Saturday, January 6th 2007
German ratings board refuses to rate Crackdown, sales to minors illegal
The German ratings board has refused to issue a rating for "Crackdown", the Xbox360 game that will come with a free Halo 3 beta invitation. Crackdown was probably banned in Germany for being too violent. A game without a rating in Germany isn't "illegal", however it cannot be sold to a minor, advertised, or displayed in a public store. All sales of the game have to be person-to-person. Two other Xbos360 games that have been deemed unrated in Germany are Gears of War and Dead Rising.
Source:
Joystiq
42 Comments on German ratings board refuses to rate Crackdown, sales to minors illegal
oh yea...Condemned is another game not sold normaly in Germany..not just death rising and GoW.
news.google.de/news?rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-29,GGGL:de&hl=en&q=emsdetten&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn
That´s what it´s all about, social competence.
I'm willing to bet you'd say no... parents should teach their children to be responsible and not drink until it is legal. Although this would make them not socially competent? Because drinking is a part of society, and for parents to tell their children not to drink would be taking away from their knowledge of how to be 'socially competent'!?!
Ok, now back to videogames...So what your telling me is that parents shouldn't have to teach their kids that killing is bad, video games are not real, and never to act out or do what they see and hear in video games. Instead it is up to them to make their children socially competent. In reality it is up to a committee of people who probably have never played a video game in their life, to decide whether a game is 'suitable' or not for your entire country. You make it seem as if all video games hold some sort of educational value.... as if you learn from them?!
Now at least in America, I know that killing is bad, and is definitely not considered part of being socially competent. We are taught to talk out our problems rather than act in violent anger (let's not get into premier Bush's way of thinking). In Germany, since it is not the responsibility of the parent to teach right from wrong(according to you), and instead tell their children how to interact with people (even though learning how to interact with people requires ... interacting with people - social competence) it should be socially acceptable for a kid to shoot another person. Cause a parent's only job is to make sure their children know how to interact with people. Since it wasn't a parent's responsibility to make sure their kid knows that killing is wrong, and what they see in video games is not right, does that now make murder socially acceptable? Or in this case, does it make murder the fault of video game makers and not parents and retailers?
Not to mention the fact that it is blatant censorship...
What I meant to say (and I should have used more words for that but had to hurry for the supermarket) by pointing at social competence is, that in cases where violent outrages are somehow linkable to massive FPS playing, social competence has been absent like i.e. parents not looking after their kids by more than "hey, that´s a bad game, stop playing". etc.
"Don´t do this, don´t do that" etc.
It´s a matter of positive vs. negative manifestation.
Last night I saw a film called Crank. Pure gratuitous violence (human body chopping) and childish (only funny for students) sex scenes. Absolutely crap film pandering to this "new" gore-noir genre of film. I actually think this film is pretty close to the kind of thing that should be banned. But it has been a box-office success! To enjoy this film you have to be a serious American-Psycho (which is a much better film BTW!). What was really unpleasant about the movie, is that it is supposed to be action/comedy. So we are supposed to laugh at these people getting their limbs hacked off with knives etc.
I think that there will be some serious social implications in the future as a result of these types of films/games. Can you really call this entertainment, or a macabre pandering to our sick curiousities and a dark side of shadenfreude? If you think this is OK, then I think your values not going uphill, but downhill. And I wouldn't want you setting the example of social behaviour to the children of the future.
I just ran through some screenshots of Crackdown... doesn´t look SO violent to me.
But I remember "Punsiher":
That´s where it ends for me.
Yes, go and censor games like this.
(Funny, my judgement depends on the matter whether it comes to close body contact or not, when brutal scences are somehow `unusual`... just like the brain sorts things out and gives a message to the mind which starts realizing what just happens there - becaue it´s unusual vs. because it´s immoral? ;))
- Stage 1 game- 3 and up can play, age checked by ID, nothing offensive or perverted.
- Stage 2 game- 5 and up can play, age checked by ID, slightly dirty humor (potty jokes), basic violence (spongebob/madagascar type "beat up the bad guys" things).
- Stage 3 game- 9 and up can play, age checked by ID, some swear words, guns, same level dirty humor, violence (you can shoot things)
- Stage 4 game- 12 and up can play, age checked by ID, swear words, guns, perverted jokes, enemies may be humanoid. Plot may be creepy.
- Stage 5 game- 16 and up can play, age checked by drivers permit/license. Basically, Doom 3-esque games :p
Just how I would do it, but I'm not the ESRB.we have tv shows that are much worse...and those use real people....this is fake...not real people, just cgi people...i can see the difference...
i think that it is upto the parents to control their children....sure you can't watch them all the time, but you have to instill values in your children...
i grew up on tom and jerry cartoons....i didn't place dynamite in a kettle to blow up someone and make them look like a black man from the 30's......i knew better....nor have i ever played Mortal Combat and tried to do a "Finish Him" move on someone and rip their spine out...i knew it was only a game or only a tv show...