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Activision Corners the White Pride Market

I’m a Mommy Blogger. I’m a Jewish woman with a Jewish last name who spends her days talking about parenting, marriage and womanhood. Occasionally I talk about the products my family uses in and around the home. Occasionally I’ll mention a video game on Whrrl, Facebook or Twitter. I still talk about Monsters vs Aliens and what a wonderful time my son and I had at the movie. I gave away a few copies of the games.

It makes sense for Activision, EA and the like to send me video games either for review or giveaway. Right? Well, today I opened a startling package. 

Today Activision sent me a video game where up to twelve players can role play together. Exciting right? Here’s the rub.

One team is made up of Nazis.

No, it’s not a typo or even a joke. One team is fighting the Nazi regime, and another team is pretending to be them.

I was going to open up the game and give it a whirl, but I couldn’t, becuase the bile rose in my throat. I wanted to give Activision the benefit of the doubt, but I couldn’t. I realized that as a company there was a level of moral turpitude that I couldn’t possibly engage. They don’t deserve my time.

How long does it take to develop a video game?
How many people are involved with the development of a video game?
At what moment in time does an otherwise bright group of people decide that the White Pride community is ripe for the picking?
When did Activision decide that White Supremacists were a group they wanted to court? 

Perhaps the folks at Activision forgot about the recent execution at the Holocaust Museum

Perhaps the folks at Activision forgot that some folks didn’t arrive on Plymouth Rock. 

Some of us have family who can’t celebrate the Fourth of July because it triggers flashbacks to bombings. Some of us have Seders where we teach our children the story of the exodus and then explain the numbers on their Auntie’s arm. Some of us buried their Grandparents along with their secrets, and we kindly pretended to not know. 

I’m startled that anyone could glimpse my blog, snapshot my words and think that sending me a copy of a video game like Wolfenstien where. I won’t even give you a screenshot. I can’t look at a Swastika without becoming enraged, and I certainly cannot comprehend what the production meetings must have been like. 

I understand in theory the need to have battles of good versus evil. I’m not against adult themed video games. I don’t hate guns or armies or even carnage. I’m just wondering why Activision would send me a copy of this video game? 

If Activision sent me the game as a gentle reminder that the world is still deeply Anti Semetic then it’s a wonderful success.
If Activision sent me the game as a not so gentle reminder that children should not be left unattended with media and gaming, then that was a success.
If Activision sent me Wolfenstein so that I could recommend to you, my trusted community, that you purchase it. Well, that is a horrendous failure.

I cannot remember the last time I was this deeply wounded.

Activision sent the child of a Holocaust Survivor swastikas in the mail.

I shall not soon forget.

 

*This post is not edited, proofread or otherwise spiffed up for you. It was written between tears and gasps. I cannot see straight and I wanted to get the words out quickly so that I can move forward.