Tue Jun 09 09:57AM by Yahoo! UK Games Editor

According to several internet sources, including this one Germany's 16 Interior Ministers are rallying to completely stamp out violent videogames.

The online edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel has revealed that interior ministers urged against ‘Killerspiele' (killer games) during a conference held last Friday. Although details are only being shared in English via online translations such as this, it seems clear that German ministers are now serious about preventing another incident like Winnenden on 11 March where a 17-year-old shot 15 people. The previous evening the shooter had been playing the game "Far Cry 2".

Spiegel Online details that the ministers have appealed for "an explicit production and dissemination ban as soon as possible", preventing the development and distribution of all games considered to be violent within Germany.

The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) software ratings board already stands in the way of many violent games being released in Germany. The blockbuster "Gears of War" series for Xbox 360 is among them. However the key issue with the latest appeal to the Bundestag, the German equivalent of the British Parliament, is that violent videogames may not be produced on German soil. This would be hard on German based developer Crytek, coincidentally responsible for the original "Far Cry".

Winnenden isn't the first tragedy to move government officials against violent games, and especially those that involve shooting other people. The Columbine High School massacre of 1999 brought that same year's E3 videogame convention under US government scrutiny, forcing first-person-shooters - in particular ultra-realistic ‘simulation' Soldier of Fortune - behind closed doors, viewable by appointment only. In the case of Columbine it was id Software's "Doom" held responsible.

Do violent videogames beget violent gun-toting youths? Are the German ministers over-reacting, or even acting to be seen to be acting? If the German ministers' appeals are accepted, and if the decision proves to be popular overseas, it's likely that UK MPs will see vote-winning opportunities in this country too.

Prudence or politics? You decide.

Taken from uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/3870/

It's just getting worse and worse, continually blaming video game violence for the actions of mentally unstable individuals is rather ridiculous, I blame the various education and health systems that lets these people slip through and go unnoticed.  Never to get the help they need and finally becoming harmful to the general public.

So what's next, ban violent cartoons?......ban violent movies?...how about comics?
 

You can always take the train to Holland or Denmark and buy the games there.

Was there not extreme violence before video games? Before people read books for that matter...

Was there not extreme cases of axe-murders and sprees of general unexplained and disturbed violence in the 1800s.

What happened to people just being fucking crazy?

.. and why must people subscribe to fascist principles to feel safe? I couldn't feel any less safe with all the legislation these people want to pass. I'm afraid I'll wake up one day to answer the door, only to be clubbed in the teeth for speaking up against some armored swat team conducting a "citizen census survey".

I seriously feel less safe for every day that goes by having to listen to this unbelievable nonsense.

You can't so much as fart in the wrong direction these days, lest you be labeled an extremist, terrorist, criminal. Shitty economy, cronyism in the IRS.

I find it hard to believe that people still wonder why there is so much violence. They wonder why a man beats his wife to death because she forgot to buy mustard yesterday. People are being oppressed and are continually told everything about them is foul and wrong, thus continues the cycle of lashing out.

 

?

Doom and a lot of other violent games came out in the early 90's and have only gotten more realistic and more violent......this chart shows a decrease in murder.

Stop bringing up facts and evidence Sabiancym. You clearly support and condone the murder of our children.

Originally posted by Sabiancym

?

 

Doom and a lot of other violent games came out in the early 90's and have only gotten more realistic and more violent......this chart shows a decrease in murder.

That's because all these shootan games and japananese cartoons have turned our kids into terrorists! They're all lying low - waiting for the right time to strike. Trust me on this.

Seeing this comes as no surprise to me.  Although Germany supposedly has laws against censorship, they do censor things such as swastikas showing up in games (unless for educational/historical purposes), and if I'm not mistaken, force violent games to show green blood instead of red in an attempt to make it seem less realistic.

Banning violent games in Germany is like trying to ban porn in America.  I had a good laugh over the .xxx domain attempt -- it's simply impossible to enforce such a law unless every country with access to the Internet enforces it as well.  Not going to happen.

It's interesting to note though that violence is their taboo, while sex on TV is much less of a big deal.  For the States, god forbid if there's a boob slip on air, yet violence of some sort is pretty much on every channel.

Personally, I think humans are going to be violent by nature regardless.  If anything, increase the violence in games -- make it more realistic.  Give people an outlet.  If it's going to happen anyway, I'd rather see it happen in a place where there's a reset button.