Offensive flags identified

[Sgt-lewis]

Describe the bug

Several flags with rather questionable and issue raising connotations have been brought to my attention, attached below

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to flags

Screenshots
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Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[Sgt-lewis]

Additional flag pointed out, happy to give my view on each flag and why they should be removed -

Confederate flag, I think that speaks for itself.

German empire flag is commonly associated with fascist Germany, akin to a certain flag with a not so peaceful peace symbol.

Fascist Spain for the same sort of reason, and the same with the Japan empire.

We are not a historical game and I don't think these have any place in the game going forward, and may be a slight question as to why they are there which I assume was an oversight

RIP openfront 2025-2025

not a historical game

Either it's not a historical game or you just don't like the flags
Why not remove yugoslavia or soviet union?
Every ideology is the same coat of paint for the same ruling people

[Duwibi]

I think that it's unreasonable to delete certain flags that someone doesn't like with the reasoning being that OpenFront isn't a historical game, and then leaveing the other 50 historical flags. OpenFront is a historical game in one way or another and I think that it's important to give the playerbase the most to pick from when they want to "roleplay" as some nation (which can also be a historical one). That, combined with the fact that Evan wants to make a realistic gamemode in the game (everyone spawns as a prebordered nation), makes it absolutely logical to keep all historical flags. On the other hand, if we want to remove certain flags because of them being offensive to someone, that would still be a massive oversight, as one can interpret almost every flag in existence as offensive. If we want to remove the most offensive ones, we can be free to remove the US flag, the UK flag, the French flag, the British Empire flag, and so on... These all are nations, who have done enough bad to deserve not having their flag in the game. However, I think it is absolutely absurd to remove them, or any other flag. I hope this paragraph helps you rethink the decision of removing just a few flags you don't like, while leaving a lot of the others in game.

[scottanderson]

The Confederate flag was not just the flag of a historical nation; it represented a coalition of states that explicitly seceded from the United States to preserve slavery as an institution. That connection to defending human enslavement is not a matter of interpretation; it’s documented in the Confederate states’ own declarations of secession.

After the Civil War, the flag wasn't widely used until it was revived in the mid-20th century, not as a neutral historical emblem, but as a symbol of opposition to civil rights and racial integration. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations adopted it as a banner of hate and intimidation, a legacy that continues today. That means its modern meaning isn’t just "Southern heritage" or "historical roleplay" for many people; it’s a direct reminder of racial terror and oppression that persisted long after the Civil War.

Other historical national flags certainly have histories tied to colonialism, war, or injustice. But those flags today have broader meanings, and they aren’t primarily symbols of hate groups. The Confederate flag is uniquely associated with a defunct government founded to protect slavery and later with organized racial violence. That’s why many communities, institutions, and even the U.S. military have banned it.

Like the Nazi flag which is also banned, the Confederate flags carry a meaning that goes beyond just historical roleplay.

[VariableVince]

As @Duwibi describes, the problem lies therin that many (past) nations did many bad things. For example, PR #1655 contains the flag of South Africa during its horrendous Apartheid regime. Because it contains nations from a certain time period in history. It does become blurry when removing more than just the most terrible flags from the game. Confederate flag is terrible. But so was South Africa during Apartheid. So was indeed Japan empire. Etc.

Belgium did horrendous things in Congo. France did horrendous things in Algeria in 1945 and before and after. The Netherlands did horrendous things around that same time and before in Indonesia. When they just got out from war with the Nazi's, they still felt morally superior to people in their colonies and felt they could do what they want to 'suppress opposition'.

Maybe the further back you go, the less pain will be felt. So maybe only keep the historical flags of >150 years old? Remove all bad flags from 150 years ago until now? But then why keep France, Belgium, The Netherlands, but remove Japan empire? Or why keep Russia in with what they're doing in Ukraine? Why keep China's flag in for all the obvious reasons? Why keep Israel from what they're doing currently? Why keep Sudan from what their own army does?

With this i'm trying to back up Duwibi in that the decision is very hard to make and gets blurry real fast. Where is the line of 'little bad', 'very bad', 'horrendous', 'terrible'? For an American, that would be the Confederate Flag. For a Spaniard, it would be Fascist Spain. For a Chinese, it would be Japan Empire. But this list can expand endlessly.

So would the solution be to only have current-era flags? It would remove an interesting historical part of the game (because yes we are in part, the Nations on maps have historical names, locations and historical flags for a reason). Do we want racist out, but keep nations in that are currently actively commiting genocide? Do we want only the flags of clean nations? Very very few will be left. So this would not work either.

TL;DR: impossible decisions. Yes it is historical too. We have either no flags or flags. What i would instead propose is this: have a toggle that hides all flags, or replaces them by anonymous fantasy flags from non-existant nations. Just like you can toggle Hidden Names and remove any offensive names from your screen that the Obscenity filter didn't filter out.

RIP openfront 2025-2025

Rip openfront because if evans choice will be to appease advertisers its gg
If its to appease modern politics its also gg
If theres no appeasing anyone then it might be gg

joined 18 minutes ago