LionDen
01-01-2013, 12:18 PM
There’s a movement afoot in Germany to hold a mass burning of “killerspiele” — their word for violent video games — in front of the Reichstag in Berlin on January 27. Leni Riefenstahl died eight years ago, so if this really happens, someone else will have to film it.
It’s hard to tell what kind of popular support this really has beyond the clowns running it. But in addition to the black self-parody of a bunch of Germans burning shit in front of the Reichstag, this is remarkable because the demonstration seems to be organised by German gamers, and not the usual suspects. GameOasis, a German gaming interest site, discovered the protest organisation within a Google group for computer games. Translated, the call to action cites the December 14 massacre at Newtown, Conn., and seems to be an effort by some gamers to distance themselves and their lifestyle from some of the more violent fare available.
What’s more, because Austria is basically Grover Dill to Germany’s Scut Farkus, there’s a group down in Vienna planning a burn of its own, conveniently timing it two days after the one up in Berlin.
Germany is extremely serious about banning anything that conjures up memories of its Nazi past — video games like Wolfenstein‘s reboot have been pulled simply for the stray appearance of a swastika. I’m a little surprised that anything remotely resembling a book burning, particularly in front of the Reichstag, isn’t also illegal as hell there.
kotaku
It’s hard to tell what kind of popular support this really has beyond the clowns running it. But in addition to the black self-parody of a bunch of Germans burning shit in front of the Reichstag, this is remarkable because the demonstration seems to be organised by German gamers, and not the usual suspects. GameOasis, a German gaming interest site, discovered the protest organisation within a Google group for computer games. Translated, the call to action cites the December 14 massacre at Newtown, Conn., and seems to be an effort by some gamers to distance themselves and their lifestyle from some of the more violent fare available.
What’s more, because Austria is basically Grover Dill to Germany’s Scut Farkus, there’s a group down in Vienna planning a burn of its own, conveniently timing it two days after the one up in Berlin.
Germany is extremely serious about banning anything that conjures up memories of its Nazi past — video games like Wolfenstein‘s reboot have been pulled simply for the stray appearance of a swastika. I’m a little surprised that anything remotely resembling a book burning, particularly in front of the Reichstag, isn’t also illegal as hell there.
kotaku