Last June, news emerged from Germany that a group of Interior Ministers had asked for a total ban on the production and distribution of violent videogames. Thanks in large part to a petition, such a ban will not be enacted in the near future.
German website Game Captain reports (translated) that the 73,000 signatures captured on a petition against banning such games allowed the matter to be taken up in front of the Committee on Petitions. The petitioner was allowed to speak, and apparently asked more education on media be provided in place of the ban.
Parliament State Secretary Dr. Herman Kues, of the Federal Ministry for Home Affairs must have been swayed, as he announced that no changes to the current criminal code would be enacted. Instead the government will push for more public education of the PEGI ratings system.
Unsurprisingly, game publishers were happy with the news: EA Senior VP Dr Jens Uwe Intat told GamesIndustry.biz that, “The German decision is a very welcome step as we encourage policy makers to better understand the reality of today's videogame market and give games the same respect as books, films or music.”
Thanks Magic!
Comments
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Thank goodness someone in the German goverment has the brains not to ban video games.
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Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Germany uses the USK as their game rating system with PEGI tagged on. The games are still censored by the USK with the PEGI rating next to the USK rating. I hope they totally switch over to PEGI.
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
If the PEGI rating is there, it's solely because the game happens to have one and the publisher decided to put it there. The USK rating is known and legally binding, PEGI isn't.
In fact I just went through my XBox games and I don't have a single game with multiple ratings symbols. The games I bought in Germany all have USK only, the ones from Austria all have PEGI only, and the ones from the UK have BBFC only (except FIFA 09, which for some reason is a British version with only the PEGI symbol).
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
PEGI ratings only on British versions of games isn't that uncommon. BBFC ratings on games were only required if the game included violent content , profanity, promoted criminal activity and/or references to sex or drugs. They wouldn't have rated Fifa as it didn't fall within their remit.
There are some games that don't include any of that but have BBFC ratings because they can still be submitted at the publishers discretion (such as Ratcht & Clank: Crack in Time which has a U rating, U = Universal/no restriction)
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Win! Thank goodness.
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Excellent news for Germany! I'm glad to see that the leveler heads won out.
Now I only hope that we Americans (and our Supreme Court) will learn from the German example...
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Now if they would only switch over to PEGI and get over the huge censorship problem.
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
"Instead the government will push for more public education of the PEGI ratings system."
This seems to suggest that PEGI is the system they care about. So presumably they're already using it or will soon switch. Anyone have any direct knowledge of Germany's rating system?
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Chris Kimberley
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Chris Kimberley
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Don't use PEGI, and don't plan to. Any reference to the PEGI system is most likely an error in the article.
Re: German Government Says Nein to Violent Game Ban
Reason has won the day..... I wonder if Hanna(our forum goddess mod) is still in germany...mmmm
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