The nazi simbol is banned in videogame artwork?

[MS-DOS]

I was looking at Wolfensteins different releases and in all the artwork it seems the nazi simbol was replaced:

 

 

See the flags, they have a different sign

 

I think it's design:

 

 

but in the game they kept the original flag:

 

But i've also seen these screenshots (censored version in germany??)

 

 

I like the alternative design that looks like an W is great but I always thought the nazi aesthetic looks so cool, you become scared as you play the game and see all the flags. I wonder if it's banned in some countries and some aren't

 

 

 

[Mling]

they cant sell the game in germany with nazi symbols so expect some difference between the marketing material and in game artwork

[SenKa]

Quote

I like the alternative design that looks like an W is great but I always thought the nazi aesthetic looks so cool, you become scared as you play the game and see all the flags. I wonder if it's banned in some countries and some aren't

IIRC this is correct. I am almost certain you will get in big trouble in Germany. Mind you, in some countries and religions the swastika is a symbol of religion and peace. This was its original meaning. Spoilered is a brief history of the swastika and its history in germany, I suggest if you don't know it to read it.

Spoiler

 

Far right nationalist groups in Europe in the 19th century used the symbol in their flags of a symbol of what they were fighting against.

 

The nazi flag's colour scheme was chosen as the colour red was to represent the imperial German army (the army that fought against German democracy), and the swastika in the middle was a symbol of those against the "aryan race".

 

 

[Chionele]

The ruling in regards to those symbols being banned has been reversed (in terms of video games, in other forms of art there never was any ban), but since it's the current year in many cases it's just way less headache to not use the swastika or other similar symbols, and just replace them with e.g., the iron cross, because apparently that's somehow better and different.

[MS-DOS]

15 minutes ago, SenKa said:

IIRC this is correct. I am almost certain you will get in big trouble in Germany. Mind you, in some countries and religions the swastika is a symbol of religion and peace. This was its original meaning. Spoilered is a brief history of the swastika and its history in germany, I suggest if you don't know it to read it.

  Hide contents

 

Far right nationalist groups in Europe in the 19th century used the symbol in their flags of a symbol of what they were fighting against.

 

The nazi flag's colour scheme was chosen as the colour red was to represent the imperial German army (the army that fought against German democracy), and the swastika in the middle was a symbol of those against the "aryan race".

 

 

Interesting theorie on your spoiler, where did you read it from? Ive read many different meanings to the nazi swastika.

 

[MS-DOS]

13 minutes ago, Caroline said:

It's banned in Germany

 

The old games also feature a flag with the W and different dialogs or texts

Not the oldest tho

 

and of course there is this lol

 

 

 

[SenKa]

59 minutes ago, MS-DOS said:

Interesting theorie on your spoiler, where did you read it from? Ive read many different meanings to the nazi swastika.

 

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/history-of-the-swastika

A mix between here, and what my history professors have taught me over the years

[SteveGrabowski0]

3 hours ago, SenKa said:

IIRC this is correct. I am almost certain you will get in big trouble in Germany. Mind you, in some countries and religions the swastika is a symbol of religion and peace. This was its original meaning. Spoilered is a brief history of the swastika and its history in germany, I suggest if you don't know it to read it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Far right nationalist groups in Europe in the 19th century used the symbol in their flags of a symbol of what they were fighting against.

 

The nazi flag's colour scheme was chosen as the colour red was to represent the imperial German army (the army that fought against German democracy), and the swastika in the middle was a symbol of those against the "aryan race".

 

 

It's funny that マジ卍, pronounced maji manji, is some kind of really cringe girly teen slang in Japanese that kind of indicates excitement. Or put 卍 at the end of a sentence for emphasis, like お腹空いた卍 = I'm hungry manji if you're a Japanese teen girl. I know the first thing I associate with the swastika is excited Japanese schoolgirls. 

[typographie]

15 hours ago, MS-DOS said:

I like the alternative design that looks like an W is great but I always thought the nazi aesthetic looks so cool, you become scared as you play the game and see all the flags. I wonder if it's banned in some countries and some aren't

I'm not German so bear in mind I'm collecting this information from English sources outside the country.

 

My understanding is that at least since the 1990's, the German "ban" on the swastika was because the USK (the German software ratings board) policy was to refuse a rating to any video game that featured the swastika, in any context. And since a USK rating is required to sell a game in Germany, this amounted to a de facto ban. I don't think there was a total government ban on all depictions of the swastika in artistic contexts, as is commonly believed.

 

Recently the USK reversed this policy and is now rating games that display the swastika on a case-by-case basis instead of a blanket refusal. As far as I know, Wolfenstein II The New Colossus and Wolfenstein: Youngblood are now available uncensored in Germany.

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/11/2021 at 2:59 AM, Chionele said:

The ruling in regards to those symbols being banned has been reversed (in terms of video games, in other forms of art there never was any ban), but since it's the current year in many cases it's just way less headache to not use the swastika or other similar symbols, and just replace them with e.g., the iron cross, because apparently that's somehow better and different.

source? tbh im not bothered to much either way, I just hate censorship and this is censorship, also it's highly inconsistent, it's allowed in "art" so movies is ok but video-games aren't!? 

 

Err, yeah, source? because that sounds like hearsay, no offense. 

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/11/2021 at 6:16 PM, typographie said:

I'm not German so bear in mind I'm collecting this information from English sources outside the country.

 

My understanding is that at least since the 1990's, the German "ban" on the swastika was because the USK (the German software ratings board) policy was to refuse a rating to any video game that featured the swastika, in any context. And since a USK rating is required to sell a game in Germany, this amounted to a de facto ban. I don't think there was a total government ban on all depictions of the swastika in artistic contexts, as is commonly believed.

 

Recently the USK reversed this policy and is now rating games that display the swastika on a case-by-case basis instead of a blanket refusal. As far as I know, Wolfenstein II The New Colossus and Wolfenstein: Youngblood are now available uncensored in Germany.

err, yeah, basically. I don't think usk is required however, you can sell imports just fine for example. 

 

And just FYI, there *is* a total and nation wide ban, only exception is in "art" and video games apparently aren't art, as they're just "games" or some bs... lol... but I think that actually got changed recently, maybe this caused this change of course after all - im not really up to date, as I really do not care much about hypocrisy and politics... 

 

[Chionele]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

source? tbh im not bothered to much either way, I just hate censorship and this is censorship, also it's highly inconsistent, it's allowed in "art" so movies is ok but video-games aren't!? 

 

Err, yeah, source? because that sounds like hearsay, no offense. 

Source on what? This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a ?

[Mark Kaine]

16 minutes ago, Chionele said:

Source on what? This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a ?

yea, I guess. So I remembered right I read something about it but I wasn't sure on the details, and if it's actually true... thanks.