Call of Duty: Black Ops is undergoing a number of heavy edits when it releases in Germany. Among the cuts is a soundtrack omission, with Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil getting snipped because it’s 100% about World War II, and Heaven forbid Germany ever get reminded of its own history.
As always with Germany, a bunch of violent and gory content has also been cut, reminding us that, as much as Germany tries to never acknowledge its past, it’s still incredibly keen on acting like a fascist state. Here’s a full list of edits:
- A slow motion shooting scene involving lots of blood has been “toned down.”
- A prisoner torture scene has been removed.
- Sympathy for the Devil cut out.
- Removal of anything deemed by officials to be “anti-constitutional symbols” (we’re guessing Nazi stuff)
These edits only affect the German version, so I highly recommend importing or piracy for those gamers who don’t like to pay inflated European prices for a clearly inferior product. As for Germany, its oversensitivity to violence and its refusal to ever dare recognize that Nazis existed now borders on the point of self parody.
Germany ought to grow up.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Censorship Details Revealed [CODFeeD]
[Update: I appear to have offended a number of German readers with a few of the comments made in my post, so I’ve taken it upon myself to address them:
For a start, when I talk about Germany as a censoring entity, I am not of course talking about every German person, so when I say “Germany ought to grow up” I’m not talking about you, the German gamer. In fact, the rest of the article should communicate that I am on your side here.
Secondly, I acknowledge that I was off-base with the “not recognizing its own history” thing. Obviously, when you see government regulations that bar the use of Nazi insignia in games or mentions of World War II in soundtracks, it smacks of denial. I still maintain it’s incredibly stupid, but to say Germany refuses to acknowledge its own history when there are plenty of memorials about WWII in the country, wasn’t correct.
I do not regret saying Germany, as a nanny state, needs to grow up, along with Australia. The censorship of violence and sex is intrinsically immature and childish, moreso than the content itself. Germany does need to grow up, so Germans can enjoy the same content that other gamers enjoy. I am not saying all Germans are childish. I am saying the rules currently in place are.]
