Wolfenstein: The New Order Will Be "Geo-Locked" To Conform With German Law - Polidicks

dear germany, calm down, a german will not turn into a nazi if he see's a swastika. also games dont make people shoot up schools.

This reminds me of when Homefront came out in Japan. "North Korea", the game's enemy was censored to "A Certain Country To The North".

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;44732391]These dumb laws are the reason why I would choose to move to Sweden when I'm older rather than Germany.[/QUOTE] what's wrong with canada?

[QUOTE=The golden;44732445]I'm pretty sure that implementing a full-on ban of the use of the international version was not mandated by the German government.[/QUOTE] you thought wrong

What would the German government do if publishers and retailers refused to comply with their demands and just sold uncensored content around them? Start jailing the dissenters to show how committed they are to tolerance and not letting history repeat itself? Establish a controlled censorship network to block external opinion? Maybe shutter stores found guilty of circumvention of censorship?

[QUOTE=The golden;44732404]Before anyone starts to blame this on Germany - this action is being taken by the publisher. And I also hope the publisher realizes the amount of piracy this is going to cause.[/QUOTE] they did it to comply with german law, trust me, Bethesda wouldn't do shit if they weren't required to

[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;44732381]What is germany afraid of will happen anyway? Someone sees the swastika and they suddenly want to become a nazi? or that the display of the swastika will cause the neo-nazis to get a morale boost and suddenly start an uprising to turn germany back into nazi germany?[/QUOTE] Well, everybody remembers "[URL="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Order_66"]Protocol 66[/URL]" of the [URL="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Army_of_the_Republic"]Grand Army of the Republic[/URL] in Star Wars. They are acting like every german has a subconcious "[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)#In_white_nationalism"]Protocol 88[/URL]", which is activated by the sight of a swastika. It doesn't help that germany is a republic with a chancellor, and has always had the snassiest uniforms. [QUOTE=The fox;44732396]Not being allowed to display Nazi symbols is not merely limited to Germany; The majority of European countries have explicity forbid the displaying and showing of such symbols; also including nordic runes, the black sun and so forth. Though, I believe Germany is the only country to take it as far, as to not allow humans being killed in video games, if they still disallow that.[/QUOTE] Germany hasn't banned death in video games, they simply demanded the gore to be toned down and nazi insignias to be removed. [QUOTE=The fox;44732462]In Germany, it is only legal to show such images, so long as they are used for education and suchlike. As far as I know, it is about the same in every European country, save for some states which were under Soviet influence, ironically enough. As far as it is over here; You cannot display, Express any opinion or suchlike, or display any Nazi symbols in the public, as this will fall under hate crimes here. Though, it is quite legal to own militaria from that area, displaying such insignias or words, in private markets or in the comfort of your home; At least as far as I know, given how many militaria markets are around here. Though, you are not allowed to show any of it in public.[/QUOTE] That's completely wrong, there's nothing illegal with saying stuff like "hitler did nothing wrong" or importing a box full of swastikas printed on A1 papers. If a bunch of Nazies rally in Sweden, they will be surrounded by police to prevent violence between them and counter-protesters, but free speech is free speech. Germany tried to ban swastikas in the entire European Union, but it was dropped.

That's a shame, but I understand the reasoning. If there's anyone to really blame here, it's Hitler. Fuck that asshole am I right?

[QUOTE=SexualShark;44732892]dear germany, calm down, a german will not turn into a nazi if he see's a swastika.[/QUOTE] They do. Thats why they need to repress all of this stuff. In a way, its like they're trying to push the idea of Nazi Germany never happening instead of trying to prevent racist thinking.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Party_of_Germany]I think outlawing nazi symbolism alltogether to prevent nazi thinking only incentivises it[/url]

[QUOTE=Rangergxi;44733861]They do. Thats why they need to repress all of this stuff. In a way, its like they're trying to push the idea of Nazi Germany never happening instead of trying to prevent racist thinking.[/QUOTE] At least they aren't being assholes about it as bad as Japan.

all that's going to happen is the game is going to be pirated to hell and only very few copies sold in Germany ID loses profit and Germany loses tax its a lose lose

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;44734014]all that's going to happen is the game is going to be pirated to hell and only very few copies sold in Germany ID loses profit and Germany loses tax its a lose lose[/QUOTE] At the end of the day though, it's just one country, the rest of the world will still give lots of money to Beth for the game.

[QUOTE=Pvt. Martin;44734045]At the end of the day though, it's just one country, the rest of the world will still give lots of money to Beth for the game.[/QUOTE] so just lose for Germany because the taxes from this game could have bought school supplies hospital stuff or fix some road somewhere oh well.

[QUOTE=Explosions;44732400]Wahhh a historical symbol in an obviously farcial game is offending me, ban it throughout the country. Germany has some of the worst censorship I know of.[/QUOTE] Check out the German version of soldier of fortune 2, it gets sillier

I call bullshit on Bethesda, this is the first time that any game did this. edit: i mean the region lock, not censorship in general.

[QUOTE=theevilldeadII;44734449]so just lose for Germany because the taxes from this game could have bought school supplies hospital stuff or fix some road somewhere oh well.[/QUOTE] Well what do you want me to do? Go to the central government of Germany and tell them to not get scared of the very Swastika they once followed decades ago. The same Swastika that killed millions? Yes, I agree it's bullshit for an entire country to be afraid of the Swastika because they think it could trigger the 4th Reich. But until the German Government can feel like they can handle seeing it, then Germans who don't give a shit about the Third Reich are going to have to deal with this crap. [editline]6th May 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Niklas;44735080]I call bullshit on Bethesda, this is the first time that any game did this.[/QUOTE] Yes, this is the very very very first time a game, based on the Second World War, with Nazi imagry, has been banned and edited for the sake of German release.

You're all forgetting that they think Switzerland is part of Germany, and thus applied the same bullshit censors to here where we have no such laws. The version is also locked to the German language, which is actually the real problem here. There is a rather large part of Switzerland that primarily speaks French, and believe me, they are not amused. In conclusion, Bethesda was lazy and just didn't give a shit.

[QUOTE=Pvt. Martin;44735082]Well what do you want me to do? Go to the central government of Germany and tell them to not get scared of the very Swastika they once followed decades ago. The same Swastika that killed millions? Yes, I agree it's bullshit for an entire country to be afraid of the Swastika because they think it could trigger the 4th Reich. But until the German Government can feel like they can handle seeing it, then Germans who don't give a shit about the Third Reich are going to have to deal with this crap. [editline]6th May 2014[/editline] Yes, this is the very very very first time a game, based on the Second World War, with Nazi imagry, has been banned and edited for the sake of German release.[/QUOTE] I meant the region lock.

[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;44732381]What is germany afraid of will happen anyway? Someone sees the swastika and they suddenly want to become a nazi? or that the display of the swastika will cause the neo-nazis to get a morale boost and suddenly start an uprising to turn germany back into nazi germany?[/QUOTE] They are afraid it might motivate people to make a time machine and save hitler and give him 21st century technology. Nothings worse than a time nazi.

Geo-Locking? Are they fucking serious? Importing UK version is useless then. Ugh. Fuck Germany, Austria gets the same copy as them just like Switzerland. Idiots.

Usually you can simply import a game, this has only happened before with dead island. Also the game will be censored in austria and switzerland for no reason. TL;DR Bethesda is full of shit

[QUOTE=Explosions;44732416]Of course the publisher is the one who did it, because otherwise Germany would ban the whole game.[/QUOTE] That is not sure.

Valves Left 4 Dead for example landed on index listing B and was never region locked. There should be no censorship, but the game being locked in germany is caused by Bethesda and only their weird decision.

[QUOTE=Killuah;44735389]That is not sure.[/QUOTE] If it has swastikas plastered all over it? At the very least they wouldn't be able to sell it openly. No idea where the whole "nazi insignia in games are absolutely forbidden" stuff comes from, outside of video games it's comparatively reasonable though. I [B]really[/B] doubt they'd have to region-lock it to comply with German law though.

Changing the entire story is also nonsense, instead of germany taking over the world it is some sort of cult, getting rid of the symbols would have been enough. Instead they remade most of the dialoge to have no context to the original story.

And just like that they lost 90% of German sales. Why do they even bother making these gutted versions for the German market when anyone with a lick of sense pirates the full, complete version instead? Surely they realize no one actually pays for the privilege of playing a censored game?

I was really on the fence on whether to buy this game, that decision was made for me now, thanks people behind this, guess you didn't want any of my money after all (there's no separate austrian uncut version, it's the same mutilated german one) Thankfully that means I don't really have to care if it's going to be good or not as I won't be paying for it

[QUOTE=Kuro.;44735814]And just like that they lost 90% of German sales. Why do they even bother making these gutted versions for the German market when anyone with a lick of sense pirates the full, complete version instead? Surely they realize no one actually pays for the privilege of playing a censored game?[/QUOTE] Because they want Germans to play this game, but have to abide by the German rules.

[QUOTE=Pvt. Martin;44735895]Because they want Germans to play this game, but have to abide by the German rules.[/QUOTE] But there are no rules or laws or what ever that say the game has to be geo-locked, which is why this is bullshit.