14 DAY TRIAL // The recent controversy over first person shooter Medal of Honor featuring the Taliban in its multiplayer mode affected the morale of its development studio Danger Close, according to executive producer Greg Goodrich.
The developer was a bit intrigued by the whole timing of the controversy, as details about being able to play as a Taliban in the multiplayer mode were already revealed, and players already experienced it in the multiplayer beta stage.
"We knew it had the potential for people to raise an eyebrow," he said. "But the timing was really odd because we had the beta out, the game was out. I mean we talked about the story, the modes and we talked about who the enemy was and this and that. And then the beta came out and people played it and then the beta ended and it just erupted. It was odd."
The executive revealed that the media uproar surprised a lot of his colleagues and affected the morale of nearly everyone involved in the development of the new Medal of Honor game.
"I don't understand why it came when it did but it came and it hurt. It was a morale hit and everything," he said. "Our intentions have never been anything but honorable and this Medal of Honor game is no different than any Medal of Honor game that has come before it, in that regard, in our intent and our tone."
"But because, on a character selection screen, three of those characters were called Taliban, that caused a problem and that's what everyone focus on," he continued. "Everything else that we'd done kind of went away and everything else that we'd talked about and they weren't looking at the entire piece and the entire message."
In the end though, Goodrich is confident that the gamers, after going through the single-player portion and the multiplayer one, will understand what Medal of Honor is all about and why it featured the Taliban.
"But I'm confident, I'm really confident that when it does come out and if they are paying attention and if they care to understand truly what our game is about they'll realize what we've done is the same thing we've always done and that's pay tribute to the soldier."
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