Muslim Complaints Get Modern Warfare 2 Map Pulled

[Quadocky]

Apparently the person who made the video didn't even intend for the map to be taken down.

 

[CarlMin]

Hold up a sec... that's all it takes to make them change a game on dime?

Alright, Activision, listen up. I'm part of a the Zamolxianist gaming community, there's millions of us, and we are offended by your repetitive games that show little to no improvement year after year. We ask you to change this, or we will boycott your games.

There, gaming industry fixed. Nobel prize please.

If they don't that that'd just be discrimination, double whammy!

Oh, haven't you heard? Hating CoD isn't cool anymore. The trend is over and all the cool kids are looking for something else to hate. It's cliché.

In fact, hating CoD become to popular and so mainstream, all the hipsters are actually considering to start playing CoD instead, you know, just to stand out.

 

[Matt Dellar]

I think this has been made into a much bigger deal than it needs to be. A Muslim found an image offensive and asked Infinity Ward to remove it, and Infinity Ward did. The removal of the image doesn't change the gameplay and apparently makes the game more attractive to Muslim gamers--therefore, more people will play the game. Also apparently, the map is still playable, just not in rotation until the patch is done.

Then again, I'm generally extremely optimistic.

 

[Doom972]

Of course, we all know that giving a bully what he wants will make him stop bullying.

 

[Bobic]

it makes me sick how religious people can get away with saying "im offended by XYZ" and people will bend over backwards to accommodate them.
you know what offends me those stupid looking ankle boots, but will anyone bend over backwards to accommodate me? no they are still being worn everyday all over the world

I respectfully disagree with your generalisation of "religious people". I'm Christian, and if I complained about disrespectful treatment of my religion in some game, no-one would care. Now I'm not complaining; that's a very good thing. Artistic integrity shouldn't be compromised to avoid offence. I'm just saying it's not all religions which receive this special treatment; it's primarily Islam.

You say that, but what about the whole gay marriage debate. What's worse, Call of Duty players going without a map for a few weeks, or gay people not being able to marry? The arguments against gay marriage seem to be almost purely, it ruins the sanctity of marriage as set out by God. That is a case of Christians complaining and other people's actions being limited, harmless actions I'd hasten to add.

Now, if Activision hadn't pulled the map, and simply said that they planned to edit it, I'd be all for it. Does it really matter what it says on some bathroom wall, I'm guessing 99.99% of Cod players had no idea about it. Just change it to some graffiti saying 'Kilroy was here' and be done with it.

However, in most situations, fuck it if someone gets offended (be they Muslim, Christian, or whatever), that's their problem and they should learn to live with it. But something this small, eh, why not. And that 2 part episode of South Park should be required viewing for everyone involved (you know the one I mean).

But yeah, Christian whining continues to deprive people of marriage (admittedly, I checked your profile and have no idea what the situation is in Australia), so it's not just Muslims. Muslims just seem to get the most sway when it comes to petty, pointless bullshit.

 

[Lieju]

Between you and me, I never saw religious texts inside restrooms hahahaha

I have.
The building that has the theology-department on our university has theological debates on the bathroom doors, including quotes, mostly of the Bible.
And I've seen religious messages on public toilets, apparently to proselytize.

I really don't understand why the Muslim's are upset over a painting saying "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty". Did they misspell Allah, is this insulting? I just don't fucking get it!

Obviously Muslims aren't some group-mind who all think alike and get all offended at the same things, but I can think of reasons for why some muslims would complain about it:

-they think it's offensive to associate their holy texts with bathrooms
-They'd prefer that their religion wasn't associated with such a game at all
- They suppose it's meant as offensive somehow, because US = evil, even if they can't really point out how it's offensive exactly.
- They complained just to get publicity
- They like to whine about things
- They aren't even sure what the quote actually is (or even played the game), they just heard a game made fun of their religion and wanted to get in on the complaining.

A soundtrack being removed from a game simply because of a few words from the Koran?

Was that removed just to avoid Muslims being offended? And not because they didn't want to put something religious in it? You wouldn't get complaints just from Muslims, but also from Christians who wouldn't want their kid getting 'influenced' by Islam. (As well as members of other religions, and also non-religious people)

I think the original intent for including such content is important in judging the response.
If the quote was put in there knowing it was a religious quote, they knew what they were doing, and should stand behind their choices.

But if it was put in there just to look nice, finding out it has religious meaning might be reason to change it. I don't think they necessarily should, but I can see why an artist/designer might want the product to reflect their original intent.

 

[wabbbit]

And people say Muslims are bad. Just look at this thread and the youtube page. You ask your self why religious people get offended when you write all the shit about their God?

>Snarky comments about a retarded religion
>People of said religion start killing people cause they are offended

Yeah, cause they are really the same! /sarcasm

This. Well, maybe just point 2.

No post says that Christianity is perfect, but Christians are a lot more passive and wouldn't demand that people can't do something in a game.

I don't care what religion you are, if you get offended by a texture in a game then.... yeah...

 

[Thyunda]

It's almost like people are getting scared of offending the Muslims.

I think considering all that's going on in the middle east, and especially with all the riots that have occurred lately, people are trying to keep well away from offending Muslims. As you said, you don't see this with any other religion. That Hitman trailer had those sexy, murderous nuns, but the only people who were complained about it were gamers, not Catholics. The Binding of Isaac retold the story of Isaac and Abraham but replaced Abraham with a mad woman, and had Isaac running through his basement to escape which appeared to be a pseudo-representation of hell. And there are upside-down crosses and misused/abused/parodied imagery and symbolism scattered throughout other games like Dante's Inferno.

Christian symbolism, lore, and organizations get misused way more than Islam, and much more maliciously. The only thing I think we do worse with Islam is that for a while now, the only time you ever see a Muslim in games is if they are a terrorist you've got to shoot down. At least with Christianity we've gotten awesome characters like Father Grigori in HL2.

So it seems Christians have gotten to the point where we couldn't care less what people do with our imagery (or we don't care if they do complain), but Muslims do care to the point where they want to intervene. The article said they changed it because they saw the video, and the person who wrote the video had this in the description: "Hello, i never asked IW to take the map down, we only asked them to remove the picture and i think its our right, and any religion's right.."

Well, no. It's not your right, or any religion's right. Your rights stop where the rights of others begin. I may not like how Christian organizations are almost always used in games as a hotbed for corruption and illicit activities, but it's all just words. Sticks and stones may break my bones, and all that. I understand the teachings of Islam are different from Christianity, and that there is much more emphasis and importance placed on using symbolism properly. But something has to happen within Islamic organizations, I think, because we are global now and like it or not you are going to come across people who--either accidentally or maliciously--want to misuse and parody your imagery and stories. And if free speech is going to work, you can't expect them to stop just because you find it offensive.

Every religion is getting special treatment. Not just Islam.

But, as I just pointed out, not when it comes to pulling punches whenever somebody makes something that is "offensive."

I just want to point out - Assassin's Creed had a Muslim protagonist, whose friends and allies were all Muslim too.


OT: Ridiculous, as always. Maybe I should complain about the sheer amount of Union Flags in the London map of Modern Warfare 3. I've been to London. I live in England. Twenty years and I've never seen that many flags in one place. This is racism. I demand that map be removed until we can have a more accurate depiction of the United Kingdom.

 

[Risingblade]

I'm amazed they even noticed the painting in a bathroom...dem graphics cod dem graphics

 

[Gearhead mk2]

It took them this long for them to complain about a modern military game for being anti-islamic? Wow. If religion is getting this sloppy in it's suits, maybe we can finally take down the-cult-of-L-Ron-Hubbard-that-shall-not-be-named-in-case-his-lawyers-are-watching.

 

[Primero Holodon]

Well then, let me ask you guys, can you imagine a game (that isn't a horror one) using Christian imagery in a way offensive to Christians? Middle America would be up in arms and the game would be changed despite a vast portion of the world not being Christians, or at least not massively conservative ones. The game would get changed.

Assassins creed? and in the non gaming world you have family guy, South park and the Simpsons among others.

 

[orangeban]

What the fuck, how entitled can you get? I mean, these Muslims had the sheer audacity to go whining to Activision over how offended they are. And Activision just bends over backwards! If I were Activision, I would put the quote in the damn toilet.

Except, wait, that would be stupid. Activision was trying to be accurate with the quote, but messed up in a way that is small but also majorly offensive. So some people asked Activision to correct this, and Activision agreed because they don't want to needlessly offend and the quote was meant to be a detail that made the map seem more lived in anyway, so they might as well get it fixed. No-one was hurt in this.

 

[GoaThief]

/snip

I think you need to chill out a little bit, the Koran isn't loaded with more magick than any other religious text.

To make such a bold claim you better have some solid proof.

 

[Patrick Buck]

Hold up a sec... that's all it takes to make them change a game on dime?

Alright, Activision, listen up. I'm part of a the Zamolxianist gaming community, there's millions of us, and we are offended by your repetitive games that show little to no improvement year after year. We ask you to change this, or we will boycott your games.

There, gaming industry fixed. Nobel prize please.

If they don't that that'd just be discrimination, double whammy!

You Sir, are a genius. You win the internet for today.

 

[Kopikatsu]

They probably changed it as soon as possible because they were afraid of Muslim extremists storming their offices and blowing/shooting it up with AK's and RPG-7's. As that has been happening a lot lately.

 

[sethisjimmy]

No post says that Christianity is perfect, but Christians are a lot more passive and wouldn't demand that people can't do something in a game.

I don't care what religion you are, if you get offended by a texture in a game then.... yeah...

Yeah, Christians wouldn't complain about a game, they'd instead complain about what you do in real life, such as gay marriage.

I get that not all religious people are like this, but my point is I don't think Christians are as "passive" as you think they are.

 

[Erttheking]

Oh boy, religion and video games in a news post, the Escapist is going to freaking explode I can tell it.

 

[Erttheking]

Well then, let me ask you guys, can you imagine a game (that isn't a horror one) using Christian imagery in a way offensive to Christians? Middle America would be up in arms and the game would be changed despite a vast portion of the world not being Christians, or at least not massively conservative ones. The game would get changed.

I agree pulling the map instead of issuing a texture fix within a short time is a little extreme, but the guy in the video seemed amiable enough about it, simply saying "this is offensive to a lot of people, please fix it." I fail to see the issue and support the guys consumer rights to an apology and his choice if not fixed to boycott the products in the future series.

Infact; How is this different than say:
"Dear Platinum Games,
As PS3/Xbox owners, we find your choice to release Bayonetta 2 on one of the projects primary founders console exclusively, offensive. We hope you recognise this and fix it as soon as possible or we will boycott your games"
Not much difference at all wouldn't you say?

I...you just said that middle america would be up in arms about a non-horror game using religious imagery in an offensive way and then commented about a game that did JUST THAT! And I don't recall there being a outcry over Bayonetta, or Assassin's Creed for that matter, and in that game you slap the pope around and the game more or less says that God isn't real. Christ the Escapist likes to generalize.

 

[Erttheking]

And people say Muslims are bad. Just look at this thread and the youtube page. You ask your self why religious people get offended when you write all the shit about their God?

>Snarky comments about a retarded religion
>People of said religion start killing people cause they are offended

Yeah, cause they are really the same! /sarcasm

Dude, last time I checked not every offended religious person pulled out an RPG and started shooting things.

 

[Haukur Isleifsson]

Yes it should not be a big deal. But changing it should not be a big deal either. Especially if it wasn't intentional in the first place. Their have been some horrendous examples of people trying to limit free speech by sighting religious tolerance and that deserves all our loathing. But this is not really such a case is it? Is pulling a single map until the next update really such an "extreme" reaction?