For a country so often faced with extreme censorship when it comes to videogames, Germany sure still spends lots of time downloading them online, according to a new study.
Lately things haven’t been looking so hot for gamers (at least the type who enjoy violence in their games) in Germany, with the government making moves to ban all violent games in the wake of a school shooting in March. German officials have been outspoken in their condemnation of games, with one in particular saying that violent games are as bad as child pornography.
Well, despite what the German government might think, it appears that the German population still has plenty of love for games. A study by the Commission of the European Communitnies that tracks “information society development” among countries in the European Union ranks Germany as the number one EU country when it comes to “downloading computer or videogames or their updates.” The people surveyed were individuals between 16 and 74.
Of course, the report doesn’t say exactly what kinds of games are being downloaded (or if they’re being downloaded legally), and it might be safe to presume that a good portion of them are not of the violent type so despised by the state. Nevertheless, it’s pretty interesting to see a game-interested population with such an anti-game government.
Considering German gamers seem to be having some minor success in their opposition to the government thanks to their sheer numbers, perhaps if the game downloading public – and their numbers are evidently large – can organize, they can continue to resist the ban. Or at least you’d hope they could.
Published: Aug 4, 2009 09:57 pm