The medal of honour fiasco

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richarddavies
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The medal of honour fiasco

Post by richarddavies »

Incase you didn't know there is more and more controversy in the news and press about this game as in the Multiplayer you can play on the terrorists side and as such shoot US soldiers. There was an MP over in in Britain calling for it to be banned as it unbritish (even thoughthere aren't any british soldiers in the game) and now the game has been banned from being sold in or near any military bases in the US. What do you think about this? Is it just a game? or is there a line that shouldn't be crossed and having a game where you shoot US soldiers in a conflict which is going on now is crossing it?
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Tru
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Post by Tru »

Seems to be a lot of anti-war game debates going off at the moment across game sites and news pages alike.

I can't remember who said it, but someone pointed out that we've been killing Germans in similar games for years, and no one raises an eyebrow about that. Germany itself doesn't seem to care.

Maybe it's too soon for America though, I mean the trouble in Iraq hasn't even finished yet.
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Post by TF73 »

I think banning it is pathetic and typical for american politicians. Whats the problem really? Look at all WWII games where you can choose side when you play online. As mentioned Germans don't care. It's only a game and are people offended then they just dont have to play or buy the game!

If we look at Iraq. US Soldiers have been fighting there. That doesnt mean that all people in Iraq are bad guys! How do they feel when games are made where they kill their own? It's not any different.

On the other hand the game is getting a lot of free PR so one can speculate if it's done with this in mind. Lots of PR can be good for sales!

In real life though, war is awful no matter what country you live in!!
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Post by Kaito-kun »

It's your standard case of politicians and media only hearing a tiny part of the issue and over-reacting based on the small piece of information they've heard. "What? People play as the Taiban? They must be glorifying terrorism and trying to convince them to become terrorists and commit horrific acts of terrorism! By letting people play this game we'll have a hundred more September 11ths! WE MUST STOP IT!!!!" As kids when people play cops or robbers someone had to be the cop and someone the robber, when you played superheroes someone had to be Doctor Octopus when someone was Spider-man and in war games someone had to be our side and someone had to be on the other: Roundheads vs Cavaliers, Union vs Confederacy, Allies vs Axis and now Coalition vs Taliban.

As has been said in the topic aready it's similar to saying that WWII games will turn players into Nazis. And for some reason they're not offensive to the people that fought in that conflict. Neither were the war films that came out soon after. Heck, we've had films set during the current conflict (Green Zone, Jarhead, etc.) what makes a game so much different in this scenario? Is it because the coalition forces aren't doing too well in the current conflict? I doubt it; we've had games and films set in Vietnam after all and that was a bit of a flop if I remember correctly.

Another thing; it's an 18-rated game (Right?) therefore the players are old enough to make their own choices in life if they'd rather shoot at character models Americans than middle eastern insurgents then let them it's their choice. Heck, most games with online play have us shooting at Americans anyway. (Oh voice chat, how I love thee /sarcasm) It's the same logic that people have towards games like GTA. "OUR CHILDREN WILL ALL BECOME CRIMINALS IF THEY PLAY THIS GAAAAME!" First of all; children aren't supposed to be playing this; it's why we have the PEGI, ESRB and CERO systems. (And whatever system Australia is unfortunate enough to have, sorry guys) Secondly; if that was the case then why isn't there anarchy all over the world will the number of copies GTA has sold by their logic there should be hundreds of rampaging, mass-murdering, car stealing manics every day in cities all over the world.

God help us when the Daily Mail gets it's claws into this.
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Post by Page »

Its odd the things that trigger people (pardon the pun) Medal of Honor Frontline had you racing up the beaches on D-Day, whilst under heavy machine gun fire from the Germans in their bunkers, it was very well portrayed for the time, the tension in the landing craft, the poor guy in front throwing up... then the mayhem as the boat gets turned over. All very exciting when you are holding a controller but absolutely terrifying if you were really there. Thousands of men were killed that day but we are happy to play and enjoy being on Sword, Gold or Juno, when all those guys wanted to do was go home.

Jump to any conflict or violent incident in world history and its the same. Awful to be there, but it makes a great game! Time dilutes things nicely there are not many vets from WW2 left and of these none are likely to pick up a controller and relive the moments on those battlefields.

Fast forward a bit and there was a game made after the 9/11 attacks on New York, called 'New York Defender' (the game is crap, made for impact rather than gameplay) but people went nuts because the wounds were still raw. The game is basically a shooter, very similar to 'Tail Gunner' but not a peep was heard from anyone when it came out...

Games are games and real life is real life, some people cannot see the line between them. Its the same with movies, think about some of the films that have been made, wonder at the taste of the Director or the punters that go and see them.

After all, we all have the power of choice, buy it or not. Play it or not.
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Post by richarddavies »

^Some Well put points there Mr Kun. I think the same thing really. I can draw a line between games and reality and can seperate the two. I actually have a friend that was in the army for 5 years. He just came out last year and he loves army games. He can't get enough of he's call of duty's and Medal of honours etc. There just games to him but his wife can't even watch em. She hates them because they remind her of when he was in Afghanistan and she was scared that she wouldn't see him again. Different strokes I suppose.
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Post by Killer French Bread »

There are still people grieving for their dead relatives from this war. It's just too early to have uneccessary provocation like this. Yeah you can moralise about how we don't care about shooting the Iraqis, but this game isn't being sold to them.

Also, I don't really play FPS games and when I had a go on Call of Duty last year I was shocked at how brutal and violent it was, so it's no surprise to me that it brings out such a strong reaction in people who don't play games at all.
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Post by INeedFruit »

Heres a Quote from the PR peeps at EA:
“Most of us have been doing this since we were seven – if someone’s the cop, someone’s gotta be the robber, someone’s gotta be the pirate and someone’s gotta be the alien. In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone’s gotta be the Taliban.”

Its a Interesting topic as War and Games seem to go hand in hand. It provides you with a reason to kill without and kind of motive, well apart from the obvious 'shot or be shot' thing. I guess my point is that without any kind of motive behind the game then they're just character models, nothing more. CS had Terrorists and Counter-Terrorist sides. Did the Team planting the bomb want anything more than to simply win that round?

I think this was a conscious move by the studio to allow this IP to move out of the shadow of COD and become a more recognised name for the numerous 14 year olds who play it.
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Post by Kaito-kun »

richarddavies wrote:^Some Well put points there Mr Kun.
Why thank you. ^__^
richarddavies wrote:I actually have a friend that was in the army for 5 years. He just came out last year and he loves army games. He can't get enough of he's call of duty's and Medal of honours etc.
My sister is in the RAF and is exactly the same; whenever she's home she spends a nice chunk of her time on her PS3 with her MoHs and CoDs.

We don't talk much as such.
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Post by INeedFruit »

Killer French Bread wrote:There are still people grieving for their dead relatives from this war. It's just too early to have uneccessary provocation like this. Yeah you can moralise about how we don't care about shooting the Iraqis, but this game isn't being sold to them.
I agree that the subject matter in this game could be considered bad taste, especially by people who have been directly affected by this war.

I'd like to pose a question; why is it necessary for real groups of people (such as American's or Taliban) to be used in games at all? Is it the realism? Is it so a player can automatically recognise the difference between 'good' and 'evil'? Games like Bioshock/Halo do this brilliantly but have a very different auidence than COD/MoH.
Why is it more popular to shoot a human than an alien?
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