Recent articles
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.
Comment on this article
Please sign in to add your comments.
User comments
What a waste of time,it will do nothing
Posted by: mic59uk on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseI agree that Voilent games should be banned, but why not go the whole hog, with Films and TV, there are so many 'copy cat' crimes, if they were not shown, the crime rate should go down. OK I am old, but in by day, a knife was for cutting plants, not people.
Posted by: julierosalind on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseWhy would anyone want to ban violent games,we all know they are bloody but really there just fun!
Posted by: zakcorumhaines on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseI thought that the victims of Winnenden, Columbine and other such attrocities were shot with guns not DVD roms. Wouldn't banning people from accessing firearms be more effective...????
Posted by: georgegebbie on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseYou cant ban everything because the extreme minority seem to act on it. If that happened, porn would have to be banned because of sexual preditors, alcohol would have to be banned because of the violence it contributes to, including murders and some sports would have to be banned because of the hooligans. I think the real issue is, how these people get hold of the guns they use to carry out these acts. If there were better regulations on firearms, they wouldnt be able to get a gun to shoot people to start with.
Posted by: joannahbinner on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseBan Pong! It encourages people to hit little balls.
Posted by: geoffrey.kirk2 on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseWhats up with people Thinking That violent Video games need to be Ban it's pointless. We have violent movies don't we. It's the pepole who Play these games. you think the parents would do something about it then leting they children Play Games that have Been RATED for pepole who are Allowed to play it. And Censoring Is not going to help as There is a parent controls on Consoles So that the Children Can't play games that there age dose not match. THINK PEOPLE.
Posted by: webblaster9 on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseIf videogames really did affect us all...we would have 100million expert snipers all under the age of 18...
Posted by: mannyhayre on Tue Jun 09 04:55PM | Report abuseif all things are linked to video games, i best go out and plant some veg as im playing molehill empire at the moment!! its about time governments find real solutions to real problems instead of blaming video games for some guy going out and killing people, when he obviously has some sort of mental disorder in the first place!
Posted by: sibbo3876 on Tue Jun 09 04:56PM | Report abuseIt's prudence alright. Michael Ryan went on a rampage in Hungerford, 1987, and he was a gun nut. People went rampages and killed before violent video games coming out. Face it, humans are inherently violent anyway.
Posted by: joshgraver on Tue Jun 09 04:56PM | Report abuse