don't forget that it results in fewer games being sold, too. this further results in developers often crippling the core of their games to make them palatable to censors in order to increase their market share (it's usually the publishers that put the pressure on the devs). Same goes for just about any entertainment medium.
Results for the German market by viewing Games magazines: Some developers/publishers simply don't go into the trouble to modify their games for the German market, they are not offered here. I believe the main market is considered the USA. I agree, changing red blood into green and enemies into robots may be crippling, but is it such a loss if ego-shooters/brutal strategy games are sold at a lower rate?
I don't want to go off-topic and change Womble's thread from general censorship to youth protection - so just one small remark:
Violence can be learned/trained, same goes for self-responsibility, it has to be trained/learned. Violent games/movies solely don't make a gamer/movie watcher a serial murderer, there are far more factors to this, but it is
one little brickstone in the growing violence/aggression our whole human society has.
As for censorship apart from games: As an adult I wish to have free access to information - banning books is something completely terrible for me... The German Department for Youth Protection has a large variety of media considered to be harmful for under 18's - so? If they turn 18, they're allowed to have access to it.
I consider political desinformation censorship - and I oppose, cause I'm simply not able to get it.
If freedom of speech, founding a political party is censored - I oppose, even if this party is not agreeing with our German Constitution, as long as they respect laws, it's ok for me. I want to listen to them in public, hear their venom, so I can make up my mind and speak up clearly.
If I would live in a totally protected (censored) society I would have no training, no inner antidote to fight against anti-democratic trends.
As for child pornography: Hypatia, I agree with your opinion <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />, and I agree with your sentence about parental/adult responsibility (I wish I could see more of it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />)
Kiya