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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.)"
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.
Play a bit harder and you'll find out, or idclev31 and idclev32 if you're impatient.
I donno... I think they'll be waiting for Duke Nukem forever...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
I did nazi that coming!
The more you know, the more you have to say and the more you should listen.
*sigh* it's just.....not the same anymore....
I made an app! Shoutium
That's Doom 2, not Doom.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
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)
Play a bit harder and you'll find out, or idclev31 and idclev32 if you're impatient.
Or for the truly impatient
Truly impatient? If I didn't find a secret level almost 20 years ago, I think you can safely bet I gave up looking.
I am not a crackpot.
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.
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.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
But that still doesn't really explain why Germans try to erase history by banning it. Do they think that will make Nazism magically disappear? This is why I think the American way is better, let them act like asses in the open so you don't let hatred fester and instead can confront it directly. i know from first hand experience that this method WORKS.
When I lived in Dallas several years ago I ran across some Neo Nazis trying to spread their hate literature so I went to a little hobby shop around the corner and made up my own little sign. it simply read "Ask me about the camps" and when people would stop I would tell them of my grandfather's experience liberating a camp, of the bodies so starved they couldn't tell male from female, of seeing cattle cars filled with corpses, of having to relay instructions to his men NOT to feed the starving no matter how much it ate at them, because they had been mistreated and starved for so damned long that rich GI food would throw their frail little bodies into shock.
Needless to say the little Hitlers were none to happy about this, one even tried to get a cop to make me go away. The cop laughed and I heard him say 'Free speech pal, he can speak too" so they packed up and went away. It is ALWAYS better to confront hate with truth than it is to hide it under the rug. Hidden in the dark it just festers and grows. if the Germans would quit trying to pretend it didn't exist and instead confront it with truth I think they'd find they'd be a lot better off.
Maybe TFA will be the start of that, but I doubt it, too many prefer to pretend bad things don't exist than confront them with the truth. I personally will always confront Nazis with the truth in honor of my grandfather, whom I promised to never forget what he had seen that day.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It was the allies, including Americans, that put those bans in place. So much for "the American way".
The law was actually imposed by Americans together with the rest of the Allies after the occupation of Germany.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
while your point is right (truth is better), your view on germany is clouded by your patriotism.
first off, banning nazism is a law made by the allieds. as mentioned in replies.
second, most germans know what you are talking about and would share the same views. they do a lot of work to support minorities, try to keep radical politics down, base their strength on economy. every german is educated in school about the nazi regime. even without laws it would feel awkward to raise a swastika. it feels awkward for us europeans, that people in the states still do that.
germany migrated a western and an eastern world into one, while other ex-east-block countries still suffer, even the richer ones, like poland or hungary.
you see, hate is not a german problem. it's a human problem. and hate is only a medium how you get to people. its always power and wealth. greedy people in a system where power is unequally distributed tend to get exceptionally inhumane. atm. i would look closer at the states, where democracy is falling apart, and learn from germanies past, how fast that can lead into becoming eaten by the dark side. hate is just one of many tools of how people can be used by others. there were (and are) also camps in other countries, where hate had/has nothing to do with it.