I believe he should be represented in games if we allow other such "crazies" from history to be represented, others such as Stalin who killed 10 x more people then Hitler ever did, Genghis Khan who rode across Europe and Asia killing and [censored] as he went, and even more modern mass murders get represented all the time,... lets look at the facts and the pro's and con's of doing so.

First of all he has been dead and his regime destroyed well over 50 yrs ago making it for all ,.. ancient history ( I mean no disrespect for any1 who's family was effected by him or his regime), but a 2 full generations seperate us from the man and his regime.

Secondly I for 1 find it ridiculous to play world war 2 games like civilization and have Germany represented by any1 else but him, yet at the same time still have Stalin representing Russia.

I wouldn't have a problem with a game depicting hitler, but the question is, can they make an interesting WWII game that doesn't make it feel like you've stormed the beaches of Normandy for the umpteenth time?

Why not represent him? It's not like he never happened. Besides, he's been in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoputQdKh7U&feature=related.

I don't see why not. He may have been an [censored] but he is an important part of world history.

Yes he should. They should include both a playable Hitler and Stalin on the next zombie mode in COD, would be awesome.

Nobody really said he couldn't be in games. It's just something nobody seems to want to risk these days.

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23943

Actually that game was made before they instituted the newer ESRB ratings, when these were enacted they forbade depictions of Hitler,... can you think of any newer games which depict him in a neutral light at all ? I personally dont know of any and I find it ridiculous to have Bismark leading Germany during wwII

You know... does the ESRB even have power over what games can be released? Aren't they just a little... rating group of some sort that stores can choose to follow the rules of if they want?

I ask this because im only 15 and yet im able to buy any rated M game off Amazon if I want to.

ESRB has not forbade Hitler depictions in videogames, that's just silly.

I think my biggest problem is in playing civilization and not having Hitler depicted as ruler/leader of Germany instead you are stuck using Bismark or playing USSR with Catherine the great in charge,... the same goes for representations of the swastika in that game and in games like the rise and fall of the 3rd Reich.

Pretty much this ^

Problem I find lately is people are such pansies everything is "Wrong" and "Upsets" them. Dumbest thing i've seen so far is that commercial with wanda sykes saying you shouldn't use the word "Gay" to describe something you don't like. We as a society can't move past things if people aren't willing to deal with it. Instead it seems we need to "Shelter" ourselves from uncomfortable subjects to help us "Move forward" which is a bunch of crap imho.

Only thing I do know is that any game that contains Nazi material is banned in Germany.

With the Civilization series being one of the most succesful on the market and known by most gamers, bringing Hitler as one of Germany's playable leader would bring a lot of controversy. It's not risky to allow the player to play as the Germans during WW2, but it's risky to allow the player to play Hitler himself.

There are some games that allow you to. The Hearts of Iron series allows you to play as Germany during WW2 and, as such, Hitler. But this series is not well known amongst most gamers and is aimed at historians and players who love strategy games over arcade action.
As for Stalin in Civilization. He's a victor, so we don't talk too much about how much of a bastard he was to his own people. Hitler lost the war, so he's seen as a worse person than Stalin.

Besides Stalin is such an excellent leader in Ciivilization IV! I always take him when I want to wage war.


Another note for Civlization. The game spans across all ages. The game takes the most influential leaders of the nation's history. Those who, by one way or another, brought their civilization to glory and power. Bismark is much, much more important as to what Germany is today than Hitler.

Civilization is not a WWII game. They can use any leader in the history of a nation.

I may be wrong about them banning it, but they do label it offensive if he or the swastika is portrayed, yet at the same time if a pentagram or something considered offensive to many religions were to be depicted, nothing would be labeled "may be offensive".

True he was a great leader by uniting the small German states, but we are not talking about him or any other leader, after WillhelmII losing wwi and sending the economy of Germany into a downward spiral that took Adolf Hitler less then 2-3 yrs to turn around once he gained power, I am no supporter of Hitler but in defense of the man himself as a leader in some ways he had no equal, he made Germany Powerful even with the restrictions placed upon them after wwi and if he had stopped before the blitzkrieg,or even after Poland (possibly)the European nations would have left him alone and we would not be having this discussion but 1 much much different . BTW in 1936 he was time lifes man of the year because of the great things he was accomplishing,.... Genghis Khan could also be said to be a great man for some things he accomplished, as could Stalin for the Unification of his USSR I suppose,... its all in how you look at it !

You dont play enough civilization or you would know what I am talking about, almost all civ games come with a wwii scenario and in those you CANNOT choose Hitler as a leader for Germany nor in any game of civ, so your statement is not right

And you can only play as Roosevelt and Churchill in Civ 4. It doesn't matter who the leaders are, the scenarios focus on the nations.

Civ 2 allows you to play as Hitler in the WW2 scenario.

I wasn't aware this was an issue.

I don't have a problem with him being in the game. Most likely any game that has Hitler in it is probably rated M and if it's rated M then the Devs can put whatever they want into the game, even Sharks with Freaking Laser Beams.

It's a huge taboo in just about all modern societies. Putting Hitler in a video game would likely offend a lot of people, and people don't want to take the risk of doing so, even for the sake of realism. :shrug:

As far as I remember I have played all civs since they started making them and I dont remember ever being able to play with Hitler as leader of Germany,... but if that is true we are still talking about a game that was put out more then 15 yrs ago and the ESRB has gotten way stricter since then so even if they couldnt have banned it they would have placed a "warning this contains /and may offend" on it

I think Hitler should be allowed in games and other forms of media. He is a major part of history, and not allowing him in games and other forms of media is like making people try to forget that whole point in time.

THIS!

I feel that if Hitler was placed in a modern game, we'd hear more of an outcry from the people who take offense for others than the people actually affected by it. If Hitler was depicted in a tasteful light, rather than "lolololol j3wz are the suxx0rz", there shouldn't be a problem.
I think as a society we should be able to say " Yes, Hitler was a twisted man who did terrible things, but we should be able to depict him in video games without making an issue of it."
I mean, he's already in several movies, I don't see why there would be such a problem with it.

tl ; dr: If Hitler is depicted in a mature light, there shouldn't be a problem.