Germans shun violent video games

Dom · Aug 24, 2004, 01:26 PM

LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - Germans' reluctance to play violent video games and to spend much in a subdued consumer climate are proving stubborn obstacles to the growth of Europe's least-developed games market.

The enthusiasm of the predominantly male and teenaged visitors to Europe's biggest video games fair in the German city of Leipzig last week belied the reality of shrinking German games sales.

Germans spent 1.1 billion euros (740 million pounds) last year on leisure software, down from 1.2 billion five years earlier and compared with a British market of 1.7 billion, London-based consulting firm Screen Digest says in a report to be published next week.

"Germany is really a special case due to our history. Our government is always making excuses for what happened 60 years ago," said Manfred Gerdes, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment in Germany. "People hate violent games."

Germany's Nazi past still casts a shadow over the nation's self image, and although teenagers and young adults are the main targets of video game makers and are less likely to be affected, it is often their parents who must pay for games and consoles.

"German mothers are the gatekeepers, and they have a very low tolerance for violent video games," said the chief spokesman for Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video games maker by sales.

Added to that, the Germans' reputation for seriousness is not merely anecdotal, Sony's Gerdes said. "In the UK people play for fun; in Germany you have to play for a reason."

Read More...

_____________________
Source: Reuters

**MIG-31** · Aug 24, 2004, 02:31 PM

all id say is live a little and don't take games seriously. i class games as fun and fictional.

now ask me in real life.......

LeanWolf · Aug 24, 2004, 04:12 PM

personally i don't think it's a problem if a country doesn't waste it's time and money on gaming, there's a world of better things to do with both...

pRAyNz · Aug 25, 2004, 04:11 AM

Heh! - Sure..."(germans) hate violent video-games" - that`s like "chinese (citizen) hate free speech"...
We`ve got the "BPjM" ("Federation testing-institution for youth-endangering media") which decides, which games are to forbid, or to put on the index (in the sense of: only adults can buy them, but only in secret and its forbidden to talk about them with minors, or to send ads and commercials publically. - You aren`t even allowed to print their names, I believe.)
The same with swastikas in WW2-games, the games are immediately forbidden, -even for adults- if they contain something like this, as if you`d become a nazi just because you see some stupid nazi-symbol, while you`re even shooting nazis in games - hah! (Wolf3D for example, if it becomes known, that you own it, it can be confiscated (including your PC for some time), no matter how old you are, because it includes the forbidden nazi-theme.)
Well, this means even adults nearly don`t have a chance to hear about those games and have a hard time while trying to get them, or they have to take a censored "german edition". - But well you know...there`s the internet and there`s P2P, so minors aren`t protected anyways... - A good reason for some polititians to promote governmental censoring of the internet.
Oh and how useful...now that we`ve got censored medias, it`s really easy to produce pro-governmental optinions - practically destroying one of the basics of democracy - free speech and the possiblility to listen to independant media...

Edit:
Oh and BTW, I forgot: Censoring is forbidden by the german constitution - doesn`t seem to matter for the politicians, does it?

Tiger M · Aug 25, 2004, 06:15 AM

That's really bad. And I thought Germany was the best Euro country for freedom of speech, self initiative, gaming

...

Quote:

The same with swastikas in WW2-games, the games are immediately forbidden, -even for adults- if they contain something like this, as if you`d become a nazi just because you see some stupid nazi-symbol

That's stupid! The swastika is actually an ancient roman symbol, which was adopted by the nazi. You see it everywhere there are archeological remnats of roman buildings, so why don't they ban people from visiting those archeological sites then.

LeanWolf · Aug 25, 2004, 06:19 AM

chinese, not roman

coffindancer · Aug 25, 2004, 06:35 AM

Hihi...german youth loves violent games; german parents don't care what their kids play most of the time. That's the reality.

Best thing, due to the "open boarders" in the european union, you can simply order a uncensored copy of the game in austria, the netherlands, the uk and even in the US and german customs won't/can't interfere most of the times, so the whole german censorship-thingy is completely useless.

Moreover, don't forget the downloads from p2p's. If you want it, you'll get it for sure. You can even say, that the german censorship-policy boost's illegal downloads from p2p's.

The sales figures, that were presented in that article for sure only include the german versions of videogames, and hardly anyone buy's german versions, if no due to censorship reasons, than simply because of the verrrrrrry bad game synchronisations. Most of the time, they simply don't use professional voice actors (although slowly it's getting better).

pRAyNz · Aug 25, 2004, 07:15 AM

Quote:

That's stupid! The swastika is actually an ancient roman symbol, which was adopted by the nazi.

Quote:

chinese, not roman

I vote for indian, but whatever, something ancient for sure.

Quote:

You see it everywhere there are archeological remnats of roman buildings, so why don't they ban people from visiting those archeological sites then.

I dunno how they`d handle a photo of such an archeological site if it`s pinned to the wall of your flat for example, but my guess would be, that in a few cases they`d confiscate it too - out of pure stupidity, heh...
BTW swastikas _are_ allowed in films, because movies count as art, or something...

Quote:

than simply because of the verrrrrrry bad game synchronisations. Most of the time, they simply don't use professional voice actors (although slowly it's getting better).

Yes, very annoying.

- But even worse in some cases is IMO a completely missing synch like seen in Thief3. (I`m not able, nor willing to play it like this - not willing, because the synch in parts 1+2 is quite nice.)

Aug 24, 2004, 01:26 PM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,942 Rep Power: 0	Germans shun violent video games LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - Germans' reluctance to play violent video games and to spend much in a subdued consumer climate are proving stubborn obstacles to the growth of Europe's least-developed games market. The enthusiasm of the predominantly male and teenaged visitors to Europe's biggest video games fair in the German city of Leipzig last week belied the reality of shrinking German games sales. Germans spent 1.1 billion euros (740 million pounds) last year on leisure software, down from 1.2 billion five years earlier and compared with a British market of 1.7 billion, London-based consulting firm Screen Digest says in a report to be published next week. "Germany is really a special case due to our history. Our government is always making excuses for what happened 60 years ago," said Manfred Gerdes, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment in Germany. "People hate violent games." Germany's Nazi past still casts a shadow over the nation's self image, and although teenagers and young adults are the main targets of video game makers and are less likely to be affected, it is often their parents who must pay for games and consoles. "German mothers are the gatekeepers, and they have a very low tolerance for violent video games," said the chief spokesman for Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video games maker by sales. Added to that, the Germans' reputation for seriousness is not merely anecdotal, Sony's Gerdes said. "In the UK people play for fun; in Germany you have to play for a reason." Read More... _____________________ Source: Reuters

Aug 24, 2004, 02:31 PM	#2
MIG-31 DH News MOD Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 42,584 Rep Power: 186 System Specs	all id say is live a little and don't take games seriously. i class games as fun and fictional. now ask me in real life....... __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here How you can help DriverHeaven by using Digg!

Aug 24, 2004, 04:12 PM	#3
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: offpiste Posts: 5,571 Rep Power: 56 System Specs	personally i don't think it's a problem if a country doesn't waste it's time and money on gaming, there's a world of better things to do with both... __________________

Aug 25, 2004, 04:11 AM	#4
pRAyNz DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 29 Rep Power: 0	Heh! - Sure..."(germans) hate violent video-games" - that`s like "chinese (citizen) hate free speech"... We`ve got the "BPjM" ("Federation testing-institution for youth-endangering media") which decides, which games are to forbid, or to put on the index (in the sense of: only adults can buy them, but only in secret and its forbidden to talk about them with minors, or to send ads and commercials publically. - You aren`t even allowed to print their names, I believe.) The same with swastikas in WW2-games, the games are immediately forbidden, -even for adults- if they contain something like this, as if you`d become a nazi just because you see some stupid nazi-symbol, while you`re even shooting nazis in games - hah! (Wolf3D for example, if it becomes known, that you own it, it can be confiscated (including your PC for some time), no matter how old you are, because it includes the forbidden nazi-theme.) Well, this means even adults nearly don`t have a chance to hear about those games and have a hard time while trying to get them, or they have to take a censored "german edition". - But well you know...there`s the internet and there`s P2P, so minors aren`t protected anyways... - A good reason for some polititians to promote governmental censoring of the internet. Oh and how useful...now that we`ve got censored medias, it`s really easy to produce pro-governmental optinions - practically destroying one of the basics of democracy - free speech and the possiblility to listen to independant media... Edit: Oh and BTW, I forgot: Censoring is forbidden by the german constitution - doesn`t seem to matter for the politicians, does it? Last edited by pRAyNz; Aug 25, 2004 at 04:22 AM.

Aug 25, 2004, 06:19 AM	#6
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: offpiste Posts: 5,571 Rep Power: 56 System Specs	chinese, not roman __________________

Aug 25, 2004, 06:35 AM	#7
coffindancer DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Bavaria, Germany Posts: 58 Rep Power: 0	Hihi...german youth loves violent games; german parents don't care what their kids play most of the time. That's the reality. Best thing, due to the "open boarders" in the european union, you can simply order a uncensored copy of the game in austria, the netherlands, the uk and even in the US and german customs won't/can't interfere most of the times, so the whole german censorship-thingy is completely useless. Moreover, don't forget the downloads from p2p's. If you want it, you'll get it for sure. You can even say, that the german censorship-policy boost's illegal downloads from p2p's. The sales figures, that were presented in that article for sure only include the german versions of videogames, and hardly anyone buy's german versions, if no due to censorship reasons, than simply because of the verrrrrrry bad game synchronisations. Most of the time, they simply don't use professional voice actors (although slowly it's getting better).