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Regarding the recent Wolfenstein 2 this is even weirder: For being able to sell it the publisher removed all Nazi symbols (including renaming Hitler to Mr. Heil

Regarding the recent Wolfenstein 2 this is even weirder: For being able to sell it the publisher removed all Nazi symbols (including renaming Hitler to Mr. Heiler) but also changing the back story. The main character is supposed to be descent of Jews in a Extermination Camp, in the German version his mom died in a (regular) jail and Jews become "traitors". Which means that the result (apparently - I haven't played either edition) is a game full of Nazi-style settings ignoring all the evil cruelty of that regime, which is criticized in the original. https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/zuendfunk/netz-kultur/wolfenstein-the-new-colossus-nazis-skandal100.html https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/zuendfunk/netz-kul...

darklajid 9y ago
Thanks for sharing that! I wasn't aware of either the next story line nor the absurd and crazy German adaption. That feels painfully wrong and is quite disgusting.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > That feels painfully wrong and is quite disgusting. The problem is that German legislature, jurisdiction and the self-regulating body are... not exactly the definition of agile, more the contrary... it took multiple court jurisdictions to get a final clearance for a f...ing crossed out swastika because some public prosecutors were hellbent on convicting antifas for reproduction of nazi propaganda (yes, for real!). The fact that most of these people are old white ... who never have played a computer game in their life doesn't exactly help gamers' rights in that area either.
  - tluyben2 9y ago
    Do gamers care do you know? It is trivial to get versions of any software; cannot imagine people actually adhere to these laws in this case? Buy the censored version; get a torrent of the real thing?
    - mschuster91 9y ago
      > Buy the censored version; get a torrent of the real thing? The problem with torrents or warez in general is: do you trust them? Or: do you trust someone hasn't taken a virus-free package and embedded a Bitcoin/Monero miner or other malware in there? Especially as many warez groups distribute keygens or cracks compressed and crypted so that other groups cannot easily reverse engineer the secrets, it's hard to check what's in the package - and many cracks actually trigger virus scanners due to the compression, so people turn off the AV and then get f..d...
    - johannes1234321 9y ago
      You don't reach everybody. I also got the original Wolfenstein back in the days, long before Internet. However the reason for the regulation is relevant: This Nazi stuff shouldn't be fun or anything. Playing with it makes it simple to forget that those symbols represent evil mass murder. Also going back to the times where the initial versions of those laws were made: Back then Nazi symbolism was everywhere in the county and the Allies didn't want to allow any Nazi-heroism. Balancing this against "legit" use is tough, especially in context of historic games. The self-censorship mentioned in the article above is the result of a publisher trying to avoid hitting a law but still selling as much as they can, without really thinking about what they were doing.
Tech-Noir 9y ago
> renaming Hitler to Mr. Heiler I don't know if it's the same Wolfenstein but I was somewhat amused to read, or see on Youtube, recently they renamed Himmler to Hoeller. (Himmel being heaven in German, and Hoelle being hell.)

darklajid 9y ago

Thanks for sharing that! I wasn't aware of either the next story line nor the absurd and crazy German adaption. That feels painfully wrong and is quite disgusting.

mschuster91 9y ago
> That feels painfully wrong and is quite disgusting. The problem is that German legislature, jurisdiction and the self-regulating body are... not exactly the definition of agile, more the contrary... it took multiple court jurisdictions to get a final clearance for a f...ing crossed out swastika because some public prosecutors were hellbent on convicting antifas for reproduction of nazi propaganda (yes, for real!). The fact that most of these people are old white ... who never have played a computer game in their life doesn't exactly help gamers' rights in that area either.
- tluyben2 9y ago
  Do gamers care do you know? It is trivial to get versions of any software; cannot imagine people actually adhere to these laws in this case? Buy the censored version; get a torrent of the real thing?
  - mschuster91 9y ago
    > Buy the censored version; get a torrent of the real thing? The problem with torrents or warez in general is: do you trust them? Or: do you trust someone hasn't taken a virus-free package and embedded a Bitcoin/Monero miner or other malware in there? Especially as many warez groups distribute keygens or cracks compressed and crypted so that other groups cannot easily reverse engineer the secrets, it's hard to check what's in the package - and many cracks actually trigger virus scanners due to the compression, so people turn off the AV and then get f..d...
  - johannes1234321 9y ago
    You don't reach everybody. I also got the original Wolfenstein back in the days, long before Internet. However the reason for the regulation is relevant: This Nazi stuff shouldn't be fun or anything. Playing with it makes it simple to forget that those symbols represent evil mass murder. Also going back to the times where the initial versions of those laws were made: Back then Nazi symbolism was everywhere in the county and the Allies didn't want to allow any Nazi-heroism. Balancing this against "legit" use is tough, especially in context of historic games. The self-censorship mentioned in the article above is the result of a publisher trying to avoid hitting a law but still selling as much as they can, without really thinking about what they were doing.

Tech-Noir 9y ago

> renaming Hitler to Mr. Heiler I don't know if it's the same Wolfenstein but I was somewhat amused to read, or see on Youtube, recently they renamed Himmler to Hoeller. (Himmel being heaven in German, and Hoelle being hell.)