Microsoft doesn't like swastikas. Should STFU.

[skikes]

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/nov/23/call-of-duty-swastika-controversy[/url]

For those of you that that don't want to read the entire article, I'll summarise. In the game 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' you can create your own symbol for online play. Some users have been banned from x-box live for having swastikas as their symbol.

I felt sick to my stomach reading that article. I can't believe the hypocrisy of some people. I've watched my boyfriend play this game and previous entries in the series and it is truly one of the worst pieces of garbage I've ever seen. A game that prides itself on it's realistic, gruesome deaths and awards players for obtaining "kill streaks". I don't get offended at much (no really I watched 2 girls 1 cup without flinching) but the call of duty series offends me. These games celebrate and glamorise war and death.
If I seen a swastika in an internment camp themed level of 'Little Big Planet' hells yeah I would be offended but to complain about a player using it in a game of 'Call of Duty' is like complaining about your cheeseburger having cheese in it.

Hey Microsoft, don't like swastikas? Don't fucking bring out call of duty games on your console.

[Dartz]

Yeah.... been putting up swastika's around town to welcome our new overlords, but that's a different matter.


In fairness. People using Xbox live will use any excuse to get offended, kick up a fuss and sue Microsoft, to snatch some short publicity for themselves, and maybe a few thousand quid from a bored judge.

I got banned from Forza motorsport for a while, for doing a really awesome WW2-themed Ford Mustang, with Air Force (P-51 style) markings.

And there's the guy from Fort Gay West Virgina who got banned because they assumed his locations was a joke.


Also. Don't like CoD, don't buy it. I for one love it in batter with Burdock's chips.

[skikes]

Yeah.... been putting up swastika's around town to welcome our new overlords, but that's a different matter.

I had no idea what you were talking about here... and then I seen your location and it clicked lol
I'm so tired of hearing those 2 little words...

SPOILER: Show

Bail out.

[GasmaskAvenger]

I've watched my boyfriend play this game and previous entries in the series and it is truly one of the worst pieces of garbage I've ever seen. A game that prides itself on it's realistic, gruesome deaths and awards players for obtaining "kill streaks". I don't get offended at much (no really I watched 2 girls 1 cup without flinching) but the call of duty series offends me. These games celebrate and glamorise war and death.

even though I don't care for the CoD games nor most FPS games, but getting all sick stomached over said game with...killing?


Sorry to break it to ya, but CoD is pretty damn tame compared to other games i've play, violence/gore-wise

[soul.assassin]

There are games far more worse than this, and most of them are not FPS shooters.

Since violence is unavoidable in our world today, leave the fighting to the men and women who have the stomach and the will to take up arms, even if others criticize them for their volunteerism... So that ordinary people can sleep peacefully at night.

[Azathoth]

Sorry to break it to ya, but CoD is pretty damn tame compared to other games i've play, violence/gore-wise

This. Hell, half the franchise has been devoted to killing Nazis. More to the point, it strikes me as comical for anyone to pitch a shitfit about the fact that people can identify themselves with swastikas [s]for any reason[/s] when simply playing a game on Xbox Live would give me a fairly good chance of being decried as a faggot by a prepubescent boy.

[skikes]

Sorry to break it to ya, but CoD is pretty damn tame compared to other games i've play, violence/gore-wise

Sorry, I don't think I made myself very clear. My issue isn't with the violence, I like violent games and movies actually.
My disgust comes with the hypocrisy of a war gaming slapping bans on for players displaying swastikas. My issue with CoD and other games with a real war setting is the simplicity it conveys. Brown skin/Accent = Enemy. Death = Respawn.

[Sachi]

I'm guessing you have a low opinion of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Anyways, this sort of censorship is completely wrong, yet none of it is surprising. Stupid people shitting themselves over stupid things.

[GasmaskAvenger]

Sorry, I don't think I made myself very clear. My issue isn't with the violence, I like violent games and movies actually.
My disgust comes with the hypocrisy of a war gaming slapping bans on for players displaying swastikas. My issue with CoD and other games with a real war setting is the simplicity it conveys. Brown skin/Accent = Enemy. Death = Respawn.

ah okay

then again, I dislike Counter Strike for its absolute lack of story whatsoever (i.e. dudes shooting other dudes, end of story. no context, no story, no motive, no uber ridiculous gore, jack shit except bam bam bam, repeat.)

[skikes]

I'm guessing you have a low opinion of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Anyways, this sort of censorship is completely wrong, yet none of it is surprising. Stupid people shitting themselves over stupid things.

No actually I love Grand theft auto. I couldn't count the times I've started a new game of GTA4. You choose the way you play. You can go on murderous rampages or you can do the missions and enjoy the story. It doesn't pretend it's something it not. The character knows he's the bad guy and makes no apologies about it. CoD has you as the good guy, murdering hundreds of people.

[Azathoth]

then again, I dislike Counter Strike for its absolute lack of story whatsoever (i.e. dudes shooting other dudes, end of story. no context, no story, no motive, no uber ridiculous gore, jack shit except bam bam bam, repeat.)

Well, a series of occurrences that don't supply any real narrative can lead to the user forming their own narratives often far superior to most of those that most of the video game industry shits out: just look at a Dwarf Fortress succession game. Of course, in CS people tend to be more interested in aimbots and racial slurs than forging a narrative from raw material, but sometimes the lack of story whatsoever is better than a shit story.

[GasmaskAvenger]

sometimes the lack of story whatsoever is better than a shit story.

yeah, sometimes a lack of narrative can be good, just depends on what kind of game it is

Counter-Strike being a FPS is probably another reasons I don't care for it, aside from its utter lack of story (I never played it online, just some simulated matches and the slightly more interesting Deleted Scenes mode)

then again, I loved playing Perfect Dark's simulation combat mode, though that had you being able to do some weird ass shit like having aliens with human heads and visa versa...as well as me getting super creative in the SvR games using the combination of CAWs and Exhibition Made (though the most recent games' BS "no intergender matches" crap has really soured my love of the series and interfered with my creativity/enjoyability with them)

[Naminator]

I think the bigger irony here is the fact that the CoD game in question has a mode called "Nazi zombies" where you kill wave after wave of nazi zombies lol.

I guess swastikas are ok if you are killing the person who is wearing it.

[scarmullet]

I dont see the point of getting your knickers in a twist over swastikas. The origin of the Swastika is often associated as a good luck charm in Eastern faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Jainism. Also, the swastika can be associated with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Sadly, people associate it with the Holocaust and the Nazis due to it being the only exposure of the swastika in the western world, as a result the symbol is banned in the majority of Europe, including Germany. Getting all pissed about a swastika is like getting pissed at the confederate battle flag. Both are symbolic, and both have misconstrued meanings.

And yes Call of Duty is a gory game, that's war. There is no way around killing in a war. If you don't fire your weapon, you can be killed for insubordination.

[Azathoth]

And yes Call of Duty is a gory game, that's war. There is no way around killing in a war. If you don't fire your weapon, you can be killed for insubordination.

That's entertainment, folks. sweet christ the western world is fucked.

[Animejunkie]

I just want to go on record here and say that any one who calls CoD a gory game doesnt know gore... its a violent game where people die but thats it... granted i havent played Black Ops yet, gore would entail that and explosive would tear limbs from bodys, and there would be visible bullet wounds after death...

With that said, i cant believe people have been banned for shit like this. Im not saying that what happend during WWII was right or wrong... But besides the Holocaust what wrong did the germans do... as i see it they were just another country that wanted to create its own empire, no different than ancient romans and other empires... granted it was more violent and collateral damage was much higher but thats what happens when killing technology increases, death increases. Anyone should be able to have whatever they want as they want as their symbol in any game. Im srry but thats why games often have the ESRB rating...

Online-enabled games carry the notice "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB." This notice warns those who intend to play the game online about possible exposure to chat (text, audio, video) or other types of user-generated content (e.g., maps, skins) that have not been considered in the ESRB rating assignment.

and that ends my lengthy tangential post about my opinion on this topic =P

[toe mash]

The origin of the Swastika is often associated as a good luck charm in Eastern faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Jainism. Also, the swastika can be associated with the Eastern Orthodox Church

Yeah, I'm sure that people that use a swastika symbol did it because it's their favorite good luck charm, nothing sinister, obviously.

Im not saying that what happend during WWII was right or wrong... But besides the Holocaust what wrong did the germans do...

"Well he might have murdered several hundred people , but he was so good to to his mother!"

Seriously though, I'm not sure what you were taught during highschool history classes, but regardless of the fact you can't brush off "the holocaust" as some minor bump along the road, it wasn't the only thing the Germans did. There's that whole "killing prisoners of war" thing and invading every damn country they could while murdering civilians.
You shouldn't brush off invading and conquering as "just creating an empire" as though it's some excuse. I mean, really? I'd like to think we got to the point where conquering another country is a big no-no, and that it's obviously a crime.

You wouldn't be saying this if you were from any European country that actually had an invading army and didn't just fight overseas.

Anyway...

Obviously I'm heavily biased regarding the swastika thing, but I'm not sure if it means the same thing to other people as it does to the people it offends. And I'm very relaxed about these kind of issues, cracking holocaust jokes with friends or having a god damn snowball fight in Auschwitz-Birkenau, I shit you not.

But this is different. In World of Warcraft for example, racism can easily get you banned, and I doubt anyone disagrees with that. So why not ban a symbol that conveys a thousand words? I'm glad Microsoft grew a pair and did this.

[Dartz]

I do feel sorry for the Indians who're wondering why they're getting banned. The connotation with the holocaust is a distinctly Western one. Anyway, there're plenty of other 'I'm an online contrarian badass' symbols out there for you to use, which probably won't be recognised by the XBL mods.

Might I suggest: http://www.sambarforpins.com/thumbnails/ER509_sniper_pin.gif

Then you can get into a huff about provincialism when they don't ban you.

As an aside, This is the car that got me banned from XBL at the time. I found it annoying, for it took a bloody long time to get right.
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m57/Dartz_IRL/P511.jpg
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m57/Dartz_IRL/P512-1.jpg

[skikes]

I just want to go on record here and say that any one who calls CoD a gory game doesnt know gore... its a violent game where people die but thats it... granted i havent played Black Ops yet

Black ops is gory, in one of the cutscenes the protagonist punches a piece of glass deep inside a man's face. There's a level when your shooting enemies in a tunnel and bits of their skull come flying at you.
Though like I said, it's not the gore I find offensive. I like gore. I just think it's a game for idiots.

[Nightweaver20xx]

You all have to understand something, if you don't already:

Like it or not, Western society glorifies war. We believe almost to a person that we are on a God-given mission to free the rest of the human world from heathens, antichrists and fascism. The United States, in particular, still believes in Manifest Destiny, regardless of what Obama wants you to believe. We are "making the world safe for democracy" by slaughtering thousands of people. That's the way it's been since our country was founded, and it's likely to remain that way until the fall of the American empire sometime in the next century. WWII is especially beloved in America for being the "good war." Veterans still joke and speak glowingly of how many people they blew away or how they shot Nazi POWs in the head AFTER they surrendered, just because they were Nazis. It happens. That's life. It's goddamn ugly, but it's also fact.

The fact that video game companies picked up on this idea and ran with it also doesn't surprise me. I try to tune it out as much as I can.