
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yes, as example in the orange box, the blood is grey, and dead bodies are disappearing immendiately and in fallout 3 you can't cut off body parts. but they are not censoring every game (gta4 or far cry 2 as example)

 

and there's a age limit too, as example you can't buy GTA 4, far cry 2, fallout 3, call of duty etc. as long as you're not 19 years old, or Splinter Cell, Battlefield, Mirror's Edge etc. as long as you're not 16 years old :mad:

 

Aside from the first two examples that's not too different from the UK only our limits are 18 and 15. It's just that no-one seems to be able to understand age labels on video games here because there's more than one kind. So instead of think "I'll go with whatever age limit is on the box" when selling, they go with "Na, it probably means anyone can buy it". Although this did lead to me once having a member of staff coming to age verify me on a copy of Mario Kart DS when buying it from Tesco. The game is 7+ I believe.

 

EDIT:

 

EDIT: oops, i missunterstood coverage, so no, i don't think they said something about it, but i'm not sure

 

Post anything if it comes up. Although translate first as we're all too bat-shit ignorant to speak German.

Edited by Captain Fantasm
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Okay, first ban the violent videogames and then what? Ban movies, music, internet? You can't ban something that's so populair, that's so 1930's. The messed up part is that a couple of grey haired guys are making this decission without even having the knowledge of games.

 

A ban is only making it more populair and I guess these guys never heard of import?

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