German politicians are pushing new legislation that would ban games deemed violent or that incite hatred. And they are lobbying the European Union to impose continent-wide censorship of especially inflammatory games.

Some German officials are claiming that violent video games are linked to an increase in violence among the young. They cite an instance where a gamer went on a real-life murderous rampage and leap to the conclusion that by banning games they can prevent further violence - because no-one ever committed a crime before computer games existed, did they?

Germany already has some of the strictest video-game censorship laws in the Western world but the media and conservative politicians want to go further.

Frank Sliwka, chairman of Deutscher eSport-Bund, an electronic sports association that serves as a mouthpiece for the gamer community has accused the politicians of playing on voters’ fear and ignorance of the genre. “While films have existed for over a century, video games are a comparatively new genre, and are not yet fully understood by the general public,” he said.

Alexander Mueller, manager of SK Gaming, agrees. “German politicians only look at gaming in one (way),” Mueller said. “When a (societal) problem occurs, it is easy to find just one argument and you then have someone to blame, and you don’t have to go any deeper.”

German politicians are also lobbying against video-games European Union. In January, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble asked European justice and interior ministers to seek more pan-European restrictions on violent video-game titles.

A European Commission spokesman confirmed that EC officials are considering whether member states should regulate the production and distribution of certain violent games. EC ministers will convene in perhaps a month to decide what course of action to take, the spokesman said.

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