Why do countries like Germany, Australia, and New Zealand censor so much in games?

[U]

So I’m sure we all know about how Germany has to have edited versions of games sold there. They can’t have violence in their games much. And many games are outright banned. (We all know how Germany has always loved to ban books especially during the wars, it’s unsurprising they ban games now.)

But Australia and New Zealand (they copy each other) both ban many games too. On basis of them being too violent or too sexual, usually.

I think that’s pretty dumb. If you think it’s too much then just put an 18+ rating on it.

A good example of a banned or censored game is Postal 2, I think it’s banned in Australia and New Zealand, and banned or edited in Germany.

Do you think the elderly politicians are correct to decide what games their subjects can play? Or do you think these countries should make freedom of speech laws to protect all games?

[☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n]

China's worse. They even limit the amount of game time under 18's can have per day.

I'm just grateful the UK government don't really give a ♥♥♥♥ about gaming.

[permanent name]

☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n님이 먼저 게시:

I'm just grateful the UK government don't really give a ♥♥♥♥ about gaming.

They’re involved at the publishing level and are the ones ultimately responsible for things like the Blizzard HK fiasco, using TenCent (a UK owned company) as a proxy.

The intent was to drive support for HK by overstating China’s authoritarianism. It’s a very totalitarian approach.

Varsik님이 먼저 게시:

Australia ,no idea but probably another stupid reason

To expand on my earlier comment about AUS vs the natives,

Basically the aboriginal response to colonization was to retreat deeper into the outback and avoid conflict.

The settlers perceived this as an attempt to use the environment against them and have been struggling to destroy the natural Australian environment ever since. Which keeps failing.

Authoritarian measures like game censorship and over the top drug criminalization are an adjunct to this world view. Anything perceived as a threat to law and order, even a vague one, gets bunged with the biggest boot they can find.

[Mr. Tex]

It's hyporitical nonsense in my eyes, a way for politicians to score cheap political points with a small but very vocal group of voters.

Just look at their own domestic TV-shows and films, plenty of nudity and violence there.So there's no scietific reasoning behind the censorship. And Germany has been one of the world's biggest producers of pornography, yet they think computer games are a bigger threat to supposed moral decay.

Like Japan, Germany has had a self-imposed censorship as all Germans are supposed to feel guilty over what happened 80-100 years ago, which is absurd. Equally insane is the idea that banning certain symbols on German TV is necessary because otherwise it will trigger people into becoming Neos en masse. More or less everyone in Germany already knows what these symbols look like anyway, so what's the point even.

The whole drug issue ... like I said, they already have TV-shows and films with that in them, so who are they protecting by banning these games.

The idea that computer games will turn people into druggies is the same as the idea that violent compter games will turn people violent. Yet science does not back this up. It's a way of avoiding the real causes and issues. It's way cheaper for a government to ban computer games than to reform or improve the socio-economic and healthcare systems, as long as it "looks" like they are doing something many voters will be happy with that.

[☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n]

permanent name님이 먼저 게시:

☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n님이 먼저 게시:

I'm just grateful the UK government don't really give a ♥♥♥♥ about gaming.

They’re involved at the publishing level and are the ones ultimately responsible for things like the Blizzard HK fiasco, using TenCent (a UK owned company) as a proxy.

The intent was to drive support for HK by overstating China’s authoritarianism. It’s a very totalitarian approach.

Do you have any proof to back up those claims?

[Ramonkey]

Well easy. Germany is still atoning for their atrocities committed during WW2. New Zealand, well no one cares about New Zealand, and Australia has never been the same ever since they lost the great emu war

[permanent name]

☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n님이 먼저 게시:

permanent name님이 먼저 게시:

They’re involved at the publishing level and are the ones ultimately responsible for things like the Blizzard HK fiasco, using TenCent (a UK owned company) as a proxy.

The intent was to drive support for HK by overstating China’s authoritarianism. It’s a very totalitarian approach.

Do you have any proof to back up those claims?

Yes the BIS forwarded me a memo about it. /s

It’s a UK-owned company. Do you dispute that?

[Uncle Sam]

permanent name님이 먼저 게시:

☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n님이 먼저 게시:

Do you have any proof to back up those claims?

Yes the BIS forwarded me a memo about it. /s

It’s a UK-owned company. Do you dispute that?

I suppose this is City of London Corporation type of shenaningans, regarding Tencent & the HK movement?

[Amuro0079]

☮ne✟rue𝓢ax☯n님이 먼저 게시:

China's worse. They even limit the amount of game time under 18's can have per day.

Last I heard that only applied to online games. They can still play offline single player games unlimited.

[sfnhltb]

Mr. Tex님이 먼저 게시:

Just look at their own domestic TV-shows and films, plenty of nudity and violence there.So there's no scietific reasoning behind the censorship. And Germany has been one of the world's biggest producers of pornography, yet they think computer games are a bigger threat to supposed moral decay.

I guess in the same way the most bigoted/racist people tend to be those with no or extremely little contact with the group(s) they are prejudiced against, people find it easier to be more outraged or suspicious of the impact of media they have little or no experience with, so it is easy to rile them up and make outrageous claims that those who have experience with the media in question would find laughable.

[levet.byck]

because some games or publishers haven’t been..tbc

[pasa]

They censor everywhere, why would games be an exception?

[Birthday Snatcher]

These censors are as good as the ones they use in Japanese pornography

[davidb11]

GErmany hasn't censored video games in over a decade.
And the ban on Nazi themed stuff was removed several years ago now.

I'm not sure why we're acting like they're still doing that.
LOL wut.

As for Australia, I'm pretty sure even they've stopped doing that.
Same with New Zealand.

Look at Path of Exile. :P
Made in New Zealand.

[Gus the Crocodile]

davidb11님이 먼저 게시:

As for Australia, I'm pretty sure even they've stopped doing that.

Nope. Dunno what you heard, but the Refused Classification category still exists. It’s not used very often, but it is used.

[davidb11]

I'm not sure what that has to do with censorship at all though.