After months of criticism from politicians, media outlets, and most recently, a Tier One operative itself, executive producer Greg Goodrich has announced that the Taliban will be removed from the multiplayer component of Medal of Honor.
Goodrich states that it was feedback from friends and family of fallen Allied soldiers that caused EA to rename the Taliban to “Opposing Forces.” He added that this decision should not fundamentally affect the gameplay experience of users.
It is currently unclear whether this change will already be implemented in the version that will be made available at retailers on October 12th, or if this will be implemented with a launch-day patch.
Either they shouldn’t have put it in the first place, or they should have made a statement and kept it in the final product.
EA you should have just kept the name the way it is. By you giving into public pressure, you are allowing them to censor your work. By doing this you give people the idea that it is ok to violate Game Publishers 1st Amendment rights just by public criticism. Don’t let some over sensitive people dictate what you can and cannot make.
Amen, Keck.
This issue is pretty simple, especially if you know history. There is a Supreme Court Case coming up about the limits of free speech that goes far beyond this trifling matter.
It is whether or not the Westboro Baptist Church (God Hates Fags) has a right to picket soldiers’ funerals as a means of freedom of speech. They were sued by an upset father of one of the victims.
I know how the case should go, as much as I dislike the people involved. It’s no different with the Taliban.
Well now that they changed the name of the Taliban, they should have less turmoil in sales. See CoD has allowed you to play as terrorists for years (CoD 4 and 6); and you can’t forget Counter Strike. So by naming the enemy Who they actually are shouldn’t be a problem. But people have a stick driven so far up their @$$ that they have nothing better to tell other people what to think.
Though this issue originally started out as a question of whether you should be able to play a terrorist fighting against ISAF forces in a current war, the issue that EA addresses with this change is another point altogether.
This isn’t a question of whether you should be able to play as a terrorist, it is a question of whether you should be able to play as a recognized member of a terrorist organization that is responsible for thousands of Americans and British civilians and soldiers, countless other ISAF soldiers from other nations and many more Afghan civilians, and continues to murder and oppress to this very day (though somebody might ask whether I’m talking about the Taliban or the US Army in this case… I think it’s pretty clear on which side of THAT discussion EA is on). Though I fully support EA for allowing players to act as terrorists, I also back the Tier One operator who stated last week that he believes that recognizing players as Taliban would just give more attention to them, which is something we generally don’t want.
I think it’s a smart move by EA, as it shuts everybody up, and gamers themselves probably won’t care… at least, I can’t believe that a gamer would honestly care about the fact that they changed the name of a multiplayer faction…
I understand what they are trying to do, but ultimately it is just to save face with the non gaming community. I am pretty sure most people who pick up the game will not even notice the change and this is not a pressing issue.
The thing that gets me is that Movies and TV get to use the Taliban, but not games. See people have to play the Taliban for those shows, so why not in games. Really I don’t care, but it just goes to show you that EA is just trying not to cause a huge fuss over the thing.
I just wish that people could be more rational about making statements about a game making a person turn into a terrorist. A name is a name, but action is another thing entirely.
Whatever, the argument it done now and there are better things to talk about; like how Sony will act to compete against the 3DS.
Lulz americans.