German group tries to hold a public game-burning and fails

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**Anung Un Rama**

I've alreay written so much about this stuff on my blog and elsewhere on the web over the last few days, so I'll just give you to news posts to sum it up:

The Escapist

The escapist wrote:
A German group calling itself Aktionbundnis Amoklauf Winnenden is calling on people to turn in their violent videogames as part of the Families Against Killer Games event, taking place this Saturday night in Stuttgart.

Formed by families of the victims of the school shooting in Winnenden, Germany, earlier this year, the Action Alliance is one of several groups in the country seeking to link that incident, and violent youth behavior in general, to violent videogames. An effort by the German government to ban violent games outright ran aground this summer, so the Action Alliance has gone to Plan B: If you can't ban 'em, burn 'em.

Or at the very least, collect them up in one convenient location, presumably for safe disposal later. Thus, the group is holding the "Familien gegen Killerspiele" event on October 17, inviting everyone to come to the State Opera House in Stuttgart, where they can toss their violent videogames into a big bin. People who throw away a game will be entered into a draw for a jersey signed by the German national soccer team.

I'm not going to make the obvious joke about what happened the last time Germany tried something like this but according to GamePolitics there is an interesting connection to the country's Nazi past: The stylized image of a person throwing a videogame into the trash used in promotional material for the event is a modified version of one used to encourage citizens to do away with the swastika, using a game disc in place of the infamous Nazi symbol.

And this is how it ended.

**person person**

LOL

Either no one likes soccer, or people like their videogames alot.

hint:

**Khornholio**

Walter Sobchak: Fething Germans. Nothing changes. Fething Nazis.
Donny: They were Nazis, Dude?
Walter Sobchak: Oh, come on Donny, they were threatening burning video games! Are we gonna split hairs here? Am I wrong?

**Cheese Elemental**

And I thought Jack Chick was nuts.

**warpcrafter**

The Nazi youth didn't have violent video games to make them evil, so there!!!

**Cheese Elemental**

warpcrafter wrote:The Nazi youth didn't have violent video games to make them evil, so there!!!

What are you talking about? They had the *real* Castle Wolfenstein 3D!

**DogOfWar**

Anung Un Rama wrote:
The escapist wrote:The stylized image of a person throwing a videogame into the trash used in promotional material for the event is a modified version of one used to encourage citizens to do away with the swastika, using a game disc in place of the infamous Nazi symbol.

Off topic: not sure which came first, but the image I thought of first is the one they put on rubbish bins all over Britain and (I assume) Europe to encourage you to not litter. I want to say that's the allusion they were going for, but maybe not...

On topic: moar craziness about video game violence... it never ends. Don't people realize there were many thousands of years of ridiculously bloody and horrifying violence long before GTA ever graced the shelves?

DoW

**Orkestra**

Cheese Elemental wrote:
warpcrafter wrote:The Nazi youth didn't have violent video games to make them evil, so there!!!

What are you talking about? They had the *real* Castle Wolfenstein 3D!

Wait, that wasn't a documentary? Well gak. I guess I need to look up some more stuff about Nazis to see what I've got wrong.

**Cheese Elemental**

Orkestra wrote:
Cheese Elemental wrote:
warpcrafter wrote:The Nazi youth didn't have violent video games to make them evil, so there!!!

What are you talking about? They had the *real* Castle Wolfenstein 3D!

Wait, that wasn't a documentary? Well gak. I guess I need to look up some more stuff about Nazis to see what I've got wrong.

If it wasn't a documentary, then I've got a lot of dead Germans' families I have to apologise to.

**Shadowbrand**

Of course blame the Germans everyone.. pretty soon world war 2 will happen... oh wait!

**Orkeosaurus**

Let's look under "Related News", shall we?

Germany Wants to Ban Paintball wrote:The Social Democrat coalition government has agreed to outlaw "all games in which players shoot at each other with pellets," according to a report in the Telegraph, saying the act of shooting at other people even in a simulated environment "trivializes violence and risks lowering the threshold for committing violent acts." The government hopes to have the ban in place before September of this year; once enacted, the law could impose fines of up to $6800 .

Stuttgart Gaming Tournament Canceled wrote:The Electronic Sports League tournament was set to feature games including Warcraft, Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source, but in light of reports that the killer played Counter-Strike himself the city asked organizer Turtle Entertainment to use other games in its place. According to a Google-translated report in Heise Online, the organizers were "not even willing to accept a minute's silence for the victims" of the shooting. As a result, the city shut down the tournament entirely.

German Social Affairs Minister Wants WoW Rated Adults Only wrote:Ross-Luttmann wants the age restriction imposed not only on "killer games" like Counter-Strike and other FPSes but also on games with particularly "addictive" qualities, like World of Warcraft. A recent survey of 44,610 ninth grade students by the KFN, the criminal research institute of Lower Saxony, classified 14,000 of them as addicted to games and another 23,000 more in "serious danger of becoming addicted" - an 83 percent rate of addiction or near-addiction that, at face value, makes videogames among the deadliest and most destructive creations in human history.

Ross-Luttman said she would present her figures and proposals to other youth and social ministers at their next national meeting. "Parents must know what danger potential exists in their children's bedrooms," she said.

But even that irony-laden statement isn't enough for some, including Sven Petke, acting chairman of the Christian Democratic Union party in Brandenberg. He wants all violent games banned outright in Germany along with inappropriate internet content, for which he believes ISPs should be held responsible. "The time for excuses is over," he said. "We need web filtering by the ISPs to operate."

I'm feeling pretty good about Dresden right about now.

**Horst**

orkeosaurus, I agree that wow should be rated the same as counterstrike... its like crack, but crack might be cheaper and less addictive.

other than that, its bollocks.

**Orkeosaurus**

Yeah, yeah, yeah, same with the Internet, same with TV, same with porn, same with whatever new thing has people outraged.

**Horst**

you know, its funny, after I turned 21, I really stopped caring if things were banned to younger people, and started to see why they should be banned from younger people.

Funny how things work, these days

**Orkeosaurus**

Um... okay? I still think it's best for the children and their parents to decide for themselves in most instances (as I did as a child), so we'll have to agree to disagree.

**Horst**

well yea, I mean the sale of it should be prohibited to children, parents can still buy stuff for their children.

**Khornholio**

I remember a group in Ontario in the 90s called "Mothers Against Games Workshop" - they were against all of the fluff particularly 40K. Whether they called for a mass carbonization of GW products, I don't know.

**Orkeosaurus**

How many children have a credit card with which to pay the monthly fee anyway? And how many are going to become "addicted" to the game without their parent's knowledge? It's a non-issue. You don't start spending 50 hours a week playing a game and have no one notice that you're playing it too much.

And the more sinister part of that article was the suggestion that ISPs be held liable for whatever content is posted by the people using them (in addition to the violent video game ban, as that's been covered).

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Khornholio wrote:I remember a group in Ontario in the 90s called "Mothers Against Games Workshop" - they were against all of the fluff particularly 40K. Whether they called for a mass carbonization of GW products, I don't know.

Where they behind the Death Toys hilarity?

**Horst**

orkeosaurus, WoW is readily available to young kids... they just have to buy game cards, and boom, their in. I'd imagine they'd have more trouble convincing mommy and daddy to buy them a subscription @$180 a year.

**H.B.M.C.**

Germany is a country so afraid of its own shadow that it wants to ban people being angry and all forms of violence, fake or otherwise.

It's pathetic.

**Orkeosaurus**

If they already have unlimited access to the Internet. (Which has also led to "addiction" without any game attached.)

But regardless, you can't be addicted to a game for a few hours a week. Stopping the kids from purchasing the game themselves isn't going to matter, because their parents need to be allowing them to be on the Internet for 50 hours a week while they shirk their responsibilities for it to happen in the first place.

**Horst**

well then, the simple solution to this conundrum is we ban children. everyone must be age 18 or older. people who violate this law will be subject to death.

**Marshal2Crusaders**

H.B.M.C. wrote:Germany is a country so afraid of its own shadow that it wants to ban people being angry and all forms of violence, fake or otherwise.

It's pathetic.

I blame the Government and not the people though. It really isn't fair to have the mistakes of their forefather shoved on them so harshly. Germany is a country with one of the greatest military histories in the world, and its a shame to see the sons of Frederick the Great and Clausewitz banned from exercising a portion of their many contributions to the Western World.

**Anung Un Rama**

Horst wrote:you know, its funny, after I turned 21, I really stopped caring if things were banned to younger people, and started to see why they should be banned from younger people.

Funny how things work, these days

It's not that easy. Around here, games get toned down quite often, just so that they can actually get the official 18+ label. If a game doesn't get that label it's only a matter of time till it gets indiziert and after that it's not that easy to get your hands on it. Also, there is no (legal) way to access downloadable content or whole online games which didn't get the official 18+ label.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Germany is a country so afraid of its own shadow that it wants to ban people being angry and all forms of violence, fake or otherwise.

It's pathetic.

I wouldn't have said it so harshly, but you got a pretty good point there.

**Cheese Elemental**

Anung Un Rama wrote:
Horst wrote:you know, its funny, after I turned 21, I really stopped caring if things were banned to younger people, and started to see why they should be banned from younger people.

Funny how things work, these days

It's not that easy. Around here, games get toned down quite often, just so that they can actually get the official 18+ label. If a game doesn't get that label it's only a matter of time till it gets indiziert and after that it's not that easy to get your hands on it. Also, there is no (legal) way to access downloadable content or whole online games which didn't get the official 18+ label.
I wouldn't have said it so harshly, but you got a pretty good point there.

Anung is right here. Take Resident Evil 4 for example. In Germany, the violence is apparently massively toned down and all the mini-games have been removed, and the game still has an 'Adults Only' rating.

**Anung Un Rama**

Not quite right. The violence was not toned down, but neither Mercenaries nor assignment Ada is in the German version. Though I think that was because Capcol failed to deliver the full version for rating and so only the version withouht the bonus games got one.

There are a lot of other example though:

- everything in Half-Life 2 bleeds green. Blood splatters on the walls and floor in Ravenholm are black.
- There is now blood or gore in TF2. If you blow up someone, they explode into a shower of gears and rubber duckies.
- No blood or flying limbs in Fallout 3.
- Ragdoll-physics get cut almost every time.

**Cheese Elemental**

Ah, thanks for the clarification. However...

Anung Un Rama wrote:
- There is no blood or gore in TF2. If you blow up someone, they explode into a shower of gears and rubber duckies.

God fething dammit Germany.

**Anung Un Rama**

Cheese Elemental wrote:Ah, thanks for the clarification. However...

Anung Un Rama wrote:
- There is no blood or gore in TF2. If you blow up someone, they explode into a shower of gears and rubber duckies.

God fething dammit Germany.

**BrookM**

Oh yeah, ever since Pong came along the world has gotten more and more dangerous.

**Flachzange**

No kidding.

That whole banning of paintball didnt happen though. The head of police here told the politicians that hed agree if they fill out all the paperwork for all the offenders. Cops appearently dont have the time to go through forests hunting down people getting a game on ....
Still, even the idea should be considered heresy.

When it comes to crap like this, Germany and its politicians are pretty pathetic and paranoid