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German Ban On Doom Finally Lifted
An anonymous reader writes "18 years after its debut, Doom, the game that almost single-handedly popularized the FPS genre (remember when we just called them Doom clones?) is finally seeing the light of legality in the nation of Germany. The lifting of the ban also applies to the beloved sequel Doom II. A release date has yet to be set. I recommend that Germans who have not found some way to play this game over the last 18 years, please do so upon its release. Despite its age, it's still fun as hell. (Pun very much intended.)"
I can see wolfenstein (well actually I can't) but doom?
"People don't want to learn linux" hasn't been a valid excuse since '03.
Congrats Germany! And if you guys enjoy Doom, just wait for Quake & Duke Nukem 3D!!!
It was never "banned". It was not allowed to sell it to a person under the age of 18 (which was enough to discourage publishers from even trying). This was now reduced to 16. Apparently id filed a request to reexamine the old rating.
Captcha: massacre. How fitting.
Doom was on the index of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Department_for_Media_Harmful_to_Young_Persons. When something is on the index is can be bought and sold but cannot be sold to a minor and cannot be sold in a shop that frequently has minors. This sort of law was originally intended to apply to porn but as a matter of implementation is a bit more difficult for videogames since minors are likely to go to videogame stores. Similarly, restrictions on how indexed media can be advertised make it difficult to advertise videogames. So the de facto result is that very few copies of games on the index are sold. But saying that the game was banned is incorrect. Prior to this appeal it was legal to buy and sell copies of Doom.
...the German economy is the last stable, and largest, economy in Europe: they haven't been introduced to the FPS yet. They'll be eating Cheetos and shitting in bed pans while screaming "M-M-M-M-Monster Kill!!!!!!" before you know it now.
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They had to change the paddle graphics in the German version. It was said the straight lines were too similar to the branches of a swastika, so they had to change them to parentheses.
Doom was not banned, but put on the "index", meaning you needed to be 18+ to buy it (and it was not allowed to be advertised). The information regarding the consequence of indexing is even linked in the article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Department_for_Media_Harmful_to_Young_Persons#Legal_consequences
I did nazi that coming!
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
Coming to a server near you. Anyone for retro?
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BFG-9000 was perfect in every way. Powerful enough to kill everything in the general direction you point it, but so little ammo on any level that you almost never got the chance to use it... But when you did. :)
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Don't worry, Germany is already the European leader in school shootings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting#Europe .
This is a good move, but the fact that it was banned at all still tells me that the Germans have a problem with authoritarianism.
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Eighteen years on and it's still more fun it's closest contemporary equivalents (e.g. the CoD series.) WTF has the games industry been up to for the last two decades?
> "Despite its age, it's still fun as hell. (Pun very much intended.)" - i don't get it. where's the pun?
Because they still are Doom clones. I haven't seen anything meaningful introduced in the last decade+ worth of Doom clones that wasn't already done in Doom.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
idspipopd?
Is the length of the waiting period to be allowed to ask for an appeal or reconsideration of the indexing. 10 years seems to be a little excessive. IMHO, a period of 2-5 years seems more appropriate.
Should the games have been indexed in the first place? Maybe. Maybe not. I think that question is best left to parents in Germany who were raising their children circa 1993-1994 and later.
As a Yank having spent the last 10 years (and possible y the rest) of my life in Germany I really don't care. I have never thought that that game was banned here but never really cared to try it. I order *alll* boxed video games I play out of the UK and pay with my American credit card to download them from US Server when possible.
Who needs German censorship? (meh)
Germany is Doomed! DOOMED, I tell you!
I believe wolfenstein was banned in Switzerland
For your information, Switzerland didn't even take part in World War II and never had a real Nazi party. Thus, there are no Nazi-hunt/anti Swastika laws similar to these in Germany.
The absence of Wolfenstein 3D on iPhone in Switzerland might be due to other reasons, like localization: ~75% of the population speaks German (actually local Swiss-german dialects, but they most can understand standard German too). As Switzerland is a to small market, you seldom see Swiss-specific localizations of software. Very often, the software company will simply market the Germany localization (and piss the 25% remaining of the population) or sometime the France version too (in the rare occurrence when they notice that more than 1 language is spoken in Switzerland).
As no localization of Wolfenstein 3D exists for Germany because of the Swastikas laws, and because Switzerland alone is a to small market to bother doing localization for it, there are no localization which could be sold in Switzerland.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
the swiss position in world war ii was very complicated and by no means devoid of nazi influence. there have been some great books come out in the past 10 years on this subject (the 'realpolitik' of a few swiss leaders at the time, forging the pseudo-alliance with various nazi officials in order to keep pressure off them)
It was all because of that Commander Keen!
The ban on speaking of them was bad enough that they finally realized that the gag on nazi 'symbolism' lead to German children who had little idea
Don't forget who wrote the German constitution after the war. The Allies were desperate to turn the German people into monsters and make them feel guilty for being German that even the word "Nazi" became associated with the foulest demons from Hell. Reality is that there were a very few fanatics running the show, and the rest of the sheep did what they were told. It becomes easy to do unusual things when everyone else is doing them. Then eventually when war started what choice did the conscript have when he was given a gun and put on a battlefield? Not every German soldier delighted in killing, nor is the joy of seeing a person die unique to the German people. I've seen more than one video of US troops hooting like drunk teenagers while watching humans being turned to hamburger by a variety of ordnance in Iraq and Afghanistan. What makes them different from supposed "war criminals"? While killing is an accepted part of war, you're not supposed to LIKE it.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I went to Germany recently and found out that you can drink alcohol pretty much anywhere you like. On the street, on the train, whatever.
I'd trade that freedom for Doom any day.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
If only you weren't busy tying your boot-laces into little nazis that hold better for steppin'.
Many city Doom as the first FPS, when Wolfenstein 3D clearly predated it. And Ultima Underworld was released before either of them, with a more advanced engine than ran on even weaker hardware (including its RPG elements).
Doom was more popular and for many people, it was the first they played, so it is seen as the first overall. Just the same as many people have said Goldeneye 64 or Halo was the first time they ever played a FPS game in multiplayer, so thusly that inherently makes it the greatest game of all time, even if others did it better before hand (like Half Life or Quake).
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This entire rant falls so far away from reality that it doesn't surprise me that you're posting this as an anonymous coward. Willing to speak your bullshit, but unwilling to have such speech associated with your own name, because you understand how offensive it is. Perhaps though, you're just ignorant to how offensive it is to truth.
The youth of Germany well understand how Nazism was bad, and in recent elections, when a Nazi-apologist sought election signs and protests against Nazism, and satirical comedy depicting the well known Nazi symbols with humor.
This "statist government" out to destroy human rights as you claim, oddly has as Article I of their constitution their Bill of Rights. They restrict speech that could lead to Nazi-like fanaticism and another horrible repression of human rights, and destruction of human dignity. This idea that they're openly hostile to conservatives is also crazy, since the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) is the major party and currently controls the Chancellory. Yes, their conservative party is currently in charge, and running things.
"But the CDU/CSU isn't conservative enough, the more conservative individuals are being repressed!" Well, yes, the reactionaries in Germany do experience suppression of their speech... because shock the Nazis were/are reactionaries! And before you start complaining that they're treating reactionaries wrongly, they also suppress radical positions as well. Any extremist is likely to meet with opposition in Germany, because they of all people have seen the horrors that an extremist government can wrought upon the world.
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Beloved? Doom was amazing at the time, but Doom II was kind of disappointing.
People still buy games in stores?
Not just leader, Germany has a higher death toll in school shootings than the rest of Europe combined. 56-46
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I suppose there may have been some victors' justice/vengeance on top of the genuine horrors of the Third Reich. However, it worked out better than the Allied response to WWI. (It seems clear that harsh treatment of Germany after WWI helped fuel WWII, as the Nazis capitalized on German resentment.)
There seemed to be more of a focus on Nazi Party functionaries than the average soldier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS_foreign_volunteers_and_conscripts
"in the Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organisation owing to its essential connection to the Party and its involvement in war crimes and the Holocaust. _The exception made was for Waffen-SS conscripts sworn in after 1943, who were exempted owing to their involuntary servitude._" [emphasis added.]
The Wehrmacht (Nazi Germany's regular armed forces) was a somewhat different issue; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht seems to go over the unclear historiography
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
The game CounterStrike is also censored in Germany. You can play the game as normal, but when you shoot your opponent, they lay down and peacefully surrender with their hands over their head. There is no actual depiction of death.
There never was a ban on Doom ...
If at all it was "rated" over 18 or over 16 ... sigh in what stupid world do you live that you believe we had "banning" of anything in germany?
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>cannot be sold in a shop that frequently has minors
Since Doom is a video game and by law couldn't be sold in video game stores, that's effectively a ban. No matter how much you try to sugar coat it.
``OK, we don't like this thing being associated with the Nazis, because they were fascists and consequently authoritarian. What can we do?'' :P
``Ooh! Let's tell people they're not allowed to use it!''
Now you can jump.
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