Germany Kiboshes Dead Island: Riptide

[Bindal]

Guess what: Nobody stops them from buying it! If they want to buy it, they can buy it - just not in stores directly.
Want to buy it on Amazon UK? Alright, do it.
Gift via Steam? Fine.
Went over to Austria and bought a retailcopy there? Okay.

Actually, if it is from amazon.uk it has several barriers: Credit card is one of them. It is still not as wide used method of payment - I am one of the 'lucky' fews who know persons who have such. Then there is amazon.co.uk. They don't deliver every game to us Germs - I had trouble ordering L4D2 until they just flat out told me that they can't deliver it. And not all people are lucky enough to live to a border - especially of Austria. It would take me over 5h with train to get to Munich - riding for just a train just for a game is not an option.

The only option is gift from Steam - find someone who'll do it. I more often than not have a problem to trade away games (I got from trades myself) because people assume that it is cut because I am from Germany.

You are aware that I just gave ONE example with Amazon UK and that there are tons of other stores? And eBay? And TONS of other options?

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Then there is amazon.co.uk. They don't deliver every game to us Germs - I had trouble ordering L4D2 until they just flat out told me that they can't deliver it.

Try searching for other online retailers, I guarantee you, you will be able to find British, French or whatever stores that will not give a flying fuck about posting to Germany. Or if you can't do it through Amazon, look at the alternate retailers on Amazon, then try searching their homepages and order directly through them, they are far less likely to give a shit about import restrictions, a lot of them are based in the Channel Islands to avoid certain taxes so I'd guess they're not too worried about stuff like that.

 

[teebeeohh]

you forgot to mention that Merkel loves to just sit and wait as her tried and true tactic for dealing with anything.
oh and i am calling schwarz-grün 2013

That is indeed true ... But that's just a symptom of the 2013 election coming up. Merkel just doesn't have the metaphorical balls to do anything, for fear of the polls.


Also: Nope. Steinbrück as SPD candidate pretty much nailed it down on CDU/CSU + SPD, most likely with Merkel as chancellor again.
Green + CDU/CSU would mean that Green + SPD doesn't suffice and CDU/CSU + SPD doesn't work out. Neither of which will happen.

Gabriel as SPD candidate would probably have led to him going "Look, Merkel, you have noone to work with, and we could do with everyone. I don't care if you got most votes, we got the only working coalition."

I mean, it's becoming quite the accepted fact, that we're not seeing the FDP back in parliament next year. Which means we'll have

- CDU/CSU
- SPD
- Green
- Pirates
- Left

... And most likely in that order. Gonna be another four years of stagnation.

i actually think union/spd will only happen if there is no majority for schwarz/grün since Merkel dislikes having to deal with the SPD in a Koalition since the majority those two have everywhere means it's really hard to justify why she is not getting shit done. and the green party pretty much said they wanted this when they decided to have an opportunist and a conservative theologist active in chruch politics to be their top people for 2013.

and i see the left before the pirates(because the pirates really don't to be taken seriously, which is OK if you run in Berlin but will hurt them in a federal election) and i won't count the FPS out, cockroaches and all that.

 

[ace_of_something]

Just make a quick mod that puts deer heads on all the zombies. Than they won't be 'too human like' and it'll be fine.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

....
Reichert also pointed out that while Dead Island is verboten,...

As of the 31st of JANUARY 2012 "Dead Island" is NOT "verboten" anymore.

Just make a quick mod that puts deer heads on all the zombies. Than they won't be 'too human like' and it'll be fine.

Would make the game actual fun and funny too.

 

[jetriot]

One more reason that people need to rise up against governments that feel it is their duty to protect people from themselves. It won't be long before games that require always on internet connections are released and they will be forced to actively block German/Austrailian/British/etc IP addresses for games that are banned and your ability to get it elsewhere won't matter. Nip this shit in the bud and stop the nanny state.

 

[Theotherguy]

I would find it good if more devs would complain about the system here and not just swallow it

...The polish didn't resist too much last time.

Than learn history you jackass. If it was only Germans Poland would do fine.

 

[Reaper195]

On the bright side...Dead Island was fucking terrible. There was no real effort on the story or character front, and the gameplay was fucking bollocks. "Oh, you're high enough level to start finding swords instead of broken oars? Let's just make the zombies harder to kill...because level scaling rocks in zombie games..."

 

[likalaruku]

When it comes to video games, you can always count on the German & Australian governments to treat their citizens like little babies who can't be trusted to pick out their own clothes & dress themselves.

 

[47_Ronin]

Of course they are upset now. The game itself everybody could get, DLC? Not so much.

 

[RJ 17]

Ummmm...if "they weren't surprised" that Dead Island itself was banned...how can they be surprised about it's expansion being banned? Wouldn't one need the game itself in order to play the expansion in the first place?

 

[Korzack]

Is anybody even surprised at this? Hell, Techland have no right to act hurt when their first game got banned as well, and this is essentially Dead Island 1.5, warts-and-all.
And the funny thing is? Return to Castle Wolfenstein found a great way around this - turn your human enemies into Robots. Which is great until your smart-phone starts getting lippy, I guess...

 

[Davroth]

I live in Germany and I can assure you that it's IMPOSSIBLE to import games from all the European countries around Germany, that have the same regional code and can be played on German video game consoles without any problem at all.

(To be fair, it's not that easy with PC games anymore, but that's a different thing altogether.)

 

[kburns10]

"We have no censored version of the game, so we cannot release it in Germany. It feels fucking awkward to have one of the most successful GAME TRAILERS in years and nobody in your country knows it," he told PC Games N.

Fixed that for you.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

How long are the Germans going to keep punishing themselves for what their grandparents did? It's not like they could give themselves a worse reputation than the one they already have. Bit late to pretend you give a shit about stoping your kids from turning into blood thirsty psychopaths don't you think?

I don't think the correlation is as clear as you make it seem. Those censorship laws aren't the result of German folks going "OH GAWD, WE'RE SO FUCKING ASHAMED OF OURSELVES!", and far more the result of the same groups who keep pushing for stricter laws in the US or Canada - or the UK.

Y'know, the "Think of the children!" crowd. The hypocrites trumpeting for "Family Values" because of all the socio-economic levers they'll get to tweak if their agenda gets heard in Congress/Parliament/The House of Lords/Whatever.

I'm sure most sane German gamers would know to handle stuff like Riptide or heck, even Manhunt 2 as sedately as anyone else. The deciders are just fixated on the possibility that someone with the right mix of pre-existing problems and a suggestible mindset MIGHT take it a notch or two too far.

I'm in Canada, and the same thing happens here whenever a violent game gets released and is tangentially connected to a shootout or some guy flipping his lid. People love scapegoats, and some country leaders feel it's a lot easier to try and prevent scapegoats from showing up at all.

We all know it's never that simple. You can't stamp out evil or general dickery - it's in human nature. Berlin and Sydney can stack up as many censorship laws as they want, it'll never stop crackpots from playing shooters and finding a convenient strawman argument for an insanity plea if they decide to go around pulling bullets in heads.

 

[lacktheknack]

You'd think that the laws on violence against humanoids and mutilation of corpses would allow zombies as an exception, seeing how they're UNdead.

But what do I know, I've never been elected, so clearly I don't have the sensibilities or smarts needed to know what people are allowed to entertain themselves with.

 

[Bindal]

You'd think that the laws on violence against humanoids and mutilation of corpses would allow zombies as an exception, seeing how they're UNdead.

It is the problem with AFTER you killed them, when they are dead AGAIN (or dead for the first time, depending on the form of zombie...)

 

[Azahul]

We all know it's never that simple. You can't stamp out evil or general dickery - it's in human nature. Berlin and Sydney can stack up as many censorship laws as they want, it'll never stop crackpots from playing shooters and finding a convenient strawman argument for an insanity plea if they decide to go around pulling bullets in heads.

What's Sydney got to do with anything? The Australian capital is Canberra...

As for the topic, eh. It happens. Anyone that seriously wants the game will still get it, and it's the German government's right to censor violent video games if they want. I'm a bit curious about the people saying it'd be hard for Germans to get a worse reputation than they have already though. I live in Australia, and Germans have one of the better reputations over here. Certainly far better than Americans.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

you forgot to mention that Merkel loves to just sit and wait as her tried and true tactic for dealing with anything.
oh and i am calling schwarz-grün 2013

Merkel just doesn't have the metaphorical balls to do anything, for fear of the polls.

It's funny you say that because as someone who is outside the political loop of Germany I and I think many others see Merkal as having nothing but metaphorical balls. In fact, I once hered her refered to as "The Steel Chancilor" a supposed one upping of Bismarks title as Iron Chancilor.

 

[Baresark]

All of the hate for the game aside (I personally loved the shit outta that game), why is it hard for people to admit that denying a game is retarded. I personally get pissed when my government makes decisions for me, even if it's about something I am not interested in. It's pretty awesome that he basically said pirate away. The fact that some games that fit the laws description are still allowed to be released that proves how completely arbitrary the law is. But, I'm not German and I feel for anyone who has to jump through hoops to get something they want.

Also, the comments talking about the game not being released is saving them from a "bad" or "poor" product are just completely off base. If I don't enjoy something I'm not ok with my neighbor being denied that same thing just because I'm not interested in it. Grow a brain, people.

As far as I remember, they never even bothered to present Dead Island itself to our ratings board. Playing the victim card now just feels ... wrong.

I don't know how the first Dead Island game's release, or lack thereof, is remotely related to Riptides. The article isn't talking about the first Dead Island release.They aren't playing the victim card after the fact. They were denied this time as well. Germany clearly did this time and the last time Germany denied game from the first moments of talk of release. Ergo, it was banned in Germany the last time. I just don't understand why they would expect anything different this time around.