In yet another step toward becoming Nazi Germany … um … again, Germany revealed that Crackdown, the upcoming magnum opus from some of the magicians behind Grand Theft Auto is to be banned from regular sale in their country. Apparently the game is too violent for a country with such a rich history of tolerance and compassion towards all creatures great and small.
To be more specific (and less offensive) the game was refused classification by Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle which, in Deutschland puts it just a notch below videos of women being sodomized by horses. It can still be sold in the country, but it can only be sold within a bag on the third full moon of every fortnight. Also, you have to provide your own wolfsbane.
While Americans might laugh at the silly foreigners, we should heed their warning for it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult for the US to go down such a path. We already have financial censorship in the form of Walmart refusing to stock violent or pornographic games (thusly dooming them to a quick death at retail), and what the Germans are doing is just the next logical step. If there is one thing I fear from our modern world, it’s zombies, but if there is a second thing, it’s that this kind of un-Constitutional censorship is on the rise, and sadly, I’m beginning to think it is.
