We've already seen some homegrown controversy over the use of playable terrorist groups in the upcoming Medal of Honor, but now developer DICE has tackled the potential powder keg itself, discussing the appearance of the Taliban in its game.
According to DICE, the appearance of the Taliban isn't as sensational or provocative as some people may think.
"We do stir up some feelings, although it's not about the war, it's about the soldiers," states producer Patrick Liu. "We can't get away from what the setting is and who the factions are but, in the end, it's a game, so we're not pushing or provoking too hard."
Fair enough, but I doubt the Daily Fail or any other great British tabloid will see things in quite the same light. Most "journalists" will get as far as hearing the words "Taliban" and "videogame" in the same sentence before getting "experts" to attack DICE for creating a terrorist simulator where you score points for bombing American buildings.
No matter DICE's intent, an absolute shitstorm is coming this game's way and they'd best prepare the defenses.
DICE Comments On Medal of Honor's Taliban Controversy [Connected Consoles]
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Contest:
12:20 PM on 08.09.2010 | 
"You know Jim your picking on British tabloids while living in the country that gave birth to the retarded ass-face that is Fox News."
Except Rupert Murdoch was Australian.
yes you were sir! : D
lol Faux News gonna be all over this shit!
Really, insensitive ass holes? You are aware it's a game, and the faction just a playable skin.
That’s a bit of a cop out. I always lose a bit of fate in people who use the “it’s just a game” defence.
I thought the same thing when I read that comment, but the point he made is that Fox News is an American network. A bad network, but American nonetheless.
And ffs, it's just a skin in the multiplayer portion. People are acting like the game has story missions placing you as a Taliban soldier sent to kill Americans. Is it really less offensive if they change the name to '_______' but keep the Taliban look? You know the generic Middle eastern terrorist design revolves around Taliban, so at this point you're just getting offended over a name.
It's history, and believe it or not, sometimes stories like to have a historical background. Movies do this all the time, we've had countless oil/greed/war/bushsux movies that show Taliban and Middle Eastern people in a fictional way, why can't games do the same?
"People are acting like the game has story missions placing you as a Taliban soldier sent to kill Americans"
And yet hilariously no one raged about the fact that American soldiers are killing Taliban soldiers.......in real life!
The thing I find most offensive about this "war on terrorism" is the big diesel trucks/gas guzzling SUVs with the "support our troops" stickers. If you gave a fuck about the troops you'd ditch the land yacht and get a hybrid.
End rant. Thanks
I couldn't agree with you more. Sadly the only variety the gaming world has is a bunch of spin off sequels and same bullshit "run-n-gun" games but with different names and controls.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Also, less than 30% of US oil comes from the Middle East. Just saying.
Wow. It's been a least a week since I've seen a post so filled with naiveté, ignorance, and generally lack of understanding of international politics. Thank you for that.
We're over there to protect people. This is exactly why we got involved in the Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 were killed and basically all the females of minority ethnic groups were gang raped. Oh wait.. no.. no we didn't do shit there. Then this must be why we got involved in Darfur in Sudan, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced. Oh wait.. no we didn't do shit there either. Then maybe this is why we sent troops to Somalia, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and countless other harsh dictatorships and chaotic anarchies throughout the world... oh wait.. no we didn't do shit there either.
You're right though. We've been invested in Iraq for a long time. Maybe that's why we did our best to stop the Iran-Iraq war, which killed far over a million people... Oh wait, nevermind, we directly supported Saddam Hussein in said conflict (which he began) and did our best to continue the conflict as long as possible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war)
Okay, well maybe we invaded to stop the deaths of Kurds and Shi'a. Yeah, that must've been it! Oh wait, for the most part, this ended after the imposition of the no fly zones after the Gulf War. Well, he was still a terrible dictator.. yeah.. like about 30 other dictators in the world (and better than about 20 others).
The invasion of Iraq was about several things. First, it was about stabilizing oil in the Middle East. Second, it involved an overly idealistic goal of proving how democracy could work in the Middle East (which, btw, was only important because of said reliance on Middle Eastern oil to begin with). BTW, how's that going? That last election went pretty well back in early March. Oh what's that? There still hasn't been a governing coalition formed 5 months later (!!) despite relative calm and the continued presence of hundreds of thousands of US and allied troops? Sounds to me like democracy is flourishing... Third, it was about proving US military competence to any would-be threats throughout the world, such as Iran, N. Korea and potential left-wing threats in Latin America. However, as it opened Iraq up to Iranian influence (opened up perhaps being an understatement...) and as it tied down hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops which would've been better utilized in Afghanistan, and as it has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars (roughly 100 billion a year), it certainly hasn't had the hoped for effect. Fourth, there may have been some view that Iraq was harboring WMDs, although this was entirely due to faulty evidence, most of which was known to be suspect even before the invasion.
Yep. Operation Iraqi Freedom. There to protect people....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties - Oh wait.... that's way more than died domestically under Saddam....
I respect your opinion but when staking a claim
In the realm of higher ground its probably best not to mention/kill and civilians.
Not everyone is offended by the Taliban being in this game. Not everyone supports any effort in Afghanistan to sort out their problems.
Perhaps America would do well to fix the shot happening in their shores before they go around trying to solve the worlds problems with mortars aimed accidentally at schools, hospitals and wedding parties.
Just saying bro.
As for this game, I'll be buying it. I commend EA and DICE for having the balls to do this, when Atomic Games tried to do some thing similar, and was beaten to the dearth, with protest for it, yet movies and tv shows get little to no similar criticism.
Come on, do you really think gamers, are going to boycott this game on poor taste principles? Anyway, after BC2 doing well, and the fact MoH hits stores before CoD7 (while being similar), its going to sell like cake at Mary Antoinette's beheading, ie shitloads. Even if the reactionary conservatives try to shout it down, its still just a game, and many of us gamers know this well, and will treat it as such.
i have a friend that moved over from iraq, and he told me that people killed each other for the way that they prayed, said it was "fucking stupid". i think he said that some ppl prayed with their arms like on their lap, and others on the ground or something, i cant remember, but the fact of the matter is, we don't need a game to stir up controversy, because nowadays, controversy can easily be stirred up
the Internet has +2 cents
t happened.
Anybody remember a man named osama bin laden by chance? or 9/11
oh thats right, didn't happen to you i guess.
We're not leaving till they're all eating mcdonalds drinking coke while wearing nikes and shopping at walmart... Oh yea and praying to Christ. Cuz that's the American way.
And in the words of Flava Flav "911 is a joke!"
I demand a new Wolfenstein where the Taliban has been digging up the remains of their ancestors and try to resurrect them as swash-buckling magical warriors and turning dead American soldiers into super mutants with lightning guns. And its your job to blow the shit out of them with modern weapons and killstreaks.
That is all.
Wow, the credulity of some people. The Iraq war was about ego, not WMDs or humanitarianism. The invasion was the brain child of deluded academics and wannabe generals like Paul Wolfowitz and Don Rumsfeld who, thinking themselves to be geniuses, condescendingly believed American "power" should be used to remake the world in America's image whether the world liked it or not. Wolfowitz himself referred to this, and I paraphrase only slightly, as the formation of a benevolent hegemonic American empire.
Is that really benevolence? On some minor level I guess it is, but it's mostly just foolishness, arrogance, and rationalization of greed and vanity. Every megalomaniac in history thought they were one of the good guys after all.
OMFG YOU CAN PLAY AS TALIBAN.
to what is evil depends on perspective.
I am in no way saying that I disagree with the content of the game, merely expressing dismay that a very similar game based on a real battle and depicting real events was cancelled while this heavily fictionalized version of reality goes on untouched
But in all seriousness, I can't wait to see how the media will react to this. Better yet, I can't wait to see what they make up about the game.
P.S. All news network are sensational hype mongers. You look stupid for singling out just one.
No-one voted America in as the World police. They are a dictator of a Nation, a bloody, ruthless, power and resopurce hungry, religion and political system imposing TERRORIST NATION.
I'll pick Taliban every single time and i'll enjoy blasting gullible US jarheads.
i really don't know why ANYONE would sign up to the American army. It's like asking someone to sign up to the Nazi party.
US Military Machine = New Age Nazis.
Awesome. I'm so glad somebody said something (especially someone intelligent saying something intelligent).
As for Taliban, let's ask the Jews how they feel about Nazis in WWII games. Or better yet, let's allow maximum creative freedom for design and expression and let our wallets speak for us when we see the final product.
That said, this is a non-issue, except bleeding heart candy asses (sorry, Hamza) will attempt to make it an issue because their little feelings are hurt by any realistic depiction of violence in something as pure and good-hearted as video games. As somebody already pointed out, these same people can shrug off way worse shit in _every other medium_, including the daily spoonfeeding of lies and propganda by organizations like Faux News, whom I have no doubt will lead the charge when it comes to bullshit spouted about the game.
"herp durp if you ain't standin' up for der Amurkins and dems holy war, you must be teh terrorists!! Wrap a towel round your head and blow yourself up for Amurka! derp"
But...
Killing for religion = Stupid
Killing for Money /Oil / Power = Worse
Both sides are in the wrong, just a shame the Yanks are having so much trouble telling the civilians from the Taliban.