They're planning on doing what?! Geez :s
Um, if that legislation passes, wouldn't it just mean that the servers would be moved to a different nation instead of being shut down? Or at least that's what I imagine would happen - it would be just plain daft to outright shut them down :/
OMG i just read the article that would be a very bad move alot more thought in there decision before parliment is deffinatly needed if anything they need to be alot more percise in there decription of violent games.........
I have so many friends here in COH/COV that are on the EU servers.......
I would hate to loose them........
I can't think of anything constructive to say, other than
DOOOOOOOOOOM!™
I seriously hope that legislation does not get passed 
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Well, that's the question, isn't it? It's certainly not something that could happen overnight; it'd need contracts with hosts negotiating, not to mention finding hosts with enough capacity, and it'd be really expensive too... I believe all of NC's EU served games are hosted at the same datacentre, including Guild Wars, so it's not a small task...
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Originally Posted by Velinia
They're planning on doing what?! Geez :s
Um, if that legislation passes, wouldn't it just mean that the servers would be moved to a different nation instead of being shut down? Or at least that's what I imagine would happen - it would be just plain daft to outright shut them down :/ |
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Bleh
They'd just move the servers to the UK and all the better for it I bet they'd be run better than the joke we have at the moment where the lag is less for european people on the US servers than the EU ones...
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Perhaps, but if they did relocate them; it would cost almost as much to do as setting them up did in the first place...|
Originally Posted by deathkitten_EU
They'd just move the servers to the UK and all the better for it I bet they'd be run better than the joke we have at the moment where the lag is less for european people on the US servers than the EU ones...
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Oh well... I suppose it could be incentive to shift us all to the US.
@FloatingFatMan
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Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Okay, that would really suck. Even if they just shifted everything to somewhere else, the time and effort it would take would shut the European side down for weeks. I really hope someone in that legislation gets a moment of common sense soon, otherwise this is actually a very real possibility.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Not to mention the complete loss of the entire German community in the game... That would also suck.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
This is the danger of mothering governments. See Australia's actions on video games and the internet for example. These out of touch people get the wrong ideas and decide to ban something for the majority, when only a minority ever cause a few problems.
Here's a thought, Germany/Australia/Everywhere Else:
100 people play BLOODGUN: GUNS AND BLOOD with its bump-mapped gore splatter and 7.1 surround sound bullet engine.
Two people who played BLOODGUN: GUNS AND BLOOD at a later point go on to go postal.
Obviously it's not things like mental or emotional problems or drugs or social causes or anything. No, it has to be the VIOLENT GAME OF VIOLENCE AND BLOOD AND GUNS.
Know what kills more people than video-game related violence? Cars. Smoking. Alcohol. You don't see any governments banning these things though. Driving a several ton vehicle that can go over one hundred miles an hour is fine, but playing a game that has elements of violence in? That's terrible and sick and wrong and no good could ever come from that. Drinking causes more violence than computer gaming.
Video games don't make me violent. Stupid, knee-jerk governemtn decisions and censorship make me think violent thoughts.
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so true, just have to go on almost any london street at night to see this|
Originally Posted by zortel
drinking causes more violence than computer gaming.
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I really feel sorry for the police who have to deal with the crap state society has turned into
wow 0.0 i know you pain dude a law passed here and they banned youtube x.x
I believe this Intiative in the German Parliament is targeting purely the titles it conciders blatant ie: Crysis, Farcry, MoH, etc, basically anything that buts you in FPS mode gunning down humanoids and games taht are a kind of rampage-porn like Postal. Its supposed to stop lunatics being inspired to play their fantasies out in real-life and I believe the whole intiative was started after a german university rampage killing.
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Then I hope they seriously lock down exactly what constitutes a violent game, because correct me if I'm wrong, but whilst CoH isn't an FPS, you DO get to run around gunning down humanoids...|
Originally Posted by Mothers_Love
No DeathKitten, this Intiative in the German Parliament is targeting purely the title is conciders blatant ie: Crysis, Farcry, MoH, etc, basically anything that buts you in FPS mode gunning down humanoids. Its supposed to stop lunatics being inspired to play their fantasies out in real-life and I believe the whole intiative was started after a german university rampage killing.
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And it has a FPS view mode too.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Yes, but its not super-realism, Although we are shooting and crushing, freezing and setting people ablaze, feeding them to demons, and skewing them on Impervium claws... its not the type of simulator that some warped mind could use as a tester run-through of a university kill-spree, which was the argument against Counter-Strike with one of the many US University killing sprees.
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I wouldn't expect a government that is loony enough to believe that a law like this would solve any of their problems to tell the difference between gameplay in Crysis and CoH.|
Originally Posted by Mothers_Love
I believe this Intiative in the German Parliament is targeting purely the titles it conciders blatant ie: Crysis, Farcry, MoH, etc, basically anything that buts you in FPS mode gunning down humanoids and games taht are a kind of rampage-porn like Postal. Its supposed to stop lunatics being inspired to play their fantasies out in real-life and I believe the whole intiative was started after a german university rampage killing.
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If I were NCSoft, and this law is not just something proposed by some minor faction that has no chance to get it passed, I'd already be looking at relocating my servers to another country. If this has a serious chance of becoming law then it doesn't matter if it fails this time, it will come up again.
@Doctor Gemini
Arc #271637 - Welcome to M.A.G.I. - An alternative first story arc for magic origin heroes. At Hero Registration you heard the jokes about Azuria always losing things. When she loses the entire M.A.G.I. vault, you are chosen to find it.
I remember it well. It was REALLY "hilarious" when it turned out the guy that did it had never even played Counter Strike...
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Yeah, they might well ignore the opposition to it as well.
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Oh i Agree, I'm not trying to justify their viewpoint, I think its misinformed nonsense, or if they do have the facts its naive to think this will do anything.|
Originally Posted by Doctor_Gemini
I wouldn't expect a government that is loony enough to believe that a law like this would solve any of their problems to tell the difference between gameplay in Crysis and CoH.
If I were NCSoft, and this law is not just something proposed by some minor faction that has no chance to get it passed, I'd already be looking at relocating my servers to another country. If this has a serious chance of becoming law then it doesn't matter if it fails this time, it will come up again. |
I really don't think games like those in NCsoft's portfolio will be affected in any way shape or form.
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There have been quite a few university rampages, a large majority of them in the US, there have also been a few here in Europe. In one of these Incidents a psycho loner had modded Counter-Strike to resemble the layout of his University and used this to 'practise' on.|
Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan
I remember it well. It was REALLY "hilarious" when it turned out the guy that did it had never even played Counter Strike...
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His PC was investigated after the shooting and the map discovered and subsequently deleted from servers hosting it. I think this is where a lot of the mythos comes from, clearly there are some very disturbed individuals.
Yep, there sure are!
But it's not the games MAKING them disturbed, they were already disturbed.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Totally agree, this is why the German Government's policy is naive if it thinks that banning violent video-game titles where you play as the protagonist will do anything.
Germany has tried worse than this before. This one's already been delayed by petition and even if it does get close to law, the industry will fight it vigorously in the courts, as they have with similar measures in various US states and won.
One of those laws that sounds good in campaign promises where the government has to be seen to be doing something but gets smacked down when that whole pesky freedom of expression/speech concept pops up, is what this smells like to me.
Character references! Artz! Whatnot!
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Would that be the case, though? Surely, if the servers were relocated to another country, German-based players could still play, couldn't they? The article states that retailers would be prohibited from selling the game in Germany, but that doesn't mean that German players can't buy downloads and play online, on foreign-hosted servers.|
Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan
Not to mention the complete loss of the entire German community in the game... That would also suck.
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I also hope that there are degrees of "violence" in whatever criteria the Joy Police are proposing: I can imagine things like GTA, or Bully, or Mortal Kombat and its fatalities qualifying for prohibition, but although City of Villains might raise questions regarding ethics and morality with some over-sensitive, political-advisor psychologists, they'd have to be extremely zealous and stupid to place a game like City of Heroes in the same class. If that's the case, then in, too, will go WoW, all the WW2 stuff, flight simulators, everything, in fact, that's a little more stern than My Little Pony.
Not only would such a sweeping act be impossible to police and cost the economy a fortune, it would be political suicide. It may not even be legal within the framework of the European Union. I'm not saying that the authorities responsible for this craziness are not mad or stupid, but I'd like to believe that they have enough common sense to draw the line at a practical and sensible point.
Not for the first time has political capital, supported by dubious sociology, pointed the finger of fury and blame at the latest popular pastime for the young and the restless. I remember when it was "video nasties"... Some things never change, just the names on the Id iot Sheet.
(the word "Id iot" is banned? What??? Is that a mistake or is someone really that much of one?
)
OK, I couldn't resist the title, sorry. However, I came across some gaming news today that COULD have a rather drastic impact on us as EU CoH players.
Here's the article...
Crytek will leave Germany if country bans action games
Now, whilst Crytek leaving Germany has no immediate affect on us directly, what DOES worry me somewhat, is this legislation could well kill EU CoH if it passes.
Why? Because the EU servers for CoH are in Germany, and CoH is a game which comes under the "violent action games - or ones that involve violent acts against human or human-like characters." classification.
IF this legislation passes, it would mean that the EU servers would be shut down by law...
What do you folks think?
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.