Proposed Swiss game ban detailed, won't target all violent games
by Griffin McElroy 
on Apr 6th 2010 11:30AM
Until very recently, there had been a massive void in our knowledge about the
violent game-banning bill which was recently ratified by Switzerland's National Council. With language stating it would outlaw the sale of games featuring "cruel acts of violence against humans and human-like creatures for in-game success," we feared it would constitute a ban on, like, everything. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case -- Swiss politician Evi Allemann recently explained in an interview with Swiss news site
20 Minutes (
via GamePolitics) that the bill would only affect around 12 "individual games" with extremely graphic content, such as
Manhunt and
Mortal Kombat.
Allemann commented that PEGI is "not enough," stating that Switzerland or even Europe needs its own body for video game ratings. Apparently, not everyone agrees -- the 20 Minutes article includes
a link to a petition against the bill, as well as its adjoining measure which would outlaw the sale of PEGI 16 or 18 games to minors. We'd like to remind these petitioners that Swiss 16-year-olds can legally drink beer, so hey,
let's not get greedy.
