Germany allowed the open sale of Doom II (after 17 years of ban)

In Germany, the Doom and Doom II game classics were blacklisted back in 1994 due to excessive cruelty. Seventeen years later, justice did triumph. The authorities have decided that now Doom is of purely artistic and scientific interest, so that from August 31, 2011, the ban on open sale of the game has been officially lifted . Only one of the versions (the American version of Doom II) remained in the black list, in which there are two levels from Wolfenstein 3D with Nazi symbols.

The decision of the federal department for the control of works that are harmful to young people (Bundesprufstelle) was taken on the results of the appeal of Bethesda Softworks, the current owner of id Software. The main argument of Bethesda was that the graphics of the game Doom significantly inferior in quality to modern computer games, so the violence in the game has a much smaller impression.

The federal department acknowledged that the quality of graphics is really inferior to the image quality even on many modern phones. In an interview with the BBC, they also explained the reasons for the initial ban: the fact is that numerous scenes of violence against people or humanlike creatures are present in many games, but they must be “neutralized” by peaceful scenes. However, there is no neutralization in the Doom game, because of which the game gives the impression of a “bloody sadistic act of cruelty.”
')
According to state experts, now the cult game can only cause historical interest and is unlikely to attract the attention of children and teenagers. Moreover, there are much more realistic and violent games on the market.

Some members of the department still wanted to keep the ban on Doom, but the decision was made by a majority vote. If Doom and Doom II still go on sale, the game will be assigned the age limit of 16+.

In Germany, there is still a ban on the open sale of some other games , including Mortal Kombat 1-3. Like pornography, you can buy these games only in specialized stores for adults.