Electronic Arts today said today they would be removing the “Taliban” as a playable character from their new military shooter Medal of Honor. Instead the will be replacing “Taliban” with “Opposing Force”. But we are guessing they will still appear “Taliban-ish”.

Medal of Honor came under pressure from the military after it became known that in the multiplayer portions of the game, players would be able to take on the role of terroist Taliban fighters.

In September, the commanding general of the Army and Air Force Exchange Services told sources that he would have Medal of Honor pulled from U.S. military bases worldwide because of the “well-documented reports of depictions of Taliban fighters engaging American troops” in the game.

A statement this morning on the Medal of Honor website, Greg Goodrich, executive producer of Medal of Honor, said the decision to drop the Taliban reference was driven purely by the feedback from friends and families of fallen soldiers.

“This is a very important voice to the Medal of Honor team,” he wrote. “This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to. It is a voice that we care deeply about. Because of this, and because the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and Allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force.”

Goodrich noted the change will not directly affect gamers or alter gameplay.

[Source]

EA catching flak for including the option to play as Taliban

Kids don’t play cops and robbers outside any more.  Hell, even when I was a kid, Star Wars changed the game to “Rebels and Stormtroopers???.  But why go run around outside when you can sit in front of a TV with your console of choice and not have to worry about your friends saying you missed (which was called every stinkin’ time even when it was totally obvious you didn’t… I’m looking right at you, Quail Creek Stormtrooper Brigade).  Even the question of who has to be the bad guys is resolved by the cold calculations of the console, making sure everyone gets their turn at being the “heroes???.

And as a society, we’re okay with the console taking the place of the outdoor adventure of whatever the latest variation of cops and robbers is because there’s always that one kid who decides he’s tired of being told he missed (when he DIDN’T!!!) and goes and gets the BB gun.  Once that happens, there’s the crying and complaining and the yells of “Why, God, WHY?!??? and the inevitable confiscation of your BB gun.  Let me tell you, folks, Stormtroopers can be the biggest crybabies.

Ahem.  I digress.

Electronic Arts is under fire from Britain’s Defense Secretary Liam Fox who declares that the newest entry in the “Medal of Honor??? franchise is a “tasteless product??? for allowing players to take on the role of the Taliban.  Fox issued the following statement in regards to the game:

“At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.”

Yes, because prior entries into the series didn’t portray anyone like the Nazis who, you know, bombed the crap out of your cities during World War II or anything…

While I am not belittling the loss of life suffered by British, or U.S. for that matter, troops at the hands of the Taliban, it seems inane that anyone would complain over what will be the multi-player option of the game.  Someone has to be the good guy and someone has to be the bad guy.  I’m certain that the single player mode will have us playing, at least at some point, as those brave soldiers from the Isles in an effort to stop the Taliban from succeeding in their goals.

The Medal of Honor franchise has typically been set in the World War II era and allows players to play through historical battles and, as I pointed out above, nobody was crying about the Nazis being available for play in multi-player.  Except for maybe Germany who has this weird thing about games with Nazis in them…

Gritskrieg – End of Line