If you choose to wear a Call of Duty: Black Ops logo that shares similarities with a certain equilateral cross that enjoys a certain bond with a certain group of jackbooted individuals, you better not be doing it on Xbox Live. Microsoft is banning all those who carry a swastika into battle, and it isn’t prepared to engage in a debate about it.
“It’s not political correctness, it’s fundamental respect,” says Xbox Live’s gestapo head, Stephen Tolouse. “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.
He goes on to say that various outraged gamers have argued that if we’re banning swastikas, then the star of David, the Christian cross and the infinity symbol should be banned too, for various interpretations that associate them with evil. Tolouse is not prepared to discuss it, saying that in the cases of symbols like the swastika, it’s “kind of a no brainer.”
I’m never a big fan of censorship, but at the end of the day, arguing for your right to wear a swastika in a videogame? That’s really not a fight worth having, guys.
Context. Or, no you don’t get to apply your Internet niche knowledge to me doing my job. :> [Stepto]
