hi there

[LegendaryJJP]

just signed up

anyway im jon 24 ex pat in germany
i have PS3 and 360
been looking for somewhere to chat and game with mature gamers not some snotty kids who screams at you when you kill them

[Jason]

Well, welcome to the forums Jon! Good to have you on board!

What took you to Germany, if you don't mind me asking?

[nilihanth]

Willkommen! I am fairly new as well. I'm curious what "ex pat" means though.

[LegendaryJJP]

forces mate. so my gaming time is very erratic. get on it when i can lol

and thanks nilihanth, ex pat means expatriate - someone who is living temp/perm in a country other than the one they were born in

[Jason]

Heh, thought it might be - a couple of my buddies were stationed there a few years back. Nice place, by all accounts.

Do you have many problems with the censorship of games there? I know the Germans are pretty hard on that kind of thing... (although not as bad as the Aussies, it appears!)

[LegendaryJJP]

yeah i dont mind it here. better than some places to be lol

the censorship is not as bad as is made out. there have the same classification as they do with the BBFC over there. they have a thing called "the index" which is a list of games that restrictions apply, just stuff like 16+ 18+ etc...

games on the index are not banned. they are perfectly legally sold to adults anywhere. however they are subject to certain restrictions. they may not be sold to minors but they may also not be displayed or advertised publically.

they do ban games that are against criminal law over here such as by displaying nazi propaganda outside of historical context. you also have cases of bans for games that have an underlying philosophy that glorifies acts of extreme violence against humans – glorifying such things is a violation of 131 of German penal law. as an example Manhunt was banned for this reason however this was a controversial decision for the public simply because theres no real hard definition of what constitutes “glorification”.

bans like this are generally a rare occurrence though as evidenced by the gap of literally ten years between Manhunt and the last previous game to be banned Mortal Kombat 2 in 1994.

hope the helps you out ;)

[Jason]

Heh, yeah - it's always good to know how the various systems work. I know that there's always been a fuss about the Wolfenstein games over there because of the Nazi imagery and so on, but by the sounds of things it isn't quite as bad as the media makes out.
I believe Left 4 Dead was slightly censored though? Or am I just talking out of my ass? I can't remember where I heard that now...

[LegendaryJJP]

nah there wasn't really a big fuss about it. just the usual about the nazi imagery and that and i wouldnt know as i havent played it. the only thing i remember about it was it was recalled at the start because a nazi symbol slipped through on the box art

L4D the box art was changed. they put in the missing thumb but on the booklet its the version with the missing thumb. the intro video is censored as far as i know. but havent seen it myself as i have the UK version :D

[Konrad]

Well hello. Welcome to mature gamers!

My familiarity with Germany begins and ends at some distant relatives, but that's more than most people can say right? :p

[Iggy]

Howdy and welcome!!!

[Landy]

Welcome to the forums :)

[MyNameDidntFit]

Dammit. Ever since I watched an entire season of Fawlty Towers in one sitting I can't help but think "Don't mention the war!" whenever Germany is mentioned... Even when the person isn't German, it seems >.>

Anyway, welcome to the forums good sir!

[Rob]

...they may not be sold to minors but they may also not be displayed or advertised publicly.

That's actually something I wouldn't mind seeing here in the states. That sounds odd to say.

Welcome to the forums.

[LegendaryJJP]

mynamedidntfit - funnily enough it goes through my head alot of the time ;)

robrunsfromzombies - yeah i agree. what they dont see they dont miss. plus its nice playing against people in this time zone and not have kids screaming at you lol

[CemeteryGates]

Hey man, welcome to the forum. :)

[Astonix]

A couple days late but..

Welcome to the forums (:
See you around.