Blood / Gore in German video games?

[Oldsoul]

a come on where is your country spirit

[FelixTheCat]

so left 4 dead is not uncut here. we have blood but no Dismemberment (head explode, shooting arm off...) and the corpse disappear. for german circumstances its a "good" cut

coz e.g fallout3 has no blood, no dismemberment, no drugs no nuthing. it suxx playing in german...
on the other hand there is dead space. very cool game, very creepy very much gore and its uncut in germany.
you see, there is no straight line but in fact, if you have human being its very obviously that it will be banned. games like sacred and diablo arent that brutal coz its a totally different gameplay.

the better the visual blood/gore thingy, the obviously your game get banned.

games like "manhunt" are on the index. owning is chargeable.

[Coincident]

Originally Posted by Kir4

major stores voluntarily stopped selling games that are rated 18+ (I'm not kidding- they really did). Populistic scapegoat-massacre, in my humble opinion.

That's just a shame. I usually find games with a bit of blood/gore to be adequate, especially if YOU ARE KILLING something...


I don't know about y'all, but for example, if you play COD4 you're shooting, knifing and throwing grenades to blow your enemies up, and you don't see a single drop of blood?

It's just weird and unnatural.



Even if they had to sell it as a 18+ game, so be it... I'm 23 now anyways what do I care? :P

[Galefury]

I'm not exactly in the loop regarding this, but the amount of blood and gore is only one of many factors. Realism was always a big thing. If the game has a fantasy setting you will get away with a lot more than with a realistic setting like WW2 or police combat. Having murder as the main objective of the game also doesn't help (the Hitman series is 18+ for example). Violence from a first person perspective can also be a problem. Being rewarded for using needless violence is another huge problem.

Example: Fighting as the main objective of the game means the game will be at least 12+. Dismemberment of non-humonoid enemies would get you a 16+ rating. Dismemberment of humans would definitely put you at 16+, probably 18+. If dismemberment isn't random but can be done on purpose its definitely 18+, possibly worse. If you can do it on purpose and get extra exp for it you most likely wont be able to sell the game in Germany.

Maybe just ask the USK directly?

[Kurrus]

I'd like to add that Team Fortress 2 is censored in Germany. Players drop confetti instead of blood ( ) and explode into silly objects like balloon dogs, hamburgers and gift boxes when they'd normally explode into bloody gibs.

The "Meet the Team" videos released in german have also been censored, but in a rather weird way, as blood is replaced by oil and the characters are presumed to be robots.

[Mivo]

I'm from Germany, and watched the regulations change several times over the past twenty or so years. It isn't really so clear-cut what violence/gore is as far as the regulations are concerned, when it comes to video games. In general, the rule of thumb is that "realistic" killing of humans (not robots, etc.) is what gets games rated 18+, which means you cannot buy them unless you provide an ID (show it to the seller or fax in a copy). Retail stores tend to not bother with 18+ games at all. Games like Diablo 2 and such were all fine. The level of realism plays into this, which it really mostly affects shooters, not other games.

What is a definite "no-no" is swastikas in games. This will always get a game blacklisted and it may not be sold at all. (Swastikas are fine in educational materials, even in movies that have have little educational value).

(Please make the game multi-lingual, it's so much easier to buy it locally than have to import it. I don't play localized games if I can avoid it.)

[khrotos]

Originally Posted by Cironir

I'm from Germany, and watched the regulations change several times over the past twenty or so years. It isn't really so clear-cut what violence/gore is as far as the regulations are concerned, when it comes to video games. In general, the rule of thumb is that "realistic" killing of humans (not robots, etc.) is what gets games rated 18+, which means you cannot buy them unless you provide an ID (show it to the seller or fax in a copy). Retail stores tend to not bother with 18+ games at all. Games like Diablo 2 and such were all fine. The level of realism plays into this, which it really mostly affects shooters, not other games.

I wonder, would it work if they just called everything robots or ghosts or whatever? Capcom, for example, back in the day put out a game called Final Fight where you would come across and fight these chicks. However, to get the game released past the censors, they just called the chicks guys. So this is a guy (no nudity but might be NSFW).

[Mivo]

It would probably be enough if the colour of the blood wasn't red. It's fairly silly and never made sense to me, but as far as the USK (the German department that rates games) is concerned, there is a significant difference between green bodily fluids and red ones. Or Crate could just add a "no gore" option and make it unchangable for the German version. But I believe this would only matter for a boxed version anyway. (But I only ever downloaded US versions when I purchased games online, so I'm not entirely positive how Steam/etc. handle this for localized versions.)

[Gorkk]

Originally Posted by Mivo

What is a definite "no-no" is swastikas in games. This will always get a game blacklisted and it may not be sold at all. (Swastikas are fine in educational materials, even in movies that have have little educational value).

Yay, this lead to lots of modifications for Wolfenstein to be released in Germany (and they did a last minute recall after they noticed they had forgot one tiny swatzika in a fram).

Originally Posted by Mivo

(Please make the game multi-lingual, it's so much easier to buy it locally than have to import it. I don't play localized games if I can avoid it.)

Here here. I personnaly have pretty much rarely played a localized game since I've "tasted" the French voices in Baldur's Gate (Imoen's voice particularly). Though having access to the French version quite helps when I start a fansite on a particular game

Though I can answer to you there Mivo, medierra said they'll use the same system as in Titan Quest for localization, so at worst all you'll need is somone to send you the English texts if your local publisher decided to only put localized texts (and it's unlikely there'll be localized V/O - didn't get a clear answer if they'll use the same localization options - selection by a drop down in configuration - for V/O as they did for texts only in TQ, but I do hope so, as that'll open to fans' localizations of V/O too).

[SteeK]

Originally Posted by Mivo

It would probably be enough if the colour of the blood wasn't red. It's fairly silly and never made sense to me, but as far as the USK (the German department that rates games) is concerned, there is a significant difference between green bodily fluids and red ones.

So really, you could release the game with green blood so it hits the shelves alright. Couldn't you then just release a patch for red blood? It's a bit of a swizz and I've no idea if you can legally get away with it (would likely be a loophole), but it's just an idea you can mull over.