It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
tinyE: No.

Sometimes I blame Dixie.
avatar
Breja: I meant in Poland :P
I thought you guys also liked to blame Russia.
avatar
Breja: I meant in Poland :P
avatar
tinyE: I thought you guys also liked to blame Russia.
That's on mondays, wednesdays and fridays.
avatar
RPGator: tinyE that's stupid
avatar
zeogold: It's regionally blocked thanks to German law. Something to do with violence or Nazis, no doubt.
Welcome to modern day Germany, where not only do they want to block out that the wars happened, but they also don't want you to run around killing nazi zombies/cannibals/pixels etc.

Are....are they trying to help them survive? o0
avatar
InfraSuperman: Germans also aren't allowed to access Wolfenstein 3D, Return to Castle Wolfenstein....
Isn't that stupid? A game about killing nazis is banned because it has a few swastikas and the Horst Wessel Lied in it. Oh the horror! I don't know about you, but I think censorship is a worse thing associated with Nazism than songs and symbols.
avatar
Punkoinyc: Isn't that stupid? A game about killing nazis is banned because it has a few swastikas and the Horst Wessel Lied in it. Oh the horror! I don't know about you, but I think censorship is a worse thing associated with Nazism than songs and symbols.
You think that is bad?

http://www.dw.com/en/german-company-fined-for-selling-anti-nazi-symbols/a-2189625

Upheld by the German supreme court.
Base line: Out of distance you can not distinguish if it is pro or contra nazi.
How do you like this?
avatar
Punkoinyc: Isn't that stupid? A game about killing nazis is banned because it has a few swastikas and the Horst Wessel Lied in it. Oh the horror! I don't know about you, but I think censorship is a worse thing associated with Nazism than songs and symbols.
Yeah, it is stupid, but these cases of censorship are very much a product of their time, because Germany saw a huge moral panic regarding video games in general during the 80s and 90s, when lots of very, very harmless games were put on the index for no good reason whatsoever.

Now combine this panic with the general fear that German authorities seem to have in regards to any Nazi symbols and you get this situation. (The underlying idea is apparently that any open display of a swastika or such could be mistaken as pro-Nazi propaganda, regardless of context. That's why some moron around here tried to ban a teaser poster for Art Spiegelman's acclaimed comic "Maus". The German government even tried to push for an EU-wide ban on the swastika, completely ignoring the various groups to whom it is a sacred symbol.)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, for example, was censored preemptively by the publisher to avoid any problems (which is how it almost always works, even in regards to violence), even though the movie it was based on got released uncut with an "ages 12 and up"-rating, but Wolfenstein 3D caused such an enormous stir that it was outright banned, with a lot of other games following in its wake.

However, these are very old court decisions and it seems that authorities have loosened up quite a bit when it comes to newer releases. I mean, publishers still only released censored versions of games like The Saboteur or Wolfenstein: The New Order in Germany, but the uncensored versions of those titles weren't banned or indexed, which is at least a step in the right direction.
avatar
InfraSuperman: snip
No they did not loosen up.....

The problem is they just decide no informal way of complaining, once you a blacklisted you (dev/publisher) would need to go through a costly and expensive trial....

And did you hear about the case I mentioned in the link?
avatar
Goodaltgamer: And did you hear about the case I mentioned in the link?
Yes, I did. That was an unbelievably moronic situation.
avatar
InfraSuperman: Yes, I did. That was an unbelievably moronic situation.
Same what I thought. But me thinks, the same shitty logic is applied with games as well.

I mean how more ANTI-nazi can you be as in slaughtering them?

But in art it is ok, did you know? (so till now computer games are not art)
avatar
Punkoinyc: Isn't that stupid? A game about killing nazis is banned because it has a few swastikas and the Horst Wessel Lied in it. Oh the horror! I don't know about you, but I think censorship is a worse thing associated with Nazism than songs and symbols.
avatar
Goodaltgamer: You think that is bad?

http://www.dw.com/en/german-company-fined-for-selling-anti-nazi-symbols/a-2189625

Upheld by the German supreme court.
Base line: Out of distance you can not distinguish if it is pro or contra nazi.
How do you like this?
Well, one might think, that the german laws are made to protect nazis, not to fight them!
avatar
Maxvorstadt: Well, one might think, that the german laws are made to protect nazis, not to fight them!
Unfortunate I was not able to find the original pic anymore, but my first impression was:

If you can see the nazi symbol on this distance why the fuck did you not see the fucking big red stroke through UNLESS you have special glasses filtering those?

And you would have needed some reaaaaaaaaaaaly good eyesight to detect the symbol from a distance anyway......
avatar
Goodaltgamer: You think that is bad?

http://www.dw.com/en/german-company-fined-for-selling-anti-nazi-symbols/a-2189625

Upheld by the German supreme court.
No, it was withdrawn a year later by the highest court. Anti-nazi-symbols are legal.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/anti-nazi-symbole-hakenkreuz-urteil-aufgehoben/823078.html
avatar
Goodaltgamer: You think that is bad?

http://www.dw.com/en/german-company-fined-for-selling-anti-nazi-symbols/a-2189625

Upheld by the German supreme court.
avatar
PaterAlf: No, it was withdrawn a year later by the highest court. Anti-nazi-symbols are legal.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/anti-nazi-symbole-hakenkreuz-urteil-aufgehoben/823078.html
Interesting to know is that "Nazi" originally was the short form for the Bavarian name "Ignaz".
avatar
PaterAlf: No, it was withdrawn a year later by the highest court. Anti-nazi-symbols are legal.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/anti-nazi-symbole-hakenkreuz-urteil-aufgehoben/823078.html
Thanks for the info PaterAlf, by why do I have in memory that they stated otherwise, tried to find something even on the side of Bunderverfassungsgericht, but I didn't find anything (will try again bases on this Article, or they did overturn a previous decision?) Or was it just that the outcry was so big......