'Taliban' Out of Medal of Honor Game

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

After a huge outcry, the company Electronic Arts has decided to drop a feature from its new "Medal of Honor" video game that would have allowed players to assume the role of Taliban fighters killing U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan.

Politicians and military officials in the U.S., Britain, Canada and Australia denounced the feature, and the Pentagon banned sales of the game from nearly 300 stores on U.S. military bases around the world because of it.

The critics said allowing gamers to play as Taliban fighters was insensitive to the families of U.S. and allied forces killed in Afghanistan. "At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. I am disgusted and angry," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in late August.

In a new posting on the Electronic Arts Web site, "Medal of Honor" Executive Producer Greg Goodrich said the "feedback from friends and families of fallen soldiers" who opposed the Taliban-fighter feature was an "important voice" that "has earned the right to be listened to."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/taliban-medal-honor-game/story?id=11783440&page=1

[johnroshan]

1. When will we understand that our "enemies" are also humans?

Its interesting that we would be good with the image of our soldiers shooting and bombing the crap out of them, but not with the "enemy" retaliating against us.

[Posteritatis]

2. They're still there; the company just changed their name to OpFor

Which is fairly standard in modern-day FPSes anyway, but yeah.

Something of a pity anyway; the initial move kicked off some interesting discussion on these sorts of things (unusually for a gaming blog, the comments are worth reading too) which ought to be encouraged some more, especially given how highly-charged emotions around contemporary games are in the first place.

[happyslug]

3. Why? Could it be that the results are NOT want the brass want the troops to learn?

During WWII the stop making long term plans after 1942, for the results were all the same, The Russians took Berlin. The German solution to this problem was to ignore it.

I have NOT play the game, but I suspect it shows the Taliban responding to American Attacks (Just like what happens when the Player takes the American Side, it shows American responding to American Attacks). Could it be that it shows what the Taliban has to do, to be able to fight? Like the story of Francis Marion during the American Revolution. Marion took a British Officer prisoner, and then that prisoner saw what Marion was eating and drinking and how they were still willing to fight that when he was exchanged, he resigned and went home, for he then knew the British were NOT going to win for they were NOT as committed as the American Guerrillas (and also saw the level of support the American Guerrillas had among the people and learned from that the British could NOT defeat the Guerrillas).

That is my fear, the Brass is afraid that the Troops will see how much support he Taliban must have to do what they are doing and that learn that with that level of support we can NOT be driven out, but we can NOT defeat the Taliban (and this when another crisis hits the US, the US will pull out of Afghanistan to fight the other higher priority crisis. That is what happen to the British during the US Revolution, the French intervene and that moved the main theater of the war to the West Indies, where Britain and France had a larger investment do to the value of the Sugar Cane Plantation in the West Indies, and for the US during Vietnam, where concerns of Soviet Intentions in the Middle East AND Israel being able to defend itself against the Arab, this caused the US to pull out of Vietnam and lead to the Fall of Vietnam for the US preferred to send Military aid to Israel and the Middle East rather then Vietnam).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Marion

[CJvR]

4. Perhaps they could...

...give the US troops DU reinforced impervious body armor combined with insta-frag area effect rounds.

[L0oniX]

5. Where's the FBI? ...the game gives aid and comfort to the enemy.

FBI fuckas!