Bavaria Rejects Dead Space 2 Rating

dEeP-fRiEd

New member
Apr 1, 2010
10
0
0
Jordi said:
People who are saying that they should stop releasing (violent) games in Germany should consider that Germany has a population of over 80 million. That is a huge market. That would be like cutting off over a quarter of the United States.

I don't really understand how the German/Bavarian government can reject a game that has already been given an 18+ rating. Above 18, everybody should be able to decide whether they want to play it for themselves. And what do they expect to gain from examining it yet again? Is there an even higher rating? And what is so offensive about friendly fire anyway?
Exactly, Germany is a big market for games, so please don't cut us off!

About the 18+ rating: No there is no higher rating. But it is possible for a "too violent" game not to receive any rating at all. Such games can only be sold to adults and may not be advertised, which is why publishers rather censor the game than risk not receiving a rating. Furthermore, a game without rating can be indexed ("indiziert") (which actually doesn't make much difference to not having a rating, i.e. it can still be sold to adults) and even complete banned ("beschlagnahmt") by the government, which disallows selling the game all together. However, people can still import those games from foreign countries, which I generally do :)

Still, I'd wish they would allow mature citizens to play/buy whatever pleases us. Protection of minors may be important, but censorship is not the right way :(
 

NLS

Norwegian Llama Stylist
Jan 7, 2010
1,594
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
and Ubisoft Aliens vs. Predator [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96014-No-Aliens-vs-Predator-for-Germany] in the country.
I thought Aliens vs Predator was published by SEGA, not Ubisoft? :)
 

redisforever

New member
Oct 5, 2009
2,158
0
0
NLS said:
Andy Chalk said:
and Ubisoft Aliens vs. Predator [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96014-No-Aliens-vs-Predator-for-Germany] in the country.
I thought Aliens vs Predator was published by SEGA, not Ubisoft? :)
Different publishers are responsible for different countries, or actually, continents, so SEGA could have published it in America, and other publishers in others. According to Wikipedia, it was SEGA though.
 

teebeeohh

New member
Jun 17, 2009
2,896
0
0
yeah well
at least Giants got a 16+ rating and boobies back in the day.
compared to the ESRB the USK tends to give higher ratings for violence but doesn't care about other things(nudity, drug use and such) as much.
i have to say that as an adult i rather like the system because some games area just not made for minors and if parents put a little effort into it it's rather easy to figure out what their kids should play and what not.
as a PC gamer the whole rating system doesn't effect me at all because i order almost all my games from the UK(it's just so cheap, thanks for ruining your currency, guys) and never ran into any Problems, even with banned games. i don't know about consoles, might be a little harder.
the only thing that ever annoyed me about the system is that games with an 18+ rating can't be played at public events.
 

13lackfriday

New member
Feb 10, 2009
660
0
0
Tired of countries demanding their "special preferences" be taken into account for every game release.

If you don't like it, nuts to you.
You can deal with your media culture being 10 years behind everyone else's and nurturing your people's gag-reflex sensitivities later.
 

BabyRaptor

New member
Dec 17, 2010
1,505
0
0
heavymedicombo said:
LightPurpleLighter said:
I'd have told them to bugger off after the second denial. It's high time to just stop selling games there. If the fans want it, they'll import it.
that's a mean attitude. importing costs alot. would you really want someone to say "stop selling games there" about your country mr. douchebag?
That's "Ms. Douchebag" to you, and if the US government was giving game companies as much of a run-around as Bavaria is, then yeah. I would still say they should stop. It's rather obvious at this point that Bavaria just doesn't want the game to be sold there, so why should the company continue a fruitless pursuit?
 

wildpeaks

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Dec 25, 2008
871
0
0
matrix3509 said:
Huh, and people say America is close-minded and idiotic. *shakes head*
One could say that idiotism has several levels and that Bavarian lawmakers happen to be one step deeper on that scale, they're not mutually exclusive.
 

Moriarty

New member
Apr 29, 2009
325
0
0
danpascooch said:
Banned because of FRIENDLY FIRE of all things? WTF!?
it isn't friendly fire directly, it's that you can dismember humans with friendly fire while the other playmodes don't have human enemies.
You won't find any game around here that let's you dismember humans.
 

felixader

New member
Feb 24, 2008
424
0
0
Asuka Soryu said:
Seriously? If I was them, I'd just tell Germany to screw off and stop releasing violent games there.
Bavaria is the California of Germany, just all the time and not only when specific politics are in power.

However, i get my Over-18 Games anyway from the UK and i did so since the last days of the GC-
Generation.
 

darkonnis

New member
Apr 8, 2010
201
0
0
I dont see how you can turn something down for release at all unless it is highly offensive to the country its being released in or makes a mockery of them. Even then its a bit much.
Once something gets a rating of 18+ i mean seriously, how can you refuse it for sale? surely those who wish to purchase it have the right to decide for themselves once they reach the age of 18. If you are old enough to drink, old enough to make an informed decision on drugs i fail to see how you cannot be old enough to make a decision on something which you can censor yourself from at any time by turning the damn console off.
Especially when the internet is so open plan, and you can find literally anything tailored to any taste without exception, compared to the freedom already granted, censoring any form of digital media is an exercise in futility.
 

HK_01

New member
Jun 1, 2009
1,610
0
0
Ingix said:
I'm from Germany and have read the source article referenced by the google translation.

Firstly, several tests of a game by the rating institution are normal. Nobody made any fuss when tests 2,3,4 and 5 where required. What is so special about this situation is that the intervention came from some bureaucratic process that normally doesn't interfere with it. According to EA, this is the first time it has happened after USK (the rating organisation) rated 30,000 games.

Secondly, as has already been remarked, this is just a call for reevaluation, not an automatic ban.

Thirdly, EA is pissed about the effect it has on the possible street day for the game. With marketing timing probably long fixed, it's bad if you have all marketing blitz in january but can't sell the game until a month later.

Generally about the censorship debate: Obviously, America with its emphasis on Free Speech is much less encumbered by such things as Germany and Australia, the poster boys for restricted/censored games. As someone pointed out, these are exactly the things America will encounter if the California game bill goes through.

But I can only smile at the "Stop selling there, it's their loss" postings. Companies go where the profit is. Of course they will fight any regulations that hinder them, but if there is profit, they will take it. That's true for game companies that change their games in Germany. If they don't, they won't be censored. Of course, they risk having to comply with the same mechanisms that prevents pornography coming into the hands of minors. That means common chains will not carry it, it's hard to get via mail order, etc. In other words, it will sell only so few copies that it isn't worth it.

Whereever there are media ratings that influence potential viewership, the media producers want a rating as low as possible. That's true in this case, but it is also true for every movie made in Hollywood for the American and international markets. Cuts are made, if necessary, to get the desire rating, in both cases.

Another effect one can see here is that different nations value things differently. Most importantly, developers/film makers from one country are usually well versed in the requirements for their own country, so will avoid on their own things which might bump up the rating, if they can find a similar way to express what they want. If you want to make sure the audience knows two people have sex, you can show that explicitly, or you can do that without any nudity, just with audio. If you want to make sure the audience knows two people are slashing each other open with knives, you can also directly show that, or use other means.

A German film might do the more explicite sex scene but the limited knife fight, while the American one would do it the other way around. Both would probably need a cut to retain their respective ratings. Obviously, with much more films/games going America --> Germany than the other way around, the German censorship becomes more obvious.
Thanks for this post, it is truly a beacon of light in this sea of uninformed comments.

We have stricter regulations on violence, but you won't see a movie that has nudity or anything else slightly sexually explicit in the US on TV at prime-time, but in Germany that wouldn't be a problem. Different cultures have different priorities on what they don't want minors to see/play. And you can always import your games, which is what I do if necessary. The regulations have also become a lot more lax over the past years. Back when Half Life was released the soldiers were replaced with robots (!) and the scientists didn't die, they sat down. Nowadays many very violent games get released without any cuts.
 

jaketaz

New member
Oct 11, 2010
240
0
0
People get their panties in such a twist over ratings it kills me. If you don't want your kids playing violent or sexual things, don't allow them to have 'em, problem solved. Or you could always take a minute to educate your kids about what they're seeing. Of course this is all completely futile anyway, because kids always find a way around this shit. They'll download it illegally, play it at a friend's house, get someone else to go into the store to buy it for them... the options are endless. Kids will be kids and they will hear swearing, kill other kids in the virtual world, and god forbid see some b00bz.