10 Video Game Moments You'll Never See Again
5. Red Cross Logos - Every Game With A MediKit
When asked to picture what a health bar in a video game looks like, most people would include the same symbol. The bold red cross, taken from the charity of the same name, is a universally understood sign and has appeared in hundreds of video games.
Which, in fact, is why the International Federation of the Red Cross put a statement out in 2006 that video games should no longer use the symbol. Concerned that it would “devalue” the importance of the logo in real humanitarian protection, it meant that designers had to get creative and even alter classics.
One of the earliest and most noticeable games to be tweaked was the Xbox Live Arcade version of Doom II. The beautiful sight of the life-saving MediKit was updated and the red cross on the front was replaced with a red pill. New iterations in the series have opted for a sneaky inversion, with a red square divided by a white cross.
It’s affected numerous titles from Halo changing their health packs to feature an “H”, Skullgirls character Valentine changing her nurse’s outfit to feature pink crosses and indie developers Introversion Software being sent a stern request for a removal of the symbol from Prison Architect.
You'd think that making players rely on such a symbol in their free time would make them value it more in real life, but thems the brakes. Legally speaking.