Xbox LIVE’s Stephen Tolouse has been blogging about his thoughts on people using Swastika logos on CoD: Black Ops. Those who do will feel the almighty blow of the ban hammer:
“Tonight I got asked one of those questions that only my job can apparently engender, namely “Hey, I’m not a genocidal hater of Jews but I really love the design of the swastika because its actually used by numerous religions, can I use it as my Call Of Duty: Black Ops logo? SWASTIKAS ARE AWESOME.No really, someone asked me this as a serious question on twitter. So I of course replied, “no, of course you can’t, we’ll ban you.”
Tolouse then goes on to explain that whilst the Swastika does has various meanings depending on orientation, “no educated human on the planet looks at the swastika symbol on a video game service in “the year we make contact” and says “oh, that symbol has nothing at all in any way to do with global genocide of an entire race and, even if it did, one should totally and reasonably ignore that because it’s a symbol that was stolen or coop-ted from religions.”
Apparently this hasn’t gone down well with some, who are now calling for the Star of David, the Christian Cross, and the Infinity Symbol to also be banned.
Tolouse then signs off by saying the following:
“The Xbox LIVE profile and in game content you create is accessible by everyone. You do not have the context inside of it to explain your long winded contrarian view that your pithy text that violates the Terms of Use or Code of Conduct is actually intended to change people’s minds about a commonly held understanding.
It’s not political correctness, it’s fundamental respect. If you think the swastika symbol should be re-evaluated by societies all over the Earth, I think that’s great. Your Xbox LIVE profile or in game logo, which doesn’t have the context to explain your goal, is not the right place to do that. And by the way, that doesn’t just go for the Swastika, it applies to many other symbols as well that my team does indeed take action on when we see it.
Context.
Yes we can have the discussion in other venues about the double meaning of various terms, something my team does everyday. But for many topics, its kind of a no-brainer.
*Context*
If you see offensive symbols in Call of Duty, Black Ops, report them using the in game option and they will be taken care of. If you want to argue that swastikas are actually AWESOME, go to another forum. On Xbox LIVE they are not allowed.”
Source: Stepto
PriceKitty
I’ve been reporting offensive emblems and crafty hackers for a while now, on the PS3 version.
I don’t know if Treyarch cares about that version or not, because there are so many Prestige Hackers and people on low Prestiges with Clan Tag Colors already!!!
It’s great that Microsoft is able to throw all that money at you, but think of the others too please, because I sold MW2 for it being hacked so much and nothing was done about it.
Please don’t make me sell Black Ops and go back to Medal Of Honor.
muse88_James
Good god, not Medal of Honor, anything but that!
Ne0N_420
imo its a war game the symbols used like the nazi swasticker shouldn’t be used people saying that its for religious purposes are chatting bollox why on earth would you use that.
Ne0N_420
if people cared & respected there religious beliefs they wouldn’t use a symbol in a game let alone a war one.
TheRealJD
Are people being banned from Xbox live or just banned from creating emblems as was previously reported?
MXZ
So its fine to create a game simulating the murdering of millions, but its not okay to use a symbol representing the murdering of millions.
muse88_James
The people I’ve seen on PS3 using this logo really piss me off…who did they think they are? Little internet wankers…
mugsybalone
Why would people call for the infinity symbol to be banned? The rest I can follow, Christian cross, Star of David, if you’re going to make a point about religious/political symbols, fair enough – but the infinity symbol? Do they really mean the ‘eight on its side’ thing?