Update: Well this escalated quickly. Some things I want to note:
Original post titled "Wolfenstein 2 ignores the Holocaust in the German version":
Kind off, at least. Sorry for the slightly clickbait title but I actually think it is true. Mods, change it, if it is not suitable.
This is a topic which was not covered very much in international media, because it mostly concerns the German version and Germany's law and view of culture and art. However, I think there is some potential for a discussion here nonetheless.
Polygon reported about that some week ago on basis of a YouTube comparison of the two different versions. Here is the video and as Polygon noted, it is supposed to be slightly spoilerish:
In this video you can already see and hear many, many differences between the version, some worse than others. Let me explain some, especially for those who did not watch the video:
The first difference is laughable, I actually do not understand why they changed that since that was no problem in any game before. The second one, well, there seems to be a problem with the use of any words related to Nazi Germany in video games for German versions. Several other games before had to remove any hint towards Nazi Germany as well, The Saboteur is an excellent example.
Also, Swastikas need to be removed in Germany. This and the removing of anything Nazi related is prescribed in German law, because video games do not fall under the protection of "art" of the constitution. This has to do with a verdict from 1994 when video games were quite young. Since then, nothing has changed.
Video games are not considered art by law!
Besides that, which is highly disputable on it's own, the game messes with Germany's history in a biiig way, as the author Christian Schiffer elaborated for German BR (Bayrischer Rundfunk - Bavarian broadcast). Crappy Google translation to this very important article!
Short notice on the author: He is the founder of WASD a "bookazine" (book + magazin, releasing twice per year) on video game culture, which features high quality articles on games, their history and culture and beyond. He also writes articles for several other German papers and they just failed Kickstarter funding for an international version of WASD.
Basically, the game ignores the whole existence as Jews as part of the German history altogether, including the existence of concentration camps.
There are no "Jews" in the German game, only "traitors"!
It is simply unbelievable. This version of the game, especially tailored for the German marked, shoots beyond any kind of censorship by censoring the true history of Germany, censoring the victims of the Holocaust.
Here is a Google translated article on the game as well, talking about the aspect of the game as art a little bit more.
The only way this can ever change in my opinion is, that any developer or publisher needs the nuts not to adapt their game for the German market, not to accept the denial of a rating and go the court to fight for the freedom of art. The last sentence is more than 20 (!) years old!
Questions:
Do you consider games as art? Do you think games should be considered as art by the government and should be protected by the law, just as other pieces of media like film, music and conventional "art"?
ZeniMax claims that they believe that the game still has the same message, that even beyond historical context a repressive, fascist regime needs proper resistance. Do you think that the game still has the same aesthetics and more importantly the same expressiveness as a anti-facistic game with the adaptions for the German market?
TL;DR: The German version of Wolfenstein 2 does not censor swastikas and Nazi-Germany related terminology, but also ignores the existence of Jews in Nazi-Germany, as well as concentration camps. All this because video games are not considered art by German law.
For everyone who understands German, HERE is a short 15 minute audio discussion on the topic with Christian Schiffer, HERE is a longer podcast on the whole game starring ex-GameStar author André Peschke and others.
- Please read at least this article!
- This topic should not be about Germany's way of dealing with the past. It is fine, you literally cannot go anywhere in Germany without being reminded of its past. This certain situation has not very much to do with that anyways.
- Instead I wanted to highlight the over the top adaption for the German market. German law does not require developers to do most of these changes, especially the most important ones (removal of the mentioning of Jews, concentration camps etc.
- I did not go enough into detail about the law, unfortunately, because I hoped some would read the linked articles. Some short words about that: Law only forbids unconstitutional use of swastikas etc. They are of course allowed for education, science or art. Here lays the main problem I originally wanted to talk about: Games are not considered art by German law, at least there is no ruling that says otherwise. The last ruling is from the 90s, since then video games were even accepted as part of culture by Chancellor Merkel at this year's GamesCom. The problem: No publisher or developer want to take the risk of their game not getting allowed on the German market and thus abide the ruling of the 90s
- Thus as someone else fittingly noted:
- Sorry again for the sensational title.
- Also sorry for those who felt spoilered. I marked the little text I guessed some felt as spoilery appropriately.
Original post titled "Wolfenstein 2 ignores the Holocaust in the German version":
Kind off, at least. Sorry for the slightly clickbait title but I actually think it is true. Mods, change it, if it is not suitable.
This is a topic which was not covered very much in international media, because it mostly concerns the German version and Germany's law and view of culture and art. However, I think there is some potential for a discussion here nonetheless.
Polygon reported about that some week ago on basis of a YouTube comparison of the two different versions. Here is the video and as Polygon noted, it is supposed to be slightly spoilerish:
In this video you can already see and hear many, many differences between the version, some worse than others. Let me explain some, especially for those who did not watch the video:
- Hitler has no mustache
- He is called "Heiler" or "Chancellor" instead of Hitler or Fuhrer
- There are no swastikas
- No word of any Jews
The first difference is laughable, I actually do not understand why they changed that since that was no problem in any game before. The second one, well, there seems to be a problem with the use of any words related to Nazi Germany in video games for German versions. Several other games before had to remove any hint towards Nazi Germany as well, The Saboteur is an excellent example.
Also, Swastikas need to be removed in Germany. This and the removing of anything Nazi related is prescribed in German law, because video games do not fall under the protection of "art" of the constitution. This has to do with a verdict from 1994 when video games were quite young. Since then, nothing has changed.
Video games are not considered art by law!
Besides that, which is highly disputable on it's own, the game messes with Germany's history in a biiig way, as the author Christian Schiffer elaborated for German BR (Bayrischer Rundfunk - Bavarian broadcast). Crappy Google translation to this very important article!
Short notice on the author: He is the founder of WASD a "bookazine" (book + magazin, releasing twice per year) on video game culture, which features high quality articles on games, their history and culture and beyond. He also writes articles for several other German papers and they just failed Kickstarter funding for an international version of WASD.
Basically, the game ignores the whole existence as Jews as part of the German history altogether, including the existence of concentration camps.
While the protagonist of the game is "a son of a Polish Jew" he only is the son of "a pole" in the German version. Whereas the mother was "turned in [to the Nazis] by her husband", she was just "unmasked" kind off like a spy by her husband. Finally, she originally died in a concentration camp in New Mexico. Not so in the German version in which she died in an undefined imprisonment.
There are no "Jews" in the German game, only "traitors"!
It is simply unbelievable. This version of the game, especially tailored for the German marked, shoots beyond any kind of censorship by censoring the true history of Germany, censoring the victims of the Holocaust.
Here is a Google translated article on the game as well, talking about the aspect of the game as art a little bit more.
The only way this can ever change in my opinion is, that any developer or publisher needs the nuts not to adapt their game for the German market, not to accept the denial of a rating and go the court to fight for the freedom of art. The last sentence is more than 20 (!) years old!
Questions:
Do you consider games as art? Do you think games should be considered as art by the government and should be protected by the law, just as other pieces of media like film, music and conventional "art"?
ZeniMax claims that they believe that the game still has the same message, that even beyond historical context a repressive, fascist regime needs proper resistance. Do you think that the game still has the same aesthetics and more importantly the same expressiveness as a anti-facistic game with the adaptions for the German market?
TL;DR: The German version of Wolfenstein 2 does not censor swastikas and Nazi-Germany related terminology, but also ignores the existence of Jews in Nazi-Germany, as well as concentration camps. All this because video games are not considered art by German law.
For everyone who understands German, HERE is a short 15 minute audio discussion on the topic with Christian Schiffer, HERE is a longer podcast on the whole game starring ex-GameStar author André Peschke and others.
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