Crytek concerned about German 'killerspiel' banning law

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 5th 2009 9:02AM

Crytek's CEO is expressing serious concern over the German bill currently making its way around the Bundestag that would ban games "where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or un-human acts of violence against humans or manlike characters." So, you know, most of the fun stuff.

CEO Cevat Yerli expressed in a statement that a ban on action games was "like banning the German artists that create them." He continued, "If the German creative community can't effectively participate in one of the most important cultural mediums of our future, will we be forced to relocate to other countries?"

Considering Crytek is probably the most well-known German developer, it wouldn't exactly be in the country's best interest if the firm left.

Source

Tags: cevat-yerli, crytek, culture, germany

Reader Comments (62)

Maybe 'banning' is the wrong word for it... it should be re-labeled as a 'challenge'!

What is that even supposed to mean?

maybe they are just sick of all the WW2 games that have people killing germans

Maybe they shouldn't have started shit, and made it so interesting.

Ironic coming out of Germany, the country that is home to H&K who makes some of the best weapons in the world and the country who killed so many people and almost took over europe.

I think the point is pretty much to get rid of that image among other things.

@Jampirow: Makes sense

Germany; they love being Nazis about not being Nazis.

funny how germany gets so much shit for trying to take over the world. yet no one ever gives england, spain and france any shit for succeeding in taking over the world.

@Paul

Noticed the difference? Those other countries 'succeeded'. Remember, the winner writes history.

@ Jampirow: No, that's actually a reaction to a recent school shooting with 15 dead and 11 wounded.

Once more, computer games were blamed as they are a convenient target for idiotic politician.

Funny how the most likely cause of these school shootings is the one which is never blamed - the other kids.

@Paul and @MarioSpitza

Well maybe that's because there's no one currently alive who survived a genocide by France, Spain, or England. Okay, well maybe England.

But the real question is why do we still ignore all the genocides that have happened since Germany?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history#1951_to_2000

On another note, I do agree with the statement Jimiisama said about how Germany loves "being Nazis about not being Nazis." They try so hard to get rid of their image, that they start creating all these rules banning offensive things. Which is, in itself, fascist.

I can't wait (in the unfortunately ironic way) for when school shootings go up in Germany because the kids have fewer ways to blow off steam. I guess someone had to be the scapegoat for the case study. Apparently "idle hands are the devil's tools" doesn't translate into German.

Also, to the Baron: +1

"I think the point is pretty much to get rid of that image among other things."

Yeah, because Germany doing things to the extreme has worked out so well for them in the past.

@ Jimiisama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

wow that'll ban most games cept for like...Tetris and umm

Tetris will be banned under the "absolutely no nazi imagery" clause, because the L-block looks like 1/4 of a swastika.

Crytek have a point, this is a stupid law from the nanniest state in Europe. It's unjustifiable legislation and I fear the Merkel administration and her coaltion of backwards Christians may push their forlorn agenda across the continent.

However, maybe if Crytek's portfolio wasn't so creatively bankrupt then they wouldn't be forced into the position of making sabre rattling statements.

Yes, only Crytek makes violent games exclusively. Not like id! Or Epic! Or, you know, 80% of game developers everywhere.

It's a stupid law, period.

"Yes, only Crytek makes violent games exclusively. Not like id! Or Epic! Or, you know, 80% of game developers everywhere."

You're right. Gaming is at a real low ebb at the moment.

Crysis introduced a lot of unique concepts, and while it was generic in plot, characters and writing, it made up for it in the open-world action aspects.

I know you hate everything which isn't a high-concept indie platformer, Bowser, but sometimes you should admit that some games are less crap than others.

It's like Rock and Roll and Comic books, a group of people has latched onto it as the cause of societies problems and are fighting it so they get a feeling of doing good for the poor little children.

That's about as likely as this law being passed Baron. HIYO!!
No wait, shit!

Zut Geist!

What an idiotic law. It may be wrong to kill people, but it certainly isn't wrong to kill pixel'd terrorists or robots.

or Fallout Survivors ^_^

Those freakin' Raiders have it comin', I'm telling you.

"You're right. Gaming is at a real low ebb at the moment."

That was sarcasm, right? Because there are probably more non-violent games available right now than ever before, and not just because there are more games, period. Guitar Hero? Rock Band? Wii whatever? And that's just the commercially successful stuff; what about Flower, Pixel Junk Eden, Maw, Braid, etc. etc.? If you can't find a good non-graphically violent game today it's not that you're not trying very hard - you're not trying, period.

Anyone who is really concerned about violent videogames needs to look at his own game shelf and determine what they're buying, then decide if the devs are simply making what people will buy. Fortunately most of the top sellers for any given month are non-violent Wii games or Rock Hero X; take those away and it's Gears of War, God of War, Fallout 3, COD4, Halo 3, Resident Evil 5, etc. Good games, all - I don't have my panties in a twist about violence in games but to say that gaming is at a low is ridiculous, and to blame developers even moreso. Stop buying violent games and they will stop making them, I promise. There are tons of other options available.

You sir have said it all. Plus 1 to you.

Guitar Hero kills it's own genre..

Although.., that's Neversoft for you..

That fat bastard has a point

Feuer frei!

I guess Germany wants to Distance itself as far as possible from anything that could lead to Holocaust games....

http://video.canadiancontent.net/43720662-family-guy-german-tour.html

No, that's only yet another misdirected attempt to stop school shootings.

yea cause we all know their were no school shooting before Video games....

oh wait...
http://mm.news-record.com/legacy/indepth/06/williegrimes/grimes.html

Dumm deutsche Regierung Schisekopfs

So Germany is trying to forget their violent fascist past by creating a non-violent fascist future.

Hey, if it ain't broken...

Well it's gonna take a lot of work to get rid of that image. But as they say: "Arbeit macht frei".

It's times like these when gamers are probably glad to live in America, where things don't get banned, just taxed and restricted to death. (but not banned)

Germany is the world's 3rd biggest economy if I am not mistaken, so taking that market away from game developers is kind of a big deal.

Sure I enjoyed stuff like Braid, played Tetris to death, but I'd still rather play Call of Duty or Fallout 3 most of the time.

NICHT GEIL!

Not horny?

geil does mean horny, but it's also slang for cool

affengeil?

I think the main concern is just the depiction of realistic killing. Killing robots isnt realistic killing. We're talking stuff like Call of Duty i would guess?

There should be no concern. I can understand (and support) age restrictions due to the vulnerability of developing children's minds but outright banning certain media is just plain wrong. If the freedom and rights of another person are not infringed upon (aka. actual murder) then how can playing these games be considered an illegal offense. No government has the right to tell their people what they can or can't play.

The phrase "from one extreme to another" comes to mind.

EXTREME FEVER

Not to defend that idiotic law, but... shooters are "one of the most important cultural mediums of our future"????

Seriously? What has over culture come down to?

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Crytek concerned about German 'killerspiel' banning law

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