UK Defense Secretary Calls for Medal of Honor Ban

[GloatingSwine]

The Tory government of the '80s squealed about "video nasties", and now they're back in power they've moved with the times. It's inevitable that a Tory MP scream "Ban This Sick Filth" at least once a year when in power, and if they don't the Daily Fail will do it for them.

 

[teqrevisited]

It's official; Liam Fox is a dick.

"Fox said that he found it hard to believe that anyone in the country would want to buy such an "un-British" game."

I died a little inside.

How can you have an un-British game? How can you have a British game? He fails to grasp the concept of the word 'game' and yet ties some ridiculous nationalistic phrase to it in the hopes of garnering support from uneducated bigots.

This is yet another reason for me to get out of this country as fast as financially possible.

 

[BlueHighwind]

What do you expect? Be stupid and insensitive when you make your game and you get a negative response. This official is fully within his rights to speak out against this sort of thing: it is HIS men who are dying out there, after all. And its fully within the retailers rights if they don't want to stock crap like this. When he says "Un-British" he means that this game is directly against what he feels the ideals United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should stand for. Simple as that. And it is legitimate opinion consider just what game we're talking about here.

So there is nothing to complain about, in the end. No censorship of any kind. If I had a video game store, I wouldn't sell this thing either. I see that you're all ready to defend any game no matter what the content from any kind of government attack. Which is your right as well.

Enjoy bitching, bitches.

 

[steamweedlegoblin]

Haha, now that's a hoot and a holler! I love it when government officials unashamedly place their stupidity on a pedestal for the world to see.

 

[RvLeshrac]

I'm totally not surprised. I'm surprised that people here are surprised.

Let us not beat around the bush, it is a contreversial inclusion. I think "for the industry" it may be a good thing, overall. Pretty much all previous "provocative" or "contreversial" games have been along the lines of Manhunt or the likes, ie. brainlessly contreversial. This Medal of Honor game actually seems to be making a point. If they can stick to their guns and hold their own, hopefully some people will come over to the viewpoint that the medium a point is made in is not as important as the point.

Btw, are there any examples of films or books written about the War in Afghanistan from the Taliban perspective?

There are dozens of books and articles written by journalists who managed to embed themselves with the Taliban.

The Taliban are not al-Qaeda, which I think Mr. Fox needs to learn. I would've originally been under the impression he knew that, since he's apparently running the MOD, but I suppose it might have been a bit too difficult to make it through all those documents relating to the war before joining it.

Really, this controversy is less equivalent to playing the Nazis in Britain during WWII than it is to playing the Japanese in Britain during WWII.

 

[Gasaraki]

Oh noez, how dare they even remotely imply that there are two sides to war!
Seriously though, wouldn't something baing un-british just mean that it wasn't made in Britain? That doesn't sound too bad...
Try expanding your vocabulary before engaging in mindless displays of patriotism next time Mr. Fox.

 

[Dudemeister]

I'm actually not far off being on this guys side.
I wouldn't want the game banned as such, but I think playing as Taliban is completely wrong. Made up terrorist group? Fine. Made up terrorist group that looks like taliban? Yeah fine.
Actually let you play as taliban? Are you taking the fucking piss??
Players from both USA and UK should see the insult here, as well as a lot of other countries to be fair.
EA should really get thier assholes abused with a box of rusty knifes. And if anyone "intends" to play as Taliban, you can get in line for that too, prick.

How is playing as "The Taliban" any different from playing as the "OpFor"?
The two things are exactly the same except for the fact that they name them in MoH instead of giving them a fake name.
In either case, you're still playing as the same group of people, we all know it so why get so angry over a single word?

 

[the_maestro_sartori]

"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands," he said.

And at the hands of America, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands, yet it's fine to SHOOT Taliban members in a game.
At the hands of the Allies, children lost fathers and wives lost husbands, yet there's how many games where we kill countless nazis?

What a moron.

 

[Sakeretsu]

He is probably annoyed because MoH features The American forces as the heroes ,while in MW/2 The SAS got the podium and the Gi's were just hotheaded dumbos .
I'm not to sure about this game to much of the same recipe (I wished the Indie/3A plan from the Extra Credit guys could work !)

 

[oktalist]

Surprise-o-meter:

[==========]
 0                     10

Zero surprise.

This is the Conservative Party we're talking about.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Ugh... it's just a skin. You could play as Nazis in Call of Duty.

Playing AS American and British soldiers being shotgunned in the face is ok, but when your the one holding the shotgun, THEN there's a problem?

Also, it's a game! Playing as the Taliban is not going to make me shoot my own family because they are British!

I don't know, video games have caused me to kill many people just because I saw it on the screen. And then I shoved a toy car up my ass because I saw it on Jackass.

 

[Doug]

At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands

So what exactly does the UK military do to people? Tickle them into submission?

I'm pretty sure the Taliban don't have wives ... well, in the conventional sense. "Slaves", yeah. Which, aside from being horrifying, is also ironic, given the Koran explicitly bans slavery of other Muslims, from what I understand, although I think their policy is 'if its not us, its not a Muslim'...

Anyway, where was I?

Last time I checked America was not part of the UK.

*ponders* No... I'm pretty sure we're not, even if our previous governments have tried really hard to act that way. Regardless, I don't think I get your point.

 

[mikecoulter]

He's probably just a Call Of Duty fan...

But, I can see his point. Did nobody developing the game ever stop and think, "Oh wait, this seems pretty tasteless..."?

 

[Jumplion]

"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands," he said. "I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product."

So have the people we're invading.

As far as I know, you are only the Taliban in the multiplayer mode, and in there it's just a skin. While I partially understand the upset, you have books, movies, TV shows, radio talk shows, etc... all talking about the war over there on both sides. Video Games should not be excluded, especially considering that most of those kinds of games are advertised as M for Mature meaning they aren't advertised to youngin's (not that that'll stop them from playing it, I know it didn't for me, depends on the parent)

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

he can be all disgusted as he wants, but to understand a conflict better, you must see each side, before making conclusions right?

 

[Anti-Robot Man]

It's perfectly acceptable to play as NAZIs, murderers, psychopaths, GTA characters who mowdown countless pedestrians in cars, generic terrorists, etc. etc. But the Taliban is somehow so much more evil than any of these that it should be treated differently?

 

[Drejer43]

*Sigh* i am ashamed to live in Britain...

Should this matter? so what we get to play as the Taliban, it would be nice to see a different view than "the British/American army did this that and the other". we never hear the other side of it.

Sure it won't be very pleasant side... but what game apart from Viva Pinata isn't pleasant?

I don't think there will be a Taliban single player (at least from what I know)

 

[Doug]

"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands," he said. "I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product."

So have the people we're invading.

As far as I know, you are only the Taliban in the multiplayer mode, and in there it's just a skin. While I partially understand the upset, you have books, movies, TV shows, radio talk shows, etc... all talking about the war over there on both sides. Video Games should not be excluded, especially considering that most of those kinds of games are advertised as M for Mature meaning they aren't advertised to youngin's (not that that'll stop them from playing it, I know it didn't for me, depends on the parent)

Which people? The Taliban? Technically, they aren't the people we're invading, given they aren't the soverign government of Afghanistan, and even when they where in a position where you could argue they were, I wouldn't exactly call them the 'peoples government', given all the summary executions, slave taking, and oppression.

Anywho, though I'm tempted to label Liam Fox abit of a dick head, I think he has abit of a right to be tetchy on the subject, given the whole 'currently responsible for the lives of the troops on the ground'. I mean, politics aside, I imagine it would grat on you after awhile.