14 DAY TRIAL // Yeah, it may sound shocking but it could be true. In some parts of the world, the authorities are coming down hard on violent video games. German officials blame video games for a recent school shooting and have decided to take some drastic measures.
In a MSNBC report, is it revealed that the regional governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony are planning to adopt some new laws, which if they go through could punish anyone who makes, distributes and even plays video games featuring cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters with a fine and even up to a year in prison. This new bill is scheduled to be voted in the parliament next year.
This all comes because of an 18-year old boy, who attacked the Scholl secondary school on November 20 in German town of Emsdetten. In his craziness, he wounded 27 people, killing another 12 including himself.
I have to inform you that German gaming regulations are among the most harsh in the world, for example take the game of Counter Strike, which doesn't feature blood spurting from gunshot wound and when shot, victims dissipate instead of collapsing on the ground. Even though the German version of Counter Strike features such restrictions, German CS teams always come in the first five positions of gaming tournaments.
Germany is also the host of the world's third largest computer games convention, the Leipzig Games Convention. If these new laws will go through the parliament and get accepted there is no telling what kind of effect they will have on the German gaming market.