Hi. My name is Nex and I'm culturally insensitive.
I often make light of horrible atrocities, and have been known to poke fun at various religions, ethnicities, cultural nuances and, of course, fatties. With such a storied history of offending all people great, small and really fat, it's little surprise that I was nominated to cover this story, but even more surprising is that upon reading this whole thing, I got a severe sense of revulsion. It's one thing to spend an entire podcast joking with an Englishman about the horrors of the Reich, but to publicly distribute a vehicle modeled after some alternate-universe Nazi Supercar crosses a line, spits on it, and burns a cross in its front yard.
A Forza 2 player by the nom de video game of Dreamer61 created the stunningly horrific 1957 Mercedes 300SL pictured above. Adorned with slogans of "Heil Hitler" and "White Power", the car is enough to force one into exile in Argentina, and it has created quite a stir within the XBL community. Even more sad is that the car -- the wet dream of Rob Zombie and Adolph Eichmann -- would be hailed as a stunning achievement within the ranks of would-be vehicle painters if it weren't for the unfortunate subject matter.
Obviously, the people behind Forza 2, and Microsoft themselves, do not approve of the content, but one has to wonder what exactly their obligation is herein. As much as the content is terribly offensive, is there an onus on the game's creators to censor free speech in the event that it offends the views of certain people?
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21 comments + 95764 views
Oh yeah forza 2 yeah thats the game you don't like AT ALL right NEX?
Screw racism, historic/art or not, the creator of that needs to be slapped. Serves no purpose other than to get a rise out of people.
I believe the Forza website has terms and conditions that state they reserve the right to censor whatever the hell they want. And if enough people file a complaint on Live, the person will obviously be banned.
There's a fine line between free speach and crap like that. Stuff like this, by the way, is the reason Silvers can't use the Auction House any more.
Of course they can't censor that shit! If they want to open up Pandora's box you have to be ready to live with the consequences that in the box there might be a jew hating white power junkie...or a white hating black man or a pigmy hating brazilian....or a dog that HATES cats....
Obvious troll is obvious.
Coming off the back of the fury of the entire internets at bodies which censor our videogames for us I sincerely hope I don't see anybody claiming that this should be banned. I personally don't want to shit like this, which is why I will choose to ignore it.
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
— Voltaire
*I personally don't want to SEE shit like this.
Amazing how one little word can change the entire meaning of a sentence.
LOL at the hot dog. yay July 4! BBQ!
Somehow I don't feel offended about this at all. I guess it depends on the context of its creation but to me it's no different than the Dukes of Hazzard's "The General Lee" themed vehicle.
I also find some of the reaction ironic given the light of contraversy surrounding Manhunt 2. Of course it depends on the condition that the same person who find this offensive is all for the "right" to have Manhunt 2 released as is (freedome of expression and all that).
Of course, once the mainstream media catches wind of all the naked teenage anime chicks that people are putting on their cars (and auctioning them online), all hell will break loose.
"Screw racism, historic/art or not, the creator of that needs to be slapped. Serves no purpose other than to get a rise out of people."
Which you just gave him/her.
The best thing to do with this is ignore. I don't find offense in ignorance. Besides the car looks pretty sweet. Not as sweet as some I've seen.
In summation, freedom of speech and expression includes that which we find offensive, as fortunate or unfortunate as that may be. If MS censors this, I don't care, it's their game and they can do what they want, but we should not be those banning it, offensive or not.
lol it looks like two ice cream cones drving a car I could never afford. damn that sucks for my ego...
The unfortunate side of free speech is it applies to idiots as well. But yeah, I'm on the voltaire side of things.
The only solution to this is to make a black power car and have a dragrace, I think.
This amuses me greatly. I like it when people put this kind of effort into their trolling.
@Ritalin Twitch:
That would indeed be awesome. I would also like to see someone make a jewmobile for the same purpose.
I don't think it's trolling. The car looks badass.
If you... you know... take away the meaning. Right now, it's just ass.
I'd like to point out that Rob Zombie does not endorse Nazis or the Third Reich. Any allusions drawn to this conclusion are more a product of fear in his art than respect or admiration.
In fact, the band name "White Zombie" is not a Nazism reference, but a reference to old Boris Karlov and Bela Lugosi movies from the 40's.
The more you know.
Actually, racism violates XBL policy. So, yes, they can ban/censor/bitch-slap it, if they so choose.
I've written an article on this controversy which explains my thoughts better than I could do in a comment:
http://www.gamerpunch.com/2007/07/buzz-racism-is-everywhere-even-forza-2.html
@ dvd:
It was a reference to his Werewolf Woman of the SS trailer attached to the QT/RR feature Grindhouse.
er, Women
It's good to see Nex consistently at the head of nazi related reporting.
I don't have a problem with the nazi-themed Forza cars. Honestly, like it really matters outside of people choosing to be offended. And yes, offense is a choice and little more.
Nex's official stance:
I agree that free unfettered speech should be the ideal which we strive for unless it infringes on the rights of anyone else. Specifically, MS' and Turn 10's right to create a game that abides by the terms of their EULA, an agreement we all singed on to the moment we booted up Forza.
Now, if one wants to debate the legality of EULA's expressly designed to create customer compliance through unwrapping a product, that's an entirely different issue (one MS is notorious for), but as it stands, the EULA wins out.
On the other hand... there's the train of thought that puts individual rights above those of corporations... there's something in the Constitution about that...
Of course, had I said all that to begin with, people would have expressed their right to call me an anti-semite. Buncha softskinned cunts...
For a site that uses /b/ memes, this sure seems to come as a shock that a Nazi sled is deemed offensive.
I'm literally laughing my ass off at this.....Lets see what other mean cars they can come up with.
lol @ people going out of their way to justify the Nazi car, as if that makes them some sort of guru of open-mindedness and/or champion of free speech. Shitty is still shitty, and that car is shitty. I don't wanna see bullshit like that when I go to the Auction House, and I don't want to see it lining up against me in a race. I believe in choices more than just free speech. Walking into a crowded area and yelling "heil Hitler" will get your ass kicked in "real life", which is why racist dipshits restrict their trolling to the internet nowadays. Similarly, posting a car like this via Forza 2 is a violation of XBL's user agreement, and Forza 2/XBL are NOT a platform for people to wave their "free speech" penises about without any risk of punishment.
I agree that people get their feelings hurt too easily these days. But I also think that dumbasses who run around saying or doing shit like this need to get their asses kicked...similar to the guy who made the VT killing game a while back.
Let's quit with the over-the-top devil's advocacy here. The guy who posted the car is a piece of shit and should be banned. Period. Let's not pretend that banning a guy or removing a fucking NAZI CAR from Forza 2's Auction House is going to send us down some ridiculous "slippery slope" that will end with martial law or the complete loss of freedom of speech. Everyone has to be a fucking contrarian these days. Less and less seem willing to say the OBVIOUS thing; that this car and the guy who made it are wastes of space.
The car is offensive- end of story. Promoting the greatest mass murderers of the last century is idiotic. Plus there are laws in some countries, notably Germany, against using Swastikas and any Nazi symbolism.
In the entire world its pretty much only the US which has free speech as part of its laws, the rest of us manage to get by without the need to pretend to support some bullshit, purely in the interests of 'free speech'.
Lighten up, thats pretty damn funny.
Is un-politically correct to say they actually did a nice job and it looks bad-ass? Its like the Darth Vader vehicle of Forza 2.
dpell: Freedom of speech (something I believe strongly in, despite not being American) is NOT about supporting anything, it's not even about accepting it, it's about tolerating it. Fact of the matter is, if you want to be able to say what you believe without fear of persecution, you HAVE to tolerate the fact that others with views you disagree in will enjoy that same benefit.
That said, Xbox Live is NOT an arena where freedom of speech applies. Its their service and we agree to their terms, so they can do what they want. I'm not disputing their right to ban players or otherwise discipline them for so-called offensive material. I'm just saying that I don't think it's a problem at all, mostly because I choose not to get so worked up over the pretend paintjob on a pretend car.
Oh, and I agree with Liqedeos that anybody who finds that fucking /b/ shit palatable shouldn't really be getting worked up over something like this.
People need to grow a thicker skin. Also, the purpose of art IS TO GET A RISE OUT OF PEOPLE.
Jesus.
^What spilt milk said.
Yes, its a Nazi car, and someone made it. Yes, racism still exists. Ignore the guy who made it and move on.
oh for fuck's sake. Just ban the shithead already. Ignoring this kind of crap won't make it go away.
Kinda like people who say "Stop giving JT coverage, it's what he wants". Umm, JT's coverage on Destructoid and Kotaku isn't what keeps him going, it's the coverage he gets in the major dailies and Fox News.
If you leave it alone, it'll only grow. Womens' right to vote and the abolishing of slavery didn't happen because we all hit the "ignore" button. Idiots.
Thats it, we need a hate themed karting game.
Think Hanna-Barbara will sue if its called Wacky Racists?
Dibs on the Mexican mobile!
Exile to Argentina? Sweet! Dtoid party, we can use my house :D
That's a strange situation. I don't know what kind of rights he has, but I'd love to take a bat to his face and 360.
Driving this car in Forza would get me arrested...
...yeah, I live in Germany.
I'm personally against removing the car from the community.
Not that I don't think he's a dick, or in desperate need of attention. I just don't think censorship is ever the way to go.
Honestly, this car isn't going to make people into bigots. It's going to make people call this bigot a bigot. And to me, that's better than suppressing this unfortunate individual's speech.
It may be entirely possible that he did this just to get the sort of reaction out of people that you guys are giving him, and is not a racist. Rather, it's possible that he's just a huge dick-face. The sort of person who would post drawings of babies being eaten by black people on the UNCF website just to see how many people he can successfully piss off.
That's not to say that what he did is made any less idiotic by this possibility, but just that there's a chance that this is less about racism, and more about simply being an insensitive dick solely for the attention that is such a reliable byproduct of it.
Some people are so full of self-loathing that they feel that the only attention they warrant is negative attention, and more to the point, they feel that negative reactions carry with them a bigger emotional return. So they'll do shit like this just to get people hating them, because attention is attention, and hate is ever-so-strong an emotion.
So yeah, I'd say that chances are decent that this kid is just some sick loser who cuts himself regularly to ease the pain of his pathetic existence, and who acts out frequently in order to remind people that he's still here, even if in doing so he makes them hate him.
Or he's just a racist. Either way a steel-toed boot applied forcefully to his skull might do him some good.
Why don't we all exercise our free speech and send him a user message?
http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=dreamer61
im not racist and i think the car is hilarious.
Look, so what. I mean, ya the guys a jerk but why give him any attention at all? I thought we had free speech, or is it only free speech as long as noone gets offended? If so noone will be able to say anything or creat anything. If you dont like it, ignore it. Seeing this car will not make a new band of nazis, just make the guy a loser. Political correctness has gone to far, when will it stop?If your offended just do like I am and dont look at it again and get on with your own lifes and games.
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