Should Microsoft Ban Gamers for Using Offensive Emblems on Xbox Live?

To remain an active member of Xbox Live, you must adhere to the ground rules laid out by Microsoft. One of the more important ones concerns being respectful to other members, and if you are equipping your avatar with offensive emblems, such as a swastika, you might not only find yourself booted off of the game you’re playing, but banned from Xbox Live entirely.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops, you’re able to create emblems that accompany your gamer card. This card features your name, rank and other various bits of information, and anytime you get the kill on someone, they see it. There’s been a recent uproar over whether or not you should be banned from the game or Xbox Live as a whole for designing a swastika as an emblem, and according to Microsoft, you should be.

The question is raised, though, as to whether this kind of action is appropriate. After all, people should be able to profess their opinions, right? That’s not the problem, but rather the fact that Xbox Live isn’t likely the place to do it. And if you truly are on the side of the swastika, chances are you have other ways of expressing your opinions. I’d be willing to believe that most people equipping themselves with such a symbol aren’t looking to discuss things rationally, but are instead out to offend.

It’s argued that other highly-regarded symbols should be bannable as well, such as religious emblems, but I’m not quite sure if that’s the same thing. Personally, gaming is the last place I want to gain perspective on other people’s opinions on things, but if a symbol infuses disgust in most people, I think it should be a bannable offense. I am one of those people who is offended by almost nothing, but even so, it’s the principle. Respect others, or else you serve no real purpose in online gaming.

“Suddenly, my twitter stream was filled with people stating that Xbox LIVE should equally ban the star of David, the Christian cross… because under various niche interpretations of those symbols, they are as evil as the swastika symbol and I should apply ethical relativism to all symbols on Xbox LIVE to respect all viewpoints because of the United States First Amendment,” Toulouse wrote in a slightly exasperated blog post.