Last year, Scottish machinima-makers Strange Company experienced the country’s paranoia over violent games first-hand. “We were about to screen our film BloodSpell at Leipzig,” recalls StrangeCo founder Hugh Hancock. “However, two weeks before the event another media scare blew up. The Conference was running scared because the media had it in for them, and they felt they couldn’t show BloodSpell unless we censored it. We refused to turn up. The Conference guys were fantastic - they tried their best in an impossible situation. If I had the German equivalent of the Daily Mail breathing down my neck, I might have made the same call.”
When asked for a chat, Stephan Reiss, press officer for the Leipzig Games Con, responded: “We cannot comment on violent videogames in Germany.” Bad timing. On November 20, 2006, 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse loaded up on guns and entered a high school in Emsdetten, Germany. He injured 37 and killed himself with a shot to the head.
