14 DAY TRIAL // Another politician has chosen to show his thorough misunderstanding of the gaming medium and the current times we live in. He is Liam Fox, United Kingdom's Defense Secretary, who is revolted at Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode where some of the players have to play as the Taliban.
Fox urged UK retailers to ban Medal of Honor from sale because, he maintained, it allowed players to act as Taliban killing British troops.
It seems his angry reaction was prompted by a level set in southern Helmand province, where British troops are currently stationed. He, of course, did not know that the game clearly states U.S. Army as one of the sides when the match begins.
The politician is quoted by Yahoo News saying that, “It's shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban. At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands.
“I am disgusted and angry. It's hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product,” he ended, bringing Medal of Honor tons of free publicity that otherwise would have cost Electronic Arts quite a lot of money.
He also insulted all the people, like me, who have enjoyed the beta of Medal of Honor and did not feel like human rights breaching terrorists, but rather like playing a grown-up version of cops and robbers.
The Taliban and U.S. Army sides are nothing but make-up disguising the RED and BLUE teams from other multiplayer shooters. Also the teams are randomly assigned, with no one choosing to become the evil Taliban.
Its seems that EA feels the same, as a Public Relations representative insisted responding to the misguided politician. “The format of the new Medal of Honor game merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides,” a spokeswoman of the company stated.
“We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays the cop, someone must be robber. In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone's got to be the Taliban.”
It might have also helped EA's cause if Mr. Fox had considered that none of what happened on the computer and TV screens was real and, thus, of no consequence in the actual world.