Sadly, it's not unusual for games to cause controversy in the mainstream media, but it's not often a game gets attention for quite this reason. While games are often, and occasionally rightly singled out for featuring unnecessary violence, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox has a problem with EA's upcoming Afghanistan based shooter for a very different reason - because it lets you play as the Taliban.
Medal of Honour - courting every bit as much controversy as Call of Duty
In the multiplayer mode of the military based game, players can choose to either play as either the coalition forces, or the Taliban, where they then face off in a variety of team-based modes, which require co-operation, skill, and a fair amount of teamwork - and its this that's upset Mr. Fox.
The defence secretary said he finds it "shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers"
"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands,"
"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."
EA, of course, whilst savouring the mainstream media attention this has brought their game, less than two months before it launches, have been trying to downplay the situation.
One EA spokesperson likened the situation to playing cops and robbers, or cowboys and indians as a child - in that situation, someone's got to play as the bad guy, and Medal of Honour is no different, while another spokesman quite rightly pointed out that "Many popular video games allow players to assume the identity of enemies, including Nazis and terrorists. In the multi-player levels of Medal of Honor, teams will assume the identity of both US forces and the Taliban."
At Everybody Plays, we're not sure which side of the fence we sit on, as if you sit back, you can see both sides of the argument. On the one hand, is it right to be turning what is a very real, and very current war into a game? But on the other, is what Medal of Honour offers really anything different to playing as a Nazi - something you've been able to do in games for years? The only difference is that Medal of Honour lets you play as a much more modern threat - but if a game like this would be viable in ten, or twenty years time, why should it not be viable now?
At the end of the day, though, Medal of Honour is simply a military game that's attempting to reflect what's happening in a war zone - its just that it's chosen a war zone that's a lot more modern than have been featured before. The ability to play as the Taliban does only crop up in the online mode, so the single player mode remains free of controversy (so far). The game carries an 18 rating, although from what we've seen, the multiplayer mode doesn't seem anywhere near gory, or violent enough to warrant it - instead, seeming to be a fairly arcade-y mode, which requires a fair amount of teamwork to complete the various objectives. Playing as the Taliban basically seems to change the name of your team, and the appearance of your character, and that's about it (although we haven't seen, or played the finished game yet, so this all may change) - if playing as the Taliban is something you may find uncomfortable, then sticking to the single player game should solve your problems.
We'd like to know what you think about this, as its a story we're personally on the fence about. Were you planning on letting your child play Medal of Honour? Were you planning on buying it for yourself? If you were, or still are, what are your thoughts on the situation? If you drop us an e-mail, we could feature your comments in an upcoming article - just send an e-mail to comment (.-*at*-.) outcyders.net (replace the bit in brackets with an @ sign), to get your opinion aired.
Besides, any game that rewards progress with unlockable beards can't be that bad, can it?
