On 17/09/2022 22:24, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
Well, it's about time! After 30 years, you can finally, legally
purchase Wolfenstein 3D... in Germany.
Germany has been, understandably, quite wary about products that make
use of Nazi symbology. There's a whole body of law on how and when the swastika can be used there (TL;DR version: usually it can't). And
since "Wolfenstein 3D" was rife with the stuff, it ran afoul of these regulations from the start. While it wasn't illegal to own or play the
game, it /was/ illegal to buy it from any shop in (or that did
business with) Germany.
This changed in 2019, when it was removed from the list of forbidden
products but - since it wasn't granted an age rating at the same time
- it was still effectively forbidden from sale (games sold in Germany
must be rated). That changed earlier this month when Wolfenstein 3D
was finally given an 16+ rating. A bit high, most of us would agree,
but Germany takes its laws forbidden the dissemination of Nazi
paraphernalia quite seriously. I can't say I'm entirely in opposition
to that rule...
Of course, most Germans interested in the game have already played it
(one way or another), and its legalization probably won't bring in a
lot of new sales. It's not entirely clear why the imagery in Wolf3D is
more acceptable today than it was six years ago - is it just that it's
so low-resolution and cartoony? - but it's an amusing coda to this influential game's story.
Maybe the regulators just wanted to shoot Hitler themselves? I think
that's something we all can get behind.
No expert here but my understanding is that the law was considered a bit ridiculous as dev's, in general, would just change it a symbol that
everybody knew what it represented and even if you allowed it in games
you'd still have the back-up of the law against glorification if it's
clear that's what's intended.
I believe it is still applied to scale model kits which also seems to be
a bit of a waste of time as manufactures can, and do, just get around it
but supplying a multi-piece decal and it's incredibly simple just to get
them online anyway.
As a slight tangent, there was a a famous incident several years ago
where a well known World of Tanks community contributor (think someone
who produces content but is employed by the company to do so) turned up
at the Tank Museum for a special event where WoT had a special tent
set-up. The amusing part is this person was kicked out of the tent on
the grounds that he was wearing a Panzer uniform that because of the
colour they thought was a SS uniform.
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