Cold War game is 'unacceptable'

A German student has created a computer game giving players a taste of life as an East German border guard shooting political fugitives fleeing to the West, to the outrage of victims' relatives.

The game "1378" – the length in kilometres of the border between East and West Germany in the Cold War – awards guards who shoot an exceptional number of escapees a medal. They then find themselves in the year 2000, on trial for the shootings. "Ultimately it's just an ego-shooter game, which is unacceptable given the historical context," said Dietrich Wolf, of the Federal Foundation for the Reconciliation of the Communist Dictatorship.