The current legislation, The Youth Protection Law, restricts video games sales in Germany. It was passed in June 2002 after the April 2002 Columbine style school shooting in Erfurt, Germany. This latest incident, perpetrated by an eighteen year old Counterstrike player and gun fanatic, has caused several German politicians to rail against so called “killer games”.

"Killer games make a fatal contribution to a growing tendency towards violence and they promote aggressive behavior,” said Jörg Schönbohm, the interior minister of the eastern state of Brandenburg, to Der Spiegel. “That's why strict action is needed against games that glorify violence."

Germany features some of the most restrictive game laws in Europe with a special department of the government to examine and index media that could be harmful to children. Games, like Painkiller, the Quake series, and the Unreal series, that receive the highest rating, can only be purchased by customers over the age of eighteen. In addition to not being able to be sold to people under eighteen, there are restrictions placed on public demonstrations of these games. Games like Counter-Strike, which carry a sixteen and over rating, can be only shown after 10 pm on TV and games like Quake 4, which carry the eighteen and over rating, can only be shown after 11 pm.

The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons or BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien), is authorized under the Youth Protection Law (Jugendschutzgesetz – JuSchG) to protect the youth of Germany from videos, DVDs, computer games, audio records and CDs, print media and internet sites which might contain indecent, extremely violent, crime-inducing, anti-semitic, or otherwise racist material.

However, this harsh reaction is putting both Germany's 1.7 billion Euro computer game market and 2 million member online gaming community in jeopardy. Fears in the eSports community range from sponsors becoming hesitant to participate in the market, and the vibrant pro scene in Germany being crushed to score political points. Jens Allerdissen, Community-Relations PR-Manager at Turtle Entertainment GmbH, contends that these laws are ineffective and merely scapegoating.

“The German rating system for computer games is complicated and its details are hard to understand,” said Allerdissen. “To avoid being restricted completely the game developers produce special versions of their titles for the German market. Counter-Strike (dt.) for example doesn't show blood. However in this time of the internet and global shopping, restriction laws are bound to fail. Especially with regards to the tragedies that spark discussions about the German rating system, the laws become useless. It is the political hunt for a scapegoat that follows a preset line of argument. It is easier to point your finger at games and gamers instead of looking into the family policy and trying to help the individuals that fall through the safety measures of the system.”

Tim “silver” Hochgrebe, who currently plays for the German multi-gaming team mTw, had similar things to say about this situation.

“Well it's true that Germany has always had some dumb and "old" politicians who try to get some votes with hilarious things like these ... take Finland for example, where way more young people are playing Counter-Strike, without any violent episodes coming from playing that game,” said Hochgrebe. “It's just a fluke from my point of view, sooner or later the discussion will be over like it has been all the other times before.”

The problem that the Counterstrike community in Germany and the German gaming community in general faces is the poor understanding and misrepresentation of gaming by the mainstream media and public. For instance, Der Spiegel referred to Counter-Strike as “a game in which the player moves down corridors trying to shoot as many people as possible." Other media outlets, as well, have incorrectly characterized the game either out of ignorance, or the need to sensationalize a story.

Sources: Financial Times, CNN, Der Spiegel, BPjM english information page.