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We’ll add this story to the heading ‘corporations that miss the point‘.
“Electronic Arts has given in to protests and pulled the ability to play as Taliban fighters from its upcoming Medal of Honor video game.
These are the ones you shoot.
It was to allow gamers to fight as Taliban against U.S. and allied troops in its online multiplayer mode, a feature that sparked criticism from some military officials and families of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan. Critics said allowing people to play as the enemies in a current conflict would be insensitive to the families of soldiers who have died.
The cultural assumptions enfolded into this statement bely the skewed view of the world we are fed and has ironic crunchy bits mashed in as well considering that the families of fallen Taliban fighters probably have similar feelings and have more of them considering the technological advantage we possess. But of course, being Official Enemies they do not have feelings or families, or heck, even human status when it comes to our point of view.
“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,” executive producer Greg Goodrich said in a statement on the game’s website.”
Exactly, so you can get your righteous fill of filling people ragheads full of holes and terminating them with prejudice. This is okay. We show our reverence for families torn asunder by war by making products that glorify war and the destruction which results from it.
“While this change should not directly affect gamers, as it does not fundamentally alter the gameplay, we are making this change for the men and women serving in the military and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice — this franchise will never wilfully disrespect, intentionally or otherwise, your memory and service.”
I’m not sure EA could go any deeper as they are using quantum bore tunnelling technology to dig the hole are in. All this PR spin is about their bottom line. They could care less about the men and women making the ultimate sacrifice during times of war. This wrinkle about changing the human targets from Taliban to OpFor is a callous move to protect their profit margins, nothing more.
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