Prime Blue
Member
Negator said:
Christian Pfeiffer (think of an intelligent and manipulative German Jack Thompson with contacts to the government), powerful lobby, etc.
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CensorGAF - The list of indexed / banned games in Germany
- Thread starter maniac-kun
- Start date
Christian Pfeiffer (think of an intelligent and manipulative German Jack Thompson with contacts to the government), powerful lobby, etc.
Danne-Danger
Member
As someone already mentioned in the topic , many publishers dont even think of bringing a version of their games here.Negator said:
For example Gears of War was never released in Germany , the only reason there is a German version are our neighbour countries Switzerland and Austria.
You cannot buy DLC like mappacks and other stuff for Gears from the German Xbox Live market.....
Another example would be Call of Duty Black Ops you can't activate the UK Version from Germany , you can still take the PEGI version of Austria but it could happen when the game will be indexed here that they will not provide any further service....
So the only solution to play with no problems at all would be to buy the cut version...
Prime Blue said:
I wouldn't say he has such good contacts , it's more likely someone who presents the scapegoat when something happened.
Of course I mean these idiots that went berserk in school and began killing alot of people , these are the times people like Pfeiffer get and and present the scapegoat in form of videogames.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Are banned, foreign import games seen as delicious forbidden fruit on German schoolyards, etc?
wsippel said:
Are you sure that is about both lists ?
Because that example sounds like the indexed and not the banned games.
@BocoDragon
Nah it usually takes some time before they get banned so it's quite easy to get them before that happens and alot of people know exactly which games are candidates to be banned
Prime Blue
Member
That's the (current) German law for you.bandresen said:
I already pointed you guys to the word "Versandhandel". That is what you should be looking for.bandresen said:
Just can't seem to find the fax. :/ Could have sworn I had it sent via mail about a year ago, but it's not attached.
Pennywise said:
Knows who to talk to at just the right moment.
maniac-kun
Member
Its banned. Kids want something that is forbidden. So yes.BocoDragon said:
Everyone had Doom and Duke 3d when i was young
For anyone not speaking german: "Versandhandel" means mail order.Prime Blue said:
As I said, I can't find evidence to the contrary of what I said when I vet the sources (Which means dismissing ludicrous internet forums where things such as "even writing about the list is illegal").
And I doubt the above generic term will lead me to the water. If you're so kind and you already know the answer you're better equipped to find the source.
This discussion is probably mute anyway and only of scholarly interest, as everyone that wants to get their hands on such games can do so despite the inconvenience.
§§ 86a, 130, 130a, 131, 184a, 184b, 185 and 187 are all related to banned media, not indexed media. The only stuff you may under no circumstances import or own is stuff banned according to §184b (child pornography). The other laws deal with violence, symbols, regular pornography and zoophilia, and none of them bans import for private use or ownership. Indexing isn't part of the StGB, it's § 18 JuSchG.Pennywise said:
iamaustrian
Member
oh germany....
funny that they are coming in hordes to austria to get uncut and "banned in Germany"-stuff.
good for us, I think
funny that they are coming in hordes to austria to get uncut and "banned in Germany"-stuff.
good for us, I think
Backfoggen
Banned
I always figured that kids nowadays simply pirate what they want.BocoDragon said:
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I suppose. But even with piracy it's still forbidden fruit. I remember when people would download Final Fantasy V on an emulator and show it off to their nerd friends (because even in North America we never got that game).Backfoggen said:
Yeah, I'm always amazed when shopping in Germany. (Yay for living just a kilometer from the border) The 18 + titles are always in those red tinted boxes at the Saturn. Looks funny when I walk around the PC section.
Had a discussion with a German gamer about that, he was surprised I was looking around the gaming section as a Dutchie. Or to quote him: "Why on earth would you look around for games here in Germany when you have a non-retarded government back home"
Had a discussion with a German gamer about that, he was surprised I was looking around the gaming section as a Dutchie. Or to quote him: "Why on earth would you look around for games here in Germany when you have a non-retarded government back home"
iconoclast
Member
CZW DVDs are banned in Germany too? They're doing you guys a favor.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
I guess Quake Wars is still ok. And I don't know how Myth got by the censors.
Danne-Danger
Member
QW doesn't have any blood in it as far as I know.SapientWolf said:
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
The German government also has and exercises the power to ban and censor books, basically giving themselves the ability to rewrite history if they wish to abuse it, proving that they're kind of missing the point of the whole democracy thing.
Prophet Steve
Member
Why is Condemned banned? Never played the full game, I am planning on doing that sometime though.
BocoDragon said:
yep. there's a political magazin called "stern" which has a tv show called "stern tv" moderated by one of germany's most famous moderator who normally lacks knowledge of the subject matter he presents and they showed manhunt 2 and raged about it. After the show download numbers on p2p services skyrocked and everyone was talking about the game. I think nobody knew about the game before they put it in the spotlight.
For the most part its not a problem to get the uncensored version of a game.
But its really inconvenient that Steam often only has the censored version of a game and I have to convince GAF to gift it to me. If Valve ever decided that non-censored games cannot be gifted or activated I have a big problem...
But its really inconvenient that Steam often only has the censored version of a game and I have to convince GAF to gift it to me. If Valve ever decided that non-censored games cannot be gifted or activated I have a big problem...
SolidusDave
Member
Shouldn't there be more games on the "banned" list? I thought every game that contains Swastikas in any form is auto-banned.
(which is supposedly also the reason amazon.co.uk stopped shipping certain games to Germany)
Swastikas are btw fine in movies or even TV comedies as those are considered as art. Games are not and therefore if a Nazi symbol is in it, it's like you would import some big Swastikas flags for your next fascist meeting.
I only shop online and most of the time in UK/UK-territory shops because it's much cheaper so I actually don't care if they ban something. It's a problem for DD though like Steam and XBL. Though PSN doesn't protect game content via IP so I can buy/get whatever I want as long as I just use a non-german account.
(which is supposedly also the reason amazon.co.uk stopped shipping certain games to Germany)
Swastikas are btw fine in movies or even TV comedies as those are considered as art. Games are not and therefore if a Nazi symbol is in it, it's like you would import some big Swastikas flags for your next fascist meeting.
I only shop online and most of the time in UK/UK-territory shops because it's much cheaper so I actually don't care if they ban something. It's a problem for DD though like Steam and XBL. Though PSN doesn't protect game content via IP so I can buy/get whatever I want as long as I just use a non-german account.
wsippel said:
Ah thanks for the info ,
never had that problem so far because every game that I wanted and got banned later on I purchased a long time before it got on the list.
@Prophet Steve
Simply because of the level of violence and the way you handle it allthrough the game.
Always-honest
Banned
that's fucking ridiculous...
No wonder i play against so many german kids in Uncharted 2...
But to be fair, indexed is't so bad imo. banning is.
No wonder i play against so many german kids in Uncharted 2...
But to be fair, indexed is't so bad imo. banning is.
akilshohen
Member
pretty interesting, but now I read up on some movies I want to watch now. So I win :lol
fanboi said:
- It's an accepted 'truth' amongst politicians and the older generations that violent media can adversely affect the development of children. Lowering of empathy towards other people, desensitization, or even outright inspiring some to re-create violent acts seen in films or video games.
- Video games are widely believed to be more dangerous in that respect, since the player takes an active part in the violence.
- There is also a widespread view that many depictions in violent video games are inherently inhuman and hence simply amoral. You simply do not 'play' war, because it trivializes it, etc.
The views towards video games, especially 'Killerspiele' (lit. killer/murder games, mostly shooters), stem from those and similar views. There's definitely more to it, but those are the major ones I can think of right now.
I happened to catch a segment of a late night talk show recently. The topic was serioal killers, or violence in general, I can't remember. One of the guests was a retired police chief, who attributed the recent rise in brutal assaults and killings involving youths directly to violent media, but especially violent video games. To him, it was a clear cut case of cause and effect. The video games would lower inhibitions in such a way as to warp world views, with youths thinking that you can go all out on somebody because they would get up later anyway. That's the way he described it and he was serious about it. I didn't get the feeling that it was up for discussion to him.