Censorship of Nazi Imagery (specifically Swastikas) in Video Games, discussion encouraged

So, obviously Nazis and Nazi Imagery is huge parts of history, as the Nazis were the bad guys in WWII, the single conflict with the largest death toll and longest lasting effects in human history. Now obviously the WWII Era has been very popular for video games for a long time with interest fluctuating, but now we have one of the largest franchises in the Video Game Industry at the moment jumping head-long into WWII after almost a decade, and that would of course be Call of Duty: WWII. Slated to release sometime in early November (I don't care enough to look it up) the game will likely follow the story of a generic american soldier dude fighting on the beaches of Normandy against Nazi forces. Inevitably with Nazis comes the Nazi Imagery like the Swastika. However the Swastika specifically has been the topic of much debate for almost a century as it was originally a religious symbol for religion X (I don't care enough to look it up) for centuries before it was adopted by Hitler as the banner for Nazi Germany. Obviously since then many people see it synonymous with Nazi Germany, and it is even classified as a hate symbol throughout much of the world even today. In Germany, the Swastika and all other Nazi Imagery is strictly forbidden by Federal Law (#ButtHurtGermany), and just recently there was a federal court case in Germany against a guy because he threw a Swastika in the trash, because there was even a Swastika involved, so i'd say Germany is pretty serious. Now in Germany the Wolfenstein franchise is universally banned due to it's nature, and pretty much every WWII game the Swastika has been swapped for the Iron Cross or Iron Eagle. The German anti-Swastika law can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a .A recent example of this censorship would be Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3: Zombie Chronicles and how every Swastika has been swapped out for the Iron Symbols, and this begs the question, will we see this censorship in Call of Duty: World War II? Well we've already seen evidence of possible censorship in the worldwide reveal of the game, and this evidence has been collected and showcased in a Reddit post by user Thermikz, link the the post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WWII/comments/68ap0s/some_evidence_that_shg_is_censoring_nazi_insignia/ .Now obviously Activision wants WWII to be released in Germany because of the huge CoD fanbase there, and doing so will require them to create a separate build of the game specifically for Germany without the Swastika, likely swapping it for the previously mentioned Iron Symbols. Now they've done this before with Call of Duty: World at War where Germany got a separate Swastika free build, and again in Call of Duty: Black Ops with the Germany version of Kino Der Toten, Nacht der Untoten, Verruct, and Der Riese all got separate Swastika free versions in Germany. Now that just begs another question, why now? Why start universal censorship now? Well that could be for multiple reasons actually, one possibility being that they may not be universally censoring it, but maybe just cleaned it up for the reveal to fit in with German law so they didn't have to **** up the reveal for Germany, this all comes back to Germany. Another option would be that maybe they just don't want to do multiple builds of the game, and they may see it as being easier to make one that is censored for everyone, as Treyarch did with Zombie Chronicles. Now that just about wraps this up, now real quick i'd like to than Reddit user Thermikz for collecting and posting that evidence because I sure as hell never noticed it, and i'd like to thank YouTuber Drift0r for bringing this to my attention via video that is below, followed by a link to his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8cNb10L5rmV9xB13ADCWA

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Also to add, the swastika was originally a Southeast Asian religious symbol used in Hinduism and Buddhism as well as a Native American tribal symbol (though reversed). It's also found in the old pagan religions of Europe. Even the Jews used the swastika as a mystical symbol at one point, which is rather ironic.

The Swastika was even the insignia of the United States 45th Infantry Division, up until right before WWII when they changed it to distance themselves from the Nazis.

And there lies the problem, the Nazis. They stigmatized the symbol. Most people know this, so I don't know why this is such a new revelation to some people. I learned about this in elementary school because the swastika appears often throughout historical artworks that predate the Nazis by centuries as mentioned above.

Yet Germany is DEEPLY ashamed of what transpired during Hitler's "Final Solution", and of the other war crimes before that. Thus everything related to the Second World War is suppressed, just like in Japan. Since the swastika was the symbol of Nazi Germany, it of course is going to be censored by modern politically correct Germany.

@The_Stand_In: As you brilliantly pointed out the Swastika was by no means exclusive to Hitler, it was around several centuries before in various forms and purposes, although mainly religious. Yet so many people forget about that, and ONLY associate the symbol with Nazi Germany, and to be honest Germany's ban on Nazi material makes complete sense, and was originally put in place to bust up smaller pockets of Nazis left after the war, and remains in place primary to make sure that no Nazis will ever again rise to power, at least in Germany. But the issue is political correctness, and how it tries to suppress the brutal truth of what really happened, and I, as a history buff, just cannot let that go, as I throughly believe that history cannot be censored. The truth must be told so that people recognize the patterns and can prevent it from happening ever again, because HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF! Anyways, my point is there.

I don't see what the point is in pointing out that it isn't always associated with Nazism, since in the context of a video game set in WW2 with Nazi soldiers it is obviously used to refer to Nazism.

The ban isn't as broad as you make it sound, you're still allowed to use it in the context of Nazi's for art and education. Video games however aren't art therefore aren't allowed to use it.

I agree that censoring something like this is not such a great idea, but I can't help but feel you are making mountains out of molehills. The swastika and that part of German history is pretty much never going to be forgotten about, and genocide has been occurring long before then and will continue to occur well after. Hell, it's occurring somewhere right now, probably, against some ethnic/tribal group in Africa, or against some sect of Muslim folks like Saddam was trying to do during his regime.

Now imagine your country committed this atrocity, and you did not have laws to stop people from reminding you about it. Or perhaps seemingly overly harsh laws against skinheads (in the US, that might be oppression or against freedom of speech). And so forth. But you might need those, because since you live in this country, there are just too many opportunities to be reminded of this history in a negative, non-productive light that it doesn't do anyone any good. So you need these laws for just this one thing. And you make up for it in other areas, such as freedom of speech, healthcare, overall happiness, wealth, and so forth.

Overall I think it's all right. The problem is when people use it as a precedent for more laws. Like "Hey, no swastikas in video games. Well, how about no blood, too?" That's when you gotta go "Woh woh woh, chief, let's pump the breaks".

The Nazis are merely the best example of this awful practice humans occasionally participate in, not the most recent or most relevant.

And as for the swastika's history and symbolism, I think enough people know about it, but for all anyone cares at this point it's a Nazi thing...not Buddhist, not American infantry, not whatever.

You can address and recognize history (even if it is only partially true) without giving it continued power. In the world today though, if something is offensive/scary, etc.., the first recourse is to eliminate it.

Considering that it's completely fine to show swastikas on TV and in movies this discussion is laughable at best.

The rest of your post shows pretty much that you don't have any clue what you are talking about. Everything about World War is suppressed? That has to be one of the dumbest things I've read on the internet this month. Do you think our history books are censored somehow? What do you think the kids learn at school? Good Lord, I don't even know how to put into words how silly that is. History of World War is a BIG part of education here.

A lot of games have been modified to fit the people who going to play it ...

I mean many japanease game have some changes here and there so it make sense to americans ... or they remove part of the game because it is ok in Japan but it would be a problem in USA ...

Same thing going on here with removing Nazi symbols for Germany.

I've never been to Germany nor know anyone from there so it is hard to understand how they feel about all of this but it is normal I guess they are so sensitive about it. I an only guess they want to be a positive force in this modern world as a way to be forgiven. One day I think they will be able to accept this dark past but y'know, it isn't that far back. Maybe in a century it will be something different.

It's pathetic ostrich behavior, it's what it is: "Let's pretend the Nazi never existed!" I would almost get it if videogames and movies portrayed the Nazis as heroes, but they are the #2 favorite killing target in videogames, right after zombies, so what's the point of censoring the swastika?

I take it you aren't German, given the amount of errors and distortions in your post.

#ButtHurtGermany is absurd, for example, because it shows you fundamentally don't understand why there are laws against Nazi imagery. Whether they are SMART or not is a different discussion, but...

It also begs the question: if you aren't German and don't actually understand how this works in Germany, then why are you pretending to care? You can look at Swastikas all day long where you live. Relax.

P.S., it is trivial for developers to replace or remove a Swastika texture from their game. They don't have to make a "completely new build" of anything.