As a Palestinian American who adores overwatch and has spent hundreds of hours playing, one thing that frustrates me is that I can’t choose the flag of Palestine an as option for my player icon.
As a game that prides itself on it’s sense of inclusion and cooperation between all races, creeds, and colors, it would would be incredible if the devs could please add the flag as an option.
I know many Palestinians living in the West Bank who love Overwatch and play the game themselves, and I know it would truly thrill many of us for feeling included and having our voices heard in this global game.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I truly hope you take my suggestion into consideration going forward.
When it comes right down to it, country flags are everlasting trademarks and they are often rejected symbols of power by other countries. One example is Taiwan, China doesn’t acknowledge the free existence of Taiwan. Its why you see the country referred to Chinese Taipai in things like the Olympics and the Overwatch World Cup. Other countries may have laws that prohibit the use of their flag in video games. Its very muddy but Blizzard Legal has a lot of hoops to jump through before they allow their development teams make content based of any country representation.
Could someone please explain to me why it would be “illegal” to have in the game? is it actually about legalities or about shareholder sentiment?
If the Israeli flag is allowed in the game, then shouldn’t the Palestinian flag be allowed, especially since Palestine is also officially recognized by the likes of the United Nations?
I feel it would be a great gesture, and show that Activision and especially the Overwatch team truly truly care about diversity and inclusion.
it’s not illegal per say. But it comes with some political issues and potentially, blizzard being banned from certain countries by acknowledging others.
This is just the way of this world dude. Garbage. But that’s how things are.
This right here. It’s most likely something they could choose to add into the game if they wanted to, but in doing so there might be a country (Israel, China, depending on which flag) who might throw a fit about it and say “The game is now banned in our country!” and it would cause a huge issue.
Should there be a Palestinian and Taiwanese flag? Yes. 100%, but there’s money and lawsuits and all sorts of things that might make Blizzard decide that it’s not worth the trouble (at the current moment.)
As an israeli, i assure you our country never banned a game / app that had the palestian flag in it. For example, rocket league like said above, or whatsapp which everybody use around here.
The problem that many western countries do not recognize the Palestinian nation. If Blizzard creates a Palestinian flag at stake and as if it implicitly grants the status of nation that many countries do not recognize it. In short, in that case Blizzard would take a political position which, as a software house, rightly abstains from it.
I feel that it’s a political statement by not including it. It could’ve just been casually included with the rest of the other flags.
I feel it ultimately comes from a sensitivity to shareholders in the parent company.
Like I didn’t necessarily want to bring up the whole Hong Kong dilemma, but I believe that was a little insight into the reality of issues that are in a similar vein, such as this one.
What if a team Palestine wanted to participate in the next Overwatch World Cup? Would that not be possible because of “legalities” as the mods are claiming?
