UK Defense Secretary Calls for Medal of Honor Ban

[Caliostro]

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

...Wonder if he realizes that this actually goes both ways... Worse, America actually said "fuck you" and invaded another country just because it could.

 

[BoogieManFL]

So should you tell him about Counterstrike, or should I?

 

[Tarakos]

I read an interview w/ a few active servicemen (read: fighting the actual Taliban) on this game, and they were all pretty much okay with it. They said it's just a game. So if these guys are cool with it, then maybe everyone should be cool with it. Especially people who aren't actually over there fighting them.

 

[Trivun]

To be completely honest, as a UK citizen (and supporter of the coalition, though a Lib Dem at heart), I actually see Liam Fox's point. That's not to say I agree with him, though admittedly the only reason I disagree with him is because I am an ardent believer in the right to free speech, and that censorship should never be tolerated (unless, you know, it's for good reason, like censoring place names and operation names in military documents made public...).

But yes, I can see Fox's point. His job is to defend this country as an MP and head of our military section, and so if he sees a threat in anything in the media, games or otherwise, that could possibly promote terrorism, then he has every right, and indeed duty, to speak out against it. In this particular case, his opinion is sadly misinformed, but I see absolutely no reason to call him out for saying what he thinks. The only reason people are flaming him over this is because we're gamers, and as we all know, gamers hate anyone who even says a word suggesting the possibility that a game, any game, should be censored or worse, rather than just ignoring that person and carrying on (which is the sensible, and thus never used, option...).

 

[Protocol95]

Well of course he's disgusted by it, because the moron hasn't looked into it more than: "OH NOEZ, TALIBAN!1!".

I'm sick of these fucking idiots.

You and me both, man. You and me both.

You and you and me, all three of us.

When will this retardation be eradicated from the human species?

When people start playing Russian Roulette with semi-automatics.

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2000-04.html Here ya go!

Ot: It's been said but we've already played as more controversial factions in other games.

 

[thedeathscythe]

Hmmm, I'd love to see the complete noncompliance people give him in his crusade to ban it. It's a game. Yes, you play as the taliban in online, we've played as terrorists before thousands of times for years, no one cares..

 

[Treblaine]

As I understand it, it would be illegal for the UK government to try to ban Medal of Honor itself...

You imply in the UK we actually have the right to Freedom of Speech in any way protected under law.

LOL!

The English Parliament has ABSOLUTE POWER! We have no written constitution, they can enact ANY law that gets enough votes, also repeal any law.

Certainly they can ban any entertainment product they like.

More simply the BBFC merely has to REFUSE TO GIVE IT A RATING and it becomes illegal to sell the game in the UK. Yes, it's illegal to sell any game, video or show any film reel that has not been approved and rated by government censorship board. And they only approve THEIR censored cut.

This happened with Austin Powers, all reference to the comical Irish terrorist were removed to get any rating at all.

 

[Doug]

An 'un-British game'? What is with this country and all the stupid, washed up patriotism? What exactly makes it so 'un-British'? What are these mystical values Dice and EA don't hold that the UK clearly does?

A love of salt and vinegar crisps?

Ill tell you what. They are proper fucking lush.

Its like a bag of chips but without the worry of it getting cold before you get home.

Salt and Vinegar are the devil's crisps! Cheese and Onion are where its at, and where Mr Lineker should be munching from.

 

[ForverRiot]

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

Whereas, our troops only kill orphaned asexual eunuchs, who everyone hate.

 

[angry_flashlight]

"Un-British"

Maybe someone should introduce Fox to the 21st century. He's only been in it for 10 years.

 

[Ralphfromdk]

i've got a counter point

it must be über-british to kill taliban dudes, right..?

that should cancel out them un-british part, and just make it british... also american, since we are going to play as americans...
wait... so no british people are going to get "hurt" in this game...? huh....

that's not fair to the americans D:

/sarcasm end

 

[Darius Brogan]

Considering the fact the every soldier in the history of the earth that has EVER killed someone has most likely killed a father or brother or son or husband or some other kind of kin, his argument has less than zero grounding.

 

[Jumplion]

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.

Eh, I really don't want to get into the discussion of the whole war. Hell, I don't even know whether to call it the "War in Iraq" the "War in Iran" the "War in Afghanistan" or some other stuff since I really have no idea what the hell we're doing there or why we went there beside the "War on Terror" because it's all a big fucking mess.

But I meant that we've also caused casualties on whereverthehell we are at this present moment, innocents being caught in the crossfire and whatnot. I don't know, fuck if I know about wars and history.

 

[MarsProbe]

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.

Sorry, I would normally not bother myself with this, but I gotta call you out on this. His men? You are surely making some kind of joke or perhaps just being extraordinarily naive. I can't think of any real citizen of the UK who would say they are governments men (or women). I certainly don't consider myself in any way the governments...well, actually it's just such a unimaginable concept I can't even put into words properly. The people that are out there dying are OUR people - certainly not "his" - and their doing this, as we all know, for very dubious reasons.

Also, you say you wouldn't stock this game if you were a videogame retailer? Really? You would really sacrifice any potential profit for little moralistic crusade? Seeing that we live in a world where businesses actually exist to make a profit, you would probably be the only one. This already happened with the game Six (?) Days in Fallujah, it would certainly not be a good thing to see that happen again. Gaming will really never get anywhere as a medium if it is consistently shot down by ignorant politicians trying to curry favour. As well as people who are just plain ignorant.

 

[Red Right Hand]

Don't you play as the Taliban, or something similar in multiplayer matches in COD4 and MW2?

Why weren't those games called to be banned? Well 2 was, but that was because of the airport thing.

Because they used fictional terrorist groups, and there not the only ones pretty much every game set in modern times and dealing with terrorists has to make up a fictional group thats exactly like the Taliban. Apparently as long as you play as fictional terrorist groups its fine but as soon as there's a real one everyone gets upset.

The Russians? The Spetsnaz? That sounds pretty real to me.

 

[Ih8pkmn]

Incoming rant...

FOR. FUCKS. SAKE.

Being able to play as the "bad guy" isn't too far out of the question nowadays in video games(see Left4Dead, Fallout3, and any game with a karma meter). So a game allows you to play as the Taliban. Big deal. IT'S A FUCKING SIMULATION. It's not like little Timmy's going to grab his dad's shotgun and run into the street blowing the heads off passersby while screaming Islamic prayers!

At least the spokesperson for EA stood up to those tea-drinking ponces(no offense to Yahtzee), instead of breaking down under pressure.

Besides, it's not like you'll kill women in children in this game! If anything, you'll kill soldiers that eat steroids for breakfast and worship the American flag, For the love of Crumpets!

If anything, banning this game period will just make people pay higher prices for a pirated copy of the game, so either way, YOU LOSE ENGLAND! No wonder you lost the revolution with that kind of intelligence!

/rant.

wow. I had to get that out of my system. If I see a single news outlet report on this bullshit in this country, I'm calling them up and telling them to play the bloody game before saying it makes taliban sympathizers out of young adults.

 

[ThePantomimeThief]

Tories in being absolute wankers shocker!

Seriously, I can understand the complaint a little (if it were entirely true), but Liam Fox knows fuck all about videogames and less so about Britishness.

This is the guy we're talking about here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23815555-final-mps-to-learn-fate-over-expenses-scandal.do

Generally the Conservative party will wheel out this whole 'Britishness' and 'proper values' thing whenever they can. See Margaret Thatcher riling up race hate in the 80s, John Major's 'family values' crusade in the 90s (ironically he was cheating on his wife and one of his MPs got found dead whilst wearing women's clothing in an asphyxi-wank scandal). I'm sure this lot will do exactly the same.