Posted on 08/30/2010 9:39:32 AM PDT by Sanjuro68
Electronic Arts is bringing the Medal of Honor game series (the first of the new generation of World War II shooter) in a game set in the WOT. Some people are annoyed that gamers are able to play as the Taliban.
From the story:
I was glad to see that EA was resurrecting the Medal of Honor series and turning it over to the DICE team. I suspected that they might try to top the excesses of Modern Warfare, but I haven't seen enough of it to know either way.
Neither has Britain’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox, but that hasn't kept him from voicing an opinion based on minimal evidence. He told the Telegraph that he was "disgusted" that such an "un-British" game was being released, and called for retailers to refuse to sell it, adding "It's shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban."
Secretary Fox is referring to unsubstantiated reports that the game, set in contemporary Afghanistan against the backdrop of the War on Terror, would allow people to play as the Taliban and kill British soldiers. Obviously, with soldiers still fighting and dying in that theater of war, this was going to be a sensitive subject. Although I haven't seen the finished game, the "play-the-Taliban" idea seems in poor taste.
EA says that "British troops do not feature in the game." They are not denying that you can play as the Taliban, however, pointing out that someone has to be the bad guy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sopgaming.blogspot.com ...
Game on!
If you're going to play online as a team against an opposing team, one team has to be the bad guys.
It is a multi-player game. You can play as villain characters in most multi-player games. The fact is ... men and teenage boys don’t usually want to play a cooperative game against a common enemy when they’re playing in groups. They want to shoot AT each other ... which only makes sense if someone is playing as the villain and shooting back at the hero.
SnakeDoc
I play both sides of every tactical or strategic game I’ve ever owned. How better to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your enemy?
Play the part of the Taliban? I wouldn’t think that being a suicide bomber or molesting young boys and goats would be that exciting in a shooter game.
Surely we don’t want to make it popular to have a game where you can assume the role of an enemy and kill US serviceman. But as an aside, video games are the most popular medium of entertainment for young men and kids. During WW2, it was comic books, where there were all kinds of stories of superheroes and crime fighters fighting the Japanese and the Germans. This is really a continuation of that kind of engaging storytelling. Besides, I don’t remember people complaining in 2003 when there was the Desert Combat mod to Battlefield 1942 where you could assume the role of an Iraqi. Didn’t bother me, lol I just sniped their pilots.
I like the approach taken in America’s Army... where, no matter what side you are on, your team is skinned as the good guys (US Army), and the other team is skinned as the bad guys (usually ME irregulars, ie Taliban).
That way, you’re always the good guy.
Where was the uproar with kids playing cowboys and indians?
You can play the enemy in WWII, Vietnam, Desert Storm games already. The state of technology for computer players is not there to make playing only on the 'good side' work in these games. You need real humans on the opposing sides to have anough challenge to make it, well, a challenge.
I personally like having one side be the opposition unlike the America's Army concept. There is more to the sides than just the skinning of the players. The level of detail in the weapons available to each side with their inherent strengths and weaknesses is awesome in these games.
And anyway, our own Top Gun program has some US pilots who pride themselves as being able to emulate the enemy as closely as possible.
As some Freepers pointed out on another thread about this, a lot of our soldiers serving over there enjoy playing this game. So if they don’t have a problem with it, neither do I.
I don’t see any problem if we’re simply talking about being skinned as the Taliban. That just amounts to different loadouts.
The problem could be with missions and objectives that have the player committing terrorist acts, as we saw in the “No Russian” level of MW2.
Press the X button to hide in your cave.
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
BOOM. You were killed by a drone with a missile
--------------------------------------------
Game 2.
Turn off your TV to simulate night fighting against and enemy with night vision equipment. Be sure to turn up the sound for the earthshattering kaboom.
There is a proper context to that MW2 scene, because the terrorists do kill you after you participate. That's what you get for playing terrorist. From what I've heard, this level in MoH is for standard player-against-player action. I don't think there's a problem of invoking the Mother Night warning, "Be careful of what you pretend to be, because in the end you are what you pretend to be."
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