Video games, they've come a long way from an Italian plumber chasing mushrooms to the widescreen, high-definition cinematic experiences they are today. It seems like every other one of them is a military shooter these days though. Modern Warfare 2 from publisher Activision was the most profitable media launch of 2010 and, surprise it was a military shooter.
The weird thing though with the slew of modern shooters is that none of them have been based on real modern conflicts, until Medal of Honor that is. The game is based on the actions of the tier 1 operators in Afghanistan (Tier 1 is just military babble for most-super-bad-assiest dudes). Which is no big deal but the game has a multiplayer component and who do we fight in Afghanistan. The taliban. So what has this all been building up to? A game is going to be released that let's people play as Taliban insurgents killing American Soldiers.
Well it was going to be...
There was a chain of events that lead to this, first, the classy folks over at Fox News got a hold of the info and of course they were totally fair and sensible. LOL No they weren't. Anyway, after that the people at the Army weren't super happy so they decided to ban sale of the game on military bases. Not long after the publisher buckled and they changed the name of the Taliban to Opposing Force to which I say C'MON!!
The developer addressed the issue (I've got so many hyperlinks in this free post) but really the whole hubub is kind of a joke. A lot of gamers and 1st Amendment enthusiasts cried fowl but really, the Army has to be aware that somebody has to play as the badguys. You can't both be the good guys! That'd just be the Civil War!
No but seriously this kind of buckling under pressure always reminds me that the video game industry is an industry first and a medium for artistic expression and political commentary second. I mean, they didn't change the look of the taliban or any single aspect of the game except for the word Taliban. I reiterate, C'MON!
No comments:
Post a Comment