Slashdot Mirror
Germany Wants EU to Ban Violent Games
FredDC writes "Germany is seeking support among other European countries to ban violent videogames during its EU Presidency, according to Infoworld. In an initiative led by Franco Frattini, the European Justice commissioner, Germany is pushing for restrictions on the sale of games with violent content of any kind, from Half-Life to Star Trek . In the eyes of the EU, gaming and real-world violence is 'linked', and steps should be taken to prevent the purchase of these games by younger people. From the article: 'The German government said it will conduct a study of all the different national rules concerning video games, with a view to setting Union-wide norms. Its initiative makes the prospect of a ban much more likely. Video game violence became a hot political issue in Germany at the end of last year when 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse shot up a high school in Emsdetten, Germany, injuring 37 before fatally turning the gun on himself. Police said Bosse spent most of his waking hours playing Counter-Strike.'" This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.
The rest of the west wants the United States to ban captial punishment. Not going to happen...
They just aim to create EU-wide unified criteria for judging violence in games. Nothing more. It has nothing to do with banning games!
They already have enough trouble getting stuff at the same time as the NA/Asian markets, and if this goes into effect, they'd be even worse off.
Christ, first WWII and now this. Why does Germany hate the rest of Europe so?
You've obviously never been to France.
I feel for Germany. As the country that was host to probably the greatest villain in the twentieth century there is going to be a lot of pressure to condemn things that could ever be even remotely like the horrible things that happened there during WWII. I say this is an overreaction, but it still makes sense in some way. After reading about this http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread .php?t=31767 story on slashdot earlier, and forcing myself to remember that Europe has its nudity/violence tolerance levels switched compared to America, I see this as a misguided, but inevitable event.
From the article.
"The Commission also wants to harmonize national rules in the 27 countries in the Union. "Protection of children cannot have borders," Frattini said. The Commission wants to see a combination of outright bans on the most violent games, together with minimum age rules on other titles."
How does an outright ban have nothing to do with baning games?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Violent crime has gone every year since videogames were first introduced. And the rate of violent crime began dropping very sharply starting in 1994 in the USA. Doom, the first modern "murder simulator" and poster child for those who like to like fantasy and real-world violence, was released in 1993. Is there a correlation? Maybe not, but it's every bit as cogent an argument as anything these anti-gaming fascists can come up with.
+0 Meh
I think we're all pretty sick of the constant political campaigns against violent games. In every case it's someone who goes nuts and commits some heinous crime and the fact that they played violent video games often is trotted out as either the sole cause or the trigger for the event. But there's thousands (maybe tens of thousands I don't have figures for EU) of other EU gamers playing HL and CS and somehow, beyond all odds, they manage to not go psycho and kill a bunch of people, how do they manage? [/sarcasm]
Why in this modern age must popliticians treat entire continental populations like a kindergarten class? A statistically insignificant number of people are in the ven diagram overlap of violent videogame players and violent criminals so such games are banned for everyone? Talk about lazy legislation, so sorry it's easier to try and ruin it for everyone else instead of actually investigating the other motivations and causes that lead to these tragedies and maybe learning to diagnose and treat or prevent such violent behavior. This has all been said before, it will all be said again, just ranting to get it out of my system.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
I remember the German exchange student in my highschool years relating a story to me that fist fights and such outward violence is viewed as idiocy. He told me they tend to resolve conflicts verbally. Sure, they might swear at each other, but rarely does anyone resort to violence. He also played tons of GTA and said he did enjoy videogames. The guy woldn't hurt a fly. He was one of the coolest, most laid back people i've ever met, but the pot might've had something to do with that.
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
What is with the constant scapegoating of video games in Germany? Folks connected to a murder being Final Fantasy fans is about as relevant as their being, I don't know, Nestea Cool fans or something. You would really have to be flat-out disingenuous and have some alternate agenda in order to make a connection between Final Fantasy VII and a homicide (unless it was with a big big sword, or one of those sweet guns Vincent has... mmm triple barrel goodness...). As for pushing for EU-wide standards for violence in games, well unless the EU is all one big monolithic culture, those standards will not reflect the views of enough people IMO. But then again I'm not even a supporter of ESRB ratings in the US. Or movie ratings for that matter.
I like basketball!!1!
Germany has had a few kids going nuts and in every case there was something in common. The person in question owned 'violent' video games. So it is very easy to ban video games.
But they forgot another thing all cases had in common, every person was attending high-shool of some sort of education. So my conclusion is to ban education and no more school shootings.
This give the kids also more time to play video games.
What power has law where only money rules.
Most people are a fan of something. Is the media going to start associating other crimes with the personal interests of those perpetrators? In some cases it may provide some insight but in most cases it does not. I can think of a few things out there more closely related to crime than this and those aren't investigated.
But I guess this hits closer to home for many people and when was the last time the news media hasn't sensationalized a story to make a few extra dollars?
There's something very frustrating about government officials getting fixated on non-issues when there are far more serious problems to contend with.
This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.
They're calling Final Fantasy VII "Killerspiele" ("killer game") because two killers used aliases from the game.
They think the game inspired them to kill. How? Did they take turns?
Did someone translate the X-Play skit for "RPG Radiculopathy" into German and leave out the humor?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Only some stupid politicians!
Some of the games that I have played (and enjoyed) include Carmageddon, Doom, Doom2, Unreal Tournament, Quake3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Unreal Tournament 2004, Doom3. After all this virtual blood, I can't hurt an ant and I can't stand to even see violence in real.
Some people just don't get it. Real violence is one thing, virtual is another.
And it's not like that violence in movies can be as (or more) graphic as in video/computer games, right? Not that violence in Germany wasn't present before video games either (WWII).
I heard Dick Cheney was a real Duck Hunt nut in the 80's... but he wasn't very good at it.
[T]he United States has the highest rates of childhood homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among industrialized countries. ... The firearm-related homicide rate in the United States was nearly 16 times higher than that in all of the other countries combined (0.94 compared with 0.06); the firearm-related suicide rate was nearly 11 times higher (0.32 compared with 0.03); and the unintentional firearm-related death rate was nine times higher (0.36 compared with 0.04) Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children -- 26 Industrialized Countries (1990-1995)
___
Where firearms are tightly regulated, firearms are insignificant as a cause of death among children.