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Hindu leader wants Blizzard to drop Symmetra's Devi skin from Overwatch

The religious statesman takes issue with what he calls the misrepresentation of religious scripture.

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Religious leader Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has released a statement urging Blizzard Entertainement to remove a player skin from Overwatch that he said, “trivialised Hinduism’s highly revered goddesses”.

The issue in question is that of Symmetra’s Devi skin, and it’s colour alternate the Goddess skin. While not modelled after any particular Hindu goddess, the skins do borrow certain  motifs like the Goddess Kaali’s skull ornamentation, as well as a blue skin colouration, According to Zed, “Devi” is applied to any of the many forms of Hindu goddesses and reimagining Hindu scriptures, symbols, concepts and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it created confusion”.
 
He goes on to say that, “in a video game set-up, the player controlled the movements of Devi, while in reality the devotees put the destinies of themselves in the hands of their goddesses…. Devi and its movements depicted in Overwatch did not match with characterization of the goddesses in the scriptures.” As such, Zed has called up on Blizzard and Activision to follow their “core values”, and lead the games industry responsibly by avoiding misrepresentation of a culture.

It’s important to note here that this isn’t the first time Rajan Zed has had a problem with a game character based on a figure from Hinduism. Earlier in , Zed contacted Hi-Rez Studios, the developer behind multiplayer online battle are.a (MOBA) Smite, to remove the Goddess Kaali from its roster. That letter was largely ignored, and the game now has seven different members from the Hindu pantheon.

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