Hindu Leader Urged Blizzard To Drop Overwatch's Devi Skin

President of the Universal Society of Hinduism and religious stateman Rajan Zed relleased a statement today, asking Blizzard and Activision to remove an Overwatch skin he said "trivialized Hinduism's highly revered goddesses."

Devi is as Hinduism's great goddess, worshipped in many names and forms since prehistoric times. Symmetra's Devi Skin doesn't seem to show any one particular aspect of the goddess, but it features many aspects of their traditional depiction, notably the blue skin and Kali's skull decoration associated in the faith.

Here's a part of Rajan Zed's statement:

"Hindus are urging Blizzard Entertainment to withdraw Devi (Goddess) skin of Symmetra character in its Overwatch video game, calling it inappropriate.

Skins are said to be alternate appearances that players can apply to characters in video games.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged Irvine (California) headquartered Blizzard Entertainment CEO Michael Morhaime and its parent Santa Monica (California) based Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick to withdraw the Devi skin in the video game, as it trivialized Hinduism's highly revered goddesses.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said 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.

Moreover, Devi and its movements depicted in Overwatch did not match with characterization of the goddesses in the scriptures, Rajan Zed noted.

Zed stated that Blizzard Entertainment needed to follow its own "core values" which included "lead responsibly" (As one of the world's leading game companies, we're committed to making ethical decisions), as in this case it was creating confusion in the minds of community about Devi by misrepresentation."

You can read the rest of the statement here.

Blizzard has yet to respond to Zed's comment.

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