Why don't Germans like video games?
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Aug 18th 2005 at 10:00AM }
Why don't Germans like video games? That's the question on everyone's minds in Leipzig, Germany
as Europe's largest video games exhibition opened its doors to the public earlier today.
German citizens tend to play less and spend less on games than their peers in other industrialized nations because of a widely held public perception that games "make young people stupid" according to a Reuters news piece on the issue. EA spokesman Gerhard Florin says that that attitude may result in Germany missing out on a chance to influence what is sure to be a major part of popular world culture.
In his keynote address to the conference, Florin called for a public education campaign, presumably one that would extol the virtues and benefits of games. Tax dollars to support video game ads? That's crazy!
Or is it? The government here in the States subsidizes tobacco production. Games are surely better for kids than cigarettes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TurboDonky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I would venture to say that Germans enjoy gaming...but through different facets. Board games and hobbies are BIG in Germany. I recent trip to a German toystore in Munich was very interesting. The 4 story building contained video games on the first floor, kids toys on the second floor, board games (Settlers of Catan, Elfenland, etc.) on the third, and hobbies (model trains, airplanes, models, etc.) on the fourth.
The busiest floors were the board game and model floors - very few on the video game floor.
I am an avid video-gamer, but if hobby stores and board game/role-playing stores weren't so "geeky", I would spend more time and money in them. The U.S. focuses much more on video games.
Board games and hobbies are much more social for gamers. Think about the interaction that takes place in a game of Risk as opposed to a game of Halo or even Warcraft 3. Both video games enjoy very climactic moments, but compared to a game of Risk (or even Monopoly), board gamers share in-person community and gain better social skills. The Germans are a more focused and efficient society that, for the most part, would rather spend time playing games in the presence of actual people rather than online friends.
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
If I were Germany I'd launch a public education campaign to inform people that EA Spokesman Gerhard Florin is a prick.
robotrock @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I would venture to say the Japanese play more video games than any other industrialized nation...and I wouldn't consider them stupid by any stretch.
Blue Balloon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Or fear about us win over German since there are popular WWII game against on German and Nazi thing. Could that be that source?
homer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
#4 Blue Balloon - that's a pretty dumb theory...not that i completely understand what it is you're trying to say.
CHILL @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Video Games make kids SMART! lol, crazy Germans.
---DAV---
svecias @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I live south of Stuttgart(thats in southern germany to our geographically challenged audience.)
I like to play video games, but I like to be productive better. And thats how a lot of my friends think. I do have a friend from france, and he spends his life playing WoW. And, he missed the deadline for school to register.
I like call of duty, when I play online, I always play on the german side. If I was alive back in the ww2 days I wouldnt support them. But, I pick them, like I pick germany as a football team when ever I play fifa or winning 11.
n8 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I spent time in Germany - in Stuttgart. My sense is definitely that the Germans are more about social fun in the form of board games rather than the less interactive fun of video games. I think it's also a different form of competition that may be coming into play - board games are more strategic, and beating one's opponants in a board game is truly besting them intellectually, whereas video games are often more about button mashing and twitch (which is a skill, but a less intellectual one). That may be more appealing to Germans who are often stereotyped as being very efficient and productive because playing a board game is seen as actually excercising one's brain more than video games.
thies @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
we are too busy plotting world domination. again. muahahaha
CHILL @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
#9, good idea. It seems that Bush over here wants to do that! good thing hes gone in 3 years.
Yes, I would much rather be productive than play video games, but when i have free time, Project Gotham Racing 3 will be taking it up.
Sander @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Err...I don't know about less gamers. Back when I played EQ1, the Germans and other non euro speaking countries had a dedicated server, and I still met a bunch on my server.
Andrew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I dunno.
Germans are pretty big on Videogames, I've seen alot of Germans CS Source, BF2, Soldner, and so forth.
They are pretty big on it. I guess. Germans stereotype Videogaming as a twitch activity, yet fail to realize all the RTS and RPG genres that are focused on anything but. An RTS is pretty much the same thing as Risk or Warhammer, right?
TurboDonky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Bush isn't plotting world domination #10. He's facilitating the avertion of future catastrophes. To ignore a growing threat is foolish - demonstrated by the 9/11 commission. Had we known the imposing threat of terrorist groups, we could have been proactive in preventing such a tragedy. Fools who are responsive in nature pay more in the long-run.
Thank goodness he's gone in 3 years? What good did Clinton do in his 8 year reign? Did he prevent terrorist threats by routing suspects? No! He was too busy in the oval office with personal affairs. Assess the character of Bush and Clinton. One was actually impeached! Bush put our military to proactive use. Bush is a man of morals, Clinton is a man of lies and deception.
Bush has been overt about his plans from day one and delivered on every promise he made.
TurboDonkyIsAnIdiot @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Oh my god TurboDonky, you're an idiot.
Ever heard of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef? He was responsible for the first WTC bombing in 1993. Guess who caught him? Yup, Clinton.
What about the whole Bosnia action? Clinton did use the military effectively to stop the genocide there. You know, the war in which Sean Hannity was quoted as saying "Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?" (btw, there were 0 US Military deaths there.)
Where's Osama or Mullah Omar? Why are we waging a highly ineffective war in Iraq while Osama is in the Tora Bora region?
Guess what Bush did when he become president? Removed the CounterTerrorism Chief as a cabinent position ... the man now doesn't report to him directly. (Undoing the change that Clinton made in 1993.)
Why is George Bush too busy to interrupt his vacation to talk to a greving mother who lost a child in Iraq?
Why is Karl Rove stil employed by the President even though he not only leaked out one CIA operative, but in the process leaked out an ENTIRE CIA front company and numerous other agents?
How dare the republicans nominate someone who avoided Vietnam, and then wear Purple Hearts with bandaids mocking John Kerry's REAL medals?
Clinton lied about adultery. Bush lied about his intentions to go to war (Downing St memo?), he has made the country less safe, not really caught any major terrorists (all the major ones have been apprehended by Pakistani intelligence) and still has a man who literally COMMITTED TREASON be his chief of staff.
You are such an idiot.
And now, please... back to gaming instead. I don't come to Joystiq to see Rush Limbaugh garbage.
TurboDonky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Alright Chap, Clinton found Ramzi Ahmed Yousef? Great! A little too late - wouldn't you say? There's a woman who lost her son? She's one in over a thousand. War is hell. She's using her son's death to flame her liberal views - I'm sure her son is proud... That woman is refusing to pay taxes. That's ridiculous. The party that wants the successful people to pay the medical bills, food, housing, clothing, etc. of the lazy and jobless is now refusing to pay taxes. How would you recommend funding the many promises that your liberal coherts want to deliver? You use the success and education of republicans.
Bush did not lie about his intentions to wage war against Iraq. He told us his intentions...and WENT! Did he find Hussein? Yep. Was Hussein a murderer and torturer? Yep. Poisoned his own people. Or, do you think mass homicide is acceptable from world leaders?
Bush avoided Vietnam? He was discharged with honors from the National Guard. Why don't you get out of your utopian democrat mentality and actually ask a military serviceman or woman what they think about Bush. Why don't you ask intelligent, successful business people?
Your ideology is borrowed from Hollywood actors and actresses, the mainstream media, and any anti-Bush person. Get in touch with the real world bud - talk to tax-paying Americans who despise giving their hard-earned money to people who suck the teet of welfare and medicaid. We believe in a war that proliferates the safety of our future.
Okay, let's all be little automaton droids and believe everything we hear on TV.
Jellodyne @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
2 main things: no blood and no nazis. People love to kill nazis and see blood. German video games don't have either, or much profanity or sex. So they suck, and nobody plays them.
OmegaSupreme @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Stop being such girly swats Germany. It's far more important to be 1337 at video games than to get some lame ass qualification for teacher.
mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
wasn't nintendo supposed to hold press conference at like 10:30?
oh, and politics are useless to debate. everyone has their own views, and ranting yours isn't going to make a difference to either person. am i expecting you to care? no. do i care? no.
just live life, it's tough enough as it is, and we all have to deal with it.
homer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
TurboDonkey is either extremely stupid or is a govt-paid shill. Either way, it's a waste of time to argue, but it's important to point out that he is just spewing the same bullshit that the commentators do on foxnews, thereby showing his simple-mindedness. "Bush has been overt about his plans from day one and delivered on every promise he made." If bush had told us all "on day one" that he was going to illegally invade another country, i don't think he would've been elected (could be wrong, of course - you never know these days). he used the 9/11 attacks as a springboard to implement the stated neo-con (PNAC) strategy of protecting isreal at all costs by invading its neighbors. He LIED to the american people about WMD's/etc and KNEW he was doing it, and our "liberal" media repeated those same claims as if they were facts. I think most politicians are lying theives that don't deserve a job a mcdonald's, much less creating the laws that we live under. All that being said, this is not a political board. TurboDonkey is truly the super jackass his name describes.
TurboDonky @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Interesting that in a political discussion - one of us is civil and the other calls names. Typical of those who are intimidated by truth.
(BTW, the U.S. was not the only country informed of WMDs - the British were too. Intelligience pointed this out. If he did not respond to the CIA's threat, you would argue that he is a president who does not respond to terrorist threats).
homer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
hey man, if you don't like being called a jackass don't have "donkey" in your name. you speak the truth as described by limbaugh and o'reilly, among others, which is only truth in their twisted little world. we had the same flawed intelligence the brits did and the white house was WARNED REPEATEDLY it was wrong. bush and his cronies ignored that. kinda like you ignored my whole post, apparently. is it safe to assume that you are posting to joystiq from iraq? if you're so gung-ho over this administration i would think you'd be over there fighting...
August @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Germans represent the most amount of racers licenced to play the online racing simulation Live For Speed.
http://lfsworld.net/desktop_images/licensepiedraw.php
Go figure :P
MuddBoggr @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Uh... the E.U. also subsidizes tobacco production. Not just the U.S. does it. The only reason for the U.S. price supports is to help local farmers compete in the marketplace against imports form other countries.
Also, in 1982 it became a law that the price supports for tobacco net no cost to taxpayers other than administrative costs. The US has also cut subsidies way back (less than half of what they were 5 years ago.)
A sure way to keep people like me from having to write about boring stuff like this is to keep your snarky, uninformed political opinions to yourself, and keep it all about the games.
vladimir cole @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
How are tobacco subsidies at no net cost to taxpayers? The money doesn't appear from nowhere: if there are subisidies, money is being put to use that could be refunded to taxpayers. I'll email you off-blog about it, because I'm not interested in debating it on Joystiq.
Loki @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I'm actually pretty sure Germans play some form of video game just like anybody else. How do I know this? Theres a MMORPG called Tibia with German servers. I've been on one. It's actually quite fun.
frazier @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
What's more stupid, or should I say "stupider," playing video games on a regular basis, or not posting speed limits on major highways,huh? YEAH, hey, I just got my license and this brand new sports car...hmmm I think I'll see just how fast it can go today, why not it's legal....CRASHH!!!!!! you're dead!
I can crash my car in the virtual world and still live to see tomorrow!