Swiss Police Call for Ban on The Darkness II [Updated]

A Swiss police association is calling for a ban on The Darkness II because the game includes moments of police being shot and killed, a Swiss newspaper reports.

“Politicians, game producers and sellers have been advised that such games be immediately removed from circulation,” according to The Swiss Christian Police Association.

“When police in England are the target of mobs running amok, it is important that police are not portrayed as the enemy,” said Felix Ceccato, president of the association. ”

His call was backed up by Thomas Richter from the Swiss Institute for the prevention of Crime.

Fortunately, Switzerland has some level-headed, game-savvy folks as well. Take for instance Gamerights, a Swiss consumer association for adult computer and video gamers.

“Unfortunately it is not new that certain scenes in video games are taken out of context and deliberately portrayed as the total goal of the game”, said Thomas Riediker, co-founder of the association. “Those against deliberately try to misinform, robbing games of their complexity and depth, portraying the most shocking and offensive view.

“I feel bad that ripping scenes out of context and trying to create shock value out of that towards people unfamiliar with games actually still works these days.”

Update: Not only that, rumors of cop-killing are false, says the game’s publisher, 2K Games, because there are no cops in the game.

“Reported stories regarding police officers in The Darkness II were erroneous. To be clear, there are no police officers in the game,” 2K Games said in a statement to Kotaku.

Swiss police have called for a ban on a violent computer game in which players shoot at police. [The Local]

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