Diablo 3: Christian, Jew, Gay Banned as Player Names From Fast-Selling Game
Diablo 3 is turning heads in the gaming world by selling 3.5 million copies in 24 hours and becoming the fastest-selling PC game ever. It's also raising a few eyebrows among gamers because it bans religious terms like "Christian" and "Jew" as player names but allows others like "Muhammad" and "Scientology."
Gamer Jim Sterling tested which religious-themed character names were blocked by Diablo 3 and reported the findings yesterday on his Destructoid blog.
He discovered that he could not name his player "Christian" or "Islam" but could use "Muhammad."
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"Catholic" wasn't accepted but "Protestant" was.
The people at Blizzard Entertainment also made sure anything with "Mormon" and "Hindu" were shot down but "Buddhism" and "Scientology" were okay.
Sterling commented, "Clearly, Blizzard is picking sides."
The gaming blogger said he was first alerted to the player name restriction by a fellow Destructoid coordinator, who found out that Diablo 3 characters couldn't be named "Atheist."
Sterling also challenged his readers to experiment on what other names were banned.
Posting in the comments below, his readers also discovered they couldn't use the words "Jew," "Gay," or "Osama" in their player names.
In Diablo 3, players storm the world of Sanctuary to save it from the Lord of Terror and forces of the Burning Hells. They can take on one of five characters – barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, or demon hunter. More than 6.3 million gamers have played Diablo 3 in the first week of its release date, according to Blizzard.
