DRM News

As reported on GamePolitics, Swiss Social Democrat Evi Allemann has tried to clarify how exactly the violent game ban ratified last month in Switzerland would work.

Swiss Social Democrat Evi Allemann (pictured) was recently interviewed by the Swiss publication 20 Minutes Online (translated) and indicated that the ban would apply only to “individual games.” She estimated that, “like in Germany,” only 12 or so games would wind up being banned, including titles such as Mortal Kombat and Manhunt (which are banned in Germany), but not the likes of Counter-Strike.

It appears Allemann would specifically focus on games which display “cruel acts of violence” that a player contributes to.

Well, I think we can all thank Evi for really clarifying how this is all going to come together…yeah. Again, her ‘clarification’ raises a lot of questions, many of which I already asked (I suppose I should thank her).

-What constitutes a cruel act of violence? Is shooting someone in the face different from a chest shot? What about more cartoonish violence, such as Mario curb stomping the life out of Goombahs? Couldn’t that technically be considered a fairly sadistic act of cruel violence against a living mushroom?

-Note that she says it would only apply to acts which a player contributes to. So if a character in the background rips someone limb from limb while they scream, that’s cool then? Totally fine, because the player was busy in a dialogue with an NPC when the brutal act of torture occurred. How is that magically less violent?

-Will these people ever stop using Mortal Kombat as an example? Seriously folks, congratulations on finally realizing that games have come out since Doom, but could you at least have entered the current century?

Now, I won’t subject you to mass quotes of the broken English from a web translated interview, but there is one section in there that caught my eye. My apologies to those who enjoy the English language.

They want to reach through with hard hand?
Yes, we must look that the rules, which are valid outside of the Internet are valid also in the Internet. But it needs a state-spreading co-operation, to which already first steps one undertook. The Council of Europe locked for example an international convention over the Cyberkriminalität, which wants to regulate the fight against computer and Internet crime handily.

Let’s all take a moment to let our brains try to sort that out (whiskey helps). Is it just me, or is she apparently considering trying to make it a criminal act to acquire and/or play any of these banned games? Good thing that isn’t going too far…