Gamers should shun ‘Medal of Honor’

Callous realism is a trademark of video games, so maybe we should all be desensitized to the kind of gore and mayhem portrayed in Electronic Arts’ new version of “Medal of Honor.” But for families of men and women fighting and dying even now in the very real war against the Taliban, it’s pretty tough seeing Taliban soldiers slaughtering American troops as fun and games. Call us old-fashioned, but we say this one crosses a line.

The updated “Medal of Honor,” scheduled for release Oct. 12, lets players take the role of Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan hunting down and slaying Americans. No wonder parents like Karen Meredith of Mountain View, Calif., whose son Ken Ballard died in Iraq, see the game as a personal insult. It’s an affront to the more than 1,000 Americans killed in the Afghanistan conflict since it began in October 2001, nine years before the game’s release.

[jinofthesheep]

disagree wholeheartidly so won't approve. how is this any different to red vs blue?! i like the colour blue, so should i boycot any game that has them being slaughtered by reds? ludicrous. plus there's inconsistent editting within the article. hell, within the second paragraph it has "Oct." and "October".

[Anarki]

I think we should all stfu and stop making a big deal of nothing.

I'll play MoH, and I will enjoy it.

[seann]

are u being sarcastic?

[BloodyNapkin]

Well i am shunning it cause so far the beta sucks balls.

[Cevapi88]

nazis' killing allies, viet cong killing americans....hell we could reverse the scenario and look at it from their perspective....double standards people....double standards

[BattleAxe]

I'm skipping this game simply because DICE is involved. Expect the same treatment as Bad company 2 with very few maps, no co-op until they decide to charge you for it, crappy EA servers and just very little or no support after release. They'll try to make you feel like a VIP by giving you mode packs just like with BC2.

[r1sh12]

Totally disagree with the article.
Why not stop playing GTA because of the families that die becuase of the drug trade, or stop watching films that show men and women who have died in old wars or in current wars. Or horror films which show psycho's going on killing sprees.
This sort of article is so stupid.
The only reason these families are dying is because an idiot by the name of George W Bush started an illegal war, after his moron father armed the so called terrorists with weapons like 20 years ago.

[NYPunkster]

Well since I've always planned on getting MoH this reverse phycology bullshit isn't working on me but thanks for trying.

[CaptainMarvelQ8]

ShhhhuuuuuuuN

[AKS]

I love seeing the opinions of the masses wax and wane over time depending on which way the wind is blowing. When I was serving as a US Marine from 1995 through 2000, I heard "baby killer" from the far left and callous, indifferent remarks like "Ah, they knew the risks when they joined...but look at my DoD stocks shooting through the roof!!!! This is great!" from the far right when I faced the very real possibly of having a limb blown off, suffering from a traumatic brain injury, and a variety of other dire circumstances, including a quite suspicious anthrax vaccination program.

Since September 11, 2001, it suddenly became popular to develop faux hyper-patriotism, put American flag stickers on the back of your pickup truck or Buick, and act offended by anything that is insensitive to the US military efforts. We as a society like to put up a big, showy front pretending like we would donate a kidney or a lung to our troops without a second thought, yet our country has ignored the fact that our troops often receive shoddy post-deployment care and are sent into war most often for the benefit of greedy and opportunistic war profiteers at organizations like Halliburton. Despite all the nonsense that is going on, idiots like this author decide to focus their efforts on decrying the evils of a damn video game. Are people really this oblivious to what's going on in the world? The level of ignorance is mind boggling.

[solar]

Hell im not buying it because BC2 is still broke on PC and dont pay $60for a PC game.

[cyberwaffles]

again, to those who see action in the war in the middle east, don't talk. and i'm talking about horrific action. not soldiers whose MOS's compose of just traversing soldiers into battles or running network communications. i'm talking about death right before your eyes. seeing animals feast on your brothers, brothers being blown to pieces in the blink of an eye, brothers who fought for your freedom and then gamers turn around and play as the taliban shooting what is technically generic AI, but are representative of those who served their country.

seriously, you gamers have no clue how delusional you are and you would only know until you experience the trauma of death and war. experience speaks louder than words, bottom fucking line. oorah fucking devil dogs! semper fidelis to the day i fucking die. 1371 Combat Engineer, jack of all trades, master of none. no one knows loyalty until you become a fucking marine.

[ActionBastard]

I think it's best we play games in which Taliban soldiers don't exist. Then soapbox about how games should be considered art or are as emotion provoking as movies or books.

[Baka-akaB]

why because movies and books dont feature them talibans ?

[Qui-Gon Jim]

Kinda making a point that art forms need to sometimes be provocative to make people think or to elicit emotions.

[ActionBastard]

What Qui-Gon Jim said :D

[Nate-Dog]

Play it if you want, don't if you don't. But for everyone's sake just shut the hell up about it now and stop trying to change people's views on this as if it's going to be the most realistic gaming experience around and like it's going to change people.

And of course it looks like it's written by some randomer that probably has never had any experience with gaming or knows anything about it.

[r0gueZA]

What about games where US kill Germans or Vietnamese?
Should we shun those? Are those not offensive to those countrymen who may have faught in those wars?

[fucadastates]

and movies about the us in corrent wars. there are alot of them. shun them all. preorderet the game :)

[jinofthesheep]

to answer your question zombiegamerZA, apparently it doesn't matter about those wars as they were awhile ago... http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[r0gueZA]

LOL ... long time ago. That makes it better. Okay

[yoshiroaka]

Of course man! haven't you seen south park when AIDS became funny because a certain amount of time had passed! lol

Man im not a big fan of south park but they really seem to nail society's stupidity sometimes.

[iceman06]

That's exactly why I AM a fan of South Park. Behind all of the toilet humor there is a biting satire on our society that I just can't get enough of. Love it or hate it. It's really hard to deny the truths that they present on almost a weekly basis.

[Baka-akaB]

only reason i'll shun MOH is lack of interest ( and in COD) , not some crap out of nowhere about it being too "realistic"

[Dan50]

I don't care HOW OFFENSIVE A GAME IS it should have the right to be released. If you don't like it DON'T BUY IT!!!

[turok]

Gamers should shun closed minded people like the author of the article.

[FiftyFourPointTwo]

then what? play another Call of Duty?

[rezzah]

The world is worst than this, this argument is pointless and stupid.

[Neko_Mega]

Why does everyone make a big deal about a Video Game when it does something like this, but a movie or a book comes out and it is ok.

-_- I think people need to get a life and start worry about something other then this.

[fucadastates]

+1 bubbles

[the-show-stopper]

misinformed much?

edit: kinda tempted though to make an account on their just to tell off the author

[jinofthesheep]

was just thinking of doing the very same thing, but not sure if it'll make them even more entrenched. any comment we make will let that moron go "see, this is what violence in video games does to people! they've got warped minds!!" let the fool rot in a really minor paper. he'll never amount to anything and anyone pointing this out to them will just make them feel like they're rightious...

[user858621]

Makes me want this game even more :)

[bedaiwii]

US kills = a hero
US KILLED = WE MUST SHUN
this is the freedom of america
now i want to play it more because it is new idea

[fucadastates]

US kils = dick
US killed = killed by a dick

evryone who kills is a dick. the problem tho is that we live in a world where we ... you know the drill

[chazjamie]

nah, i am sorry my pop game for the end of the year is cod.

its weird, people think that holding a controller shares the same feeling as holding a REAL gun.
"new version lets players kills troops".

yes i am killing real people, i am not surprised that they cant kill me, i just switch to one man army when my ammo is low and BOOM, all my ammo is returned. so i can continue using my noobtube against real people.

if you wondering how i do it. Its simple. They taught us in the amry to think really hard, until an image appears infront of us and we select it. thanks to wireless technology it only take 3 seconds to refill.i still think it should be instantaneous.

[The Hillman]

War exists. People die. Stories and experiences should be shared.

If any company bows to pressure it's effectively censure ship.

People would not have a problem if this was a novel or a film.

[Ravenor]

I don't want to buy this game but if I have to, just to give these "people" the finger then I will. We are playing a game in a digital world that has NO bearing on the real one, this is all fantasy land. The woman cited in the article lost her son in Afghanistan, something I sincerely wished didn't happen. But ma'am your son died trying to bring freedom to the Afghans and "protect" ours over here. Our freedom to view, think and purchase anything we want. Freedom is so precious and it's so hard to get back when you lose it, why do people want to throw it away?

Freedom is a two way street, it doesn't just go your way. I HATE Neo Nazi's, but they have every right in the world to think there system works or that Nazi Germany was just an awesome place to live. Even if they are wrong, and they ARE wrong they still have every right to think the way they do (Barring any hate crimes etc). Just like I have every right to kill whatever digital model I want to.

Theres a No Smoking sign on the Statue of Liberty.

[Kyur4ThePain]

But now I think I will, just to piss off that fat bitch.

I know someone who died in a car crash. How do you think I feel every time I see motor racing or a car chase? Or...or play Gran Turismo? :(
/s

[iJOIK3R]

There isn't really any point imo. This game really isn't that great to begin with. The only thing it has going for it is the amount of support it will be getting from its developers

[Motion]

I was in the PC beta for this game, and I'm going to shun it. Not because of any moral BS, but because I thought the game sucked compared to other offerings out there.

[seann]

its a shame, cod is the fifa of these shooters. and MOH is the Pro evo. ea just cant seem to get the technology right, more specifically moh cant get it right. dont know why the just didnt make a polished version of battle field instead.

[MRMagoo123]

pro evo was usually the better game tho the only fifa that was better is the most recent the rest where not as good as evo.

[the-show-stopper]

it was a beta not a demo
when the demo comes out judge it on that not the beta
the beta is used by developers to see wats wrong with the game and they have fixed alot of the problems so far

[Motion]

True, it is a beta. But the beta is for tweaking gameplay, which it did need some of. However, the biggest things that turned me off was the actual engine used for the game, the character and weapon models, the map design, textures, processing effects, etc. It all just looked bad. These are things that won't likely change from the beta to the release. I played the game on PC, and this looked like a low end console game.

[slave2Dcontroller]

Isn't that WTF America is founded on(us Blacks had to wait a while longer for ours but we have it now XD)? Freedom of speech, press, yada, yada, yada. How many books or movies have there been that about war in the Middle-East? A LOT! How many of them catch the type of flack that games do? 0!

Has there ever been a case of an Actor portraying a member of the Talibanana or other terrorist organization being flamed or shunned for assuming said role for a Hollywood Blockbuster movie? NO!

Well heres my chance to invoke my FREEDOM of speech. All you cry baby candy asses need to STFU. Seriously! Either we are free or not. Americas Slogan isn't land of the free SOME of the time, its land of the "Free", Home of the "Brave". So what the fuck are you's up at arms and scared of a video game for???

You hypocritical sons of bitches are the worst. If you want boycott a game dont stop there. Boycott CNN, FOX, and ALL the TV networks that air stupid ass Osama Bin Laden threats to us for ALL of America to see, shun them for airing American soldiers being executed by ACTUAL taliban nut jobs for the sake of ratings! Boycott Hollywood for recreating movies of 9/11 for the sake of American Green. I'm sure Bin Laden and buddies were none to pleased about American Filmakers acknowledging that job- End Sarcasm.

If you dont want to buy the damn game, dont buy it. Its that simple. To you folks at columbiatribune.com and all you other sites writing these SHAME on you MOH articles, I'm keeping an eye on you. It will be interesting to see how many of these same sites will opt out not to review the game and sacrifice hits and site traffic because a video game have suddenly made them Holier than thou.

Apparently MANY American people would make model citizens in North Korea. Who would've guess that?

[Ravenor]

Well said, no one has any right to tell you not to do something because they don't like it.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

like telling others to shut up because you dont like their opinion article.

[ZILLA]

im the biggest BAAAAAD COMPANY 2 fan on the planet but this game doesnt sit well with me at all.having other players play as terrorists is crap,it should only be on story mode for fighting the taliban.no FPS even comes close to BAAAAAAD COMPANY 2 anyways!

[Jerkstore81]

And I suppose then we should shun all the war movies and books as well?!

I'm starting to believe the media attacks video games because they pull people away from watching the news on TV or reading newspapers.

[slave2Dcontroller]

BINGO! You sir, are a thinking man. +Bubble

[Redempteur]

what should i do i played countless hours in counter strike and i enjoyed placing the bomb in the most akward places ..

..well playing the bad guy is a right ..as am i playing ...

it's also more fun for me to play the bad guy rather than the cop in need for speed ..
SOrry about that , EA but i won't buy your game ...simply because i'm not intrested in it ...

[CombatEvolving]

I don't even want the game, but I almost want to buy it to rub it in people's faces. No laws were violated and we have this thing called freedom of speech.

[lowcarb]

I like to see where everybody's coming from and not just spew out your wrong and I'm right comments. Games have been and will always be attack which I'm personally ok with.

[DNAbro]

Who cares if your the Taliban? It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Your just one team trying to kill the other. Now we just have a name for them.

[writersblock]

"But for families of men and women fighting and dying even now in the very real war against the Taliban, it’s pretty tough seeing Taliban soldiers slaughtering American troops as fun and games. Call us old-fashioned, but we say this one crosses a line."

Really, I'm sure it must be REALLY tough for people to see fake soldiers to be killed in a game. Thats a real challenge, I dont know how americans will deal with this, they must be really brave

Unlike those people who are actually having loved ones killed infront of them, and the countless orphaned children and innocents who lost everything in the US invasion

Yep, killing a pixel american is apparantly worse than killing a real man

[AliTheBrit19]

The only reason we should shun this game

Is because its a sh*tty game! I have the beta, trust me, its not worth looking twice at, just let it come and then be forgotten.

[StuffRokz]

Well, here's how i look at it.

if it turns out to be a bad game, i won't get it, and these people will be happy for the lost sale even if it's not for their reason. if it turns out to be good, i ain't boycotting s#it!

[gypsygib]

I doubt any Westerner is going to be playing the game and say to themselves "die American/UK infidel, Allah commands it!". It's like when I play as the Russians or nazi's in any other game - i'm just the opposing team. I'm don't feel like I'm killing the good guys, I'm killing other players.

[bobrea]

The only reason this game should be "shunned" is because it's a shitty game. If you're too offended by the inclusion of the Taliban, don't buy it.

[xtheblackparade]

People tend to forget that this game is released worldwide and not only in western countries. So as offensive it would be for an American to play the Taliban side, it would be as offensive for people that live in the mid-east to play as an Taliban slaying American. And other countries that aint at war with the Taliban wouldn't care about slaying Americans either.
Sometimes it's better to switch perspective, just to see what's on the other side.

[iceman06]

I should take my gaming advice from somebody who has probably not played a video game since they used to sneak over to their friend's basement to play Nintendo. Seriously, I get that you have the right to disagree. But, please spare me the false indignation. In America you are afforded certain freedoms. You have the freedom to be a naked 350 pound man running down the street naked with a purple wig and streamers coming out of your butt and call it art. The great thing is that I have the freedom to say that you're just a fat naked dude with something hanging out of your butt! This article, and others like it, are just hit fodder...for attention. Every site wants to say "look at us we are appalled!" Really, why? Because you can now play as the Taliban? Because there will be families offended by something that they won't see...because they have the right NOT to purchase the game? Oh...that makes a LOT of sense! I don't begrudge anybody their freedom to disagree. But, let's do it with some perspective. Let's do some research or even...here's a shocker...PLAY the game before we get offended. At least, this way you can say that you are offended for a reason. In the end, the ignorance shown in the argument that you should shun MOH because of the inclusion of the real Taliban is about as simple minded as the argument "they hate us for our freedom!!!"

[StitchJones]

the MP beta felt too much like Bad Company 2. I don't need to pay a premium PC game price 60$ for a game I paid 50$ and am still playing on a regular basis online. Sorry MOH, your 'rebirth' is not going to be well received I think.

[Darkfiber]

If I were to play some boring war shooter which I'd never do, this would probably be the one.

[supremacy]

This pointless article that's what. For as long as double standards exists these articles will prove insignificant to me.

[earbus]

Death doesnt discriminate why should i.