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I am a first-person shooter nut. I’ve played them all -- from GoldenEye 007 to whatever the latest and greatest is. There’s just something really pleasing about hearing my weapon make the pops and pews as I take my enemies out.
Needless to say, I got pretty excited when I heard a new Medal of Honor was in the works. The fact that the game takes place in my home country of Afghanistan got me even more hyped. Blow terrorists up? Awesome! America! Football! Hamburgers! Dancing with the Stars!
Then I got my hands on it, and it became a different story. I soon realized that this iteration of the franchise allows you to control and role-play as the people responsible for terrorizing my friends’ and family’s homeland, both here and overseas. In the shuffle of an EA press event, a shoulder’s length away from my peers, I just froze looking at the different playable Al-Qaeda characters. It’s funny how we keep feelings in the backs of our minds, and how they can just suddenly appear when the situation arises.
In less than a minute of bristling, my mind was made up. I put the controller down, got up and walked away.
Yeah, it’s just a videogame -- but for me, it’s more than that. It just hits too close to home. This is an organization that’s terrorized Afghanistan, America and numerous other parts of the world for decades now. To me, playing as Al-Qaeda means I’m helping the bad guys win.
I’ve never been to Afghanistan, but I have family living there. I know how they’ve been affected during the Taliban’s rule. Anyone who’s read a newspaper in the last ten years knows of their injustices and crimes against humanity -- crimes committed under the guise of a view of Islam warped to fit their own twisted needs. It wasn’t until the US invasion in 2001 that things seemed to get better. It’s not puppies and rainbows for the country -- far from it -- but it’s better than it was under the extremist rule, at least.
Beyond my Afghan heritage, I cannot bring myself to play a representation of a group of people responsible for the events of September 11. I still remember, clear as day, seeing the second plane crash into the tower live on the news. The footage was so shocking that what I had actually witnessed didn’t even register to me until the following day.
I will defend Electronic Arts’ right to make this game, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The one saving grace is perhaps the single-player mode, where you play as American forces. Like I said in my preview, playing Medal of Honor will let me get a nerd’s revenge against their bullshit organization. Game aside, these people are very real, and the fact that they are explicitly named is the key distinction as to why I’m so upset by this game. Other terrorist-driven war games, like Modern Warfare 2, don’t cross that line -- they dance around as fantasy extremist groups at best.
I’m sure many of my friends will support this game, and I won’t preach against it. I’m just expressing my personal feelings for the game and what it may mean to someone of my similar heritage. Though I’m technically Asian, I won’t be giving the Vietnamese or American soldiers a second thought in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but I’m sure there will be some Vietnamese and American people who will have issues with it, as it will be more than just a game to them. Does that make me a bad guy? Insensitive? I don’t think it does. People of all nationalities have their chords, and this game happens to hit mine. At the end of the day, this is a personal issue that most won’t consider because the average consumer won’t be in my shoes. I hope you can respect where I’m coming from.
Still, the question begs: Is this fun? Is it art? Better question -- Is this necessary?
I don’t think it is. For example, the America’s Army games chose to take a different approach. The US Army developed the PC shooter to help train their soldiers. Seeing as this was a training simulator, they didn’t want fellow soldiers to shoot other soldiers. Nor did they want them to play as the enemy. So the solution was that everyone played as the US military but they would see enemies with a made-up foreign military skin. It’s one good solution, one that I wouldn’t mind see put into Medal of Honor. It may not be right for the brand, but it’s an example of one creative idea.
The worst part about all this is that I'm in the middle of an FPS drought until Halo: Reach now. I’ve been off the Modern Warfare 2 horse too long to get back into that and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 just wasn’t able to hold my attention for very long. Perhaps I could still play Medal of Honor, but I’ll just end up griefing the Al-Qaeda team when I’m forced to play as them...
Well at the very least, it’s good to know that I haven’t been completely desensitized by violent videogames. With all the time I spend shooting at your moms in Teh Halos, I was starting to get a bit worried I’d lost a little humanity.
Contest:
4:00 PM on 07.23.2010
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I'll be honest. I'm so jaded that I don't really care what happens to anyone anymore. My gut feeling tells me that things are going to get worse and we're not going to have the privilege of picking and choosing which bad guys to shoot and/or control.
But I'm just rambling. This article just shows how we can all be considered the bad guy. Apparently it's one thing to shoot the motherfuckers, but a completely different ballgame to be able to control them, eh?
THEY HAVE FEELINGS TOO
If I'm playing a medieval game I'll never play as the English, cause when I think of medieval England I think of them invading Scotland and that makes me uncomfortable. Even though that was hundreds of years ago and my ancestors weren't even IN Scotland. So I can understand where you're coming from.
Good show for sticking with your morals. Bravo.
I stopped playing bioshock because I didn't want to be there.
I don't think it's ay all unreasonable for Hamaza to not want to play MoH because of what it makes him feel.
Don't be dicks. Appreciate the man's experience, different from yours or not.
Seems kind of insane.
I'm just a white guy who has literally no connection to terrorism and the war, but I understand what you mean when it's too close to home. And it's a shame that they're doing that. I mean, what, are they going to force you to kill Americans or innocents?
Is it campaign or multiplayer? If it's just multiplayer, well, I don't care really, because that's just bullshit either way. But if they are for some crazy reason trying to make me empathize with their war/whatever in campaign, they can fuck off.
In a related subject, I'm just waiting for the game where one side is called the "Hatfields" and the other side is called the "McCoys." To me it stopped mattering who I was and who I was shooting at in multiplayer games a long time ago.
Replace Al-Qeada with the flying monkey's from the Wizard of OZ if it'll keep you blowhards from breaking out the tissues.
Games aren't art, they aren't a statement on the human condition... They're rarely even interesting narrative wise. They're just toys... A hobby. Have fun, and shut the hell up, please.
I think it should be allowed and hopefully EA will taken it somewhat seriously.
In my FPS history, I have killed many a skin color with many a nationality so it is only realistic that we eventually get around to these guys.
If this was set years ago and it was defunct organization we would have no problem with it. But since We since Al-Qaeda is still relevant in the news and modern world today it is a problem.
Then again, we only have ourselves to blame for the rise of these men.
you play as enemy bawww I can't play this garbage... your a two faced hypocrite
Everyone should just pretend that they are the 80's Al Qaeda who were funded by America to fight the Soviets.
It's a game.
The nazis are the nazis, thing of the past. Al-Qaeda is fucked up actual shit. I know that there are neo-nazis but they are not really much of a treat.
Plus, it's not exactly attempting to be socially sensitive. It's meant first and foremost to make millions upon millions of dollars. The whole "games as art" argument kind of goes out the door here. The whole"this is a story that needs to be told" thing is cynical window dressing.
Blah.
EA seems to try and copy everything Modern Warfare 2 did, including the controversy that surrounded the game.
That said, I'll pick up the game... when its used and cheap.
Im Chilean, yes, from that country at the end of Sud-America, spaniards killed most of my ancestors, but I still play Age of Empires as the country Spain. Plus, I think America has done a lot of good things for the world, but also a lot of bad shit to them. I really enjoy seeing the other side of the face, playing as Al-Qaeda, cause most of people think theyre bad dudes whit beards that kill people and they rape women and stuff, but they steorotipe them. On the other side, we got the Marines. We think theyre all good dudes trying to make the world better and theyre cool and this and that. But they also have bad men that kill inocent people just because theyre superior to them. I think my point of vue isnt bad cause since im from a country that doesnt take part in one side or in the other.
Look this game is no different than the other FPS you have played, just pretend you are something else when you play Al'quaeducts.
In the end its teh same 3D models just changed clothes and giving it a different name. So Hamza if we change the name of Al'qadics to something more... idk Russian enemies or German enemies, then it is ok to play?
I think it’s a bit fucked up that you can play as the real terrorists but then I always thought it was a bit fucked up that you could play as the U.S army in dozens of games set in Afghanistan or Iraq, even if they don’t explicitly state that’s what’s going on, we still always know that’s what it’s supposed to be.
You say that the single-player is American forces, so are the terrorists multiplayer characters?
But here's the thing: whatever the name of the terrorist organization is, be it fantasy or real, it's still a terrorist organization, and those are very real. MODERN WARFARE 1 and 2 let you play as a terrorist on multiplayer (and on one controversial mission in single-player, albeit as an undercover agent). It doesn't matter if the terrorists are Al-Qaeda -- they can easily be interpreted as a fictional version of them. In the end of the day, on MODERN WARFARE multiplayer, you can play as a terrorist and kill American soldiers. Not because you hate them or America (well, not in most cases, I imagine), but because it will give you experience points.
As I said, the single-player campaign might have a very good reason to have Al-Qaeda as the enemy, or it might just be an attempt at causing controversy. After all, MEDAL OF HONOR is not a series known for its deep meaningful story, or lately, for its overall quality.
Is this necessary, you ask? No idea. I haven't played the game yet. I think it's too early to declare your support or lack of. Give the single-player a try first, and if it gets too uncomfortable, stop. If in doubt, just don't play the game.
I don't care how many correlations people here want to draw to Nazis or any real war that has been depicted in a video game; this is how I feel about this game. Like Hamza, I don't think anyone who doesn't like this is asking for anyone else to boycott or feel the way we do. I don't think someone withholding a purchase of Medal of Honor for these reasons is offending anyone.
But it's just a game. A game that has content that is too soon, like Medal of Honor, is pushing the boundaries. Using the war in the Middle East as a basis for a video game (especially an FPS) is basically war propaganda, and it's giving their respective companies oodles of money, as it lets gamers who don't want to get into the service (like myself) experience war, and give them the satisfaction of putting a few bullets into the faces of the enemy. It's bad mojo, and EA should backtrack just a smidge (like, rename "Al-Qaeda" to something humorous, like "Shmal-Shaeda"; something that's not obvious).
Shame on destructoid for promoting this article. This is a bias opinion.
I really hope you're kidding, but if you're not....did you even read the article? There's a HUGE difference between something that hits as close to home as this does for him, and something you read or see in history books.
I played the BETA and it simply doesn't bother me. I take a lot of things serious. Hell, I was one of those people who wasn't going to buy inFamous 2 unless Cole was changed back. But this, well, this doesn't even seem like something that anyone should take notice of at all.
Reading your comment physically harmed me.
On the topic at hand, I'm an American and I've been killing Americans as a middle eastern terrorist in Counter Strike for 10 years, I don't think this is really all that different. I don't hate my country or any of that silliness, it's just how it is, I can understand if it offends certain people, just like Brad with MW2, but really this is nothing new.