EA Cuts Taliban From Medal of Honor

[Twilight_guy]

So it's okay for Americans to murder other Americans in a game but when the Taliban murders Americans in a game it's bad? Murdering people with aliens robots, and ancient forces or any of person of any race besides Taliban is all right but throw in the right skin tone and dressing and its suddenly bad? Yeah, this is complete stupidity. EA is being a pansy. Seriously what about all the people killed by friendly fire why aren't there families complaining about all this American soldier killing American soldier nonsense?

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I respect their decision to honor the families of the fallen, but they could have stuck with it. It feels, especially in a time of what seems like rampant Islamophobia, like they are bending to the politically insecure. The mosque, that preacher threatening to burn copies of the holy Quran, the South Park episode with Mohammad bleeped at the last minute, even the "Opposing Force" in a new contemporary warfare game all seem to be cow-towing to try and prevent a mild upset. The clash of ideologies is one that is inevitable, yet the one that speaks of equality is being quietly ushered under the rug. Just one of these days I'd like to see a uniform stand on it.

 

[Naheal]

Generic Terrorist Fundamentalism Organization, or GTFO, will be replacing the Taliban in future CoD:MW games.

 

[Iandiaeufaieubfeuihfi]

Oh well, it doesnt matter. It does show that EA has emotions. Unlike Actifail. Yes, Im looking at you kotick. Im looking at you.

 

[coolman9899]

20 grand CND says someone mods it back in in the first month

 

[Cccarrer_2]

I feel as though I'm becoming an aged and more mature gamer, get off my lawn (damn kids) but wtf does it matter what the name of the team is? Make a fucking "taliban" clan if you desperately need that txt in the game. EA answers to way more people than you in your isolated gaming world. If people sued you for shit you wrote or things you did would you still be, "those weak willed guys" or after you get hit for millions of dollars and have to make another shit game everyone will hate to pay off the debt be, "... hrmmm let's not make ANOTHER shit game because a lawsuit cost us several employees...."

Go sign up in favor of real id if this change bugs you so much. Don't hide behind your anonymity.

 

[Cccarrer_2]

Seriously, you have the balls and the tools,YOU put taliban all over your character, get some screentime on fox news as "putting terrorists back in the game" and enjoy the positive decision you made because saying one party is so influential to you that a name change doesn't matter labels you by people with no brains but lots of money. People crying "pussy" don't have millions of dollars, a fanbase and a career to give up to this.

 

[GrinningManiac]

So now, instead of fighting a group of Arabic extremists labelled The Taliban, with whom we can understand the difference between your average middle easterner and an extremist terrorist, now we fight the Opposing Force, which seem to just be random generic Arabs

Wow, this isn't going to stir up racial tensions at all, is it?

"It's not the Taliban you'll fight in MP"
"Oh, who is it?"
"Arabs in general"
"Great!"

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Oh, come on. Sarah fucking Palin leaps to the defense of radio hosts when they're blatantly racist on live shows, the NRA had the balls to assert their right to host their annual convention even in the wake of Columbine, and yet here we are: the second amendment right of game developers is being shat on because of public pressure.

Well, I'm signing up for that video game voters thing that Yahtzee talked about.

 

[Mcface]

To para-phrase Ice T...

That's janky.

Edit:

They need to grow some fucking balls. Might as well include it, the damage is done. The mainstream media isn't going to tell the public it was removed, because all it cared about was the controversy and ratings that comes from villainizing gaming..

its got nothing to do with balls. its got everything to do with them not wanting to dishonor any servicemen. I think it takes more balls to change your game for the people who probably wont play it, out of respect.

And the media vilinizing a game is no problem. Look at MW2 and the airport level. it still sold like hotcakes.

not to mention you cant sell a game on a military base where you play as Taliban. now they can.

 

[Orzene]

WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK ABOUT A NAME CHANGE??!!! I'm more angry that they keep spinning out the same game with mildly different gameplay every year than I am about a simple name. :|

EA cannot, and has yet to ever, be accredited for caring about the mass gamer populous. Even the CEO says "Games are a waste of time and he's only in it for the money." ...

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

You know what, I know what we should do:

Everyone should tart referring to the Taliban as "OpFOR", just like how poeple started calling "Hell" as "HFIL" after DBZ!

 

[MarsProbe]

I was just watching a video on XBL today where they were discussing MoH. One of the game designers got onto to the subject of the game sotry, saying it wasn't about the war in Afghanistan, but actually about the soldiers you were controlling/fighting alongside. This was, as he said, what the MoH games have always been about - they have never been about the politics. Except maybe this time of course.

All things said, even though I won't be getting Medal of Honour myself, I think I will feel a bit bad if/when the game suffers form being wedged inbetween Reach and Black Ops. Clearly they've sweated blood over this game, but I just can't shake that feeling that the game isn't going to perform as well as they would hope.

 

[Do4600]

You know, I was actually interested in purchasing this game because of the Taliban inclusion. I was looking forward to see how they were going to handle everything... Looks like they just got rid of my main interest in the game.

Actually, they're just going to change every instance of the word "Taliban" to the word "Opfor" the game play is not going to be touched at all.

 

[Do4600]

In my mind, allowing the player to take the role of Taliban or Al-Qaeda militants against coalition soldiers is just as bad as letting the player be an SS officer persecuting the Jews.

Waaaait a minute, that is not a proper analogue. The proper analogue would either be playing the role of the Taliban militant killing western civilians or playing the role of an SS officer fighting allied forces.

I'd say Coalition forces are a much more formidable force than a non-militant religious minority in Europe during the 1940's. Actually, if you look at the numbers, Coalition forces have lost around 5,000 men and have killed over 80,000 militant insurgents since the war began, a ratio of 1 to 16.

Coalition forces are far from fitting into the role the Jews occupy in your analogy.

 

[Daverson]

In my mind, allowing the player to take the role of Taliban or Al-Qaeda militants against coalition soldiers is just as bad as letting the player be an SS officer persecuting the Jews.

Waaaait a minute, that is not a proper analogue. The proper analogue would either be playing the role of the Taliban militant killing western civilians or playing the role of an SS officer fighting allied forces.

I'd say Coalition forces are a much more formidable force than a non-militant religious minority in Europe during the 1940's. Actually, if you look at the numbers, Coalition forces have lost around 5,000 men and have killed over 80,000 militant insurgents since the war began, a ratio of 1 to 16.

Coalition forces are far from fitting into the role the Jews occupy in your analogy.

The Taliban aren't engaging Coalition forces like the Waffen-SS engaged the Allies, of course. I'll admit maybe comparing the coalition to Jews in general under the Nazi regime was a bit extreme, I should have said either the Jewish resistance or RKKA, of course, that's still not a great analogy. The RKKA is the more obvious example, but is in itself flawed, because most people aren't as aware of the atrocities the Nazis committed against captured Red Army soldiers (compared to captured allied soldiers, soviet troops were treated much less humanely, on the orders of German high command, due to their political and perceived racial differences), mainly due to being overshadowed by the countless other Nazi atrocities.

The point I'm trying to get at though, is that the Taliban aren't just militants. They aren't just defending their land. They don't view coalition soldiers as soldiers, but rather as agents of Satan. While Coalition troops treat opposition causalities humanely regardless of their origin, the Taliban will almost always execute any captives, usually in a particularly brutal fashion.

The only thing keeping the Taliban from re-creating the camps the Nazis did in the occupied soviet union is their lack of resources.

 

[paragon1]

"So you guys are the Taliban right?"
"Of course not! That's offensive! We're the Opposing Force!"
"Wait, but your using AK-47s and RPGs."
"Yeah"
"And your all Arab."
"Yeah."
"And your dedicated to killing Americans, especially their soldiers?"
"Naturally."
"And your doing all of this in Afghanistan?"
"Mostly along the Pakistani border, but yeah."
...
"Riiiiiight."

 

[Phototoxin]

Remove the British from the other MoH games as being an Irish Republican I find it offensive

 

[Withard]

"I don't mind admitting that I'm disappointed by the change. It may not have an impact on the gameplay, but it does once again prove that when push comes to shove, game publishers will ultimately break down like an ashamed child withering under the scowl of disapproving adults"

Poorly written.

I just think its silly to have included the Taliban to begin with what with the current situation. Lets respect the material its based on but lets NOT go for all out controversy because its supposed to be cool.