Update on the "Killerspiele"-problem

Well, as I have been neglecting this blog for quite a while, I’m right now doing an update on the two crusades I still follow. This post is about “Killerspiele.”

The discussion in the media has died down quite a bit by now. But then, elections are past, so the politicians don’t have to swing opinions for the next four years any longer.

The last non-politic initiative to ban “Killerspiele” has not fared that well, though. A citizen’s group ordered a huge container in which people were supposed to throw their games, in order to have them destroyed later on. The container was huge, so the three to ten (depending on whom you ask) games that were actually thrown inside did look quite ridiculous. Not a real surprise, though, because the people in Stuttgart (where this took place) are well known to be closefisted (and computer games cost around 30 euro each in Germany).

Public awareness has shifted from the whole thing, there are other, more important problems right now (with the economic crisis and all that). But the basic problem still remains. The basic problem is that people above a certain age usually have no experience of their own with computer games. Therefore, if an ‘expert’ comes along and tells them something is like this or like that, they just believe it. And most experts questioned regularly on the topic have their own, prejudiced view on computer games (or their own interests at heart).

As long as this does not change, people will think all computer games are inherently evil. And as long as that happens, I will not give up my crusade on “Killerspiele.”