China, Germany Crack Down on Gaming
December 12, 2006
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China is now requiring video game distributors to closely monitor game content after some were found that included forbidden religious or political material, a state news agency said.
The Chinese government is also tightening controls over newspapers, television, and other media.
The latest crackdown was prompted by “a rash of problems with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes,” Xinhua said. It said some were criticized as pornographic or too violent.
The report gave no details about the religious and territorial issues, but the government is sensitive to references to Islam and Taiwan. Regulators said distributors concealed the content of the games when applying for approval, and operators sometimes upgraded games with improper content, Xinhua said.
In Germany, after an attack on a middle school by a former student earlier this year, the German government has become increasingly determined to legislate against not only games, but also the gamers themselves!
A recently proposed law would not only make it illegal to create or distribute game content which features “cruel or otherwise inhumane acts of violence against humans or humanlike creature,” but players of such games could also be charged.
Crytek studios, developer of Far Cry and the upcoming Crysis, is considering leaving Germany for a more welcoming environment. CEO and President Cevat Yeril stated that if the German government followed through on its intended legislation, “Perhaps there won’t be a Crytek in Germany. That would mean we’d have to get out of here and go elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere” could very well be somewhere here in the U.S., as the company works to complete the highly anticipated Crysis.
Germany, of course, has had a long history of aversion to violent game content, often requiring a game to remove blood and violence towards humans to be replaced with indistinguishable “ooze” or other fluids as well as zombie or robot enemies.
