Posted on 09/02/2011 12:24:02 PM PDT by DemforBush
The classic video game was put on an index of controlled titles in 1994 as it was deemed likely to harm youth.
Like pornography, sales of the violent shoot 'em up were restricted to adult-only stores.
The rules have been relaxed because officials believe that Doom is now only of artistic and scientific interest and will not appeal to youngsters...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
BTW, there's really such a thing as "The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons"?
BTW, there’s really such a thing as “The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons”?
Sounds like a Monty Python made up name, doesn’t it?
Yeah, “Doom” is so 1990s. Now we’ve got “Duke Nukem Forever”!
IIRC, it was banned only because there was an obtuse depiction of a swastika in one brief/small location. iD altered it, but Germany refused to lift the ban.
The depiction occured in a room where a set of walls lowered, revealing the walls were arranged in the offending shape. A typical exposure to the player would last maybe 3 seconds in a game taking dozens or hundreds of hours to play.
Nanny state ping
“Sounds like a Monty Python made up name, doesn’t it?”
Myabe it sounds better in German.
Then again, I believe Monty Python did an all-German episode, which John Cleese attributed to their not having a sense of humor. So perhaps they are that naively absurd.
AHAHAHAHAHA!
Not that I trust the government to save us from bad games, but those “first person shooter” things always made me feel sadistic.
"Der ver zwei peanuts, valking down der strasse, und von vas... assaulted! peanut.
Ho-ho-ho-ho."
;-)
Doom? How quaint.
I think this was all related to Doom's predecessor, Wolfenstein 3D. Like Doom was soon afterward, that game was distributed first as shareware (only the first two or three levels, IIRC). The Germans really didn't care for a game laden with Nazi imagery that could be freely downloaded.
I'm sure the German authorities believed that Wolfenstein was designed and distributed specifically to flout their "no Nazi symbols or imagery" laws. Doom was banned as payback
Good theory. I figured W3D would fit in, but didn’t see the Doom ban as retribution ‘til you mentioned it.
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