German Authorities Claim Bomberman Threat to Nazis, Obliviously Didn't Play Bionic Commando
It's amazing that the video game industry has yet to wash its hands of Germany as a potential market. As the only country in the world that can some get militant over being nonmilitant, game companies have traditionally made some pretty drastic changes to games in order to make them acceptable for release.
(It's also surprising that the rest of Europe puts up with Germany over this. Since any changes to make the game more palatable for Germany were invariable present in all European releases.)
I bring this up not because a game is being censored in Germany, but because a German politician was arrested for invoking violence against Nazis by using Bomberman. Yes, you did just read that last sentence correctly.
Apparently one Martin Budich posted the graphic to the left on his website in response to a Nazi demonstration that occurred last October. Most websites are reporting the text translates to "No Cakewalk for Nazis," but I don't speak German so don't take my word for it.
In any case though, Budich is being arrested over the graphic, because prosecutors claim the picture contributed to an "aggressive atmosphere" at the demonstration.
Now I don't claim to know anything about German politics, but I do know that the Nazi Party illegal in Germany. I'm also reasonable certain that the average German has about as much respect for the Nazi Party as the average Pole, Russian, Belgian, etc. With that in mind, I'm pretty certain the invariable anti-Nazis at a Nazi demonstration didn't need a picture of Bomberman holding a cake with a lit fuse to get unreasonably aggressive.
Story and picture via GamePolitics