Electronic Arts condemns German 'censorship'.

Gerhard Florin (Electronic Arts executive VP) has publically requested that Germany ditch it’s current USK rating system and adopt the more widely used European standard PEGI.

"What we're doing here is censorship," stated Florin. "And nobody complains. When we talk about games here it's about violence or their alleged addictiveness, and not about their cultural status. The few good studios are asking themselves why they should stay here anyway."

Marek Brunner who heads up Germany’s USK disagrees and states that there are no plans for to move to a PEGI system. It's hard when half-truths are being used," said Brunner. "They say the USK does this wrong, the USK does that bad and why doesn't this get a rating?"

So who’s right? One thing is for sure, the poor Germans certainly get a raw deal when it comes to their choice of games because of their rating system and the rulings of the BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien - the German government's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons).

Even if the game isn’t rated (which essentially means it’s banned from sale), it may still suffer from omissions to enable it to be sold in the German market. Both Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 and Valve’s more recent Left 4 Dead had to be heavily edited so they could be offered for sale. More often than not, it is the depiction of blood that has to be removed.

Recent titles the Germans have missed out on completely include Dead Rising, Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden 2 although the more savvy German gamer can import the titles to play without fear of penalty as the law there only prohibits the sale of such games not their ownership. Many gamers also import the titles which have been subject to edits so they can play and view the games as they were intended.

Such is the impact of the German rating system that a quick scan of Google reveals quite a few specific job roles for German localization. Note the text in the example; “ensuring each piece is followed through with relevant checks and edits.” Interestingly Microsoft simply refuses point blank to edit any title rejected by the USK, hence why titles such as Gears of War are not available at all.

The debate on video game violence and its effects on the young in particular have been ongoing for some time (particularly since the widespread use of 3D graphics) and this is perhaps an issue I will touch upon in greater detail in the future.

In brief however, I do personally believe parents and retailer’s ignorance towards ratings causes the majority of the problems as opposed to the actual content contained within video games.

Compared to film, the violence currently in video games is relatively tame although I appreciate the interactivity offered doesn’t make them completely comparable. It should also be noted that films within Germany are subject to stricter guidelines than those in the majority of other European countries.

And just why sex is so shunned within our industry? Show so much as a pair of breasts and your asking for trouble, and that’s a fairly universal trait, not one just reserved for the poor Germans. Given that I can chainsaw a man in two within some virtual environments (well outside of Germany anyway!), it seems bizarre that games developers are frightened to include an act essential to the survival of our species and largely associated with love.

However, these are issues that I will cover in greater detail in future, in the meantime spare a thought for our fellow gamers from Germany; forced into playing the gaming equivalent of edited for TV movies.