Warfighter Work Lands SEALs in Hot Water

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Warfighter Work Lands SEALs in Hot Water


Seven members of the U.S. Navy SEALs have been punished for revealing secrets while working on Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

To boost its credibility as a "realistic" military shooter, Electronic Arts brought in active-duty Navy SEALs to consult on the development of the recent Medal of Honor: Warfighter. How much of an impact they actually had on the game is debatable - they worked for only two days over the spring and summer, and the review scores speak for themselves - but their time on the game was enough to land them in deep trouble with their superiors.

Seven members of SEAL Team Six, including one who participated in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, have been disciplined for "revealing secrets" while working on the game. Four others who have since transferred out of the unit but are still on active duty are also under investigation.

It's not known what secrets they gave away, but they did apparently make use of classified Navy documents in their role as consultants. The seven were disciplined for failing to seek permission from their superiors to work on the game and for showing game designers some of the "specially-designed combat equipment unique to their unit."

"We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy," Naval Special Warfare Command Deputy Commander Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli said. He added that the disciplinary actions "send a clear message throughout our force that we are and will be held to a high standard of accountability."

The seven SEALs involved have all received a letter of reprimand and will lose part of their pay for two months.

Source: Herald Online [http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/11/08/4400717/source-7-navy-seals-punished-for.html]


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Bernzz

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And I thought working with EA was punishment enough.

Maybe Super Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli (seriously, his title is huge, easily replaced with Super) just hates EA.

All kidding aside, ouch. Sucks for them, but they probably shouldn't have revealed stuff without permission in the first place.

To make it worse, it was all for naught, as the game apparently absolutely sucks. A shame.
 

Akimoto

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That really sucks. I'm pretty sure the guys had good intentions - "Proceeds go to charity!" - but it really hurts when you are disciplined for helping a game that bombed itself. I wonder if future MOH games will get the same professional help.

Personally I feel that getting the professional help is an unfair gimmick to the pros themselves and the advertisment audience. I know one friend who got suckered into buying it because of the 'realistic' tag.
 

Coach Morrison

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What's the point in punishing them for possibly giving away secrets to a game that few people played and that no one will remember in a year. It's not like anyone will figure out whats based on real stuff and whats just the mediocre brown military shooter.
 

Scorpid

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Akimoto said:
That really sucks. I'm pretty sure the guys had good intentions - "Proceeds go to charity!" - but it really hurts when you are disciplined for helping a game that bombed itself. I wonder if future MOH games will get the same professional help.

Personally I feel that getting the professional help is an unfair gimmick to the pros themselves and the advertisment audience. I know one friend who got suckered into buying it because of the 'realistic' tag.
I hope there is no future medal of honor series. I'd like it if someone could tell me what was the last stand out medal of honor title, because I can't remember any.
 

BreakfastMan

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Scorpid said:
Akimoto said:
That really sucks. I'm pretty sure the guys had good intentions - "Proceeds go to charity!" - but it really hurts when you are disciplined for helping a game that bombed itself. I wonder if future MOH games will get the same professional help.

Personally I feel that getting the professional help is an unfair gimmick to the pros themselves and the advertisment audience. I know one friend who got suckered into buying it because of the 'realistic' tag.
I hope there is no future medal of honor series. I'd like it if someone could tell me what was the last stand out medal of honor title, because I can't remember any.
Allied Assault, way back in 2002 or so. Can't really think of any others since. :p

OT: Wow, that sucks for them. The double whammy of the reprimand and the game just plain sucking must be especially painful. I hope that they learn from this. I hope that everyone learns from this. :p
 

weirdee

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I'm thinking, perhaps it was a better idea not to publicly admit that Warfighter might contain actual military secrets.
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

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Sep 10, 2008
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Andy Chalk said:
"specially-designed combat equipment unique to their unit."
You don't mean the equipment that allows them to take multiple sniper rounds to the face but kills them if they step on cracks!


OH NOES!

Seriously they really should have gotten the green-light from superiors but hindsight is 20/20.

Wheather or not this spells the death knell for the MOH series

which apparently started the whole WW2 shooter genre believe it or not http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/criticalintel/10026-The-Medal-of-Honor-Curse

remains to be seen.
 

Therumancer

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Classified information is serious business, if this is true, the SEALS in question are getting off light.

That said, looking at the game and the results I can't help but wonder what was leaked? Secret military door kicking techniques maybe? With Miracle Of Sound's video alone we could lose our Doorfighting advantage. :)
 

Antonio Torrente

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Wow if the abysmal sales of this game is not enough, now this?

EA just can't get a break.

PS I think this a punishment for the ending of Mass Effect 3.
 

Akimoto

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BreakfastMan said:
Allied Assault *snip*
Amen. The graphics sucked but by jove I was fighting a war as an unsung hero.

Scorpid said:
I hope there is no future medal of honor series.
There will be until something major happens. Older gamers can see for what it is, but the younger gamers that are up and coming, like my brother, will be wowed by the graphics and artistic direction. To be fair, the corridor shooting is done really, really well but that's all it's got. It's like the most fatty, softest beef I ever ate, but it get's old after many iterations. By the time we realize what happened, the company has started making another game just like it to a younger audience.

Rinse and repeat.
 

Robert0288

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Naval Special Warfare Command / Deputy Commander / Rear Admiral / Garry Bonelli
What the command is / His position within it / Rank / Name

Good thing the guy isn't the DCO of NORAD or something. That man has like 12 different hats
 

Doom972

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VeryOddGamer said:
And the game was still painfully mediocre. Seriously, this is just kind of dickish.
It's military law. This kind of thing isn't special to the US military. When one serves in a military (which is done by choice in the US), he must adhere to strict laws and follow orders.
Developers hiring professionals to consult them about military methods and tactics isn't something new. The problem is that neither the developers or the SEALs that consulted them didn't go through the proper channels.
 

getoffmycloud

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weirdguy said:
I'm thinking, perhaps it was a better idea not to publicly admit that Warfighter might contain actual military secrets.
Whatever the secrets are they probably aren't that important otherwise those involved would have been whisked off to military prison without anyone being told.
 

surg3n

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Yawn... seriously.

Here's a thought - if the super secret SEAL team is so fucking super secret, how the hell do we get to know about members of said, super secret SEAL team being in trouble. If this was legit, we wouldn't hear a single word about it, EA wouldn't even hear about it, never mind their cock-handed marketting department.

Ohh wait, I wonder if this is some sort of marketting ploy... Now I have to go and buy Warfighter because it has genuine SEAL secrets and I am a retarded EA customer who believes that SEAL's who just got reprimanded for revealing secrets would go and talk to the press about it.