Bandit LOAF

There are no small Wing Commander news articles, only small Wing Commanders: the German equivalent of the ESRB, the USK, has rated Wing Commander Arena. The verdict? "Freigegeben ab 12 Jahren gemäß § 14 JuSchG", meaning "restricted for those below the age of 12". This is a slightly higher rating than the game received in the United States, where the ESRB awarded it the 'E for Everyone' ranking.


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Original update published on May 19, 2007

Starman

Seems a rather high rating tbh - but then it is Germany they like to overreact

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Mekt-Hakkikt

It seems in line with the other WC games (though WCP for the Gameboy Advance was "6").
It's pretty strict here, that's true.

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Mjr. Whoopass

It's refreshing to see an overreaction for a change. I think my country (the US) can be too liberal. I can't believe all the garbage I see in advertisements.. I don't have any children, but if I did I would be very concerned- some of the ads even make me uncomfortable.. I can't imagine the nightmares I would've had as a kid if I had seen some of the horror movie ads.

I think that rating speaks well for Germany. I do think that I would've enjoyed this game as a kid though... even much younger than 12. Just because it suggests restricting that age doesn't mean a kid can't play it as long as their parent buys it for them and permits it.

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Edfilho

I think that rating is ludicrous. What is there in Arena that could be harmful to children under 11??? The whole gaming censorship thing in Germany is really over the top.

AD

Well, from experience playing Counterstrike Source online, I can say that sometimes people abuse the voice chat in a way that would be damaging to 11 year olds... But of course that doesn't say anything about the actual game content, though some countries are getting stricter on any game that involves shooting down humans whether in a ship or not.

That doesn't mean the rating makes sense...

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Delance

The Battle Isle was about robot and automated vehicles so nobody ever got killed. I think even Command n Conquer was altered so that the soldier, or robots, would leak harmless oil.

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maltinator

and this rating is not old enough because there is much more violence in this game than they would realize. the germans are currently working out a new rating system for stronger treatment of enterntainment media. like they say, in future wing commander might be a 'killer game', because it makes you become a gunman, like it has happend a few months ago. muaaahahaha!

Quarto

On the note of rating, didn't someone in Germany come up a few months ago with the idea of outlawing production of such games, as well? That would be real fun for Crytek...

maltinator

yes, you're definitively right. and a company has offered a program which will automatically stop runnig such outlawed games installed on a computer. they call it a 'killer game filter'. i will appreciate to install this on my computer like the windows genuine advantage notification: "read the advantages of not playing violence glorifying games and click on continue" XD

Mekt-Hakkikt

I agree that censorship in Germany is harsh but this has nothing to do with censorship. It just means that game should not be sold to children under 12. And as Mjr. Whoopass said: if the parents buy this game for their children, they can play it without any problems. It's just there so that children can't by everything on their own.
Militaristic and violent contents are seen with almost hysterical caution here.

Still, after thinking a bit about it, I think the rating is ok, especially because the next lower rating would be "6" and that's too low I think. 10 would be my proposal.

Sure, but that will be forgotten soon. It was after the last shooting, when politicians of all colours wanted to show how much they care.

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Quarto

Hehe, that's what I figured, too. Still, you never know, sometimes dumb ideas like this get put into practice precisely because everyone thought it was so stupid that it couldn't possibly be serious .

ChrisReid

It's not like they just read the game's fact sheet and guess at a rating. EA, like all video game companies do for these things, compiled a long video demonstrating all aspects of the game relevant to consumer ratings and sent them out to organizations like this and the ESRB.

Mekt-Hakkikt

Sad but true.

Still, it would be prohibitively stupid. I mean, they can only outlaw production in Germany - and the majority of these games aren't produced in Germany. I still have that much faith in our politicians.

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"Khasra! I have heard enough of Khasra!"

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Zelvik

Yes but if you ban production the next logical step is banning imports of those games. Which is nearly impossible with direct downloads nowadays and would have involved either an opt out from the EU market for Germany in this area (very unlikely) or an EU wide ban on those games which may be more likely given the right circumstances (like a series of shootings). But as stated this would have been very ineffective at best with software beeing distributed that easily via the net.