Q&A Gaming in Germany

[Claws]

So yeah, most of us have been hearing over the years how all the media releases in Germany differ from those published elsewhere: some things are toned down, some are entirely removed and so on and so forth... but the problem is that that doesn't tell us, outsiders, what's actually going on (and if you try to look into that, you CAN get some informative results, but most of the post/articles/whatever are made by people who have never been in Germany nor have had a direct contact with any material specifically made for the German market, so their opinion is basically worthless and a complete waste of time in a way).

I'm making this post to put an end to both my own ignorance and all the stupid things are being said about what do you guys get over there -and I think that the timing is perfect, since there's at least three active German users that I can think of at the moment-.

Let's start by asking about one of the most basic yet controversial topics: Call of Duty.

I don't know what is happening with that franchise right now, but I do know that it used to be all about murdering hordes of German soldiers with a complete assortment of weapons... that's not quite right and I can't help but wondering if you guys even got that game released for you at all. If so, what changed? I'm gonna guess that all the imagery has been altered like they used to do with Wolfenstein 3D and other such games in the past, but what else?

Also, how do you guys see "DooM 3"? That game is quite tame, but it IS bloody as all hell and I know that you guys have laws against that as well (which I'm totally fine with, since some people can take all that too seriously and there's been incidents related to that in the world).

Last but not least: Grand Theft Auto... speak your mind

I hope that this post didn't come across as insulting for anyone, I'm just working with what little I had regarding Germany and their laws, so apologizes if I'm treating you all like something you are not.

Thanks in advance for the replies

[Darkling Nocturnal]

The eonly thing, I can say something to, is Doom.

The first two are where banned for years, the third one was always 18+

Meanwhile, the first two games are rated 16+, but the Wolfenstein-Bonuslevel and the swastika-platform has been removed. Generally, swastikas are forbidden in video games, but allowed in comics and movies (Indiana Jones is rated 12+ e.g.)

This makes no sense, like many things in Germany, but that are the facts.

Since I don't play GTA or COD, I can't say something to that. But here's a good site (in German), that might help you:

http://www.schnittberichte.com/svds.php?Page=Schnittberichte&Kat=Games

BTW, this site is hosted in Austria (where no censorship exists), because it seems to be forbidden in Germany to enlighten people about censorship in our free country.

[Claws]

Thank you so much for your reply, Darkling. Your post has opened my eyes in many areas that I hadn't even considered making the post.

Now, I don't see why something like DooM would be banned from Germany while Wolfenstein 3D (the highly-edited SNES version at least) was allowed to exist side by side with other games of the time. That literally makes no sense, since it would have been quite obvious from the get-go that you are murdering pixels in one and "actual" people in the other, yet the alien one ends up being forbidden.  I'm not criticizing a law that's not my own, but that does seem like a weird move to me.

And the swastika thing... look, I thought (and have been told repeatedly) that the sign is banned altogether from Germany in all its forms (even though I have seen German movies wearing it, but they have been shot elsewhere, so who knows?). What you are saying is quite interesting, although I can't help but wondering about the sign... I know that editing a film just to remove the symbol might be a lot of work and could potentially damage said film, but why do you allow it to exist in book form? You CAN edit a drawing if you are in a quest about not having it show up in your media. Seriously, I see no difference between a video-game and a movie or book when it comes to censorship... you either censor it entirely or don't censor it at all. There's no gray areas in something as serious as this (just to give you an example, you can't name dictators from our own history here without being immediately frowned upon).

Thank you for the site, I'm reading it next

[Eter84]

Wonder how does Left 4 Dead 2 german version look :P

Maybe there is water instead of blood? xD