Many people game to do something that for a little while doesn't involve real-life. It's understandable, we all need to put aside our worries and just have fun for a few hours. It's healthy. However, recently there's been a spate of a real-life issue spilling over into a game, namely as the conflict in Eastern Ukraine heats up players who have chosen to adorn their plane's wings with either the Ukrainian or Russian flags have often found themselves as victims of being shot down by their own teammates.
This spate of politically motivated team-killing has become such an issue that the developers, Gaijin Entertainment have made the decision to place the flag decals behind a paywall to stop it being so widespread.
"We know many of you love your flags as decals. Unfortunately, we are seeing too many players using them in ways that instigate national argument [...] we decided to implement a procedure that will require more responsibility from a player who wants to make use of them. From today, the 10th February, all National Flags listed in the flags directory of your decals will be re-set and removed from your inventory in game, they will be available from now on in a similar way as the rest of the decals via purchasing using GE." they wrote in an announcement covering the decision and the reasons behind it. They also said that some players had protested about historical accuracy given that some flags didn't even exist during the time the game was set.
Each flag decal now costs 500 GE (Golden Eagles, the in-game currency) to purchase, which is the equivalent of about €3.