News MOH changes Taliban to Opposing Force

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/10/04/moh-changes-taliban-to-opposing-force/1

 

I think if it makes people who are ignorant of the fact that it's just some text in a game and not a real thing happy, I say do it.

As gamers, we know what we're doing. It's a game. The only people freaking out here are the ones who want the publicity, like that idiot mentioned in the article. The families and friends of soldiers simply gave their feedback and got listened to. Perhaps that clown Liam Fox could take a leaf from their book.

 

actually i would have had more respect for EA if theyd stuck to thier proverbial guns and dealt with the real world issue. In the end Opposing Force still consists of middle eastern men with plenty of muslim iconography on them. I recently watched The Hurt Locker, and i dont remember hearing any controversy over the subject matter there.
I mean no disrespect to anyone, but some perspective wouldnt go amiss.

 

Personally, I'd expect them to change the names of both sides. Surely the Afghanistan populace might get offended at the other side?

 

Ignorance is blizz is guess...

 

I'm with Joe on this one. Irrational people are being irrational.

 

$10 says the first mod out changes the name back. Welcome to the big world!

 

another win for the Taliban. Yet again proving that they are significantly changing our lives. 1 bit at a time.

 

Digusting

I too find it absolutely disgusting how EA deemed it acceptable to include any references to terrorist organisations in a game. Whats wrong with having blue v red team or alpha v beta?? Why do they feel the need to associate a fictional game with real-world entities like the Taliban? Are we not force fed enough propaganda from the media?… This is scandalous, thousands and thousands of people have died as a result of this 'war on terror', a war meticulously orchestrated by rich corporates and puppet governments. Fitting how EA see fit to advocate these corrupted times.

 

Cop outs.

 

pfftt, pussys :/

 

This was so disappointing.

 

I can't tell if you're serious or not. If you are, then perhaps some of that pent-up rage should be allocated to other media such as film and written word? Seeing the word 'Taliban' written on a computer screen is no different to seeing is written in a novel, newspaper or used in a film.

 

Pardon me but I can allocate my 'pent-up rage' in whichever direction I choose, be that written novels, films, or articles on ignorant game publishers. May I remind you that this name change was amended following pleas from families of troops killed by insurgents in Afghanistan.

 

Socially acceptable to shoot named members of the Third Reich but not nameless Taliban, interesting. I guess time is a factor.

It doesn't make a difference to me, they may as well be red team and blue team.

 

EA are hardly being ignorant. Having the word 'Taliban' in a game doesn't make a company ignorant, it just shows that they aren't blurring reality. Does this mean that the families of people who have been killed by the Nazis in World War II should be petitioning companies not to use the word Nazi in films, books or games? No. They accept what has happened.

As people before have mentioned. Irrational people are being irrational.

 

All this and hardly anyone bats an eyelid at all the myriad games based on World War 2 or Vietnam that let you play as Axis or Vietcong soliders. I'd imagine there's an awful lot of people who lost loved ones in those wars who are around but I doubt anyone ever bothered to complain.

There's also a massive double standard being waved here. We care sooo much about the grieving widows and children when they're on our side, but we don't give a **** about what happens to the loved ones of the opposing force. We've got games where we can be allied soldiers and kill Taliban / Al Queda / Iraqi soliders, so what now we just thumb our noses at *their* grieving widows and children because they're on the wrong/losing/opposite side? (delete according to your own level of conceit)

Heaven forbid that we actually have a rational look at why and how a conflict happens from *both* sides. If that were to happen we might actually start to realize that maybe we don't have the moral high ground in every battleground the USA wades into, dragging us along with them. To quote Bill Hicks, how does to feel to find out that *we* are the Evil Empire?

OMG, RANT!

 

Thats an impressively high horse you have there. Gauging by your reaction to mentioning the Taliban in a game, I fear you may actually explode if someone dared to make a game involving nazi germany. Fingers crossed that we will never see anything so heinous!

 

Fair enough, Can't say it'll stop my pre-order.

 

Actually, I find his statement contradictory. He tells us how disgusted he is that we can play a game from the perspective of "the other side" but then goes on to burn "our side" in anti-neocapitalist effigy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for neocapitalist burning (in effigy or otherwise) but given the historical origin of the Taliban and the way they came to power in the first place, we should really be removing references to the United States from all our games instead. They may have done the whole world a favour by supporting Afghanistan in it's resistance of Red Communism, but DAMN did they pooch-screw the end-game in that one, hence today's situation.