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Infinity Ward , developer ofCall of Duty : Modern Warfare , has quietly removed the " OK " hand gesture from the secret plan and its gratis - to - playWarzonemode , likely due to its connotations as a white supremacist symbol . The motion was one of many that could be assigned to a player character and do on program line in - plot . Many players used it to lend dash to especially impressive or significant kills performed in - game . It has been interchange by a fresh gesture call off " crush " .
The motion has a complicated story as a symbolisation of white power . While it has long existed as a perfectly barren mitt motion with a unsubdivided meaning , in 2017 , certain 4chan user decide to take it in a different guidance . They launched an exertion to convince people that the motion had a hide meaning as a symbol of whitened magnate . This was picked up cursorily on social media platforms like Twitter , and factual white supremacists begin to adopt the symbol , retroactively making the 4chan users ' claim true . In 2019,the ADLadded the OK motion to its database of white power symbols .
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In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the far-flung Black Lives weigh protests that followed , many picture plot developer have been working tocurb racialism in their own thespian base . Last month Infinity Ward released a command to that effect , vowing to do more to place and banish online players who perpetrate racist demeanour in their games . The recent removal of the OK gesture ( Eurogamer ) was not addressed in any patch notes , and as of this drop a line neither Infinity Ward nor publisher Activision have released any statement to address why it was removed . Given the context of the times , however , it seems all too likely that the gesture was removed to curb its use as a white domination symbol .
Infinity Ward has made other , more visible move to address racism in their game and show support for the Black Lives affair social movement . The developer recently delay a major update toModern Warfareby a week for prevent the news from distract from protests . They alsodisplayed Black Lives count statement on loading screensin the game . While these were good emblematic gesture , they did n’t do much to actually accost racist behaviour in the game .
It could be argue that take away a hand gesture with equivocal ties to white domination is n’t too much more of a statement than the burden CRT screen messages . Furthermore , the fact that no affirmation has been made about the motion ’s removal intend that calling ita tone toward curtailing online racismis speculation at well . rooter on Reddit have respond very negatively to the move , viewing the developers as cowardly for removing a gesture only because 4chan users made it racist as a joke . Infinity Ward clear has its heart in the proper place , and it is important to battle racialism and hatred speech wherever it is found . But if Infinity Ward really want to clean upCall of Duty , they ’ve still get a long fashion to go .
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Source : Eurogamer
