[jodoherty]

The offensive content problem may even have something to do with the appearance of their "monster" character being confusingly similar to typical portrayals of the devil (red character with horns), which itself is can be an offensive image in many cultures regardless of context. That's why feedback is so important in these review processes, especially with something so subjective.

As an aside, the devil thing isn't isolated to non-Western countries either. Linda Branagan famously recalls one instance of where the BSD "Daemon" mascot, which also looks devil-like, nearly got her into real trouble in Texas: http://rmitz.org/freebsd.daemon.html

[molmalo]

Reading this story, its interesting how similar Texas and some places in middle east can be. Dust, deserts, oil, lots of guns, and... fanatics (to avoid calling them fundamentalists).

[mkr-hn]

Texas isn't a homogeneous entity. You'll find the same ridiculousness in rural areas of any state.

[caseysoftware]

From the link:

Me: ``Oh, well, see, this isn't really the devil, it's just, well, it's sort of a mascot.''

Native: ``And what kind of football team has the devil as a mascot?''

I call BS.

College mascots that are devils, off the top of my head: - Duke Blue Devils - Arizona Sun Devils - Dusty, from a branch of Texas A&M

All of which have been there for decades.. and since Duke and Arizona are regular NCAA champion contenders, it wouldn't be a surprise.