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EA: No more Killing brown people for cash in Army of Two photo

When Army of Two was released in 2008, it upset a number of people because it starred two fist-bumping mercenaries who shot terrorists in Afghanistan so that they could gold-plate their guns. Apparently, this was wrong, and Electronic Arts admits it. 

"The mistake we made was we thought that what is going to make a certain type of person laugh, is going to make everybody laugh," explains EA Montreal boss Alain Tascan. "The reality is, you can laugh off everything but not with everybody.

"When we mixed killing in North Africa, killing terrorists for money and then fist pumping and saying something funny afterwards, in a place where real life troops are dying, people just felt [that] whatever the game is, this is wrong. You can't do that. People from the left thought we were on the right; people from the right thought we were on the left. We were able to piss off a lot of people."

In response to the first game's reaction, EA decided to tone down the humor for Army of Two: 40th Day. Tascan says that EA Montreal got "carried away" with the first game and that it was "inappropriate." 40th Day should be a bit more tasteful, although from what I've played of it so far, it's more tasteful only by a few notches. 

Which, in my opinion, isn't a bad thing. If EA wanted to make a game with risky, borderline-offensive humor, it should have the balls to stand by it when people get upset. I'm actually a bit disappointed to see EA Montreal groveling and denouncing what was some hilariously tasteless stuff. Trying to make everybody laugh is impossible, and you're pretty spineless if you're going to be afraid of making jokes because some individuals may not get it.

EA: We p***ed off a lot of people with Army of Two [Videogamer]








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21 comments | showing # 1 to 21
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Xzyliac's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:29
Xzyliac
The reality is, you can laugh off everything but not with everybody.

Exactly. The golden rule of comedy. Yes everything can be a joke but not everybody should find it funny. There are these pussy things called "feelings."

I do agree they should be able to joke about it with people who get it though. But at very least they acknowledge it and aren't "It's just joke guys! Har har har."

I wonder how toned down the game will be. Hopefully it won't be elementary.

Also, what was Army of Two rated?
WhiteZombie's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:42
WhiteZombie
@ Xzyliac - "four stars! two enthusiastic thumbs up!"
Lockgar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:44
Lockgar
@Xzliac

If it wasn't for feelings, jokes won't be funny in the first place, and everyone would be hardasses, in other words, awesome.

Army of Two was rated M.
theswitcher's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:54
theswitcher
This game would be better if it was turned into a movie by James Cameron.
grasslunatic's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:54
grasslunatic
But that was the first game's only redeeming feature.
lastdual's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:56
lastdual
Army of Two's "inappropriate" humor gave it character. That EA is caving in to the pressure of the PC crowd that wouldn't touch their game anyway is just pathetic.

Not to mention, they're drawing absurd business conclusions. Nothing in Ao2 was nearly as controversial as say, MW2, and people bought plenty of copies of that. If you've got a good game, controversy only helps you sell more. It's free marketing. Ao2's problem was that the gameplay itself wasn't hard-hitting enough to carry the game.

Bleh, whatever. Just more politically correct BS telling us that all entertainment should be made for squeamish idiots who cry in the corner when something offends them, and it's only alright to kill white people for money.
SASUGA RIVAL's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 09:58
SASUGA RIVAL
At least they were trying to be over-the-top. I prefer tongue-in-cheek racism than totally oblivious racism in something like Crysis, which is supposed to be "serious" but all the enemies scream at you in Engrish.
Usedtabe's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:00
Usedtabe
People who take a campy action game seriously need to become AN HERO. Part of the charm of this game was the inappropriate humor considering the actions taking place. Also, hardcore agree with Lastdual's paragraph.
Chronic Logic's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:01
Chronic Logic
That's a fucking terrible analogy.

Are they saying that because a video game has a setting or is similar to real life event, it's immoral and should not be funny?

That's like saying people shouldn't find GTA funny because real life carjacking happens.

Some people can't separate reality from fantasy.

Shooting a man to death? Not funny.
Shooting a man with a mini-gun until he turns into a blood and flesh porridge? Hilarious.
Pudge Controls the Weather's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:09
Pudge Controls the Weather
Offensive humour for no reason is funny. Offensive humour that actually means to be offensive isn't funny.

This game seems more like the former :)
Zeal404's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:12
Zeal404
Fuck that dumbshit. There were two creative teams (IMO) that worked on Army of Two. There were the this is going to be a two Frat-boys versus the world scenario team. Then there was the "OH SHIT....WE NEED A STORYLINE" fuckers that had rios spouting left wing bullshit every beginning of a level. Insertion into Saudi Arabia had a cinematic where RIOS AND SALEM have a conversation of:
Man...going back to Afghanistan
Dont give a fuck...long as i get my money
HELL YEAH KILLING AND GETTING PAID! GETTING PAID!

Then In game Rios goes "i dont like this shit....this is a conspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracyconspiracy"

Inconsistent and stupid.
DaedHead8's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:36
DaedHead8
I didn't think the humor in the first game was that offensive. I don't even remember reading about anyone getting offended until right now. Toning it down is a bad idea.
Piellar's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 10:47
Piellar
Political correctness and games. Here in Quebec media you can make the catholic church or the jewish community appear bad with little consequence, but god save you if you dare do a bit of humour about muslims (except if you're one yourself, of course!). Why? Huh, I don't know, probably because they're the latest trend in persecution, so there's a rise of shields, racism calls and sue threats if you break the political correctness.
Los255's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 11:27
Los255
I didn't think the humor in the first game was that offensive. I don't even remember reading about anyone getting offended until right now. Toning it down is a bad idea.

THIS
Mr Wrighty 987's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 12:07
Mr Wrighty 987
Not only did they take out the offensive humor but they also took out the gameplay.
Matthew Blake's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 12:23
Matthew Blake
In all honesty, I was hoping they'd take the humor even further. I loved the idea of making the game a completely insane military bromance. Sigh... So much for that.
TheTruth's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 13:16
TheTruth
There was comedy and humor in Army Of Two?
KingSigy's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 13:50
KingSigy
Comedy is funny when it offends in a way that you know is offensive, that way you can shrug it off as some dark comedy. Army of Two literally felt like EA meant what they were doing. There was not one moment in the game where I laughed because I honestly figured EA wanted me to kill these people.
Syn's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 16:04
Syn
They should just keep everything brutal like it should be, and if people keep crying, change all the names. Leave the world map the same and just change the name, that way no one can complain that you're treating them unfairly.

Just like the drugs in Fallout. You could still figure out what they were, easy, just by considering the effects and looking at the object itself. But the slobbering vaginas will be sated with the lip-service and go away.
Zeal404's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 17:36
Zeal404
Anyone remember those early Army of Two vids? Where it consisted of a blowhard Drill Sergeant calling you dick cheese and the big guy lifted the little guy wrong so he could get shot by people instead of being stealthy?

Those were some promising vids
Mecha Six VII's Avatar - Comment posted on 01/13/2010 22:13
Mecha Six VII
NO!!! I was hoping they'd raise the stakes! I can remember in the first one that immediately after killing some folks, Rios started talking about Wu-Tang Clan! that was excellent, it was just so disgusting it was hilarious!
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