German gov't considers jail time for gamers

NO WAY!!!!!!!11oneone It's Nazi zombies for reals!!!!! ima grab ma trench gun and go to Orbitz BRB!!!!

Oh noes!! Jack Thompson brainwashed Germany. Our next mission is to go to Germany and eliminate the brainwashed and the boss will be Jack. Now that would be a great game.

So , say they pass this, they'll have a hell of a hard time enforcing it.

Man, if they put me in jail for playing games.............I don't even want to think about what I would do.

I dont care about violence censorship because australia is a little over the top with that stuff too, but I am pretty pissed about swastikas and the like being banned. I can understand Germany trying to prevent history from repeating itself but that doesnt mean they should block out history, and I doubt the next holocaust would start in a country where there are laws preventing the military from leaving its homeland. Every country committed attrocities at one time. EDIT: Also, do you guys know what the situation was when Battlefield 1942 was released, because I remember seeing swastikas in that, but that game is based entirely on historical battles.

Germany apparently hasn't learned much in 60+ years.

Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle .... that shoud be banned !! look at the name and i know some german gosh

wow..... just wow

I like that Fragmaster 3K said "come on germany, you are better than that." clever sunovagun.

and I thought the US went crazy... come on Germany, you're better than that.

MIllions of people play or have played counterstike. Millions. One guy goes mad and it's the game?? According to this locig, there should be killings in every school every day with all these millions of kids running around all f*cked up by counterstrike.

Okay so they presume that violent video game using human like figures prompt violence. I wonder if Hitler used to play video games or the likes-- or did Genghis Khan learn to be a killer after killing a lot in a game first. Such conclusions are too bizarre to support. I killed a lot in video games, enjoyed deaths of human villains in the movies. That did not transform me into a violent person.

This is like how America is paying African Americans whose ancestors were our slaves as an apology. Germany is trying to apologize for being the source of thousands being tortured and slaughtered by punishing the thoughts of torturing and slaughtering. its a bullet-proof plan because everybody wins except for....well anyone who doesnt plan on killing a handful of people.

Yeah men its a pitty but its true. I live in Germany and I was very lucky to get GoW before they took it out of the market. And I bought Condemned from a England. And I dont know what to do to get Dead Rising. Damn German laws......

lol if this is true i should be locked up for the next 53,594 years what a load of bull and i go along with what some of you said COME ON GERMANY BRING IT ON AND ARREST ME

when someone "kills in the name of god" why don't we ban the bible?

Oh my gosh it's really quite frustrating that the German press was talking about Half Life and Counter Strike! They are video games! Really, the people are screwed up and violent before hand they just happen to play video games that have violence in them too. Quit blaming video games, what your doing is saying it's not their fault they did this horrible act of violence on people! Your taking blame off of the murderers and saying oh it's because they play a video game, that's why! Also Half Life yes is violent, but it also has a very deep story and the main character is fighting for a good cause. I went back and played Half Life 1 just for the story after playing Half Life 2. Because the game has such a good science fiction story, and the gameplay is great too! But anyway video games aren't the cause of someones actions, they have a free will. The people willingly decided to go to the school, bring a gun, and shoot a bunch of people. It's not like the video game has brainwashed them and they had no control over what they were doing! They knew exactly what they were doing, quit taking the blame off of murderers.

Kudos to Germany for growing a pair and taking a solid stance against this kind of junk.

using violent games as an escuse for killing in real life is just bullsh*t, ive been playing games like this for over 18 years and never once thought about actually doin it. The people who do are just phsycos who use games as an excuse.

The German government is smart to ban videogames because Germans never killed anyone until Pong was released...

Yeah...I don't plan on going to Germany now. Thats silly if you're going to fine or even imprison game developers for their games. I think killing zombies is alot better than stealing cars and running over pedestrians. This reminds me of my friend whose mom is German. Its been several years and she still won't let him play GTA3. Doesn't stop him really.

Getting rid of violent games will not change the fact that there will still be nut-jobs running around wanting to kill people. The fact they also like violent games doesn't mean that the games caused them to kill, it could easily be the fact they were naturally violent and therefore played violent games as well. Stupid thing really, as in some cases the violent games could be an outlet for anger and therefore stop them taking it out in other ways.

Note to self: never visit Germany.

no such FREEDOM.... yeah, i hate being a German....

I hate being german

Germany's doing something similar with final fantasy vii because some kids stabed someone while under the aliases of some characters in the game. I read this on ign. So, can we say that germany has officially gone bananas? FF 7 is the most unfilthy games ever, and its not even rated m. I definitely agree with "kerensky 287", too. By their logic, if you think about it, they could ban the bible because it's caused a bunch of people to kill and bomb each other - because, make no mistake about it, far more people have snapped because of positive things like religion than games. some people are just crazy, and I cant believe people still arent getting this, games dont make them that way!

Censor Ship! thats how you run a free society. I mean societies where they ban free speech, China, Russia, ect are far better off then we are.

So symbols of a fascist period in German history are banned, but this modern fascist legislation may become modern fascist law. Riiiight. The Jack Thompson fan club must be based in Germany because he's the only other source I've ever come across that is capable of such ignorance.

Cruel acts against "human looking characters" are never okay. Expecially not in, say, a continental conquest setting. Lead the way, Germany!

ktc0ut, I entirely agree. Also... they were talking about the shooters' fascination with CS? That just means that the guys were gun-nuts. They used CS as an outlet for their gun-nuttiness, but they eventually wanted something more violent. That's my opinion, at least.

Mother of Pearl... Well, that effectively scratches Germany off the list of places I want to visit in my lifetime.

This sucks for Germany. O well, 1st Amendment FTW!!

germany is trying to combat fascism by being fascist.

Its a crime to be a gamer? XD

Wow...I feel sorry for gamers in Germany...but not for Jack Thompson. That's probably his haven. :)

Video games are just a scapgoat for politicians. Its too bad people cannot control themselves, alot people are always getting high, drunk or just doing something stupid. The morals of our society have been falling since the beginning of time. Why? Because people cannot control themselves

Wow, this is scary. Remind anyone else of Nazi Germany and the book burning?

im gonna stand on the border of germany with my psp and play gta call some cops over and hop the border into good old poland

Play a game go to jail...I don't understand why this law is even considered.

The german law sets us german gamers on the same level like child violaters. What a shame, but hey german politicians also burn people who maintain the world is a ball!

Thats just unbeleivable .....

damn. really glad i dont live in germany. maybe jack thompson should move there?

Looks like the Nazis still rule Germany well. I bet they will revive the Gestapo and use them to be modern day peeping Toms to see who's doing the killing on the TV screen. I'm never going to travel to Germany, if only to slaughter zombies in Dead Rising with a chainsaw to piss them off. What a stupid country.

Germany has stupid regulations on video games. If the US ever gets this way, I'm leaving the country.

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this aint gonna be passed

Keltek: You're way of the truth. You are deffinitely not fined if you hurt a tree, that was the most stupid thing I've ever hear, and I've hear a lot. Secondly, I'm quite scared of people that feels blessed to be this and that. I accept if you believe in God, but I do it when 1+1=5. You're not a better human just because you're an American, German or from Sweden which is my home country. Yes, we have a lot of regulations, but they are different from country to country. m0thr4: Actually, it isn't a fragile economy, it is a quite strong economy, currenty the strongest. And for US it is better if the USD is weaker than GBP and EUR because they import more than they export, that means lower prices. The one that loses money is the country that exports to the US.

omfg... human logic at its tops... do they wanna include jail time for kids who commit acts of cruelty towards dolls as well?

Okay, time for a little sanity here; I have just been speaking to a friend of mine in Germany. The German government is not considering jail time for gamers at all. This is a bill that has been proposed by a particular right-wing Bavarian politician who's out to make a name for himself... kind of a German version of the US attorney, Jack Thompson. EVen considering German censorship laws, this bill is very unlikely to become law, (it's practically unenforcable anyway and certainly breaches the European Convention on Human Rights) so I'm pretty sure all German gamers can relax.