Gamers debate EA’s decision to dump Taliban name from Medal of Honor

Which side are you on?

by dkpatriarch

© 2010 David Hilton

A few weeks ago we held a competition inviting gamers to voice their opinion on the recent backflip by EA where they changed the name of the Taliban to Opposing Forces.

To be honest I personally was confused as to why EA would be keen to produce a game about a modern real ongoing war when they must have witnessed the outcry over Six Days In Falluja (a game that was going to use real veterans’ experiences).

That game has disappeared off the radar, but EA foolishly (or if I was a cynic I’d say purposely for publicity) forged ahead with a game about Afghanistan that allows gamers to play as the enemy Taliban in multiplayer.

Then they backfliped and changed the name.  Were they doing the Modern Warfare 2 “No Russian” thing, courting controversy to get people talking?

In any case you gamers had strong opinions: some who supported the backflip and some who thought it was cowardly.  Thank you for your comments and involvement.

Here are two slightly edited excerpts from the entries we received.

So let’s see which side you are on.

• For more information about Six Days in Falluja with a discussion on modern real current warfare in games, read HERE.

• For a take of the Taliban Medal of Honor controversy by one of our staff, read HERE.

NB: The following opinions do not reflect those of OXCGN but are those of the individual entrants.

Dropping the Taliban Name

IS Justified:

EA’s decision concerning the Medal of Honor controversy is not one that should warrant “justifiability”.  EA does not need to justify their actions in regards to the Taliban being renamed Opposing Forces.

I would not consider this move a backdown, I would call it “creative license at work”.  From what I understand, the single player campaign will still host the Taliban as the enemy. They (Taliban) fit the bill appropriately as far as a modern warfare setting is concerned.  This change comes into play only for the multiplayer modes everyone is dying to get their hands on.

Generally speaking, visual appeal is not enough.  Gamers hunger for full contextual realism, especially the shooter genre.  So being able to role-play as  the Taliban sounds good, right?

My thoughts

Initially, I thought nothing of it… until I jumped into the beta and spawned as a Taliban.

In light of the current war in the Middle East, it was a weird feeling firing upon US troops as the Taliban.  Yes, of course, this is a video game and I had done it a million times over in numerous other games… but as the “Taliban”?

Everyone makes the valid point involving other titles and their enemy classes; it’s the same difference, I totally get that.  Most people get that.  But, regarding current events, considering the real world Taliban, I think it was a good PR move on EA’s part to change the enemy’s title.

The developers made a decision and then recanted.  Is it possible they pushed the authentic name element too far?

• Medal Of Honor TV Show controversy trailer

Sure… public opinion was mixed, so EA fine tuned their product.  So what!?  There is no need to demonize them…. It is all about having tact.

This would be a ‘morale’ move with respect to our men and women in uniform who serve our blessed country.  People tend to forget or don’t even realize how good they have it here in the US.  We should never lose sight of what we have and how we got it… and never let go.

World history is a telling story, and most things that respawn in real life are really bad.

© 2010 Mike McClure

Dropping the Taliban Name:

IS NOT Justified:

I may not be the smartest guy out there. This story about the current controversy dealing with the use of a single word may not affect me on a personal level either. Hell, I can’t even admit this will affect me as a player since I don’t have the greatest desire to purchase Medal of Honor.

Does it affect you?

But as a gamer, this does affect me and so many others even if they don’t realize it.

I can understand why friends, families, politicians, the military and whoever else may be upset over this current situation. In their eyes some game company is allowing kids to play as the bad guys who took their loved ones away from them, and who caused a lot of pain inside their hearts. I’m sure if I had a loved one who died to the Taliban and then saw this I’d be pretty angry. I’d resent the developer and curse the publisher to hell.

I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s a pretty natural response for anyone to have upon seeing the embodiment of a loved one’s killers simply used a piece of entertainment for the masses.

But how is that fair on the developer and publisher?

What about movies

Haven’t movies and TV shows been doing this for ages now?

If you’re going to single out the game then shouldn’t the other forms of entertainment be singled out as well? In this day and age of course not (can you feel the sarcasm?)!

The simple fact of the matter is the game industry has always had a double standard put upon it. One thing that might be PG in a movie will end up as an M rating or even a 18+ rating in the game industry, like drug use for instance. As gamers we’re pretty used to this double standard. For the most part, the games we play don’t suffer creatively because of it. But every once in awhile when something like this happens, I can’t help but just facepalm.

Those movies are never singled out and those TV shows aren’t either. So why just games? Because you get to play them? Actively shoot other people? Because that side might win? Is that it?

• Medal Of Honor Multiplayer gameplay trailer

Hasn’t this same argument been used for who knows how many debates over games? The simple fact of the matter is that this is less about doing right by the fallen heroes who fought against the Taliban and more about the same double standard that has been applied on the gaming industry since the beginning.

It doesn’t matter if some well known actor plays a leader of the Taliban in a movie and kills some good guys, but it matters when some random adult headshots another random adult?

There is simply no justification for changing the name of the Taliban to Opposing Force but I’m just a random Aussie with no real ties to any of this apart from being a gamer.

To all these families and politicians and whoever else on the other side of this debate, I’m sure I seem to be immoral and wrong. Gamers are always viewed as such in these situations.

©2010 Andrew Faulkner

© 2010 David Hilton

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