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Racist car in Forza 2 causes controversy
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 4th July 2007
The car in question has been available for auction in Forza 2 before, despite Turn 10s attempts to block racist material.
Microsoft has had trouble moderating and controlling some racist fans of the new console driving sim, Forza 2, who continue to create objectionable material in spite of Microsoft's Live Online User Policy.
Under the terms of the User Policy, gamers are not allowed to;
“Publish, distribute or disseminate any topic, name, material, file or information that incites discrimination, hate, or violence towards one person or a group because of their race, religion, nationality, transgender status, homosexual status, or HIV/AIDS status, or that insults the victims of crimes against humanity by contesting the existence of those crimes.”
So, it's the standard 'No Nazis, plz' clause. Seems fair enough to us.
Since the launch of the game though some minorities have flaunted this agreement, the most recent example of which is the auctioning off of a user-designed 1957 Mercedes 300SL adorned with the colours of the NSDAP and SS and Nazi logos.
Reportedly there are racist statements which cover the car, ranging from 'White Power' and 'Heil Hitler' to other more disgusting remarks which aren't fit to print. Turn 10, the developers of Forza 2, has attempted to tackle the issue by closing offensive auctions and providing abuse reports for offended gamers.
Most worrying of all is that this isn't the first time the car has apparently been on the auctioning block.
How should developers tackle user-generated content? At what point does personal responsibility end and corporate responsibility begin? Let us know your thoughts.
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Comments (84)
or white people as fuel......
edit: i think this racist thing is a little to much, the car it self can be the nazi racer..... it has all the attributes....
I personally dont like Nazi's for all the same reasons but if it truly is offensive to you, you could buy it on the auction and paint other it. That would get it out of circulation until the next comes along.
Trading of real Nazi stuff is ilegal so I guess they should make virtual trading of Nazi stuff ilegal too and designs of this nature should only be used by its designer. And you can choose not to race with such people if it bothers you, or ram them off the raod :)
are you some how insinuating that the idea behind "white power" is correct? o.0
are you some how insinuating that the idea behind "Black Power groups" is correct? Two sides to every coin
In my book, both are just kinds of racism, and both are equally wrong.
However I think many of you are right that the whole racism thing is very imbalanced, i think one of my friends called it "White Guilt".
An even more (to me at least) silly thing is that many Germans still feel the need to apologize for WWII, I mean we are talking about people apologizing for something their grandparents did. I think we call all agree that WWII was a bad time in world history and that nasty things happend than no-one would be proud of, but this is hardly the fault of someone who was born several decades after it all happened.
I think it's time the whole world took one (or two) step(s) back and tried to look at this whole racism thing objectively. I'm not saying that there isn't racism (cause there is), and I'm not saying that we should not try to stop it where and when ever it happens. But people seem to have gotten used to being extremely sensitive on certain subjects without even actually stopping to think for them selfs.
Positive discrimination vs. negative discrimination, basically. Which is which depends on the status of the group being discriminated.
If a disadvantaged status group is given negative treatment, it is considered negative discrimination. If it is given preferential treatment, it is considered positive discrimination. This is viewed as OK since it is meant to cancel out their disadvantages.
An advantaged status group is considered to enjoy their advantages because of positive discrimination (which may not even be spotted, because it is what people are used to; it is the social norm), so positive discrimination of the disadvantaged group is not really seen as disadvantaging the advantaged group, merely as levelling the playing field.
Where the whole idea falls down is with its sweeping generalisations about which is the advantaged group, and which the disadvantaged group. In terms of race for instance, not all white people are advantaged (some are really poor) or all black people disadvantaged (some are really just dumb)... Moreover, positive discrimination may create the mistaken impression that the disadvantaged group would be unable to perform at an equal level if they did not get this artificial boost. In the 70's some misguided proposals were made to statistically control for socio-economic disadvantages by adjusting the IQ scores of poorly performing black kids. Although statistically, this is a valid way of reducing measurement error and arriving at a hypothetical "true" score, in real life it cast suspicion on the validity of any black kid's high IQ score (is it "boosted", or is it "true"?).
It makes much more sense to level out the socio-economic inequalities between poor and wealthier people of course, but that is a lot harder to do than just making some token affirmative action gestures. People do not need positive discrimination any more than they need negative discrimination; they need equality.
No, he's saying that any ideas that one race should form a power base or group based simply upon race is stupid. Which it is. Racism = the laziest kind of discrimination.
I fully support all and every ban against creators of racist material in this game, and in life in general.
ah well the fun had to end sometime...
i am of the band of thinking that everyone really spends too much time getting offended than they do actually doing anything useful or just having a good time. political correctness always has to shove its ugly mug into absolutely everything. so to does health and safety but thats not the issue here.
you can insult me an my beliefs all you want, but honestly i have better things....more important things in my life to be getting on with rather than wasting time screaming about how i have been offended and my feelings hurt.
suck it up.
yeah people are way too quick to scream offense when presented with something like this just because its a known taboo subject and thats like the generic response. they dont stop to think "hang on a sec.... does that actually offend me? do i care? does it mean anything at all? or should i just get on with this transaction and possibly reap in some mega bucks for my company and then enjoy a huge christmas bonus for it?"
idiot.
i loled when i saw it. it's as much an anti german thing as it is an anti jews etc. thing. it's kinda linking the various outputs of the country at the time. i doubt anyone is going to be too offended by it but yeah, it's a little unfortunate.
he has a point, if i made a black car with "black people ornaments" and wrote "Black power", no one would make a fuss about this.
What steams me up is that if you are white hit a black person it is a hate crime, if you hit a white person it is "assault and battering" (IIRC), why? any kind of assault can be a hate crime no matter what color of skin.
i my self am indifferent to race and color, and to all of this "THIS IS NAZI/RACIST/COMMUNIST/HAS SEXUAL MATERIAL/HAS VIOLENCE!!!!! BAN IT!!!!!!", i just want peace.
there are still pro nazi's ?!
man some people are ready to believe anything, as long as they can be sheeps and follow some stupid cult
Great post!!!
@ ghys... just look at Scientology lol :P im still baffeled at how these designs are created (i want a mario ferrari). But you know what the best thing about this whole thing is?
The forza ppl won't need to pull the auction because the auction system is borked and the car will most probab;y vanish under it's own accord anyway!!! Cars are constantly getting lost and credits keep falling into black holes... I think a forza dev made this car to distract ppl away from the fact they released an auction system without a single test.(part joke)
and let's not forget to invite Matt Stone and Trey Parker
Oh one more thing, I'm not racists. I hate ALL races equally HAHAH =)
Everyone can always be on the receiving end. Even though I'm white my area is predominant mexican and asian, at my school there was only a 8 percent white population. I faced being the "white" boy every day. I was called a nazi, people would do the hitler arm raise thing to me, daily. I'm not saying shrug it off but, its in the damn past yeah it sucked for a lot of people(basically if you werent white with blonde hair and blue eyes) but how did it hurt you? Were you thrown in a concentration camp by the nazis, lynched by the KKK, ect..? I highly doubt that. Just always remember:
Sticks and stones may my break my bones, but words can never hurt me
For god sakes my legal name is B.J. imagine how hard that was for me in elementary and Jr High. They are just words and dont get all bent out of shape on it
Painting a virtual car with this theme does not compare to the amount of racism, violence, ethnic hate, sex, etc..... we ingest every day when we watch tv, surf the web or even walk the streets.
A lot of people say 'Oh this PC stuff has gone too far'. Looking at some of the attitudes on here, it seems like this social apathy stuff has gone too far.
If a white person hits a black person it's automatically a hate crime? What?!
That saying might have been true before political correctness and children seeing shrinks and whatnot. The ammended saying is now:
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will cause permanent psychological damage. :)
I think what it boils down to is this: if you're okay with racism towards you, or simply don't think it's worth getting hot and bothered about, then don't. I don't think it's okay at all, and I'm going to make a noise about it. I also don't think that people who haven't been on the receiving end don't have any right to dismiss it. (Not necessarily pointing fingers at anyone here, just stating an opinion.)
Its simple, a girl's mouth and a males smaller self equals a B*** J**
Now I completely agree with you on the whole thing and I'm not saying just because ones been on the reciving end means that they can relate to everyone. Its just that racisim will ALWAYS be around in one for or another and you have to live with it. It sucks but its true.:(
But in so many ways it seems to have got to a point where it is now used as a chess piece in arguments. +ve & -ve racism can be seen just about everywhere in day to day life, now i dont want to say that it is just a fact of life but it is there and needs to be dealt with. If its possible for people to be a little less sensitive about it and possibly open up some kinda dialogue to sort it all the better but always flying off the handle doesnt help, it just feeds the fire.
i think this whole tolerance bullsh*t is going far too far, its OK for a black person to attack a white person (verbally or physically) because their white, but its not ok for a white person to do it to a black person
that is quite frankly bo*****ks, the world is going crazy, hate crimes are bad, but it counts both ways - thats wh