Spelling flame inc: It’s “Zauberin”, not “Zauerin”. (And Wizard could be translated as “Magier” if you want a different name. The lines between “wizard”, “sorcerer” and “mage” are pretty blurry, so why not take something that may not be exact match, but is un-ambiguous and pretty synonymous?)

Hmm.  I just went to look at the original “German sorceress” thread, and couldn’t find Bashiok’s comment.  I guess he deleted it. 

Did Bashiok’s cryptic reply reveal too much?

That second one went way over my head. What legislature?

Dunno, but the two possibilities that come to mind are either something to do with privacy rights interfering with Warden/other similar anti-hack measures or something to do with the level of violence.

I think Germany’s clashed with the video game industry over both those issues in recent history.  I know there’s German readers on this site, we want clarification please?

I’m no german but apparently they are pushing for a law to ban all violent videogames in the country.

Hence why he probably removed his post, hehe.

Indeed, Germany is very close to implement the most aggressive measures against so-called violent games (similar to what you see on radical Muslim countries).

An impressive move I’m at loss to qualify. Idiotic, comes to mind. But somehow it doesn’t say it all.

If this law passes, it will suck to be a German player. And my thoughts will be with you, German fellas.

i dunno why germany has to fail so hard at everything. first they let a guy kill a shitload of people under the pretense of “reuniting the germanic motherland”, and then after that blows up in their face they make every effort to suppress freedom of speech while neo-nazi gangs beat & kill tourists in the german country side.

their government needs a lot of work.

were i in their position, i would look at the fact that censorship and suppression has had no effect on curbing race based violence, and i would try to crack down on that shit in a sensible way. like tracking down and executing violent neo-nazi for one.

EDIT: just to clarify i think that ALL governments need radical reorganization as none of them have gotten it right yet.

If this law passes, it will suck to be a German player. And my thoughts will be with you, German fellas.

It already sucks to be a gamer in Germany. Very little blood, etc can be shown. Last time I wound up buying the German copy of Fallout 3, then simply downloading the English version and replacing some files. Oh, and importing from the UK is popular too. Here’s (selfishly) hoping the GBP remains weak against the Euro.

That said, Bashiok’s statement is…strange. It’s not like they would just refuse to produce a censored version; the German market is way too big to ignore.

(And Wizard could be translated as “Magier” if you want a different name. The lines between “wizard”, “sorcerer” and “mage” are pretty blurry

The German language hasn’t really followed what English fantasy literature and gaming has done to the vocabulary of traditional folklore and occult beliefs. See the myriad translations of Kobold for example.

Oh, and just for perspective: I’m not German, but I’ve lived in Berlin for a year now. There’s an acute awareness in Germany of its recent history…I’ve walked through the (relatively new) Holocaust memorial, been to Sachsenhausen, and to Wannsee.

So there’s a very real, painful understanding of what can happen when you dehumanize people and violence.

Personally, I like the near-absolute free speech guarantee in the US, and I think it probably yields the best results in the long term. But the rest of the world, for the most part, sees things somewhat differently.

Having knee-jerk morally-superior reactions to this doesn’t really help anything. Yes, it’s a bad idea, but you have to understand where these politicians are coming from.

Personally, I like the near-absolute free speech guarantee in the US, and I think it probably yields the best results in the long term. But the rest of the world, for the most part, sees things somewhat differently.

Not really, no. Most western countries are even more liberal than the US on many issues regarding morality, ethics and certain freedoms. In fact, we often regard USA as a rather conservative and traditionalist society on many aspects.

In any case, Germany officials are acting on shock. I’m not even sure the German Constitution would allow for such a total ban. While the specter of dehumanization may indeed be a very touchable concept in German society, censorship is certainly not far from the list of fears. Any psychologist or behaviorist worth their salt, will never directly relate violence in games to school shootings. Much more violence is present everyday on the news, on movies and on presidential calls for war against terrorism.

A law that ignores the real causes of school shootings and pretends the problem is somewhere else (like in computer games) is not going to solve the problem, necessarily. And it will create a few more:

- The effect this will have on the videos games industry in Germany (Crytec is German, for instance).

- ermany may as well become the top European country with most pirated software.

- Video game publishers in Germany and Europe may suffer greatly, since about any mainstream game these days has violence in it, or is themed around concepts of violence.