Recently there's been a lot of discussion regarding the use of Nazi iconography, such
as the swastika, in games.
The upcoming Call of Duty: WW2 is being marketed as a Historically Accurate portrayal of the
war, yet fans noticed that none of the footage seen so far has used any swastikas, instead
choosing symbols such as the iron cross instead.
On the other hand, the recently announced Wolfenstein 2 has already shown that it will
not be holding back when it comes to its depiction of the German forces.
This raised the question of whether Call of Duty will for some reason not be using this
historical symbol.
The Call of Duty series has actually been removing the symbol from the games for many
years now, for example, Censored Gaming reported a few weeks back about how the remastered
maps in the new Black Ops III DLC, Zombies Chronicles, had removed every single use of
the symbol.
However, in an interview with Sledgehammer Games CEO, it has been revealed that, despite
their absence in trailers, they will still be contained in the single player but not
the multiplayer.
The reason given being due to rules and regulations of certain parts of the world and wanting
all regions to be able to play online together.
The region that they are talking about is Germany and is based on the video game industry's
previous bad experiences with a certain German law
This video will go into what exactly the issue is and why these symbols keep getting removed
from games.
Our story all begins back in 1945 and post-war Germany.
Following losing the war, the Allies started a process called Denazification.
This initiative set out to get rid of any remaining traces of Nazism in German society,
with, of course, the intention of never allowing the atrocities of the war to happen again.
One effect of this was the creation of section 86a in the German criminal code, this section
titled "Use of Symbols of Unconstitutional Organizations".
Unconstitutional organizations refer to the Nazis and other similar outlawed groups.
Whilst there's no precise list of the affected symbols, the law states that these can include
"flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans and forms of greetings".
Additionally, any symbols which are so similar that they could be mistaken for these shall
be treated equally.
The law also states that anybody found guilty of domestically distributing or publicly using
these symbols, as well as anybody who produces, stocks, imports or exports with the intention
of doing this, will be punished with imprisonment for no more than three years or a fine.
So already you should be able to start to see where the problems are coming from.
However, there's still much more to it that and it could be argued that games should not
be having the issues that they are having and here's why.
Scrolling up to the start of Section 86 and then down to subsection 1, you'll notice that
an exception in the law is made for and I quote:
"If the means of propaganda or the act serves to further civil enlightenment, to avert unconstitutional
aims, to promote art or science, research or teaching, reporting about current historical
events or similar purposes."
Now this exception is exactly why Germany is far from a swastika-free zone.
All Germans are taught about the war in school, for example, and at any time are able to turn
on the TV and see documentaries and such about the war, which include these symbols.
In fact, even movies are allowed to freely show them.
Remember the law states that an exception is made where they are used for art purposes
and movies are seen as falling under this due to their artistic nature.
So, why then, if they are allowed to be shown in movies, why are they not allowed to be
shown in games?
And the simple answer to that is simply that nobody has ever tried... or, at least, properly
that is.
I'd just like to thank the Steam group ForUncut for their help with this part of the video.
For Uncut are a German anti-censorship group, who are very knowledgeable about German law.
Now, the legal issues over in Germany all started back in 1994 with the game Wolfenstein
3D.
Like modern entries in the series, the title contains many forms of Nazi themes and it
was the first game to ever be banned by the German courts for the use of symbols of unconstitutional
organizations.
Following this, other games have also been found to have violated these laws, including
Wolfenstein from 2009.
However, not a single case has ever considered the exceptions mentioned earlier in Subsection
1 of the German criminal code, which allows the symbols to be used in other media such
as movies.
To quote a discussion I had with ForUncut: "The cited judgments are controversial.
Shortly after the rendition of the Wolfenstein 3D judgment, there was criticism, and meanwhile
legal experts unanimously assume that publishers could successfully defend themselves against
these no longer up-to-date judgments, if they summoned the courage to defend themselves
in a court with the help of the social adequacy clause in regards to artistic freedom.
The reality, however, is that the developers and publishers of the games are concerned
because they do not seem to see any success in that alternative or fear of being labelled
as nazi advocates and that they would consequently suffer substantial damage to their image.
Instead, they would prefer to resort to expensive adjustments for German versions or even censor
these symbols globally.
However, all they would be doing is claiming their right to protection under the social
adequacy clause - as used by the film industry."
So, to summarise, it is thought that if a publisher simply tried to defend their use
of the symbols, it would not only get approved by the courts but would then set a precedent
for future titles as well.
But, so far no publisher has been willing to do this.
Thus, unless things change, German gamers will continue to get special censored versions
made for them that remove anything that could cause issues.
Additionally, we will continue to see some games that make changes worldwide instead,
like the upcoming Call of Duty: WW2 multiplayer.
However, hopefully from this video you have now learnt a few new things about why it is
that these things happen and how things could be changed for the better.
Until next time, thank you watching.