Garry's mod wrestles with the complexities of just outright banning Nazi stuff
Eighty years later the shadow of World War 2 still looms large over our world, and remains an enduring obsession for some, but on one thing nearly all are agreed: The Nazis were complete pricks, and any contemporary hint of their ideology and symbolism must be met with the greatest possible pushback.
That's easier said than done, however, because distinguishing between legitimate use of these things (such as representing the Nazis accurately in an entertainment product) and Actual Nazis is difficult. It's not helped by the fact that 'Nazi' has also become a go-to online insult and is often used to describe things that bear little relation to the National Socialist German Worker's Party.
All of which leads us to the most unexpected of places: Garry's mod. The incredibly popular Steam sandbox tool is loved for its flexibility and capacity to create pretty much any experience or scenario creators can come up with. Some of them have come up with creations that involve the Nazis. And drawing the line between what should be allowed, and what should be banned from the sandbox, is a complex task
«I can see merit in the games here where you roleplay survival/war scenarios,» says Garry's mod creator Garry Newman in a longform post(opens in new tab). «It's engaging + interesting + compelling + educational. Humanity's lows are always gonna be a rich seam for games/movies/tv/books/etc.»
Newman acknowledges that this description fits «the huge majority» of roleplay communities, which he says are no more harmful than Day of Defeat or Call of Duty. «In fact in a lot of ways they're much more interesting than that, they explore the politics / diplomacy / humanity / infighting / suffering in ways that other types of FPS can't. We don't
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