Microsoft Bans Swastika Use in Black Ops

John Colaw November 22, 2010 11:45 AM EST

Call of Duty Black Ops features a fairly in depth emblem creator that allows you to use up to 12 layers and dozens of images to create some pretty intricate designs. I’ve seen some very creative stuff from Elmo to Kingdom Hearts and of course a lot of phallic designs as people are wont to do when given a creative voice. Another symbol began popping up which I honestly did not see coming; many variations on the Swastika of the Nazi Party.

Microsoft has instituted a blanket ban on the use of any emblem resembling a Swastika, and as always seems to happen some people are upset. Ask almost any person using the emblem what they were thinking and they’ll claim that their emblem isn’t a Nazi Swastika, but rather the Hindu symbol representing Peace and Good Luck, despite the fact that their emblem is angled (as the Nazi version was) rather than the straight version of the original. Read on for more…

“Some of them claim to have known it as innate fact, others claim it to be widespread common knowledge taught to every single person in elementary school. Of course, usually neither is true at all. Most of them are just contrarians. They would never dare to wear a swastika openly, but they love to argue about how the world has ‘misunderstood’ this symbol.

“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.”

While everyone making this claim is right; the Swastika is a symbol of peace and is still used to this day by many religions and groups. The fact remains though that the symbol has been forever tarnished, and a majority of people instantly think of the Nazi version and it’s offensive and insensitive to many people. Nobody is creating this emblem for peace, they’re just trolling on the internet and frankly it’s sickening. I’m all for freedom of speech, but this isn’t a case of that. Kudos to Microsoft on this one. If you see an emblem you find offensive in Black Ops, use the in-game system to report it and it will be taken care of; this applies to anything, not just the Swastika.

[StepTo]