14 DAY TRIAL // Greg Goodrich, the executive producer working on the new Medal of Honor first person shooter, has announced that the multiplayer section of the game will no longer use the Taliban name for the side which confronts United States soldiers, with the “Opposing Force” nation used instead throughout the game.
The change will not affect the way the enemies look and how the fight and the decision to make the change was made out of respect for those soldiers who have died in Afghanistan and those who still fight there.
Greg Goodrich also made it clear to Gamasutra as part of an interview that the respect is also visible in the single player component of the game, saying “Truly, I think if people play our game, if they play it from beginning to end and they see what we've done, the character arc and what goes on and how they're dealing with it to the very end, I think people will get it and understand and say, 'Oh, yeah. Okay. I see now.”
He added, “We've spent a heck of a lot of time making sure we don't do anything stupid, and that we do it with the right tone,” and “Medal of Honor has always been rooted in authenticity and respect for the soldier, but it's also always been devoid of politics or political discussion or debate.”
Medal of Honor is trying to take a page out of the successful Call of Duty playbook and move the franchise to the modern world to make it more attractive to gamers.
The developers chose to have the player experience the still on going Afghanistan conflict as seen from a series of points of view, involving the Tier 1 Operators, the soldiers that take on the toughest and most secret missions.
The new Medal of Honor arrives on October 12 and launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.