German USK rating 18+

[ONISAIBOT]

Drastic Violence
Horror
Sexual Content

[cAipi_rInHa]

please spoiler me, how tf did this game a usk 18 rating ?

I've just played around 30 hours or something, and I didn't see anything that remotely justifies that.
So, I have to assume I somehow played around all that gore and sex?
Seriously, what's in there?

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by cAipi_rInHa:

please spoiler me, how tf did this game a usk 18 rating ?

I've just played around 30 hours or something, and I didn't see anything that remotely justifies that.
So, I have to assume I somehow played around all that gore and sex?
Seriously, what's in there?

You can/will be able to have sex with your companions, and extricating squirming brains from a twitching corpse or getting eye worms clawing into your brain are pretty disturbing to anybody who isn't used to that level of violent content.

[Butcher]

Originally posted by Maronchan:

Originally posted by cAipi_rInHa:

please spoiler me, how tf did this game a usk 18 rating ?

I've just played around 30 hours or something, and I didn't see anything that remotely justifies that.
So, I have to assume I somehow played around all that gore and sex?
Seriously, what's in there?

Other than gore, language and so on, there's mo-cap sex. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-66279358

Devora says she was pleased game developer Larian employed specially trained intimacy co-ordinators to make sure actors feel comfortable during romantic scenes.

You simply didn't see it... maybe yet, maybe you just didn't get that far with anyone.

Wow, Larian actually made CGI porno with live actors. So progressive.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Deylendor:

Dude. Stop spreading mist.

The only one "spreading mist" is you, i am afraid. You do not seem to like the fact that i can easily disprove you by pointing to actual censorship happening this year.

Originally posted by Deylendor:

Your outlier is just that, an outlier.

Nah, you claimed there was no more censorship. I disproved you. You can now try to downplay the fact, but fact it remains. Germany is still censoring for gore. The USK, and this i already wrote in the initial post you took umbrage with, might have eased up about it, but we are also not talking about the USK. We are talking about the BzKJ.

Originally posted by Deylendor:

Stop depicting Germany as some North Korea of videogames.

Nobody has done that. Get that chip off your shoulder.

Originally posted by Deylendor:

The censorship here is barely a thing and 99% the time it doesn't affect gamers.

it is really a misconception that gamers in Germany are some kind of oppressed cattle.

That is your issue, not mine. Pointing out that censorship does exist and the historic tendency of the BzKJ as well as the existence of actual laws that might be broken by the international release has nothing to do with depicting germany as some sort of "north korea of videogames".

Especially not when pointing out the concern about it, is about wishing clarity before committing a potential criminal offense.

Originally posted by Mortal_Kasi:

If the game has an USK 18 rating everything is alright, it can not be indexed after it got that rating.

Where did you get that from? The USK is a a company created by the entertainment industry in an effort to avoid being censored by the state. It is the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (Entertainmentsoftware selfcontrol) and has been accepted by the german government as selfregulartory body of the entertainment industry. It has nothing to do with the german government and getting past the USK does not mean that the BzKJ (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons), the actual german government bureau, will not censor the media.

Usually we see it the other way around. The USK refuses classification, and a distributor decides to risk it and sends their copy to the BzKJ for proper classification. Which then of course risks you bringing it to the attention of the censoring body, which can mean it gets indexed on either List A or B. Where as you could sell it without USK (although some companies didn't stock non USK titles - which was a bigger deal during the brick&mortar days), if your media ends on the index then that is the decision of the german government.

This is why the whole Wolfenstein situation was so infuriating. Because the BzKJ generally had no issue with video games as Art, the USK did not perceive them that way. The BzKJ had long revised its position, but the USK upheld it many years past that, which is why everything was censored.

But the USK is only a voluntary selfregulatory body run by the "game" interest group, whose members are among others Microsoft, Activision and so on and so forth. Getting an USK rating does not make it safe. USK is no german government body. It operates with the blessing of the german government body, as they are having the stance of "if you regulate it, we don't have to", but if anyone goes to the BzKJ and reports "harmful media" (if it is or isn't is up to the BzKJ), then the BzKJ has to investigate.

Originally posted by Mortal_Kasi:

So i do not really see a reason why the USK 18 Rating should be a problem,

It isn't, aside from the fact that its a voluntary rating and can be overturned if someone reports it to the BzKJ, which is where we started off here... in this discussion and someone claimed to have seen people reporting the media to the government.


I personally would like some Clarity from Larian on the matter, as i am no lawyer and unfortunately, as mentioned previously, there is the issue with the acquisition of certain forms of pornographic material being against the law in germany.

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

Originally posted by eRe4s3r:

The problem is how steam handles this in Germany. Notably it (usually) just says "this content is not available in your region" because Steam has no age verification that is legal in Germany.

Doom eternal is also USK 18 and that's no issue. Steam only refuses to sell games specifically containing *pornographic* content in germany.

Well, I almost wish there was a high profile game like bg3, that had pornographic content...maybe steam would finally see the need to add proper age verification for germany then...^^

[IVOX3L]

Originally posted by ONISAIBOT:

Drastic Violence
Horror
Sexual Content
:cleanseal:

sounds about right

[Red Shirt]

Originally posted by Fizzban:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSqqgl8H5M

Can you imagine if this became widespread? The adult entertainment industry would go bankrupt due to the paranoia of users. A better means IMO of policing content distribution would be to bring back brick and mortar stores for gaming. It would also encourage sales of other titles and products people might not see otherwise and be better for local economies.

[Volo]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Aphex:

That already happened. I saw screenshots of some reports.

Their channel was also banned from TikTok during the live presentation because of that bear scene.

What has me worried is that if you look at § 184a StGB[www.gesetze-im-internet.de] the 2nd part of that paragraph suggests that "bezug" (acquisition) is illegal. Which means buying the game could land you in hot water, and i would love for the Developer to make some sort of statement about that, where an actual Lawyer explains if its okay to even buy the game in germany.

I don't expect this to end up with people ending in jail for buying the title, but it is quite difficult for me to simply pretend i didn't know about that.

Der tierpornografische Inhalt müsste in einem Spiel schon den Hauptkern ausmachen bzw. gerade überwiegend aus diesen Inhalten bestehen, damit der Tatbestand erfüllt ist. Eine kurze Szene sollte dafür nicht ausreichen mMn .

Außerdem würde man dir schon nachweisen müssen, dass du gerade diese Szene freigeschaltet und dir reingezogen hast. :D

[Heu, Iterum Id Feci]

Originally posted by Volo:

Originally posted by Ishan451:

What has me worried is that if you look at § 184a StGB[www.gesetze-im-internet.de] the 2nd part of that paragraph suggests that "bezug" (acquisition) is illegal. Which means buying the game could land you in hot water, and i would love for the Developer to make some sort of statement about that, where an actual Lawyer explains if its okay to even buy the game in germany.

I don't expect this to end up with people ending in jail for buying the title, but it is quite difficult for me to simply pretend i didn't know about that.

Der tierpornografische Inhalt müsste in einem Spiel schon den Hauptkern ausmachen bzw. gerade überwiegend aus diesen Inhalten bestehen, damit der Tatbestand erfüllt ist. Eine kurze Szene sollte dafür nicht ausreichen mMn .

Außerdem würde man dir schon nachweisen müssen, dass du gerade diese Szene freigeschaltet und dir reingezogen hast. :D

Ich glaube selbst deutsche gerichte würden die vorstellung dass man sich dutzende stunden spiel antut (die szene war in akt 3) für eine 20 sekunden szene in der nach unserem kenntnisstand nichtmal was zu sehen ist. "Hauptkern" wird da schwer zu argumentieren sein...;)

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by Dαятн Wαfflεmαncεя:

Originally posted by Volo:

Der tierpornografische Inhalt müsste in einem Spiel schon den Hauptkern ausmachen bzw. gerade überwiegend aus diesen Inhalten bestehen, damit der Tatbestand erfüllt ist. Eine kurze Szene sollte dafür nicht ausreichen mMn .

Außerdem würde man dir schon nachweisen müssen, dass du gerade diese Szene freigeschaltet und dir reingezogen hast. :D

Ich glaube selbst deutsche gerichte würden die vorstellung dass man sich dutzende stunden spiel antut (die szene war in akt 3) für eine 20 sekunden szene in der nach unserem kenntnisstand nichtmal was zu sehen ist. "Hauptkern" wird da schwer zu argumentieren sein...;)

Und zudem habe ich extrem starke zweifel dass das was gezeigt wurde als "pornografisch" bezeichnet werden kann. Ich gehe mal schwer davon aus dass nicht mehr als das was on stream war gezeigt wird.

Und dann wär es ja nix anderes als die wasteland 3 szene mit der ziege.