Swiss pass violent videogame ban

Yay for freedom!

Oh wait.

This hostile act forfeits their neutral state, now Switzerland is a fair game for gamers!

isn’t Switzerland controled by the Vatican enough said right there. The Vatican has really great track record in the history, This is really old news.

No, BDH. You’re thinking of the Templars.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the masons controlled the Vatican or something evil..lol. However I do support the fact they have measures for young kids to be not playing violent and adult-themed video games.

All one has to do is look at MW2

/Facepalm

I’m from Switzerland.

AFAIK there’s no total ban for violent videogames (they call them “killergames” here, like in Germany). It’s a ban for everyone below 18. Adults can still buy all videogames. At least this is my understanding of the proposed ruling.

hopefully Quiiick is correct

I think he is correct. The option to practically ban games is only planned to be applied to games that violate human rights in some way (like maybe Manhunt) or include illegal content.

@10 I don’t see what human right a game could possibly infringe upon. Limiting peoples right to freedom of expression on the other hand…

And even if you were dealing with a videogame that told you to ethnically cleanse foreign babies from the face of the earth, that would still be protected, if human rights were to be followed, since it wouldn’t be an actual act, but an expression.

You can’t try people for their thoughts unless you prove beyond doubt an intent to act on them.

I think the world has quietly been cycling back on itself, being all happy clappy, and now it’s suddenly time for some good ol’ fashioned state-instituted puritanic fascism again.

Edit my original response, bit drunk: I thought they were just making PEGI ratings actually mean something over there? My Swiss g/f doesn’t seem to think it’s stopping any sales of violent games. But what do I know.

@8: yes, but there are also games that get completely banned. in the past it was for example, gears of war, dark sector, even crackdown and more. the whole violence in videogames debate is a joke. it really makes me angry. they should try to solve real problems and not make some up. all these amok kids don´t do this because of some games. whoever thinks that must be completely mad. to make a connection there is just extremly short focused and dull. excessive violent videogaming might be an indicator that a kid has some problems and might need some help. but it´s not the game that causes these problems. you should be thankfull that the game showed you this and try help the kid. think theses politicians really show how less they understand about life and how easy they can be manipulated by mass media and fear. they are a danger to society not games.

@ polygem

“@8: yes, but there are also games that get completely banned. in the past it was for example, gears of war, dark sector, even crackdown and more.”

You are incorrect.
These games NEVER ever got banned here in Switzerland. You can buy them freely!

Some of the games you mentioned never went into the GERMAN market though. But even there they did not get banned. They just landed on a so called “index” by the rating-board.

In turn the publishers decided to not sell these games in Germany because you are not allowed to publicly advertise any game that is on said index.

ok, sorry. didn´t know. i´m from germany. sounded like the same happened in switzerland. i buy most of my games in uk or austria anyway…i´m tired of checking if a version is uncut or not. so the uk gets my gaming money. that´s ok for me. i like the brits.

@ polygem

No problem.

Yes, me too, I buy about 90% of all my games from the UK.
Not because they are uncut (you get all the uncut versions here in Switzerland as well), but because they are usually much cheaper if you are willing to wait a few months after release.

I often purchase games for £15 – £25 while they still cost CHF 99 (~ £65) over here.

hehe…sounds as if it´s not as worse in switzerland as it is here. that i can easily buy these games somewhere else in europe shows that it doesn´t make sense anyway to think about videogame ban laws. they are just losing tax money. the uk price is definitely also a solid argument…uk games are indeed about 20+ Euro cheaper! if you preorder them they usually arrive at the release date or 1-2 days after it.

Don’t rejoice too early.
As soon as the german government restricts/bans imports, it’s basically “game over”.

Thankfully that’s where EU law would most likely step in. The government would have to prove that games do indeed harm society before the ECJ. I doubt there is enough scientific(!) evidence for that.

@Syrok

Switzerland aren’t in the EU, and so don’t come under the jurisdiction of EU laws.

Yes, but if I didn’t misunderstand the two posts above they were talking about Germany.

@ Syrok
Yes, my fears were only concerning Germany.

@ ianos
Yes, Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but they have mutually agreed to a lot of common laws (schengen agreements) and one day will be almost the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

Hence, my bet is that Switzerland will finally join the EU in the not so distant future.