Hey, you with the joystick. Six months in the slammer.
German gamers face jail for acts of virtual violence | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited — This is beyond pre-crime legislation. This is simply insane. That said this has to be someone punking the Guardian and thus a hoax. Right? Even the Germans cannot be this screwed up.
Players and creators of video games could face imprisonment for acts of virtual violence under draft legislation being drawn up by two of Germany’s state governments.
Politicians in Bavaria and Lower Saxony have proposed a new offence that will punish “cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters” inside games. Early drafts suggest that infringers should face fines or up to 12 months’ jail for promoting or enacting in-game violence.
This is either a hoax or a sign of the End Times.
I mean, I know Germany feels a helluva lot of guilt over the Holocaust… But they are a modern, powerful nation again… Maybe they should let the healing begin…
Germans will always be crazy. Its just a fact we gotta come to terms with.
Many Germans are concerned over the neo-NAZI movement among the young. I realize that in this forum it may be unpopular to ponder the fact the extreme virtual violence may not be the best inducement for good mental health. The fact is these games have not be around long enough for decent studies. I admit I do not own or play any video game.
I guess you might be right, if Germans are trying to quell a new Nazi movement, then this story seems to fit into some context.
I agree: All far left Germans should be put in jail.
Na 5 i would think that germans who kill based on race would be far right. The religious nutzo’s ya now.
#3
While not scientific in any way shape or form… The rates of violent crime in the United States began to fall consistantly when the first Grand Theft Auto game was released… 🙂
Actually, I do play many violent games, and have done so for over 20 years (I’m 40 now) and play online and at LAN parties as do many men and some women between the ages of 14 and 44 with most players in their 20’s.
As a group, they are more likely to be involved in civic organizations. Less likely to be involved in illegal drugs. Less likely to be arrested. And more likely to frag your ass with a plasma rifle 🙂
Many studies actually exist that point to gaming being good… and not just for “eye and hand coordination”.
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I cannot presume to tell Germany what to do (despite America’s “God-given” right to rule the Earth) but I hope that wisdom prevails and they learn that you cannot use censorship and draconian laws to to pacify a population… In fact, quite the opposite…
I think the Greeks called it “catharsis”.
Of course, in order to get a conviction, it should require proof beyond reasonable doubt that the act was not done in virtual self defense. They should require a testimony from either the virtual victim or a virtual bystander, along with the virtual weapon which has virtual fingerprints and the virtual blood found on the defendant’s virtual self’s virtual clothes.
With all that in mind, it’d be virtually impossible to convict anyone.
See y’all online in Halo2.
email me your gamertag and I’ll look you up, we can do team skirmish together, although I’m only a level 20.
Hmm…
I guess this rules out all contact sports, including wrestling, boxing, martial arts, rugby, amerikan football, and so on.
Hey sherm, pass the bowl of stupidity, puhleeze!
Puh-leese. Would someone show me the scientific proof of a link between violent media and real-life violence.
In Japan, there was a famous manga called Rapeman. You could fit the Japanese violent crime stats into an ant’s rectum.
Hi John, I was checking out an article about Taco Bell on Wikipedia…
LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell#Notable_employees
John C. Dvorak, former TechTV personality and current This Week In Tech pundit, worked there while attending college.
Good Find Eh?
Smartalix do you have an Xbox or a Xbox 360? If so what games are you playing on?
sorry… meant online for “on”
15,
I still have the old Xbox, as I refuse to buy the 360 until Halo 3 comes out. I mostly play Halo 2 right now.
I read the article on a German mailing list/web site: it’s only a proposal for a new law, not law yet!
This is a knee-jerk reaction that could happen in any country/state by legislators having worse then no clue: these people actually have NEGATIVE clue! 😉
A friend in Germany told me that news could be true, he told me that games are heavily censored up there.
One example is the über-super-duper-extra-deluxe-kamehameha fun “Soldier of Fortune” game was censored to the extreme, the human opponents were replace by robots that threw green “blood.”
He also said that because of the heavy censorship M$ didn’t bothered to release Gears of War in Germany.