Germany’s Interior Ministers are requesting the Bundestag (German Parliament) to enact legislation forbidding the production and distribution of all videogames, "where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or unhuman acts of violence against humans or manlike characters." Seen as a response to the rise in youth related violence, politicians hope to present a number of reforms before national elections take place on September 27th.

Earlier German efforts had included a ban on war-like game scenarios such as paintball and laser tag, where the current age requirement is 18 or older, only to be scrapped when the measure was seen as immensely unpopular. IF this were to become law, limiting the cash flow of an already troubled German economy may send local developers like Crytek to neighboring countries.  

Soapbox please…
The greater issue is the lengths to which politicians are willing to go under the guise of maintaining social order. Videogames are often labeled as the correlation between minors and juvenile violence, until said minor reaches 18 and other factors such as depression, social anxiety and a bevy of other reasons may play into the perpetrated crime. Generally speaking, Germany is sensitive to realistic violence, often having developers change blood color, remove Third Reich imagery, or completely omit game scenes, and understandably so in the context of their war torn history.

However, an outright ban will cause more harm than good, especially when you consider the practical uses for videogames as a teaching tool for real world simulated experiences, particularly military uses (this includes aviation style games). Granted, I don’t live in Germany so I do not have the same perspective nor have I read any real proposed legislation. I understand the goal motivating those who want to ban violent videogames, but I do not believe this is the proper way to reduce violence in minors.

[Chip Online]
[Spiegel]