Despite its best efforts, Microsoft’s moderation is proving insufficient to prevent racism from rearing its ugly head on Forza 2.
Although it's one of the game’s many outstanding features, certain elements of the Live community – be it to express general political views or merely to get some form of reaction – have been using the Forza 2 paintjob editor to create racist themed cars.
Under the terms of Microsoft’s Live Online User Policy, users 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.”
Since the game’s launch, Turn 10 has been taking steps in order to get on top of the issue, closing auctions with offensive material where needed as well as recently launching an abuse report form where gamers can report offending auctions.
Fine and good, but is it really working? From what we’ve seen, no it’s not. Case in point, Dreamer61’s 1957 Mercedes 300SL pictured below. The car bears the traditional colours of the NSDAP (a majority black background with a black swastika contained in a white circle on a blood red banner), along with SS insignia and such slogans as “Heil Hitler” and “White Power”, along with a further racist comment on the other side that, in the interests of good taste, we shall refrain from stating.
The offending vehicle, as captured by the 360 Gamer screengrabbing station!
Although many have argued that the swastika itself is a religious symbol in many cultures (although this in itself is a flawed argument, given that in the majority of such instances, the hooks go in the other direction), the general colour scheme and the slogans applied are in the worst possible taste and in keeping with the laws of many countries, should have no place on Xbox Live.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this particular car on the Auction House, or indeed that we’ve seen complaints circulating about its existence.
We should stress that such individuals appear to be a very small minority and indeed, that one look around the auction house shows that many gamers have been using Forza 2’s excellent paintjob editor to craft some truly beautiful works of automotive art. Nevertheless, it’s a shame.
UPDATE
There is now a follow up to this news story, which you can view by clicking here, where the other side of the car has been shown.
