In Germany games face a lot of opposition propably because the gaming audience is relatively small. If i recall, theres going to take place a law, which criminalises selling, buing and playing games, where you kill or seriously damage humans or human-like (zombies etc.) characters (games that does not get USK rating, and therefore cannot be sold, atleast not openly). You can go to jail by playing zombies ate my neigbours. Was the penalty max 2 yrs? Germany tried to run the law for whole EU, but it got refused. Instead EU decided, that every Union country can decide, will they make violent games illegal. Problem with violent games is that parents doesnt seem to understand what that PEGI rating means. Most people still think that the rating means how much intellectual challenge the game offers. Just like how board games are rated. And if they know, they dont care. Good thing would be making illegal selling or buing a game for kids aged under the rating. In Finland its illegal to sell 18+ games for underaged, but theres no penalty set for it (what good does a law do, when dont have to obey it?). I dont think it harms Nintendos image at least too much, although, 2 games which are supposed to be most violent so far are coming for Wii (Manhunt2 and No more heroes). In the other hand, games like that makes the Wii the kids favorite.

I'm thinking this could be a good thing in NA, but a bad thing in the EU, pretty non-existint issue in Japan.

look, the media makes a big deal about killing games no matter how you do it. whether your mashing buttons or chocking a doll with the cord from the wiimote to the nunchuck, the media makes a big deal about. it will not hurt nintendo anymore than it has hurt all the killer games and consoles over the years: NOT AT ALL.

 i was raised well. granted my dads a dick, but hes not the most horrible of people and has at least raised me with good morals. i love shooters, 1st person, 3rd person, war shooters, bond shooters, all types of guns, explosions, blood graphics. i can play them all the time, i love it, i love the death and realisticness of it all. its fun. i love it. guess what? the idea of actually stabbing someone or something like that makes me queazy, but in a game its sweet. i could never shoot someone, choke them, hold them under water, watch them bleed, but in a game it intriques me, i love it. but thats all it is, a game, i dont take it elswhere.  the media blames this new corrupt society, filled with elder people corrupting our youth and bad parenting, on something els. its never your fault in america. it just never is. its so much easier to have a game "baby sit" your kids for you, then when they grow up and not nessesarily kill someone, just do something bad (steal, fight someone, etc)  due to never getting in trouble for anything as a kid (by their parents anyway) its again easier to pin it on the video games that you once used to baby sit your kids. its stupid. and it wont hurt nintendo, this bad publicity has never hurt any gaming company ever.

 if anything this will be good advertising for nintendo. think about it, here we are talking about how nintendos for babys, and not for real hardcore gamers, and then contradicting ourselves by saying nintendo M games are worse than any we have ever seen when it comes to teaching violence. if im a hard core gamer and love shooters and other closly related games, i want the corrupt console.

I thought that Europeans were generally very liberal about these things.

Anyway, I definitely think that nintendo would be hurt by mature games, such as GTA.  If they started fielding games like that, then parents wouldn't be buying their kids as many Wii's. 

 Nintendo purposefully excludes mature games from its lineup, so they have thought this out long before we have, friends.

Dont look at it like that, thats wrong. Why wouldnt parents still buy Wiis? Think about it? If they still monitor what they play then it doesnt matter, and if not the Wii, then what? No console? Not in todays world. Little kids are spoiled brats. So yes they will still sell just as many wiis to parents looking for a child appropriete console, because wii will still have the games for all ages and younger ages. The only thing itll do is shut sony boys up that say the wii is for babys (which is stupid anyway) and give the sony boys nothing to argue.  To say parents will stop buying them is rediculous, I dont even think thats what was being implied in this article. Sorry if I sound harsh, Im not trying to flame you or anything, I just dont see how that would make sense.

I don't know where you got your information ...

Nintendo "Proper" (Nintendo's Japaneese first party developers) may not be interested in "Mature" titles but that doesn't mean Nintendo has ever excluded mature games; in fact Nintendo has published "Mature" titles and actively pursued these titles from third party publishers (how do you think Resident Evil ended up on the Gamecube).

Well, does it make sense to you that Nintendo has purposefully avoided any mature titles, or do you just think that this was an accident on their part?

Resident Evil is hardly mature.  RE has no sexual content, no "mature" situations, and hardly any graphic violence so calling it such seems preposterous.

I love arbitrary rules ...

This isn't arbitrary, and parents would hardly be upset over the content in the RE series, compared to their outrage over, say the GTA series, or the mortal combat series, both of which RE doesn't come close to matching.  Sorry, but shootin zombies just ain't that mature.