EU to ban violent games?

[Marco]

@Tomas: You're actually in EFTA (I assume that's what you were talking about), which means you get all the free trade stuff anyway, you, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Switzerland opted out of it and negotiated their own trade agreements.

Anyway, the respectable members of German society (irony) are go absolutely mental about violence in video games. Much of the German population are like an army of Jack Thompsons. Unfortunately a lot of these people become politicians and do silly things like ban Quake and have Gorden Freeman replaced with a robot in Half-Life. This will not become EU legislation, _ever_.

And frankly, the comments of those politicians give me many more violent impulses than all the violent games I've played from Rick Dangerous to Quake4. (like the desire to beat seven shades of crap out of this Herr Wolfgang Schaeuble for being so totally clueless).

Games do not make people violent, human nature is what makes us violent, we got along just fine killing each other long before computer games arrived, The Persian War, the Peloponesian War, Alexander the Greats conquests, the rise of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Roman Empire, the Arab conquests, the Ottoman Empire, the Hundred Years War, the 30 Years War, Napoleons campaigns, the 2 World Wars and innumerable other conflicts (and I didn't even go near wars in America, Asia or Africa there).

[Marco]

countzero wrote:
I think if there's a game to be banned, it must be grand theft auto(and sequels).

You are being sarcastic I hope.

Anyway I really wouldn't worry about this, at least not for people outside of Germany, they might get shafted by the idiotic nannying of their govt. but there's no way the EU has the power or the political will to legislate something like this.

Plaz: I think the WW thing is a bit too much, not all Germans are nazis, and no one's hands are clean when it comes to war. Every country (with the possible exception of Luxemburg) has done things that are shameful in that regard.

Edit: From the wiki article on one of the supporters of the ban:

'Schäuble is criticised by many for his strong conservative views and his pursuing of law and order politics; his remarks about the 2006 football world cup's security (demanding to put tanks in front of the stadiums if necessary) and his decision to opt out of the Schengen agreement during the world cup were frowned upon by many. He is commonly seen by civil rights activists, together with Otto Schily and Günter Beckstein, as one of the most rigid, authoritarian politicians in Germany.'

What a lovely man.

[Marco]

You don't remember a minor going on a killing spree because of GTA, no one goes on a killing spree because of video games. There is at this point zero evidence to support the notion that violent games make people act violently in real life. Or any media for that matter. This kid, if he existed had serious mental and emotional problems, he was already a violent person and would have killed regardless of what games he played, what music he listened to, what films he watched or what books he read (don't hear that one often do ya, no one ever blamed a school shooting on LOTR).

Seriously, I used to play GTA all the time (San Andreas was crap so I stopped after a few days of that) and I've never considered killing someone. Hell I've only ever been in one fight in my life - which the other guy started. My Nephews have been playing GTA for years, one since he could pick up a dualshock, and they're both perfectlly normal; well maybe not, but they're not violent kids.

Edit: CS is a fictional scenario? I just have to bring that one up. CS is a game in which you can choose to play a terrorist with the goal of commiting various terrorist acts while killing government soldiers - the counter-terrorists. Terrorists are not fiction, regardless of how much fiction the American and British govts. manufacture about them. Not BTW that I think CS encourages terrorist activities, just pointing it out is all.