Play for the Taliban with Medal of honor.....

[grimfixer]

Not sure why this should surprise me....but it does. Well done to the good Dr for at least taking a stand.
Hopefully sales of the game will be hit by a wave of revulsion at such an insensitive move on the part of the manufacturer but somehow I doubt it.

BBC News - Liam Fox defends call for ban of Medal of Honor game (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11056581)

[melmothtw]

Sometimes at school I would pretend to fight on the German side while playing war with my friends. Can't quite see what the difference is here...

[Sook]

There was a lot of publicity around the last Call Of Duty game as there is one level where you play a undercover operative who takes part in a terrorist attack on a airport. It didn't affect the game's sales; it sold 4.7 million coppies in 24 hours in the US and UK. Can't say it added to the plot of the game though and I won't be buying Medal of Honour.

[Dan Gerous]

When I was a lad, and we played japs and commandos, somebody had to be the japs.

[Jabba_TG12]

Distasteful, but not illegal. Far worse going on and TBH, Foxy has got much much bigger fish to fry than Electronic Arts, although he's as entitled to speak up about it as any one of us.

The gaming public will make up their own minds about it.

Which in this day and age, probably means its going to be a success.... :hmm:

[minigundiplomat]

Electronic Arts are Canadian I believe. therefore Dr Fox's thoughts are, in large part, irrelevant.

[grimfixer]

Sometimes at school I would pretend to fight on the German side while playing war with my friends. Can't quite see what the difference is here...
A 70 year old conflict which we were all weaned on as youngsters against the raw grief of service families coming to terms with the unthinkable might be the difference.

[kharmael]

Has nobody noticed that in both Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare games you can play as OpFor (nameless arabian paramilitary/ terrorist group) and kill USMC, SAS and numerous other western forces?

It's only now that they are removing that last shade of doubt and calling them Taliban that fuses start blowing.

It's a video game, people who can't separate that from reality probably shouldn't be playing Grand Theft Auto, Or Batman Arkham Asylum in case they get silly ideas! :p

[davejb]

When I was a lad, and we played japs and commandos, somebody had to be the japs.


Yes indeed, in my gang there was Dick Black, Pete Sellers, myself, my kid brother, and a little kid from the next street called Hyakutake Inoue - how Pete used to bitch about having to be the Jap every time...

[Trim Stab]

I think the political difficulty here is that there is a perception that some players are taking the side of the Taliban etc because they genuinely sympathise with them.

When kids of yesteryear used to play "Messerchmidts", or "Japs", or even "Indians" (as in Cowboys v Indians) they were expected to protest and then die a ghastly death. Nowadays, it is not so easy to manage or control public perception of "right" and "wrong".

[TheWizard]

Would it surprise people to know that one of the most widely played games on det is COD2: Modern Warfare?
As someone stated, if you can't sperate reality from the TV/PC screen then you probably shouldn't switch it on in the first place.
This may be a 'generation thing', but then why do people dress up in German/Japanese/Italian etc etc costumes and re-enact battles where hundreds if not thousands were killed?

[Load Toad]

When we were kids if you were chosen to be the Germans or the Japanese for that days war then you also got the worst of the toy guns available. And you lost no matter what you did.

[Torque Tonight]

Must confess that as a geeky schoolboy playing flight sims on my Amiga computer occassionally I would fly for the Luftwaffe rather than the RAF. They had some good aircraft after all.

Surely governments must have learnt by now that the single most effective way to popularize something is to ban it. The thought of the Finsbury Park Taleban getting their kicks from this game remains distasteful but in the big scheme of things legal and fairly harmless.

[barnstormer1968]

This is an odd thread in a way.

Lots of folks are getting a bit upset at the thought of British kids/adults playing a game on the taliban side, but no matter which side you play on, you are still killing people!

So, are the government happy for the population to be murderers as long as they don't approve of the enemy?

Oddly, I thought it was a game, and not reality, and that you can fight for a multitude of sides/countries on these games.

I am actually a bit more concerned about British nationals who actually go to Afghanistan and fight for the enemy in real life. being shot by these folks is a bit more permanent that being shot on a console game!

[Wander00]

Thought - if UK national goes to Pakistan/Afghanistan and joins the Taliban, is that an act of High Treason? Does HT still carry the death penalty?

[Load Toad]

Best ask the blokes who shagged Princess Clothes Horse before she snuffed it mate.

[Thelma Viaduct]

How do these people make it to the top of government???

So a computer game is not ok, but sending soldiers out to fight wars based on lies and for matters that don't concern us, and then be supplied with shoddy equipment is perfectly fine........

The GP is a w@nker.

[sitigeltfel]

Thought - if UK national goes to Pakistan/Afghanistan and joins the Taliban, is that an act of High Treason? Does HT still carry the death penalty?
....or supports the Pakistan cricket team when they play England....

Cricket test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_test)

[Guangzhoutom]

What I actually find a little iffy about the new MOH game isn't that you can play as the Taliban (in multiplayer only, I feel it should be noted). Rather, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that you are enjoying yourself by pretending to do the very difficult and dangerous job that young men and women are doing every day, playing at being a US ranger.

Unlike the WW2 type games, where I suppose there is at least an element of history (or at least inspiration) that younger people can get, I think this current conflict is still a little too close for comfort.

Interesting debate here, considering there are so many serving personnel/ ex-service members.

You can read what US soldiers think of the game here (http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/81560/exclusive-military-personnel-comment-on-being-the-taliban-in-moh/). Surprisingly positive, perhaps it is a generational thing?