5 Weird Ways Germany Has Censored Video Games
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- Video game censorship in Germany is a big deal, but the ways in which games are censored are often surprising.
In this video we talk about games such as Wolfenstein, Indiana Jones, Half-Life, Soldier of Fortune II, Call of Duty: World at War, DooM, Saints Row: The Third, Command & Conquer: Generals, and Grand Theft Auto. From blood and violence, to references to World War 2- the changes may not always be surprising, but they're always strange.
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#dorkly #lowbrow #animation #pixelanimation #pixelart #comedy #videogames #censorship #indianajones #halflife #callofduty #gta - Komedie
as a german i am so emberassed about this
Das habe ich mich auch grade gefragt^^
I am glad it's in English so I could see this beautiful exchange. Thank you.
At least we got this GEMA-crap out of the way -_-
Winni Winni i prefer everything in english series, gaming, youtube and movies
Uchiha Shisui ich fühle mit dir!
Damn, Austria must be a place of limitless violence and murdering psychopaths with their lack of censoring videogames.
Yeh. xD
Eintopf Mitschinken Ye we are cold killers!
Yeah, they also have much easier access to guns. I bet they are killing each other in the streets on a daily basis.
Yeah but silencers and shotguns are illegal.
Only pump-action shotguns, semi-auto shotguns are fine :^)
I'm German and I never knew that the "gears comig out of characters in tf2" wasn't normal.
How 'bout "MEEEEDDDDDIIIIIIICCC!!!!!!"?
I'm German, too, and tbh the censoring of TF2 is utterly hilarious and fits the tone of the game much more. I actually had foreign friends asking me to send them the German files because they laughed their butts off. Good times.
Oh? Ok...
What makes me laugh is that they censor the violence, but also make Scout swear about 6000× more.
Eh, cultures different depending on the country. Maybe swearing is more common and accepted there then it is in other places
There is a game called "I have no mouth and I must scream" a really important character who was removed from the game because he was Nazi like. This made completing the game impossible because of how the player is missing a good portion of the story that's needed to finish the game.
The Nimdok chapter. For some reason the French version removed it too.
I imagine piracy is super popular in Germany.
not much more than in other countries. But it's not that unusual to import games from austria, switzerland or the UK^^
From what I've heard, Germany is quite advanced in discovering pirates.
I installed a "uncut-patch"for CoD World at War, but dont tell my parents :P
That's not piracy, that goes under modding :P
+Arusiek90
Actually the region lock was an idea of the companies themselves, as they don't want you to buy in cheaper countries or to play games, that are not made for your consoles (PAL/NTSC). The government doesn't have anything to do with it.
as a german myself i had enough of this shit and changed my steam store country to the USA
Hunter Rodrigez so what u still seeand get everything by your ip not by country u select :D and when does last new game was cencured ?
god you talking about vpn get your shit right it has nothing to do with changing steam country beside atleast you can buy most of games and you dont have region lock on games like warframe and etc even though you are on europen server and from europen country
nightknight dude... You obviously never tried to change your steam store country so why don't you just sit down and listen to the guy who actually did it
To change the store country your ip needs to match the country you select which is why you need to change your ip via VPN or something to lets say the USA for this step and this step alone
After that you have access to the USA store with USA prices and games
So which part of this just can't work according to you?
MCA der Negus ja aber nicht ohne guten Grund, zum Beispiel wenn man als steam Land ein Land angibt wo die Spiele sehr viel billiger sind (diverse osteuropäische Länder zum Beispiel)
Hunter Rodrigez Does that cost more?
USA: Nudity=Bad, Violence=Good
Germany: Nudity=Good, Violence=Bad
Netherlands: Nudity=Good, Violence=Good
I'm a lucky guy.
Tumblr: Nudity=Bad, Violence=Bad
Japan=Beautiful
Poland
Violence=Good
Nazis=Good (even if we were victims"
Nudity=TOO MUCH IN TV
MrTristan ik ook
MrTristan 😐
Meanwhile in china
The word censored was censored
They cant make a video about China censorship because the games just aren't there at all.
"Comment was removed due to China censorship laws"
Meanwhile in North Korea:
what does this weird word 'censorship' even mean?
@@TesserLink Harmonisation laws, they can hear us. Be quiet! ;)
the censorship is such bullshit. one reason why im not buying games here in germany...... and southpark was the most bullshit.
Rausche Pauli was it #1 bullshit?
It doesn't make any sense for most games these days, because many games actually doesn't get censored anymore, especially not the ones which are fully published in the internet.
Yeah censorship here in germany is pretty fucked up.
But there are ways around it. Buy a DVD-Release from Austria or if you want to go with the, slightly, more complicated version, use a proxy to suggest steam that you are in the UK. The former doesn´t care where you are and the content is uncut. The latter means you trick steam from where you play and therefore the version you play.
Intrestingly enough if you buy a game on steam early on, you usually get the uncut version of the game. And they don´t change that retroactivly. For example Borderlands I, II and PS. Had the first one on DVD and didn´t buy it on steam. Bought the second and third one on release (uncut). If I had to buy them again they would be the cut version (Prior to a bloodpatch the first one was cut. Downside of DVDs = They get lost).
Just buy games from overseas
Rausche Pauli uncut patch funktioniert gut
If the German release of Witcher 3 got the same treatment, I would actually go out of my way and get a copy. Just imagine, instead of bandits, you get to kill robots in a medieval fantasy setting!
They left Witcher 3 alone but i still play the US version. It's not only the censoring that is bad in German versions of games but also the dubs and dialogues are often butchered as well.
+SchwererGustav800mm the german witcher 3 dub is amazing and far better than the american or polish one (opinions) and why getting the US version if you can switch all languages in the uncensored german version lol
you don´t get the idea, do you?
A Cabsalt care to elaborate on that?
Geon Quuin that robot talk is mostly a lie lol 😂
Message from 2018 Germany:
It has gotten better.
@StablizdBlodd less, not sure but i hear you can even buy 2 versions for the new Wolfenstein, one censored and the other with swastika and the other nazi stuff, not sure about it. I know that now a game is not prohibited in principle if it have swastika, like before.
@@ratzelsambora8157 back in the days you could simply order a uncensored copy with german voice acting from Austria. And since the Internet and VPN... So i actually couldnt even Tell for Sure if we finally can got them uncensored in regular stores.
Tf2 now shows blood as well
they still ban the entrie l4d, dead space and dead rising franchise though
@@tuocbui
no clue where you got that l4d ban info but it's been definitely been available on steam for the past couple years (at least the "low violence version)
dead space 1&3 are available as well but no clue if full or censored (since they don't show the usual "low violence version" flag)
and in terms of dead rising, we at least got part 4 so not the entire series banned (just the best parts of it) =D
They dont even have to censor adolf hitler or the word Nazi. Only the swastika and the SS-Symbol because they are considered anticonstitutional symbols in Germany, Publishers still do it tho. Its not like Germany wants to hide their past in Video Games, its just that the Games are not considered art. That law also doesnt allow people to publicly show these symbols.
Also the german USK which gives the games the ratings or says that it wont get a rating has become more liberal over the time, to the point where the violence in Doom or Wolfenstein the new Order was totally unaltered
Teo Laurich The swastika wasn't even made by the Nazis.
I know that but because of its historical background its considered an anticonstitutional Symbol and thats why they cant show it in games. But publishers think they have to censor everythink nazi-related, which is not the case.
Teo Laurich My French teacher is from Germany and her neighbors are Hindu so they paint symbol of love on their door... Which is a swastika.
+Thomas Dank engine Yeah the nazis abused the symbol for something it didnt stand for
At least, Viscera Cleanup Detail is a cakewalk in Germany.
Haha
Take my like, you deserve it for making me laugh.
as a german that owns that game and i played it for a while ( 400 hours or so dont ask why ) i never thaught about that ^^
Ash the Raccoon
dose anyone remember the German version of counter - strike XD.
you can kill people but inseted of dyeing and flopping on the floor like a rag doll, they will surrender where they died and lie on the floor XD
Half Life!
They sit in down and cry about getting shot
Gabre Nope uncut
+henrik licher
Only after the ridicule reached insane levels of people making mods that let the downed soldiers yell in a whiny, child voice "I don't wanna play anymore, I go home to my mommy!" and actually walk off screen.
Only then they finally got the hint that they overstepped the idiotic nanny-state threshold.
Acidhog Alpha
yeah they do... I dont get that shooting a guy in the head with an awp makes him surrender and there is no blood... logic
Also something similar happend with half life 1... npc's have no blood but there is blood all over the walls in some sections of the game.
some one ikr
tbh I know that nobody is going to read this anymore, but still we Germans just play the originals because we ain't give a shit that bout the German versions.
Well it is not the People of Germany who doesnt recognize Video Games as Art it is actually the goverment who doesn't recognize this as art
Also censorship in germany isnt that bad anymore
Finally that someone notices what's going on 😅
Germany is like an overprotective mom!!
a mom that really likes hitting its children
And letting strangers from the trailer park down the street come into their home
Daniel Rhapael don't worry, change will come
Daniel Rhapael I have both: German Censorship AND an overprotective mother :D
Glatteis.TV is that life like… you can't do anything at all, and you try to escape it by doing things secretly? Cause I feel bad for anyone in Germany with a overprotective mom.
As far as I know the new Doom was released uncensored and Battlefield 1 was rated 16.
It gets better.
As was Mortal Kombat X. It got fully released here, without any kind of Censorship. It's quoted, that, because the Violence is so over the top and comical, the USK didn't saw any threat for Players confusing it with real Violence.
Manti Core so violence is bad till there's so much it's unbelievable.. How does that make sense? Censorship is stupid.
MacK Baker Basically yes. It sounds stupid, but somehow makes also sense, at least to me.
The whole Censorship isn't about banning Violence for the sake of it, but to protect young Players, who might get their hands on it, so they won't get any stupid Ideas. (wich is BS to me)
Thats basically the same reason, why it was for some Games okay to have Blood, as long as that Blood isn't red or non-existent. If the Dev made the Blood green or black, or erased any traces of it, it was a-okay.
Same thing, with the Robot-Censorship, because it's unrealistic Violence on obviously Non-Human-Things.
If it can't be confused with real Violence, it's not that big of a Deal and might get an 18+ or 16+ Rating.
Also, keep in mind, the weirdest kind of Censorships happend in the 90s and early 2000s - by now, many poeple, who grew up with the classical Dooms and Mortal Kombats and so on, even work for the USK and the FSK and rate games different, than the poeple back then, who needed even young Poeple, to play the Games for them.
EgoRaptorLP nazi stuff is still overcensort
Herscher 12 cause videogames are still not seen as art
When you play an medieval game and you kill robots .
Our future robot overlords will be pretty pissed off to see that we find the destruction of a robot acceptable.
Kind of ironic that by making all humans robots, you are essentially dehumanizing everyone you slaughter... Damn that's fucked up.
Humpiest Ranger Better than humanizing everyone you slaughter.
A Very Kind Guy um no, that makes no sense.
A Very Kind Guy Soooo
.. it's better to view living beings you kill as objects? What's the difference between a human made out of metal and a human made out of flesh?
Idontevenknowwhatavideogameis Human made out of metal is a robot not a human lel xddddd
A Very Kind Guy Soooo...1 is called a human and the other is called robot. because the material is different. what if I replaced my fleshy body with a metal body? Am I no longer human?
Um yeah, two things wrong alreadyand I'm just 30 seconds in.
First: Germany doesn't censor. The Developers submit a game already censored by themselfes because they fear they can't publish the game in its current state in Germany.
Second: The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle or USK in short works FOR the industry, was created by the industry and all they do is play games and then council the government on what ages a certain game is for.
Also, as of now, pretty much every game is released completely uncensored in Germany.
usuariofuturista
Relax dude, you have no idea. There is no blacklist. Both GTAV and Fallout 4 launched here completely uncensored. If these two games can pull it off, every game can.
It's censorship, don't bother the wordgames.
Bombsquad85
I'm not gonna defend that the government has been overly squeemish for up to the last six years or so, but there is a stark difference between a government regulating an industry and that industry self censoring in sometimes completely unnecessary ways. Im sure Half Life would have had no problem being published here even with human enemies. The whole replacing people by robots thing was always completely unprecedented. This video makes it look like our Government has a squad of programmers who rework every game that gets released here.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it works like movies: There is a German (language) uncut version, but it's not German (country) - instead, these versions are published in Austria as a workaround.
The state requires games released to the public to carry a USK certificate. So, it is state censorship. Even though you hand it to another entity to do the censoring, it's still enforced by the state.
The Command and Conquer Generals is awesome. I'm gonna try to find more ingame screenshots of the German version .
Dont Forget In Wolfenstein 2
Hitlers Moustache Is Gone
MEIN LEBEN!!!
worst part is that in the German Version its not even Adolf Hitler, but a different character, and when one of the actors call him mr hitler, in the german version he says “mein heiler”(“my healer”), and when the "Not Hitler" guy orders him to say the correct term, instead of "mein fuhrer." they changed it to “mein Kanzler” (“my chancellor”). Despite the only difference in his model being the removal of his moustache, they treat him like he's not Adolf Hitler when he clearly is.
I'm guessing Germany sort of hates Wolfenstein?
@@SellerOfFruit No. Well maybe :D But here In Germany they ban Nazy symbols in Films/Games that are not historically relevant/accurate. For example in the movie "Der Untergang"(Downfall) which depicts the last days of the war they were allowed to use these symbols. I think it's pretty stupid because it's not like we are playing as a Nazi^^
@@SellerOfFruit A ruling by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court in 1998 formed the basis for the USK's corresponding approval practice. At the time, the court ruled that video games should not, in principle, display anti-constitutional symbols - but without taking into account the social adequacy clause. Nevertheless, the general legal opinion prevailed afterwards that the exception from § 86a (use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations) did not apply to video games.
But last summer, the USK changed its mind on the subject. The managing director of the authority said that games that "critically review current affairs" could now be given an age rating despite the display of anti-constitutional symbols. This also takes artistic freedom into account in the field of video games.
How was the suicide bomber offensive? That is what a lot of terrorist groups do.
it was made after 9/11. before the attack the games was uncut in germany
Considering how many people nowadays can't tell the difference, I find that change reasonable. Not necessarily agreed with, but reasonable.
*****
That you confused the terrorism as an aspect of their religion is a part of the problem. So is ignoring the effect that artists have on public perception, and thus on culture itself. For an artist to believe the mindset comes only from the perpetrators and not influenced by their own work is for him to not understand what he's doing.
Not that removing entire game modes is the best answer, but let's not pretend artists have no responsibility of their own to uphold.
*****
You mention Muhammad as an image to be emulated, so on some level you're aware that influence on others is important. Yet you pretend that it's irrelevant when portrayed through visual media? Is it that you didn't really believe him being relevant, and just struggled to find ANY connection from the culture and violence, or that you can't bring yourself to place those same standards on our own art, suggesting a lack of self-control?
I have to wonder which is really more dangerous. The artists who fail to understand their responsibility toward those they seek to affect, or the propagandist who intentionally seek to subvert.
Artists who pretend they alone are not responsible for the effect of their art ARE part of the "weak people". You're not truly standing by your work while you're also distancing yourself from it. A warlord is empowered partly by the brute force he employs, but often by the rhetoric, which is the more relevant aspect after their passing. That "manifesto" and a careless artist are quite comparable. They are both an expression of one's vision to others, and can be employed to similar aims. The warlord in this case is employing a more specific art form (I'm assuming you'll agree that writing is a form of art). One is more extreme, but they both ride to work in the same car.
I'll also put down my notion that no one should be able to make _anything_ they wish. Hiding behind the label of art does not excuse anyone from failing to take the consequences of their actions into consideration, any more than a terrorist loading his gun is excused from his actions because he believes in the cause. An artist making a subversive piece, a pyro shoving "fun" things into an urn to light it, EVERYONE should think carefully on what they are doing, who it will affect, and must take responsibility for their actions, minor or catastrophic. Anything less is the sign of a simple-minded fool excusing his actions because he is too weak to control himself, and too weak to avoid displacing it onto others.
That being said, I agree that depicting violence and encouraging it are not the same thing, as our topic of choice has somewhat split away from the original. And, of course, that political correctness has been overdone at times. I, again, do not agree with the level of censorship some countries employ. However, nor can I agree with the notion that artists should get a special "blind eye turned". You are, in any case, far more erudite than the typical CZcamsr.
Thats why we bought uncuts from the UK.
And strangely Battlefield 1 is completely Uncut and USK (German Pegi) 16
Whilst Battlefield 4 was a Bit Cut and USK 18
ItsJustNils probaly because its world war 1 not 2
That was ww1 idiot, their where no good guy or bad guy during this war
what was cut in the german version of Bf4?
Skrall The Roamer Blood was Cut Down a bit
As a german i can say, that it is slowly getting better. Doom (2016) has been released uncut, as well as fallout 4 (3 and nv were censored here)
The thing is, the index and heavy censoring drive loads of people to piracy.
Back when dead Island came out, the cut and the uncut version both ended up on two different indexes (yes we have two), so the only way to get the game was importing it yourself or (more commonly done) get your hands on a pirated copy.
8:47 Generals in Germany was actually Cyberpunk 2003
BlackS0l lol
Displaying Nazi Symbols is illegal in Germany. Probably should have mentioned that.
1:00 following...
Yeah, but he doesn't expressly say there's a specific law regarding this (or the rationale behind it) and it's kind of a misnomer that a video game isn't considered art whereas music or movies are...Inglorious Basterds had to change their poster and, as he mentioned, KISS had to change their logo. Further--it isn't (as he states)"local censors"--it's a nationwide law.
I'd mostly agree with you, but the law against the censorship regarding Inglorious Basterds/Kiss only applies on the title/logo. During the movie the symbols are not censored.
Imo it is absolutely dumb that videogames are still not treated in the same way as e.g. like movies etc.
Untill then we still have to import or proxy activate our games.
As I said--displaying Nazi symbols in public, regardless of the medium, is illegal in Germany. I didn't say they censor movies. I said that Nazi symbols are illegal in Germany. This video does not mention the law or the reasoning behind it. But then again, it is about video games (i.e. toys).
slybuster A pretty stupid law if I may say so.
I find this kinda ironic since "Mein Kampf" was the bestselling book in Germany in 2016 with 85k copies sold
That is because it was illegal to be printed prior to it. So there was just a small amount ot copys around.
Now as it is legal to multiply it again people are able to buy it.
I have it - and to boe honest - it is so bad written nad strangely articulated that I don't see how people could actually read it.
However it is a bit complicated - Mein kampf was not forbidden per se but it was illegal to be multiplyed because its rights were reserved to the bavarian state, so without their consent nobody was allowed to print and pubish the book. That right not is terminated.
And another fact on the high copies is that "mein Kampf" now is part of the educational process in schools. So they bought a bunch of them as well.
Because it was band before and there was a new version with comments about why hitler wrote it the way he did. This is for history knowledge reason and not because all of us are nazis.
Mein Kampf never was "illegal" in Germany...the copyright owner simply decided to not print it...I assume you are bright enough to understand the difference...and also why it is a problematic topic in Germany...
Sorry for being misinformed. Although I am glad that such a discussion arose from my comment.
Alberich LP i'm sure it's Not used in school o.O
One of the many effects of post war policies...
What I take away from this is that in an alternate parallel universe, Terminator game enemies in Germany are replaced with humans.
so germany got mann vs machine before us!
techno504 Technically, Machine vs Machine
Technically, _Mensch Maschine_.
technically, Mensch gegen Maschine
Hehe you're right. I was alluding to the Kraftwerk track.
Germany has nude ads? K, I didn't like games that much anyway. See you guys
and its on youtube.... uncensored
im dead serious
Nudity is no big deal in Germany. Thats one of the reasons that germans look strange when someone says that public breastfeeding should be banned.
Where is the ad?
For *cough* scientific purposes of course.
Finn the Mudfish
I've seen it. Just look up German nude ad
Out of curiousity:
Is it also a thing in the US that you can't watch some private channels (mostly even more popular ones with stuff like Navi:CIS on primetime and then those ads after like 11-12pm) on TV at night without seeing sex hotline ads in the commercials? or even whole night programs centered around it with those ads inbetween (like german sport1 channel bradcasting "night sport" or something similar?)
I don't remember exactly at what time they start but I remember watching dmax from 1am to 5am in a hotel because I missed my train b/c delay (yay deutsche bahn), and I've seen the same stupid ads over and over again, the whole night, and i even remembered some from when I was still in my early-mid teens (which was about 8 years ago, they don't seem to change these up that much as it seems)
So ... Nothing about Nazi Zombie Army and Zombie Army Trilogy ?
Oh well ...
18:57 "The German box art on the other hand"
I like how at one point you compare USA and Europe, yet MANY countries in Europe are VERY different from each other and what they allow on TV, in games etc.
Please don't generalise Europe, we are very different from each other.
What are you talking about? The EU is Europe is it not?
Switzerland? Isnt that the chees-place where all rich park their money?
ffmdotcom yes it is
+ffmdotcom No Europe is a continent, the EU is the European Union, union of multiple countries situated on the continent, but not all them. All countries in Europe and by extention the EU have different laws and regulations though some laws are EU laws (that only apply to EU member countries) mostly when it comes to laws regarding industries, farming/agriculture. In all cases the EU is big pile of bullcrap that can only fail, that should have been canned at it's inception, funny enough the EU was Hitlers dream (down to the one European currency indexed on the Deutsche Mark), where Germany was the leader, and well EU exists today and Germany calls the shots and the euro was indexed 1:1 on the Deutsche Mark lol go figure
Well the EU did succeed, the main reasoning behind the formation of the EU was both economical and diplomatic. By making everybody dependent on each other economically, war is discouraged between countries. Were there any wars in Europe after the formation of the EU? No. And before the EU? Yes! Why? Resources, religion, imperialism, nationalism etc.
Does this mean we can't criticise the EU for what it is today? No. Erasing it would be foolish. After all, what keeps warmongering leaders from waging war with its neighbours? Btw conquering nations is still not the same thing as having strong diplomatic ties with those nations.
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it
LucioU Oh hell no dude, you didn't just say that.
Kono Dio Da
Yes Dio, I believe he did.
Which is funny because school WON'T let us forget it. No matter how often they explain it to us, they keep doing it again anyways. So don't worry about that.
Those who forget the past are Doom II repeat it
and how are we suppose to Forget it?
That thumbnail is my childhood
You really summed up everything in that last line. Well done and thumbs up.
If you think this is bad, you should see North Korean video game censors.
Josh Rhodes they have videogames?
pedro lorenzo Man Monokuma meanwhile you are making teens kill one another have you seen Overwatch?
Josh Rhodes I thought they were still in the Stone Age.
All protagonists would be replaced with kim jong un and he could never be killed.
Josh Rhodes Lol like Alisa's robot head and chainsaws in Tekken
As a german who played the german version of C&C Generals back in the days, I really thought right until now, that this game has to do with cyborgs instead of humans. I am kinda surprised by that fact. I mean i saw some pictures of the original generals, but I really thought these were photoshopped. The fact that the units are talking in a robotic sounding voice made me more unsure about that x). That was kinda the reason why i clicked on this video. I have to mention that i still don't have a problem with them being cyborgs, I think this is kinda cool.
And the fact with the bomb shocked me o.O. It is ok to blow up a bomb on wheels, but it isn't ok to blow a cyborg up, even though that the cyborg untis are killing themselfs.? Huh, germany...
The cyborg voices were the most annoying thing. I really couldn't stand it. Lucky me, there was an unofficial uncut patch. And it included the original german voices without the cyborg effect. It's insane these alternate voicesamples were even available.
Finally, the game is off the index and you can get it unaltered in the Command and Conquer Complete Collection or on Origin, although it's english only on Origin. The changed language may not be a concern for me, the changed hotkeys are a pain.
war das nicht irgendeine geschichte von wegen, dass der damalige innenminister das spiel bei seinem sohn oder enkel gesehen hat - und anstatt das er IHM das verbietet, hat er es allen verboten ;)
ziemlich bescheuert, aber das game ist ja wieder vom index runter.
Also thought that command and conquers was all about cyborgs. even the older ones like "Alarmstufe Rot" was full of cyborgs.
Still played all the games over years and didn't regret it :)
I remeber much crticism about the censoring especially because the original version was released as C&C Generals and two weeks later banned so most people knew about it. EA then (re)released the censored C&C Generäle version. Even a GBA misson was cut. The bad thing was that the media could not report much about the topic becuase it could be interpreted as (forbidden) advetising. The good thing was that there was an uncut patch to fix all that very fast because of the uncesnored versions in austria.
The worst thing is the german version of resident evil when no blood came out of the zombies when they are dead. So you never know if he was really dead or not. Most time you end up with a bite in your toe.
You have to keep in mind that it's not germany or a german institution that does the censoring. It's the developers and publishers releasing the games to germany that do the censoring. Well, the nazi and swastika stuff truly can't get on the german market. That's true. BUT when it comes to the depiction of violence in video games it really comes down to the publisher wanting to reach a larger audience to sell more copies (because auf #5 of this video). The games are perfectly legal to obtain, possess and play even when on "the index" . There's actually quite a movement on steam that wants valve to include an adult shop with age verification to sell uncensored games which would be a perfectly legal thing to do. Valve keeps saying that this wouldn't be legal which is false and makes their legal department look very incompetent.
Of course such a uncensored shop would still not be able to have swastikas and nazi stuff but that's to be expected.
sie dürften es zwar theoretisch verkaufen, aber du darfst es nicht finden. Weil es ja nicht beworben werden darf. Und wenn dir dass Spiel augegeben wird wenn du dannach suchst, wurde ja irgendwie dafür Beworben.
Wow...theres no LIMIT to there censorship...
Golden Jokster27 yeah, but these days the new games dont see too much cencorship here, also *their
jakoskeleton Dude,we have heavily sexualized anime girls,bloody dead bodies and apparently many Nazi enemies.Just so much stuff to censor...
Everybody over the age of 18 can buy all the titles mentioned uncut. It's just a bit more difficult to do.
Knauziuz Listen man.We already have 5 year old GTA players and 12 year old COD babies so mind as well not sensor anything...
"mind as well not sensor anything..." ?
Hands down tho, I rather have boobs than exploding heads.
Nonononono NO! No holds down! Fuckin perv!
xD
zukuu why not both?
Smash Crafters ogre
it's all ogre now XD
It's never ogre.
what's the name of that advert for erm...
research purposes
German here. Almost every Gamer hates the censoring here and alot of us actually used other ways to get our hands on some of these games in its original form, sadly. There also uncut patches which some people make. Anyway looks like time changes abit and the censoring gets less here in germany.
It's not hello it's HALLO!
Also, the TF2 robots actually makes more sense than the actual game.
+Tony the Bulbasaur Mann vs machine exists.
Robots don't screw, if you know what I mean. (Meet the spy)
Robots don't get drunk and don't drink.
Robots can't piss, let alone bottle it.
Among other things. Man, I wonder shudder to imagine how much the 'meet the medic' trailer had to be censored.
Callinater It wasn't. They were kinda supposed to be organic robots or smth like that.
+Callinater
I guess you've never seen Futurama.
Tony the Bulbasaur which is pronounced almost the same
@Dorkly you know that the censoring of gore is gone in germany since 2016 do you? Nazi stuff is still censored tho
Syreon21 They changed it?
Yes they did
yeah but instead we now dont get the games with gore. Games get completely blocked off now, so instead of getting a censored version, we get none at all.
I dont thin kthat this is a step in the right direction.
We got Doom and Mortal Kombat X uncensored, which are examples of the most brutal games in the recent past. On the other hand Dying-Light was put on the "Index". I still would call it a step in the right direction. Also there is no robot-stuff going on anymore.
TheBrassn thats not correct dying light came be4 mkx and mkx itself was on the index for 1 week but the lead of the USK (german pegi) changed which resulted in the return of mkx into german gameshops
Very good video - as a German gaming veteran I can confirm all the facts. Gladly, over the last years, the censoring has become more and more relaxed.
8:11 *Connor Chase music starts playing*
I'm German and while all this is kind of true, I personally don't have a single censored game. Why you might ask, well because German gamers like myself have long gotten around this stupid censorship by just buying uncensored steam keys or uncensored versions of the games, which are widely available on the internet. The funniest thing about this is that as long as you don't market these uncensored versions to anyone, shops can almost sell them like the German version, they just have to keep them behind the counter or in an area only accessible to adults. If you as a non-German think this is highly illogical, look at our laws in general, there's more where this came from.
Okay, maybe I should've watched the whole thing before commenting,yes it's not easy to find uncut games in stores, but still, no serious gamer in Germany would even bother buying a censored game since it's become so ridiculously easy to buy these games over the internet.
+Benrocka
Back in the day you could also circumvent those silly laws by buying the swiss or austrian releases. These laws are just plain embarrassing.
Hey, i even like some cenorships, its cooler fighting Robots and an Regime, right guys?
Guys?
Good i don't live in germany.
Oh wait, i do.
Fack
the Soldier of Fortune 2 robot world is crazy enough to be kind of cool? Almost?
it's playable if you have no idea it was changed/censored
i ratter my extreme viloance goar plus are historians exempt from Germanys censorship
Yeah, If I want uncencored versions, I buy em in austria.
that would mean some years in prison kegster, at least if you were one of us. some guy said he wants a person to die in a concentration camp and he was fined around 50000€. and yes, goverment is spying for this shit.
we just buy games from switzerland, austria or great britain. its only illegal to sell them in german federal borders, but not outside. also its totally okay to buy or play, so its kind of okay. it only sucks that you need to wait a bit after release and have to pay a little more.
and vorster, if your steam account is located in germany, you have a german e-mail or a german ip you cant search or buy these games, if you lie to them, you will get banned (happend to me with left 4 dead 2).you can only activate them via code from a game you bought outside germany.
but today this cencoring shit has kind of decreased. many games are uncut, there is still all the violence and its okay. only the nazi symboles are cut out, because they are against german law. oh and there are more than you think. there is dubble h, the number eighty eight, the letters m and a, the birth date of hitler ......
Am I the only one who relied that the video picture is from the Command & Conquer: Zero Hour, Air Force General?
1. The USK does not censor games, they only give age ratings. Its the publisher that censor the game.
2. The Publisher themself are bringing their games to the USK for testing.
3. You can actually sell games without testing, but literally no publisher does that. Not because they fear some legal consequences, its the retailers. They will flatout deny selling anything without an USK Sigil
4. The USK ist not run by the State. Its an private Organisation with funds from the State and the Publishers.
5. A lot of the things revolving censoring Nazi Germany is actually a pain for pretty much everyone involved in the age rating process. It is on the table for change for like decades, but these kind of shit takes just far too much time here
6. Censoring Violence has gone down in the last 5-6 Years. A very good example is Fallout New Vegas. The Game first had all dismembering of bodies and other special death animations removed.
The Ultimate Edition however later got uncut on the market with the same age rating of 18+. Gears of War also got of the hook. now.
7. Every change to a game is not made by the USK and Germany, but by the Publishers themself. Do you know what that means? Cutting Zombie mode form cod? Activisions. Mercanary Mode gone? Capcom. That thing from GTA? you guessed it, Rockstar.
8. It is rare that a game gets on the Index in these days. But jea it is not allowed to make any positiv or negativ comment on something on the Index. You can mention the game and that it is on the index however. btw some games on the list he showed are only banned in there uncut version.
9. If you want a game from the index, you have to make a new testing. And the test costs money. If you have the cash you actually could get games of the index as a private person.
10. just to round it up, testing of these games are done by real gamers, the judging is done by a cast of people from Media and Politics.
Was Gewalt angeht, kommt ja zu gut wie alles zur Zeit raus bzw. werden vom Index gestrichen(neustes Beispiel Bulletstorm).
Nur das mit Nazisymbole wird wohl noch dauern.
Da im Gegensatz zum Film nicht alles Aspekte eines Spiels als Kunst gesehen wird.
Hatte ich eigentlich genau so geschrieben aber stimmt natürlich
Just to be a smartass and correct your title without watching the video (i do this afterwards): Censorship by the state is not legal in Germany, therefor Germany doesn't censor anything. There was a time when the rating system for videogames and movies was very strict (it still is, but not as much as just a few years ago) and so the developers and publishers of the games had to change things in their games to get the rating they wanted (or to get a rating at all).
Sometimes they did a really bad job at this, sometimes they got really creative but, like i said, by law censorship is illegal so they never got told what to change, the makers of the games always came up with it by themselves.
I'm sorry but i invested a lot of time in that topic which is why i always feel the need to correct people about it and i'm probably going to comment on this comment after i watched the video :D
Okay, here the comment on my comment with other stuff:
Swastikas: There is no law that makes it illegal to use them in games, but on the other hand there is no law that explizitly says it's okay. That's why developers ALWAYS changed them and as long as no developer has the balls to just not do this no one can't be certain what would happen. Developers just don't want to take the risk.
16:43 - It's technically illegal because in most cases it would be counted as advertising, but the state doesn't make a secret out of it. In fact, there is a list which is released by the state every month, it's called BPJM Aktuell.
Btw.There isn't a "the index", there are different lists + the possibility to "Confiscated" a game which leads to completely different rules for example that selling it is illegal while games that are only on the "index" can be sold everywhere as long as minors can't see it (so behind the counter or in a seperated "18+ only" room)
florianhatake
It's "Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle" because it's "Freiwillig" for those who want to have a rating for their films, not for consumers or distributors.
And no, they don't pressure anyone into anything, they get a copy of the game/movie and then it gets a rating or not.
They don't demand changes, they don't even say why if a game or a movie doesn't get a rating, so how can you say it's pressure?
florianhatake
No, then it would just be pointless.
+Bernd Müller
_"Swastikas: There is no law that makes it illegal to use them in games"_ - Here you're wrong. There is a law in Germany which makes it illegal to spread swasticas into the the public.
MKu MKu
Of course there are laws, but there aren't any laws or recent cases that explicitly said it's a no no in video games so there can't be certainity that the laws would be used on them.
Look at the list of games that are on the Index, a lot of them are versions that aren't released in Germany and most of them are on this list because of violence.
No foreign uncensored version is on that list because of the use of Swastikas.
florianhatake I see why you say it's not voluntary, as far as i know theres even a article on the website of the FSK about this somewhere in a FAQ area, read it because the "Freiwillig" part has a reason, it just doesn't mean what you think it means.
Was going to subscribe until he said Kiss was bad.
But if you looked past that, you have to admit that this was a really good 10 minute video that they managed to wedge into only 18 minutes.
noodles6669 Kiss is one of the worst bands of all time!!
That's a ludicrous statement. If you like classic rock, you have to admit they composed a few good songs. Detroit Rock City, Love Gun, I Was Made For Loving You, and Rock And Roll All Nite. Come on man.
I love classic rock and kiss is shit. In fact most of that US rock wave of those years was shit. If you want good rock, the UK's where it's at. Not brit btw...
The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, CCR, Van Halen, Aerosmtih, Steppenwolf, Black Sabbath. America had its fair share of good rock in the 70s
I just found your channel today at 11pm, and I love it.
Where can I find that soup commercial?
So just because I read it in here a lot and people don't seem to understand:
Germany does not deny the history when censoring Nazi stuff. Video games get censored because they aren't seen as art, but as an entertainment product. Nazi stuff is only allowed to show in historical context or art. Nazi Germany is a very big topic in the history classes and is not depicted fitting for a consumer product, that is for entertainment purposes only.
what do you mean the team fortress characters are supposed to be humans
Outside Germany they aren't robots. They weren't in quake team fortress. They weren't in team fortress classic. They weren't in TF2. Didn't you find the mann vs machine update odd, robots fighting worse looking robots?
soylentgreenb sarcasm bro... :D
btw you can easily solve the tf 2 censorship by downloading and installing some shit online only takes a minute.
tf 2 is censored? I am from Germany and I haven`t seen any censorship in the game all characters are humans except for the bots in man vs machine
+Magno Raider the players you kill explode into pieces of flesh (if you blown them up) but in the german version of tf2 people explode into random stuff but not anything close to flesh
Sometimes even racing games are being censored (for example Flat Out and Flat Out 2). But you're right. Sometimes it's totally ridiculous (Soldier of Fortune and CoC Generals). But the good thing is: more and more games are re-released uncensored (for example GTA: San Andreas) and the amount of new games that get in trouble so the publisher has to censor them decreases.
The cross is only removed because it is illegal to show it except it is in historic films
Germany: "We don't want to promote Fascism.. CENSOR CENSOR CENSOR!!"
was it just me but I laughed a the suicide bomber
That was made after 9/11. Before generals was uncensored in germany like GTA VC, but right after 9/11 many games and movies get banned at least for a time. In the us the do that to. In MGS2 there was a scene were a giant warship ramms into New York City. that scene was cut from the game worldwide before release
those things taken out in the US versions due to 9/11 are the company's choice. like how the rockstar CHOSE to cut the blocks surrounding the world trade center out of GTA 4. there is a big difference between to content creator making a choice to exclude content and government banning content.
There are actually different index lists, one for example is the one described in this video, the media is not really banned. But there also is a list that totally forbids some media.
Hello and greetings from Germany! :D
As I am a german gamer, I have to agree with everything you mentioned! It can sometimes be so ridiculous, I want to cry. There even were times when you wanted to play a game uncut in Germany, you had to import it from Austria. By now, it has gotten much better, we got the latest Doom game without some stupid censoring. I think, a friend of mine played it, I myself don't like that brutal stuff... 😅
But it was really strange to see what happened to those games I mean Germany had no problem showing Pyramide Head raping a Zombie (or whatever, as I mentioned, I don't like those games) but they get all worked up over so many other things! It is interesting, but it also is somehow sad that they even removed game modes...
10:29 the people who were used as shield should of morphed in to shields.
I no grammar good
or morph into robots...
NOTHlNG :D
Yes, We should make them automatically transforming robots. "Auto-bots" if you wish. I just hope that name isn't already taken.
This is a real problem, thanks for making this Video
greetings from germany
Mineforcer thank you for verify this as well xD
not realy. just buy a uncensored version. i dont think its a good idea to sell games like hatred to 12 year olds.
Hallo
Just have an American account and thats it . Problem solved
Should have mentioned the German version of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, where instead of dying when shot, the enemy characters would promptly put their hands into the air and surrender, before they would just magically disappear after laying down. This has been fixed in later versions of the game for unknown reasons, but I think it could have to do with the fact that patches aren't regulated.
is that background supposed to be parts of the Bardy Bunch house? like the staircase.
I live in Germany and find this funny
bc i have an austrian psn account
Senior Ricketts i heard a lot of germans do that to get away from the censorship.
Way to counter the stereotype that Germans have no sense of humour, Germany.
worst on some of those censorships disabled multiplayer for most games that were hit by that, You couldnt play zombie mode in the first blackops with anyone outside of Germany because the censored version is a completely different client. and there was no workaround for this.
Fun fakt about the "Bomb on Weels".
They forgott to change the picture in the manual :D so there is "Fahrende Bombe (Driving Bomb)" right beside a screaming guy xD
Back in half-life you could bypass the gear and oil replacements by turning the gore Filter on and off again in the menu and enjoy yout First steps of becoming a bloodthirsty Psychopath who wants to kill All human cause you saw it in a game!
Can someone tell me what videogame hittler used to play? Because we all know that violence is caused by videogames
TheGoodSir (ಠ ͜ʖರೃ) Super Mario Bros, for sure.
Super Mario kart rainbow course.
When it comes to Command & Conquer, the C&C3 version was much more hilarious. You had terrorists that, instead of blowing up, dropped off their payload and ran off the map as uncontrollable neutral units, often with hilarious glitches as some maps didn't actually have suitable terrain for allowing them to leave.
My german friends bought games at their local stores "under the desk", BUT those stores imported them from The Netherlands, so no problems on censorship.
However, they could not give any Guarantees on it, so they could not return the game.
Vanilla Turok already had the lazor Robot enemies. What was used to replace the humans? Since the robots are from the final level, and much harder than standard human grunts.
You don't like kiss why
chris cube cuz they suck
txoptimusbob I want to rock and roll
chris cube I know right? They really had some great songs.
Or maybe because Hair metal is pretty much the 80's alternative to shitty EDM/Pop mixes of todays time. Just the fact that you think generic hair metal bands like kiss are somehow the superior music is already showing that your taste of music is probably the most boring and safest picks from the past decades. It's not that hard to grasp the concept of subjectivity and accept that music is subjective.
chris cube he is a nerd.. no nerd likes kiss
Riddle me this, A game on the index fine, it affects brick and morter retailers. But what about steam, origin, and PSN & the microsoft stores digital downloads? How are they handled in those modes?
They are unavailable in the stores when accessed from germany.
If you opened a US steam account with a US address (or PO Box) could get around this and download it? Or do you need to appear to be outside of Germany?
Drewscipher I think it is more an IP check and consequent geo-locking.
you'd need a IP change
You can get them with an American or Austrian account. Thank god it's not geolocked.
5:13 not going to lie I thought he was going to talk about Wolfenstein the new order final boss because Human to Robots also why didn't they censored that scene in the German version if they cared about gore
Hello!
May I ask what song(s) you used for the BGM?
It sounded very nice, especially 2:27 to 5:29.
There's a lot of stuff wrong in this video. The USK isn't for indexing games it set's age limits (the same is done for movies). Only if a game or movie doesn't have a USK certificate it is indexed.
You can buy games with USK 18, which means you have to be at least 18, in normal stores. And that's the highest limit. There's no such thing as adult sections in stores. Only video rental stores have them and it's mostly for porn.
Games are recognized as art, they just used not to be. That's why all theses games mentioned are pretty old, you don't see it anymore.
What's the point of an 18 Rating, when they censor it, IN THAT RATING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Conrado Javier I don't understand your question.
Conrado Javier
there is nothing censored we play the games like everyone else EXCEPT for the very few games with swastikas, those need to be removed in germany.
without USK logo it is simply "ohne Jugendfreigabe" without permission to give it to youth -> younger than 18 years. Only the BJPM which is a public authority can put something on the index. Index A means no adverts, only available for adults, but can be bought and sold everywhere in germany (so it is like the "ohne Jugendfreigabe", but with the difference that this status can be only changed after at least 10 years), Index B would mean that it is embargoed, so you are not allowed to sell this stuff in germany, in special cases it would also not allowed to own them (e.g. child porn), boarder control could emargo this games/movies whatever, when they "found" in your lugguage or packet. In the 80s beginning of the 90s several games had been put on Index B (like Doom, Wolfenstein, the first Soldier of Fortune), that was also the reason why they starting the Robot thing with Half Life (was the first game which did as far as I remember), because none of the ID games was allowed to be sold in germany back then. After the robot success with Half Life other publisher did the same thing, so no one forced anybody to replace humans by robots...
From the 2000s on only very few games had been put on List B, the only I can remember was Manhunt, but this one is also banned for example in Austria, Newsealand. UK and several other countries also stopped selling in the early 2000 years of this game, so thats not only a german "censoring".
= censorship...
An 18 minute video?? From dorkly???? I have a life to live!
Sorry- this video is your life now.
Shoutout to the Hearts of Iron IV reference. Good game
Number 4 also happened to Naruto. Literally deleted weapons and blood. A character on the side of a huge sword on a tree? NOPE. FLOATING!
Du weißt schon das die Naruto Version im deutschen Fernsehen die AMERIKANISCHE war?
Casual Lowbob
Well I am from Germany myself and I have to say this "censoring" has changed. I don't know what happened to the "Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle" but it isn't that bad anymore. Most games in Germany aren't censored anymore.
Thank the gods for that! I hated to import my games and then go to the Zoll to get them
i found a few mistakes in your video and fun one first: Hallo and Hello are not pronounced the same
1) Germany recognizes video games as art and does protect it. To be fair that wasnt always the case and the idea to treat games as "Kulturgut" (art) is rather recent and just a few years old. Since then however a lot of games that were formerly banned are now legal in germany. Nazi symbols are however still illegal, which is also true for MOST forms of art except movies.
2) Actually germans used top buy their games in Austria or through austrian stores. Austrian games are 100% translated in german but without censorship. So smart germans always had access to uncensored games in the german language.
Command and conquer Generals actually was released in the "normal" edition first, but got blacklisted after a few weeks. I was the lucky owner of a regular version , even tho i know have no clue where it is :(
When you mentioned the 'phantom clean-up crew' I was hoping for you to mention Dark messiah of Might and Magic: Elements.
The corpses were just struck by lighting and vaporized shortly after death, if I remeber correctly.
Fun Fact: The loading screen hints pointed out to use corpses in order to bait ghouls. As if there were any... (corpses, that is)
Honestly, I just wouldn't release my game in Germany, censoring it and changing all its assets sounds really dumb.
Max P It's not dumb if you get more money out of it.
Just put it in steam and problem is solved.. In steam it sells it self, if its any good that is..
Max P why? you can still go into a store and ask for an uncensored one. most gamers know to do this. you just have to be of age which is the same in almost every other country in europe and america
Max P they make much Money With the Games in Germany so it Would be dumb Not to relaese it in germany
Max P many japenese are also censored in the us
There is a development. Mortal Kombat X got an uncensored release.
Are u wearing Firewatch™ game T Shirt? Nice one!
Talks about Cod Finest hour but shows clips from World at War xD
It sucks that TF2 got censored in Germany. Though wouldn't it make Mann vs Machine mode a little redundant?
Very true!
It was probably renamed, "Machine vs Super Machine" or something stupid.
Mario9919 Maschine gegen Supermaschine(Machine against Supermaschine)
Or
Cyborg gegen Maschine(Cyborg against Machine)
I like TF2 in germany its funny to see a Hamburger when you kill a guy and they look like a normal man
Games are art....
Very nice you mentioned that ^^
+Dorkly
I don't know where you got the videos from Half Life 1. But for my copy, ALL enemys where not looking like robots but like real persons. Just like a T-800 in The Terminator. Only difference to the international version: Instead of having red blood and losing limbs on explosions, they have green "blood" and screws, screw nuts and springs are flying around.
Nice Firewatch tee shirt. Where did you get it?