> Would you agree that the people creating and using the Hitler name know that it’s blatantly offensive and disrespectful to many users?

I've answered this elsewhere in this thread. The short answer is no. It can be distasteful, but that doesn't mean it should be forbidden. In the context of a war game, it has to be allowed, just like all other world leaders that are generally seen as a deterrent to humanity. The indent of being offensive isn't clear from the name alone. Have to take note of profile picture, tagline, bio, public messages. Would be action on the other factors, rather than the name itself.

I disagree on the point that someone naming themselves after him is "nazism". Could be just a kid or someone into history.

The middle ground is searching for other factors in the name that imply actual intent to offend (like "heil hitler" or inserting swastikas).

Trying to get the name outright banned seems like cancel culture, which I strongly oppose.

Edited 2026-07-22 16:33:40

deleted

Edited 2026-07-22 16:33:23

I think its like " bin laden" or " Stroessner" or "Stalin" "Mao Zedong" "Petain" "HAMAS"
Usually such names are relatively new accounts. Provocation is main motive imo.

You can block em. When some1 is called " Hamas" and in his bio there is " Hamas is good" I report them. Same with glorifying nazism or communism.

I dont have a solution. Can only tell how I deal with it.

Edited 2026-07-22 16:44:05

I agree Vebastian, provocation is usually the main motive because they know that they are being disrespectful and offensive to many, which is against the rules of this game. Dan- you even call it distasteful.

Given that it’s a world leaders name or that this is a war game doesn’t negate the rule of being respectful to players at all times. And I don’t see any reason why someone would use that name in a game setting beyond being provocative, distasteful, and disrespectful.

I block them as well. But that doesn’t solve for if they showed up to a lobby for a game I created where I can’t boot them, or if they showed up afterwards to a game that I joined and the game started before I had a chance to see that they joined.

I just don’t wish to play with these people. It seems many on these posts don’t want to either, nor did many of the people in my 9 person game where Adolf Hitler43 showed up. I also can’t imagine that advertisers would want to associate if they knew some variation of “Hitler” was the most popular username. Or at least that’s what I saw on a previous thread, no idea if it’s accurate/still accurate. Kids or not, it’s definitely alarming to see all the Hitler usernames, and upsetting that the app doesn’t see it as a problem.

Would you ban names like Rommel, Stalin and Putin as well, or are you only fixated on Hitler?

It’s a good question. If you’re asking me, that decision should be made based on the rules of the game. Part of those rules state that players shall not be disrespectful to other players.

The precedent of “what’s a disrespectful username” and where that line is has already been made…because some usernames are banned, while Hitler usernames are currently okay. For consistency purposes, It’s either allow it all, or don’t allow it. I’m for not allowing, otherwise the cesspool of rot becomes even worse.

Again, just because it’s a world leaders name, does not mean it’s not disrespectful to use in this game setting. Most people on here, even the ones who are for allowing the Hitler name here, have stated it’s at minimum, distasteful and provocative.

So I ask you the similar question. Why are you okay with the current policy with some usernames banned (such as ones mentioned earlier in this thread), or others that I’m not familiar with, but draw the line at names with Adolf Hitler in it?

> Provocation is main motive imo.

I don't believe this.

> Given that it’s a world leaders name or that this is a war game doesn’t negate the rule of being respectful to players at all times

Naming yourself after a world leader is neither respectful or disrespectful. What you'll end up doing is only allowing names that support your own narrative.

> Again, just because it’s a world leaders name, does not mean it’s not disrespectful to use in this game setting.

You even admit this.

> Dan- you even call it distasteful.

That doesn't take away their right to name themselves however they want. There is more than likely an innocent explanation, rather than a hate-driven narrative.

> I just don’t wish to play with these people.

Would hiding the username be enough? Or having your own general username filter to prevent them joining your games? Forcing rename or ban is against my values.

> but draw the line at names with Adolf Hitler in it?

World leaders, regardless of popularity, have to be able to exist as usernames in war games. There are historical roots that may appeal to others, regardless of if anyone is upset by the name. There are also current world leaders that are unpopular in their own ways. You might disallow Donald Trump or Elon Musk, but allow Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton. It's a double standard and isn't neutral. For consistency, either allow both or neither. I'm against the censorship approach.

Generally elsewhere online, it would be for the best if people didn't name themselves after world leaders, to avoid any controversy. An exception has to exist for war games though, because of historical roots and war scenarios.

> The precedent of “what’s a disrespectful username” and where that line is has already been made…

Should only be reserved for the most obscene names. A world leader name is not obscene.

Edit:
I'll go with this definition of obscene from https://www.wordnik.com/words/obscene:

Law Of or relating to materials that can be regulated or criminalized because their depiction of nudity, sex, or excretion is patently offensive and without artistic or scientific value.

Edited 2026-07-23 07:31:04

I appreciate you sharing your perspective though we fundamentally disagree. You don’t believe it’s disrespectful to use that name in this setting, and I do.

Even the people who suggest the keep the name have called it trolling, provocative, suggestive, and distasteful. Those are in words in line with disrespectful, not respectful. Disrespectful is against the rules.

I think you misunderstood me where you wrote “even you admit this”, or I mis communicated it. Double negatives…

Could there be a small amount of people weirdly using this name with non malicious intent because it’s a war game? Maybe? Probably not. But if so, it’s a small number. The large majority of people using it know they are being offensive and disrespectful to others by doing it. Your line of calling it “innocent” is ignorant at best. Are you going to tell me someone using the name “nazi43” is okay because the Nazis were at war and this is a war game? Is “heilhitler” an okay username to you too?

Your part that begins with “world leaders regardless of popularity have to be in a war game”… Again, just because they are a world leader and this is a war game, doesn’t negate that it’s disrespectful. There’s infinite amount of names that can be chosen without causing problems, why do these people choose to glorify Hitler?

Your part about only obscene names should be banned…are you saying “disrespectful” names shouldn’t be banned? Again, being disrespectful to other players is against the rules of this game. Glorifying Nazi-ism, by choosing to name yourself Adolf Hitler 43, is disrespectful to me and many others.

I mentioned elsewhere, but it’s personal to me having family only a few generations out die in the holocaust, family being called the k word, siblings having Pennies thrown at them growing up, a swastika painted in our driveway, and so much more…all for being Jewish. And then I think about modern day anti Jewish attacks like the tree of life synagogue in Pittsburgh where a bunch of innocent people were killed just for being Jewish. It was hitlers ideology that influenced that attack. We should not perpetuate that ideology on here by tolerating Hitler usernames. Anti-semitism is real and it puts my families life more at risk just by walking into a synagogue for a wedding.

I don’t want to partake in a game with these people, so yes, a filter would be a solve for me if it easily and quickly allows me to filter out Hitler names.

hen some1 is called " Hamas" and in his bio there is " Hamas is good" I report them.

Its context for me be4 I block.

I understand a 13 yo with no brains. But an adult willingly chosing a name to offend people is fair game to me. They can be banned.

Easiest way to get rid of it is to add some rules to the system when it comes to usernames. war.app can simply deny certain usernames to be used. No people's check necesary, the app is programmed to not allow them.

The US terror-list is a nice tool to decide if a name offends people. 1305 organizations so here just a short selection ;-)
15 KHORDAD FOUNDATION
3G LOJISTIK VE HAVACILIK HIZMETLARI LTD.
3ZED INVESTMENT
76 BENMORE GARDEN TRUST
A THREE ENERGY FZE
A.C.S. GLOBAL BV
AAKHIRAH LIMITED
ABADAN OIL REFINING COMPANY
ABBOT TRADING CO., LTD.
ABDALLAH AZZAM BRIGADES
ABDUL HAMEED SHAHAB-UD-DIN
ABU SAYYAF GROUP
ACS TRADING LLC
ADDAMEER PRISONER SUPPORT AND HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
ADEEMA OIL FZC
ADMINISTRADORA Y COMERCIALIZADORA DEL MAR, S.A. DE C.V.
ADOON GENERAL TRADING FZE
ADOON GENERAL TRADING GIDA SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI
ADOON GENERAL TRADING L.L.C.
ADVANCE BANKING SOLUTION TRADING DMCC
AERO SKYONE CO. LIMITED
AFAQ DUBAI
AFRI BELG COMMERCIO E INDUSTRIA LDA
AFRICA MIDDLE EAST INVESTMENT HOLDING SAL
AFRICO 1 OFF-SHORE SAL
AGENCIA DE SERVICIOS TURISTICOS INTERNACIONALES G8, S.A. DE C.V.
AGROGATE HOLDING
AGROLAREN, S.P.R. DE R.L. DE C.V.
AHAVAT LOGISTICS SOLUTION, S.A. DE C.V.
AIRCRAFT, AVIONICS, PARTS & SUPPORT LTD.
AJNAD MISR
AKALI REALTORS
AKTAU PETROL TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI
AL 'AHD COMPANY FOR TRADE AND INVESTMENT
AL AHMAR OILS SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION
AL AHMAR TRADING GROUP
AL AMAN KARGO ITHALAT IHRACAT VE NAKLIYAT LIMITED SIRKETI
AL AMIR CO. FOR ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL TRADE SARL
AL ATHMAAR
AL FAQIH INTERNATIONAL TRADE, IMPORT, AND OIL SERVICES LIMITED
AL FAY COMPANY
AL FOULK TRADING CO. L.L.C
AL FURQAN
AL HADHA EXCHANGE CO.

In the table top wargame world this debate was handled very good imo. On the table you may have swastikas, SS -signs etc. But dont dress like a colonel nor bring any flags or parafernalia to " add color" to your table.

Online games can work along similar lines. Rommel and Bomber Harris are defendable. Stalin, Hamas and Hitler are not.

Edited 2026-07-23 11:04:02

what are we trying to do here? 70 comments in?

if you think it's doing something or helping, it's not..

Edited 2026-07-23 11:09:22

Thanks for your contribution.
I thought it was a nice chat about ethics in gaming, linked to a practical example "what usernames do you consider offensive".


Most talks I have in bars etc do help people, they amuse.

@brunson. i think the discussion is being repeated now, and possibly going in circles.

if you are a game creator, and ....

if you want to block players for attributes of their experience level, previous boot rate, or already being blocked, then that is built into the game creation as a filter.

if you dislike the word "hitler" being in the name, then that feature already exists and it would be up to you to search for the names using that wording and manually block them.

I can already see people using the name Hittler and Hittlerr and Hitlerrr and Hhitlerr to get around your filter.
I understand your point of view, but you're overlooking that for any "solution" there is a work-around to get around said filter.

some people may do so just to mess with you, intentionally

you are giving these people more attention, what they crave.

and the solution already exists, which is to cancel the game, and repost once more

You are wanting to block people not for their playing ability, or past behaviour, but for their stage name alone.

(I can see fizzer, silently shaking his head at all this, but the conversation and forum is the important thing.)
Any given controversial name will be offensive to 5-10% of the population at any given time.
Any politician is favored by only 15-40% of the population, and reviled by the majority.

Edited 2026-07-24 07:20:13

I mean yeah but this is Hitler we are talking about, not some politician...

Thanks for sharing your perspective as well elons musket.

I want to callout, my intent isn’t to make anyone’s life more difficult whether that be people using the name, or anyone who does work related to this app.

I don’t know if I agree or disagree that my wanting to curb their disrespectful behavior toward others is “giving them what they crave”. However, I do know that by not doing anything, we are showing them that the behavior is okay. (Hence the reason there are so many of these names!) And again, I’m not saying all 100% have mal intent, but the majority do.

As for the current solutions you mentioned…they suck logistically. (No offense) Don’t care to debate why they are annoying for a user, I think you can understand, but I do appreciate the suggestions nonetheless.

I’ll keep the solution proposals going…If we can’t have the name be reportable, whether that be due to manpower or tech limitations that it takes to oversee, or for any other reason…

And knowing that it seems most everyone on here has at least agreed on calling the majority of these users words like “trolling, distasteful, in poor taste, suggestive, provocative”, and other words…(and who wants to play with that?)

And knowing there’s an abundance of Nazi related glorification on here…

What more can this app and its community do to make it known Nazi glorification isn’t cool? I welcome and appreciate suggestions.

For the people who’ve been saying “most of them are just kids”, I have no idea if it’s true… but if it is, I remember where if I did something wrong, I’d get disciplined and or educated to curb that behavior. (Whether from family/friends/coaches/teachers even strangers at a mall we were causing a ruckus around).

Right now, similar to society, this app is tolerating it (for whatever reasons), and it grows and grows. And as I mentioned earlier, that’s scary because the more that the ideology grows and scales without being confronted in a way that changes the behavior and thought, the more innocent lives are at risk. There are certainly better places I can go to try and change that than on this app, but it’s right in front of my face here…and obscenely too with the amount on this app.

I respect and understand (though disagree) the thought of “if we ban this world leader, where is the line?” And I can also appreciate that these decisions aren’t easy, as well as the work that’s put into make this game run as best as possible. I hope to hear some creative and collaborative ideas on my question.

Some active world leaders are actively attacking other countries, but no suggestion is being made to deny their names. See ongoing events about USA and Iran, and not so long ago USA against Venezuela.

The name of both current and past country rulers should be allowed. It's like how in the Harry Potter series people weren't socially allowed to say "Voldemort" but can say "He who shall not be named". It serves no purpose to deny his real name.

Other historical leaders have also committed great atrocities. The naming isn't to offend but to be reminded of history. It appears to be a name others don't like and don't want anyone to see. It is subjective taste if any ruling isn't applied equally to all other leaders.

Denying the name results only results in a placeholder. I sense you expect players to be completely banned because of their name. Naming alone isn't enough to know true intent. Have to go of actual messages sent, bio, tagline, etc. there are some signs that can be revealing in the name that have no purpose but to offend (like adding party symbols and praising the leader).

Hey Dan - a lot of the points you are raising, I already addressed in the previous post and other posts, and would rather not get in a cycle of going back and forth on the same points.

I get it that my last post was lengthy, but give it a read and if you have any new points to make, very open to hearing it and discussing.

And if you are not for banning the username, i also ask a question in there to see what other proposals you do have.

You are accusing me of not reading your posts. I've read every post on this thread and I must insist no action should be taken unless the same ruling is applied equally to all world leaders. (And creating a censorship problem in the process.)

Naming yourself after a world leader should be allowed, regardless of popularity, when there isn't clear intent to offend. It acts as a blocklist if you know how players name themselves and find that off-putting.

The Warzone servers are American. The usernames are protected by the first amendment and the rule that keeps the internet open: platforms are not responsible for user-generated content. Platforms can take action on their own accord.

If you read my posts, you’d have seen my callout from 3 posts ago that it’s possible a small amount of people could be cosplaying as Hitler on here for some strange reason that’s not malicious, though I think it’s unlikely. So I’ll agree with you, that it’s not possible to prove clear intent across the board with people using the name.

You’ve also said it can be distasteful. So there’s two points we agree on.

Here’s where we strongly disagree…

I think the majority of these people (if not all) are intentionally being disrespectful and offensive. But you referred to the motivation of EVERYONE making these names as “likely an innocent explanation.” Thats extremely naive of you. (Or am I misunderstanding your words?)

If you read my post from 2 posts ago, you’ll have seen my part about trying to find a common ground solution that doesn’t revolve around banning the username. (Even though I think banning is the right approach)

But you completely ignored that and still keep going on about the banning/not banning argument with the same back and forth points about it being a world leader. If we want to revisit that argument, I’d be happy to, but rather than trying to win an argument, I’m more concerned about rooting out Nazi ideology which is pervasive on this app, and it’s the same ideology that puts people’s lives at risk. (See Pittsburgh tree of life as just one example)

You’re right. Platforms can take action on their own accord. And this platform should be taking more action.

By the way, for consistency purposes, I assume you find someone using the name Osama BL in this setting as not disrespectful to families of 9/11 victims in the same way that you find someone using the Hitler name as likely “innocent” and not disrespectful?

Lmk if you’re willing to find common ground, that doesn’t revolve around banning the AH username, but shows that you and this app recognize the importance of this app to do more in combatting Nazi ideology.

osama didn't do 9/11 wake up dood