And Now... A Swiss Game Ban

Switzerland has now ratified a violent video game ban, but, according to an article translated by GamePolitics, a rather selective one, akin to Germany's current situation.

The ban will not blindly ban all violent video games (a difficult definition to pin down, when you consider fringe cases like "Madden" and even "Super Smash Bros.") and it will not ban games based on the PEGI rating standard, which acts like the ESRB for Europe. No, instead they will follow Germany's example, banning specific games that display "cruel acts of violence."

According to the article, this means that "Mortal Kombat" and "Manhunt" will be banned, but not "Counter-Strike." My first reaction to those examples is, of course, why must we always talk about such old games? Only "Manhunt" is from the 21st century, and it was released in 2003! "Mortal Kombat" developer Midway Games has gone bankrupt and become WB Games Chicago! It is incredible that such an old game can still be considered controversial, and it likely only reveals how clueless the politicians are who are ratifying the bill.

The violence standard here is a little odd, too, and doesn't really reveal their standard of "cruel acts of violence." "Manhunt" makes sense, given its snuff film stylings, and I can see how it is considered more harmful than "Counter-Strike"'s shooter violence. However, again, "Mortal Kombat" makes very little sense. If we're really talking about the original game, the pixellated fatalities are no more harmful to today's kids than "The Great Train Robbery" was to film-goers in 1903. More recent "Mortal Kombat" titles aren't really worth worrying about either, as the violence level actually hasn't significantly increased. There are much worse things to worry about.