Vanguard Might Be Giving You The Option To Censor Swastikas
Representation of the Nazi version of the swastika in media is still a contentious issue to this day. There are those who think the evil it represents means it shouldn’t ever be displayed, and on the other side are those who believe an honest portrayal of it in the proper context is respectful to those involved in that dark part of our history. No matter where you stand on the issue, the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard may allow players to choose to censor the symbol.
Is Call Of Duty: Vanguard Removing Swastikas?
This theory comes from journalist and industry insider Tom Henderson, who Tweeted that he believed that the next entry in the Call of Duty series would have a toggle for displaying the symbol in the campaign.
He based this on the promotional material for the game, which so far has featured both the iron cross and swastika across trailers and images. This seems like new territory for the series, which has flipped between showing the symbol in the earlier entries and replacing it with the iron cross recently. Either way, it seems like it may up to the player this time whether they take on the explicitly Nazi-looking Nazis, or the slightly less Nazi-looking Nazis.
Will Activision Allow You To Toggle The Swastika?
The last entry in the time period, Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty: WWII replaced all swastikas in the multiplayer, for the sake of respecting 'cultural boundaries'. At the time, Michael Condry, the co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, told Forbes: "We’ve wrestled with the topic of Nazi iconography, including the swastika, throughout the course of development".
He elaborated further, saying: "There are, of course, cultural boundaries that we felt we needed to respect. And we also wanted to be authentic in our approach to game design. It's a fine balance of not glorifying the symbolism, while also not ignoring or shying away from this dark moment in human history. There's certainly a line that we are very conscious not to cross, while still honouring the sacrifice of those who fought to push back the world from the brink of tyranny. In short, it's not something we take lightly."
So far, Sledgehammer nor Activision have commented on the rumours, meaning we’ll probably have to wait until launch to find out, though we'd imagine multiplayer will be a no-go for the symbol. There are also different rules regarding representation of the symbol across different countries.
Germany, for example, are quite famously limiting on how much Nazi symbolism can be displayed, with the recent Wolfenstein games replacing the swastika, and removing Hitler’s moustache and 'Führer' title entirely.