Muslim Complaints Get Modern Warfare 2 Map Pulled

[FallenMessiah88]

I know that freedom of speech comes with a price and that it's not merely "the right to be an asshole" as some people seem to think, but this is just ridiculous.

No, muslims aren't exactly the only religious group making these kinds of complaints and it's not so much their method of complaint that I'm against, it's the principle itself. By bending to these people's demands, Activision has essentially opened the door for other groups to do the same, which will only hurt the artistic freedom of gaming as a whole.

This was ridiculous when the Church of England made those complaints about Manchester cathedral and it's still ridiculous now.

 

[Dogstreet]

Actually, the inverted cross IS a Christian symbol. It's called a Petrine Cross (cross of Saint Peter), and it represents the fact that Peter felt himself unworthy to die in the same way as Jesus, and was crucified upside down.

Source: Wikipedia, and I used to be Catholic.

I was not aware of this! - Things learnt today: +1

 

[Loud Hawk]

Oh no, offensive picture frame. Better go burn down some embassies.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Why couldn't they have done something useful, like abused their power? I mean come on, if I were muslim and knew that I'd be getting special treatment, I'd have demanded they kill off the cod franchice altogether.

And give me a yacht.

 

[Superlative]

OH SHIT!

some customers politely voiced concerns over something offensive and the company went above and beyond to fix it, demonstrating a sincere commitment to not offending their customers. THIS IS A TRAVESTY!

People have no right what so ever to get mad over there faith, its not like its important or anything. its just a major decided factor in making important life choices, nothing big. besides, we here at the escapist with our big, smurt atheist brains know religion has never helped anyone ever or done any good. all the people that have it are stupid and what they think is worthless. it's not like anyone smart ever was religious anyway, otherwise they would have my opinion because i am smurt and all smurt people think alike.

 

[GTwander]

It's a minor error, and one easily attributed to ignorance rather than malice, but Activision has elected to remove the map from rotation until it can be edited via a title update.

Aha.

Step one: Release something *****-worthy in unfinished content.
Step two: Wait for backlash.
Step three: Remove said unfinished content and later release it as DLC.

It's evil genius. Soon all games will be able to ship half-empty and push the blame elsewhere.

 

[NvrPhazed]

Am I the only one in this thread that finds the main annoyance of the article that the developer has the capability of pulling maps that have already been released? That would be like Bethesda putting out a patch that removes Whiterun from Skyrim.

You obviously don't make games for a living. That's your paranoia talking not common sense or logic.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

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.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for them to change the law to alllow gay marriage, wouldn't there have to be some sort of vote? I mean, I don't know how it works over in America, but surely there'd have to be a vote to change the law like that. If the majority of people voted against it, that's not stopping gay marriage to avoid offence, it's because the majority of people don't want it. That's democracy.

Admittedly, I don't really know how it works over there...in Australia, we have no gay marriage and our Prime Minister is an atheist, so I don't know what you wanna make of that. Personally, I'm all for gay marriage, for the record.

 

[MPerce]

That's.....odd.

It's not a big deal in any way, shape, or form. Probably just a texture mix up or a stupid joke by a programmer.

But it's getting removed, the map will be back, life goes on. It has been handled in the best possible way by both sides.

So why are people on this forum still getting pissed?

 

[Zenn3k]

....wow, just wow on so many levels.

1: That people honestly give a shit
2: That someone actually noticed
3: That they pulled the map

When will people wake up and realize that religion is bullshit? Seriously, I can't take it anymore.

The #1 reason why I refuse to go out and breed, refuse to do basically anything REALLY productive is because of all the stupid people who follow religion in this world. Seriously, whats the point is the vast majority of my species thinks a magic space man in the sky made them and will fix all their problems if they just ask really really hard? Makes me want to go buy a gun and paint the walls in blood.

 

[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.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for them to change the law to alllow gay marriage, wouldn't there have to be some sort of vote? I mean, I don't know how it works over in America, but surely there'd have to be a vote to change the law like that. If the majority of people voted against it, that's not stopping gay marriage to avoid offence, it's because the majority of people don't want it. That's democracy.

Admittedly, I don't really know how it works over there...in Australia, we have no gay marriage and our Prime Minister is an atheist, so I don't know what you wanna make of that. Personally, I'm all for gay marriage, for the record.

Well, I'm British, not American, but they can make laws without having a vote. I'm pretty sure they just vote over who is in charge. In Britain however, the government were just sorta, 'Homosexuals don't like being discriminated against but the Church of England say gayness is icky and will desanctify marriage, so we'll keep rambling pointlessly until everyone gets bored and moves on. And the country did get bored, and did move on, in fact, I don't even know how the debate ended (which probably means nothing changed and gay people just have 'civil partnerships', in fact, this just occurred to me, and is a bit off topic, but couldn't gay people just ignore what those pesky straight people say and refer to themselves as married, and husband and husband or wife and wife?)

Though on the topic of a nationwide vote (which I'd be all for) they did do a survey of some sort to gauge interest (though, it was only involving a small segment of the population or something daft. Forgive me for my vagueness, it was a while ago and my memory isn't great)

But still, it basically came down to Christians complain, gays had less rights, regardless of their religion.

(oh, and as an aside, I wasn't accusing, nor did I assume, that you, as a Christian, were against it, I know it's not every Christian, just like most Muslims probably don't care about a line from the Qur'an appearing on a bathroom wall in some game released years ago)

 

[crazyrabbits]

One of the biggest video game releases of all time, heavily scrutinized to hell and back by overzealous modders and people who ripped extra game modes and content from the product before they were intended for public release...and it takes almost three years for someone to get their back up over a barely-legible quote on a painting in the game?

We're talking about a series that had a main character describe the Afghan region as being "blood-stained by thousands of years of warfare", a Middle Eastern terrorist detonating a nuclear device in his capital city, civilians being massacred via the whims of Russian ultranationalists and every almost every NPC of Middle Eastern descent being depicted either as a helpless civilian or (in Al-Asad's case) a cowardly leader who got anticlimactically murdered, and your problem is with a quote that says to love God?

I guess Activision should be commended for enforcing the low suspension of disbelief in Muslim culture. They must have some kind of God to be continually incensed over a mistranslated quote in a game that's several years old.

 

[Gilhelmi]

At least this is a legit reason.

What no one seems too get is that there are No, zero, zip, zilch, depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in the Muslim world. They believe that any image of Prophet Mohammed might lead some too start worshiping the picture itself and not Allah. I do not blame them for this, in my Christian walk, I have seen people claiming to be Christians do some pretty stupid thing in Christs name (even though they are contradicting Christ by doing some of the stupid but I digress).

So I say, this is legit.

 

[BishopofAges]

This. This right here, this thread, this topic, this guys youtube channel, the comments left on his youtube channel, the ill will gained and thrown like daggers across a room full of children who have no idea what it is they are actually doing, believing, or going on about.

This is why I detest military shooters and do not play them. You can stand there and tell me all day long that you are a player and they you are a decent upright chap who has never hurt a fly or made someone cry with your words, that does not excuse the rest of your community.

Hasty Edit 1: I am okay with a map or two being pulled to be edited so it doesn't upset a nation, its one map people, theres many other to play.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Muslim Complaints Get Modern Warfare 2 Map Pulled

​

Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer map, Favela, has been temporarily removed from the game's playlists.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and 3 players have found themselves temporarily one venue short, as Activision has pulled one of the game's maps following complaints from Muslim gamers.

The map in question, Favela, depicts a shanty town in Rio de Janiro. One of the bathrooms in the map contains two paintings, the frames of which are decorated with an ornate quote attributed to the prophet, Muhammad: "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty."

As was pointed out in this video released back in October, the sight of holy teachings written on or in a bathroom can be offensive to some followers of Islam. It's a minor error, and one easily attributed to ignorance rather than malice, but Activision has elected to remove the map from rotation until it can be edited via a title update. The publisher has since apologized for the slight.

As an Activision rep told Kotaku:

"We apologize to anyone who found this image offensive. Please be assured we were unaware of this issue and that there was no intent to offend. We are working as quickly as possible to remove this image and any other similar ones we may find from our various game libraries."

We are urgently working to release a Title Update to remove the texture from Modern Warfare 3. We are also working to remove the texture from Modern Warfare 2 through a separate Title Update. Until the TU is ready, we have removed the Favela multiplayer map from online rotation.

Activision and our development studios are respectful of diverse cultures and religious beliefs, and sensitive to concerns raised by its loyal game players. We thank our fans for bringing this to our attention."

The video that originally pointed out the issue has had its comments section closed, I couldn't possibly speculate as to why.

This isn't the first time Muslims have taken issue with unintentional slights in videogames. Media Molecule's Little Big Planet was famously delayed when it became apparent one of the musical tracks from the game contained lines from the Koran. More recently, Hindus took offense when Hi-Rez Studios' announced that their upcoming fighter title, Smite, would feature characters from the Hindu pantheon. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118471-Catholics-Buddhists-Join-Hindu-Protests-Against-Smite]

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5949764/modern-warfare--map-removed-after-complaints-from-muslim-gamers]


Permalink

you know what, activision are a bunch of pussies for doing it.

thats all to be said,

 

[cerebus23]

At least this is a legit reason.

What no one seems too get is that there are No, zero, zip, zilch, depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in the Muslim world. They believe that any image of Prophet Mohammed might lead some too start worshiping the picture itself and not Allah. I do not blame them for this, in my Christian walk, I have seen people claiming to be Christians do some pretty stupid thing in Christs name (even though they are contradicting Christ by doing some of the stupid but I digress).

So I say, this is legit.

I think alot of people get that and i still think when we get bomb threats to south park because they going to use a hooded muhammid in a episode about all the major religions, it ceases to hold any weight at all.

I am pretty sure the creators of s park are not islamic, i am pretty sure comedy central is not an islamic carrier, i am sure the episode never really intended to show anything of the actual muhammid, and i am sure s park bring s park they would have done something "tasteful" and not just gone for the shock fest and flame bating.

But none of that mattered they rolled out the bomb threats, death threats and boom they got what they wanted.

Again i will say stop just stop trying to justify anyone forcing their beliefs on everyone, it is wearing thin when everytime someone says boo on their side people cannot bend over fast enough to kiss their asses.

It is not like the more extreme elements of islam that actually use this stuff as an excuse to justify killing anyone are nice people to begin with, they are murderers rapists and thugs a good chunk of them and if not today over south park it will be tomrrow because it was allahs will, or the next day because of israel, or the next day because of some unheard of utube video.

 

[Norix596]

Really? The part of Modern Warfare that Muslims find offensive is the writing on a wall surface? How about the slaughter of mass quantities of generically "arabic" enemies?

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

At first, I thought it was some derogatory remarks towards Islam, after seeing how widely this was reported. But to find out it was simply a quote above a toilet...
I just don't understand the mentality. Do they not understand that not everything has to conform to their religion? Or that they are not free from criticism?
I guess I'll never understand, as I'm too free minded to conform to such zealotry. But I'm going to remain annoyed by the whole situation.
If someone calls me something on the internet, I live with it, because is can't be helped. But if someone openly criticizes Islam, heads roll.
I am sufficiently bugged by this ordeal. Bugged I say.

 

[direkiller]

Really? The part of Modern Warfare that Muslims find offensive is the writing on a wall surface? How about the slaughter of mass quantities of generically "arabic" enemies?

My first reaction was that was it. That's what your offended about. A picture probably used a bunch of outer places in the game.

I hate to see what he would do over this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rvE8QQcSok&feature=relmfu
&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00KSBpGBwmo&feature=relmfu

 

[Something Amyss]

The only consequence of this is that Favela will be unavailable for a small time, don't blow this too much out of proportion.

You're on the internet. You're on the internet and talking sense.

I hope you have a flame bunker, as I'm afraid you're going to need it.

Christians - even the extremists, wouldn't give a shit about this sort of thing in a game.

Not sure if serious....