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This is sort of a follow-up on this Thread.
I want to know how the whole cencorship issue is handled in other countries, since the rules in Germany are so strong. A lot of games can't be sold here in public and some are even outright banned. The only game I know of that is banned outside of Germany is Manhunt.

So if you could tell me, are the any laws about this where you come from, especially concerning the "glorifying of violence", like Madworld for example.
These Laws would probably be the same for movies too, I guess.

I'm especially interested in other European countries, though I know Australia has very strict rules regarding this too.

As far as I know, the UK doesn't have any particularly strict censorship. There's certainly no high-profile cases I'm aware of, and The UK Videogame Censorship Database only claims Hitman 2, Manhunt, and Resistance: Fall of Man as having created any controversy (carmageddon doesn't count because it was crap anyway).

Sucks to be you, I guess :(

Resistance? Really? Because you fight in that one church

Well that one was the church's problem specifically. And I'm sure we all know how sensitive the church can be...

For that we have this Thread.

Not much in America, besides the ESRB. Pretty much any game can be mass marketed, or bought/downloaded/made by anyone.

YAY AMERICA!

Golden Eyed Scout wrote:Not much in America, besides the ESRB. Pretty much any game can be mass marketed, or bought/downloaded/made by anyone.

YAY AMERICA!

Wrong. In America, if its not Rated by the ESRB, no retailer will touch it.

I know of at least one game who had to go through all the hoops to get it rated just so it could be sold in shops.

Unless the game includes Kratos, if you include any nudity whatsoever into a game in the United States, the ESRB will slap an AO (Adults Only) rating on in, condemning the game to either a huge scandal (Grand Theft Auto's Hot Coffee lawsuit; even though it didn't include nudity, you could partake in *gasp* fully clothed sex!), or to be lost in obscurity forever. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are not willing whatsoever to let "Adult Content" plague their systems, yet gratuitous violence is perfectly fine.

Pretty much, other than that, anything goes. If it bleeds more than just a little, curses often, or shows drug use, more than likely it will get slapped with an M (Mature) rating. Anything marginally violent or highly suggestive will probably get rated T (Teen). Anything safe for children will merit an E (Everyone). But it really doesn't matter. The ESRB isn't enforced hardly anywhere, and basically, if you're willing to pay for an M rated game, it really doesn't matter how old you are.

Oh don't get me started on the sex vs violence thing.

In America, show so much as a bellybutton or a nipple and god help you! But slicing off someone's face in a graphic fashion is perfectly fine.

I think its the opposite in Germany (no offence intended, this is just what I have heard) where violence of any kind is frowned upon (doesn't all blood have to be green? Or was that an urban Legend) whereas nudity is more acceptable.

Do you remember the shitstorm that accompanied Oblivian? They rated it Teen at first, then someone make a nood patch (harharhar) and the ERSB was all like "OMFG HOW DARE U!!!!!" and tried to rate the game AO before being bitchslapped into making it M.

I was actually going to mention something about Oblivion.

It was originally rated T. They made it into an M (For the X-Box 360, too) because the zombies are considered to be fairly graphic. They might've tried to make the PC version AO for a nude patch, but I can't see them doing that to the 360 version, too.

Take a look at any copy of oblivion. Still rated M. I own one that's rated T (Just as I own an original copy of San Andreas. I can't even sell it for store credit at Gamestop), but I got it from someone who bought it the first day it came out.

It just shows how utterly flying rodent gak crazy they system is, even today.

It doesn't even help parents like it claims, because its ratings are confusing and contradictory.

And it just adds a "forbidden fruit" element to the games, which make kids want to play them more.

I think its the opposite in Germany (no offence intended, this is just what I have heard) where violence of any kind is frowned upon (doesn't all blood have to be green? Or was that an urban Legend) whereas nudity is more acceptable.

Do you remember the shitstorm that accompanied Oblivian? They rated it Teen at first, then someone make a nood patch (harharhar) and the ERSB was all like "OMFG HOW DARE U!!!!!" and tried to rate the game AO before being bitchslapped into making it M.

I don't know much about the nudity/sex issue for games in Germany. I can't think of any games which had a problem with that.
Oh wait, there was something. I heard in the Japanese version of Resident Evil 4 they imply that but I think that one got the cut everywhere outside of Japan.

Not all the blood has to be green, though I never understand how they decide it. God of War is still bloody as hell (altough that one only got a Germany release after it was praised by the international press like it was the 2nd coming), while in Half Life 2, the enemies don't bleed and blood stains on the wall, like in the Zombie Level, are all coloured black so that it looks like dirt.

Gwar! wrote:It just shows how utterly flying rodent gak crazy they system is, even today.

It doesn't even help parents like it claims, because its ratings are confusing and contradictory.

And it just adds a "forbidden fruit" element to the games, which make kids want to play them more.

Yeah, the German rating board consists of 25 people and everytime a publisher needs a rating, 5 of them do it. This leads to very different results in some cases, but also made it possible for companies like EA to try it 3 times, until they found some board members who were willing to give Dead Space a "no youth" rating.

And since you mentioned the "forbidden fruit" thing, this is what the ratings on games and movies look these days in Germany:

Oh Jesus Christ on a pogostick, you think you could make it any more colourful to catch the kiddies eyes?!?!!?

And yeah, the Japanese have a much, erm, well different view to games and that sort of subject matter anyway (again not being offensive, just regurgitating what I "know")

I feel that Germany is way off with its censorship. I mean most games are forbidden to be sold here. So a fully grown up person like me cannot legally buy it in a store.

Sadly, most of the people censoring games and blaming them for acts of violence haven't played (for example) an ego shooter in their life.

the green blood thing is mostly for ego-shooters anyway. If you publish a game with ego perspective then you can expect that the graphic violence has to be reduced to a minimum.

Greets
Schepp himself

Japan introduced a game rating system last year.

Most European countries are cool with PEGI and leave the decision about whether children should play a game to their parents. Germany and the UK are the exceptions in terms of having legal restrictions on it. I'm not sure about the situation in Eire.

I'm English Not Irish (may have to ask a mod to change that to a UK flag) and all I can say here is the Ratings system is even more insane and Inconsistent.

Not to mention Life of Brian was banned here at first.
/facepalm

In america an adults only label is effectively a ban because no retailer will sell it

Yeah, but how many games actually get the Adult rating when even stuff like Gears or Dead Rising (which is banned here] get an Mature rating.

They banned dead rising?

Oh well, it wasn't that great.

Are you kidding. It was awesome! I can't wait for the sequel. Best non RE Zombie game ever!

We in OZ don't have an 'Adult' rating for games.

We have a '15+' rating, and anything above this needs to be 'modified' or is refused classification.

Games/media that are 'refused classification' are illegal to sell. Even import.

Our elected officials seem to believe that ONLY kiddies play computer games, but the sales records and various studies have shown the lie that that is.

I knew it was bad Australia. but you can't actually IMPORT stuff? So, if they searched your bag when you get off the plane they could take it from you?

I'm sure I heard about the ozzies getting a slightly diluted version of Fallout3. Or maybe no Fallout3 at all?

No they got it, they just had to take a few scenes where you are injected, or so I was told.

There has never been a game that has been rated AO for graphic violence.

Manhunt 2 is the only game that's even come close. They were threatened with an AO rating because of the nature of the executions (One stand-out in particular; ripping someone's genitalia off with a pair of pliers), but they blurred out all of the executions to be able to slide by with an M rating. But in comparison to Manhunt 2, the amount of violence in games like Gears of War and Dead Rising is trivial.

That's the only example I can even think of. Copious amounts of violence don't tend to shock the ESRB.

I suppose it's down to the blurring of 'fantasy' and 'real' violence. Left 4 Dead has you stacking corpses left right and center, but in a nonsensical way. I'm sure seeing your child making stabbing motions with a Wii control whilst playing Manhunt would upset many parents. Still, it was an awful game by all accounts.

Perhaps the problem lies more with the censors than the games themselves?

Anti-Mag wrote:I suppose it's down to the blurring of 'fantasy' and 'real' violence. Left 4 Dead has you stacking corpses left right and center, but in a nonsensical way. I'm sure seeing your child making stabbing motions with a Wii control whilst playing Manhunt would upset many parents. Still, it was an awful game by all accounts.

Perhaps the problem lies more with the censors than the games themselves?

Of course they do.

This might be interesting for the Australian gamers among you:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6208112.html