German Minister Seeks Jail Time For FPS Players

GamePolitics has the somewhat unbelievable news that German Minister of the Interior Gunther Beckstein is seeking jail time for violent game developers, publishers, and players. MSNBC has further coverage of the issue, which has pro gamers in Germany quite worried. From the article: "The draft law, a reaction to a school shooting that shook German public opinion last month, will come before the upper house of parliament next year. But it is already sending shockwaves through the 2m-strong German online gaming community. 'We have among the most drastic censorship rules for games,' said Frank Sliwka, head of the Deutsche E-Sport Bund, an umbrella federation for German online gaming teams. 'Now we are being labelled as a breeding ground for unstable, dysfunctional and violent youngsters.'"

Comments

It's all the games' fault!

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, everyone knows Germany has had absolutely *no* history of violence before video games appeared on the scene.

*ducks*

Re:It's all the games' fault!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a proven fact that Adolf Hitler played Wolfenstein 0.0001 on his Volksrechner 0.4 * 10^(-4) MHz.

Re:It's all the games' fault!

[Drooling Iguana]

Germany didn't start WWI. It began as a war between Austria and Serbia.

They got involved pretty damn quickly, though.

Re:It's all the games' fault!

[hey!]

No, the fastest possible application of Godwin's law is for the origingal post in a thread to invoke the Nazis preemptively. Let's call that a G0 post.

The fastest possible meta Godwin would be in a child response to a G0 post. Let's call that an M1 post. You can't pull a meta-Godwin in a G0 post without triggering the self-referential (wank) exception.

Sadly, you post is a respectable but undistinguished M2 (grand child) meta-godwin. But then again this post is an H3 hyper-meta-godwin so I can't say anthing. H2 would the fastest theoretically possible hyper-meta. Of course you can't do an H1 because that triggers the meta-self-referential (wank wank) rule.

Re:It's all the games' fault!

[triffid_98]

Baldrick: I've heard what these Germans will do, Sir. They'll have their wicked way with anything of woman-born.

Edmund: Well, in that case, Baldrick, you're quite safe. However, the Teutonic reputation for brutality is well-founded: their operas last three or four days; and they have no word for `fluffy'.

Re:It's all the games' fault!

[Lord Kano]

World's fastest invocation of Godwin's Law? :D
        ~~=====> - Godwin's Law

            0 - You
          _|_
            |
          / \

It's not a rule that can be invoked like "Whoever finishes the TP must install the new roll.", it's a law in the sense of "E=MC^2".

Let me introduce you to Kano's Law.

• The odds of someone using Godwin's Law to shield an idea from criticism is proportional to how much that idea resebles those of the Nazis.

LK

Not "German Minister of the Interior"

[mseeger]

Hi,

he (Beckstein) is not the "German Minister of the Interior" but the one of Bavaria (german: Bayern). Bavaria is the most conservative state in germany, ruled for nearly 60 years by the same party. He has been joined in his attempt by the minister of interior of lower saxony.

The core of the prolem is the definition of "killer games". Since nearly all major politicians are 60 or older, they have nearly no understanding of the topic. They believe e.g. that Counterstrike is played with a joystick and the goal of the game to be "killing hostages". Usually, hearing them, i'm torn between laughing and crying.

Regards, Martin

Re:Going a little overboard

[__aaclcg7560]

No... But WWII is responsible for all the WWII video games of the last few years. If I see one more WWII video game, I'm going to jump into my Sherman tank and take a tour through town!

You know what causes the most school shootings...

[Tokerat]

...is all the media glamor and shock that is the result of school shootings. These kids want to "make a statement". They're so hurt or outcast and they shoot up their school to lash back and to make the world notice, as if to say "It's that bad here." It's essentially an act of terrorism.

I'm pretty sure Islamic extremist groups didn't become violent from video games, but because they felt a need to lash out. The behavior is, plain and simple, unchecked immaturity combined with a little knowledge.

Beckstein NOT germanys Minister of the Interior

[euice]

He is the Minister of Interior of Bavaria, and Bavaria is just one of 16 states (Bundesland) in germany. That's like calling Arnold Schwarzenegger president of the united states.

And besides that, he isn't even very popular in germany (at least outside bavaria).

To give you a picture of his political position: The conservatives (CDU) are the largest party in germany at the moment, althouth they are only supported by about 35% across germany.

In bavaria, things are a lot different. Bavaria is so conservative, that the more moderate CDU is split into two partys. The party in bavaria is called CSU, so the rest of germany does not link the radical positions of the CSU to the conservatives outside bavaria.

That works incredible well: the CSU dominates bavaria around 60% for decades, with political statements like the above. And Mr. Beckstein is often the one saying the radical statements.

Shall I mention that Mr. Beckstein is a huge fan of the Bush administration whereas most germans are not?