Switzerland Pursues Violent Games Ban

BanjoTed writes "We hear lots about the issues facing violent games in Australia, but the anti-games bandwagon is gathering pace closer to home — in Switzerland, to be precise. The Swiss government is gearing up to consider a total ban on mature games in the country."

Comments

Watch those crime rates climb!

[Cruciform]

If we look at the youth crime rates in the US, they dropped of precipitously when the PS1 came out and have stayed low compared to previous decades ever since.

If the trend was the same in Switzerland, what happens when you take away that outlet?

Most of the drop in crime likely comes from resolution of boredom, but it probably serves as a panacea for some of the whackjobs out there too.

Re:"Mature"?

[mike2R]

He does have a point though - most of what is classified as "mature" in games really only appeals to teenagers. Take the sex scenes in Bioware's DragonAge; speaking as someone in my thirties they are cringe-makingly awful, but I suspect my eighteen year old self would have enjoyed them.

It isn't just games. I recently reread what I remembered as some excellent Sci-Fi books, Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn series. I still like the books, but I found the constant gratuitous sex scenes really got a bit wearing after a while. When I first read them, I found those sections titillating.

Re:I can understand banning games

[houghi]

Rinminds me of when I was young, I was too young to go to a movie, so I just bought the book. When I was older, I saw the movie and what was written in the book was much more non-16 year old then the movie.