Presenter: Hannah Mueller
Mentors: Rick Silva, Digital Arts; Louise Bishop, Honors College
Oral Presentation
Major: Digital Arts
Germany is one of the strictest censors of violence among the world’s video game consumers. Due to its history and a cohesive national opinion, the legislature limits content severely, much more severely than the surrounding European nations. This results in international developers choosing not to market to Germany, creating censored titles specifically for the German market, or finding themselves on a list of banned titles. With the proliferation of online shopping and availability of international products, the banning of violent content is somewhat ineffective. The anti- violence measures tailored to video games become demonstrative, essentially a stance of the German government to not endorse graphic gore in gaming without taking preventative action that may violate personal rights. This research provides a survey of the German video game community as well as an examination of games imported to and exported from Germany in order to demonstrate the current state of the industry and to illustrate how national sensitivity to violence effects entertainment content. This thesis research is not intended to be a critique of the German system, but an objective study of legal legislature, systematic censorship, and the German market through the lenses of interviews, impartial research, and case studies of specific game titles.