Associate
- Joined
- 15 Jun 2006
- Posts
- 2,178
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- Amsterdam
n the aftermath of a recent school shooting in Germany, the regional governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony have proposed new legislation that could punish those who make, distribute, or even play video games featuring "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters" with a fine and up to a year in prison. The newly drafted bill is scheduled to go before the upper house of parliament next year.
The draft law, a reaction to a school shooting that shook German public opinion last month, will come before the upper house of parliament next year. But it is already sending shockwaves through the 2m-strong German online gaming community.
The discussion in the world's third largest video games market also comes at an awkward time for Sony, which has delayed the European launch of its Playstation 3 videogame console from last month to next March because of component shortages and technical glitches. Call of Duty 3 and Resistance: Fall of Man, the two best-selling PS3 titles on Amazon.com's ranking list are both first-person shooters, which would fall under the mulled ban. Sony Computer Entertainment Germany refused to comment.
Germany has 40,000 active online gaming teams, the best of which regularly take part in worldwide tournaments where victories bring lucrative sponsoring contracts and prize money in the hundreds of thousands dollars. In the past decade, online gaming has become increasingly professional, with a rising number of players making a living out of their skills and teams acquiring renowned gamers for hefty transfer fees. Even if the ban does not make it through parliament, all this could be at risk, says Holger Scherff, leader of the German a-Losers.MSI team, if the discussion leads corporate sponsors to review their endorsement of professional gamers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16070177/
The discussion in the world's third largest video games market also comes at an awkward time for Sony, which has delayed the European launch of its Playstation 3 videogame console from last month to next March because of component shortages and technical glitches. Call of Duty 3 and Resistance: Fall of Man, the two best-selling PS3 titles on Amazon.com's ranking list are both first-person shooters, which would fall under the mulled ban. Sony Computer Entertainment Germany refused to comment.
Germany has 40,000 active online gaming teams, the best of which regularly take part in worldwide tournaments where victories bring lucrative sponsoring contracts and prize money in the hundreds of thousands dollars. In the past decade, online gaming has become increasingly professional, with a rising number of players making a living out of their skills and teams acquiring renowned gamers for hefty transfer fees. Even if the ban does not make it through parliament, all this could be at risk, says Holger Scherff, leader of the German a-Losers.MSI team, if the discussion leads corporate sponsors to review their endorsement of professional gamers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16070177/
(love the xmas smileys by the way! 
I'm guessing the Call of Duty games are not allowed either?