budanski
03-24-2003, 10:05 PM
By JOHN MARKOFF and MARK LANDLER
Electronic Arts, the nation's largest maker of video games, says it is caught in the cross-fire between the German and United States governments over the Iraq war.
This month, the German government listed a new game produced by Electronic Arts on an index of games the government considers violent. Such games may not be advertised or displayed on shelves in Germany, although they may be kept under store counters and sold to adults.
The game, Command & Conquer Generals, depicts an animated siege of Baghdad, with the United States military battling a fictional terrorist group called the Global Liberation Army, which bombs the city with missiles carrying anthrax, killing civilians.
The director of the German federal bureau that reviews media products for the youth market said the game had been restricted because it glorified war.
"It portrays war as the only way to resolve conflicts," said the director, Elke Monssen-Engberding, whose agency is part of the Ministry for Family Affairs. "It generally advocates war, and it gives military force an aesthetic appeal."
But a spokesman for Electronic Arts said the company thought the German government was acting against the game because of the Baghdad element and the political dispute between the United States and Germany over invading Iraq. He said similar games that depict combat, but not blood and explicit violence, had not been restricted.
"Until now the games that are indexed are typically slasher games in which individuals fight and someone is killed and there is blood," said Jeff Brown, an Electronic Arts spokesman. "This is a military strategy game." He said the company began development of the game long before the possibility of war in Iraq was evident.
Ms. Monssen-Engberding said the war in Iraq had nothing to do with the decision. She said the bureau had restricted a few other games because they glorified war, but she acknowledged that the ban was more frequently used on books and magazines.
She said most of the restricted war games were American, but only because the United States produces the majority of such titles.
The bureau has placed about 370 computer game titles on its restricted list since 1984, about 20 a year. The majority of those are restricted because they show "especially brutal acts of violence," she said.
article (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/technology/24GAME.html?ex=1040360400&en=0af7158d1cc97ad9&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA)
Electronic Arts, the nation's largest maker of video games, says it is caught in the cross-fire between the German and United States governments over the Iraq war.
This month, the German government listed a new game produced by Electronic Arts on an index of games the government considers violent. Such games may not be advertised or displayed on shelves in Germany, although they may be kept under store counters and sold to adults.
The game, Command & Conquer Generals, depicts an animated siege of Baghdad, with the United States military battling a fictional terrorist group called the Global Liberation Army, which bombs the city with missiles carrying anthrax, killing civilians.
The director of the German federal bureau that reviews media products for the youth market said the game had been restricted because it glorified war.
"It portrays war as the only way to resolve conflicts," said the director, Elke Monssen-Engberding, whose agency is part of the Ministry for Family Affairs. "It generally advocates war, and it gives military force an aesthetic appeal."
But a spokesman for Electronic Arts said the company thought the German government was acting against the game because of the Baghdad element and the political dispute between the United States and Germany over invading Iraq. He said similar games that depict combat, but not blood and explicit violence, had not been restricted.
"Until now the games that are indexed are typically slasher games in which individuals fight and someone is killed and there is blood," said Jeff Brown, an Electronic Arts spokesman. "This is a military strategy game." He said the company began development of the game long before the possibility of war in Iraq was evident.
Ms. Monssen-Engberding said the war in Iraq had nothing to do with the decision. She said the bureau had restricted a few other games because they glorified war, but she acknowledged that the ban was more frequently used on books and magazines.
She said most of the restricted war games were American, but only because the United States produces the majority of such titles.
The bureau has placed about 370 computer game titles on its restricted list since 1984, about 20 a year. The majority of those are restricted because they show "especially brutal acts of violence," she said.
article (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/technology/24GAME.html?ex=1040360400&en=0af7158d1cc97ad9&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA)