Why Gary’s Department of Defense recently decided “Nazi glorification” crosses the line

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In the field of online game moderation, the Source Engine physics sandbox official server operator rules Department of Defense Gary She has always been very forgiving. For a long time, the only things a server could explicitly be “blacklisted” by developer Facepunch Studios were sexual violence, unmarked NSFW content, fraudulent server information, or “malicious actions” that basically hacked into your local game install. for the player.

On April 20, these scant rules were updated with another specific ban: “It is forbidden to display swastikas, Nazi salutes, or any other glorification of Nazism, even for ‘role-playing’ purposes.”

This new rule represents a change in our position Department of Defense Gary Creator Gary Newman, who told Ars about his view of what should and shouldn’t be allowed in online spaces, has changed since becoming the father of two kids (currently ages 9 and 6).

“When I was younger, in my 20s, I had the attitude that everything works out,” Newman said in a live chat with Ars. “People shouldn’t be on the internet if they can’t handle the real world. It’s not my job to take care of your kids.”

Now, as a parent, Newman said his attitude has become “less black and white. There’s a time gradient where you’re giving your kids more freedom online and trying to let them into new areas to explore because you think they’re safe.” We really have to make as sure as possible that the assumption is correct.”

“I think to myself, what if they hit one of these servers with these [nazi] nutters,” Newman chirp. “What will they learn? What will be acceptable to them?”

“A bunch of guys who seem to really like the Nazis…”

Department of Defense Gary The latest rule came after Newman ran a Twitter poll gauging player interest in banning “nazi games” on its many role-playing servers. When Newman RequestedThere is no legitimate reason for that [nazi gamemodes] In existence.. right? Nearly 74 percent of the nearly 50,000 respondents agreed, saying, “Yes, block them.”

The new rule against “glorifying Nazism” was implemented the next day.

in Follow Tweet In response to “a lot of concern” about the new rule, Newman sympathized with “the vast majority of [roleplaying] Communities that “create ‘engaging + interesting + educational’ content about survival/war scenarios.” The lowest levels of humanity will always be a rich streak for games/movies/TV/books/etc…we don’t really want to police these games.”

The problem, he said, was with role-playing servers that had “a bunch of guys who seem to like Nazis…and that’s causing problems”. Seemingly referring to the Nazi tape problem, Newman wrote that the prevalence of such players on certain servers may “shift the game more toward” glorifying Nazis and away from more thoughtful role-playing on those servers.

Speaking to Ars, Newman estimated that the “Nazi game modes” were limited to “a handful of actual players… mostly Department of Defense Gary is very drama free for us, but the few concerns we have are with this kind of server.”

Server economics could play a role in the problem, Neumann told Ars, too. “There is a concern that server creators who receive donations are incentivized to rely on the festive stuff,” though he added that the concern is more “theoretical” than anything else at the moment.

“…crossing a kind of line”

In the past, the equinox was in progress Department of Defense Gary Servers have generally been left as a job to individual server owners (aside from the few rules mentioned above). As noted by the server operator’s rules: “If you don’t agree with the reason for being kicked/banned, you may play on a different server. All Department of Defense Gary The servers are hosted by the community. Your access to the community server(s) is at the discretion of their administration.”

But the outright glorification of Nazi symbols was a situation in which Neumann suggested that server operators might “need more guidance from us,” he tweeted.

“All of these things should be judgmental,” Newman told Ars. “If we do share and block servers, it should be really clear what went wrong; the people involved should be in no doubt that they’ve crossed some kind of line.”

Even with a bright-line rule in place, Newman said, knowing when WWII role-playing crosses from “educational” to “Nazi-glorifying” can be a “four-dimensional problem.” This is partly because “servers change over time,” Newman told Ars. “Some of the reports are half a decade old, and the servers have changed ownership and ideology many times since the videos and screenshots were taken. These are things we have to keep in mind.”

To those who dismiss what they see as an attack on “free speech,” Newman tweeted “No.”

“This is not a loss of liberty. This is not an attack on your free will. This is not mind control. This is nothing new. We have stopped servers before, we have blocked hateful activities, and we will continue to do so.”