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What is it with Germany and Australia always being so anal about video games?
There was a lot of panic about "killer games" in the 90s-00s. Politicians and parents blamed video games for school shootings. Nowadays nobody cares about the topic at all, but the strict rules remain. Steam just kind of ignored the local laws so far, but now decided to actually adhere to them.
Australia had a bit of an old fart classification board. It's gotten a lot better in recent years, especially after the R18 rating was introduced. It was pretty dumb for a while though I agree.
The should just default to 18+ if they don't have a rating instead of taking them off the market.
Legally, they probably can't.
I think you're true for Germany.
The first part of the law is pretty clear and seems to support my idea.
(3) Bildträger, die nicht oder mit "Keine Jugendfreigabe" nach § 14 Abs. 2 von der obersten Landesbehörde oder einer Organisation der freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle im Rahmen des Verfahrens nach § 14 Abs. 6 oder nach § 14 Abs. 7 vom Anbieter gekennzeichnet sind, dürfen
einem Kind oder einer jugendlichen Person nicht angeboten, überlassen oder sonst zugänglich gemacht werden,
It says that you're not allowed to show or sell the material to children if it doesn't have a label.
The 2nd part is worded more difficult
nicht im Einzelhandel außerhalb von Geschäftsräumen, in Kiosken oder anderen Verkaufsstellen, die Kunden nicht zu betreten pflegen, oder im Versandhandel angeboten oder überlassen werden.
It says it isn't allowed to sell them outside of stores like corner shops, mail orders and otherwise POS that people don't enter. This might include Steam online services, but it just says "enter" and not "physically enter" which might give leeway that an account with password might technically fulfil that requirement, but then you would be fighting before a judge about the definition of entering a store.
It's complicated as usual and I can see why Steam doesn't want to rock the boat and end up having to require passports for signing up, rather sooner than later.
Damn, this might make some smaller very niche games unavailable here in germany. There are some games that already are (Fear & Hunger for example).
Article does mention that it's just a little steam questionaire, but if germany doesn't like it, it won't be available anyway (would alternatively require an USK rating I think, which to my knowledge is much harder to get, and even then it might not be guaranteed).
Yeah, I'd prefer, if the law said that it needs to be sold only to adults. Making it completely unavailable, because no one has decided at what age kids can play it, is really non-sensical.
I have questions about how an age rating system would even necessarily be enforced even with rated games with a non-family account. It's not like steam knows the difference between a teenager and an adult who makes any account. You can literally just buy steam gift cards and pay for games without even needing a credit card or PayPal account.
The age rating doesn't do anything but assuage a groups fears and make the legislators look like they've achieved something for the public.
Germany for example has an ID with digital functions that are able to transmit if the holder of the ID is an adult or not completely anonymously but Steam refuses to implement a proper age verification system.
Good to know that at least in Germany there's something.
What the fuck is wrong with krauts?
I don't understand why they don't use an age verification provider like PostIdent for 18+ titles
How do you know the title is 18+ if you dont have an age rating
More stupidly, my account is already 19 years old at this point.
What else should it be, 99+?
I think you misunderstand their point. PostIdent would only be useful AFTER someone took the time to rate the game. Steam does not require any official content/maturity rating in their store, just some subjective content descriptors. To do so would pass an additional cost onto developers. The US-based ESRB process, for example, can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to rate a title.
Further to your point, I try to limit the number of times I provide my personal ID online. It's one thing when you show your ID at a bar and the bartender gives it back to you after a glance. It's another when I'm sending a photocopy over the internet and trusting a remote, distant party to use the data once and discard it. Even worse if they save it for future use and risk leaking it later.
German ID (ePerso) can transmit your age anonymously.
They might not have age ratings to games. Though, some games require you to put your birthday in to access. But, you can just lie, most of time Steam doesn't save the date.
Valve's team for the store is absolutely tiny. They simply chose not to hire anyone who is qualified to deal with German bureaucracy. This is the easiest and least costly way (since it's up to developers to self-rate their games) to comply with regulations.
So I will have to buy the games on GreenManGaming etc. Oh no.
Anyways...
That depends... many games blocked in Germany on Steam also can't be activated in Germany.
Really? Have never encountered that. But even if, that's what vpns are for. And since steam isn't losing any money that way they probably don't care about it either.
It is important to note that the official gobernment rating system, USK, is not mandatory for Steam. Steam's own rating system, which is easier to access, is enough, but Valve warns that filling out the questionnaire doesn't guarantee the game will remain available in Germany: " There are certain kinds of content that are not allowed for sale to customers in Germany."
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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