Poll: the new medal of honour; offensive and tasteless, or is that just me?

[Gardenia]

I won't be buying it, but I don't find it offensive at all.
In fact, I find the word "offensive" to be slightly offensive in itself.
A little tasteless, yes, but if you think so, don't buy it. Period.

 

[OmegaCheese]

Hold on for a second. Isn't the new Medal of Honor game about Tier 1 operatives who A) American and B) aren't meant to be really known about because their main mission is to hunt down main people in the Taliban and assassinate them? Correct me if I'm wrong but there was a huge article in OPS Aus which explained this.

EDIT: Here's a link that explains it, and I'm sorry I did't explain why I said this. I said this because I thought you felt bad because you thought it would delve into the life of your freind so don't worry about that. I feel sorry for anyone who takes part in War. Even in Nazi's. No matter who it is they may have families, not want to fight and things like that. Those who partake in war because "it's cool to shoot people" or something are sad. Enough said.

 

[Zing]

It's a video game. Lighten up.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Game developers cashing in on the current events. How is that new? I don't care about foreign governments who fight wars for oil and other riches and send other people's children to die. I don't care because those soldiers chose to do that and they know exactly what and who they're fighting for, and it ain't their country. And if they don't know that, then they are retarded, and I still don't care. Stupid greedy people wage wars, soldiers are their tools. I don't care about either. So, in conclusion, I'll buy the game if it's any good. If it turns out to be just another MW2 I'll gladly pass.

 

[The Ambrosian]

Young kids have grandparents that died in WWII and older people have parents or even brothers, I dont think the fact that it was sixty years ago changes much, because it's not really that long. Yet no-one complains about the slaughter in WWII games.

And what about Black Ops. Vietnam/Cold War wasn't long ago and thats not the first Vietnam themed game either.

In twenty years the Middle Eastern wars will most likely be the WWII of shooters.

Funny you mentioned this. There is actually a charachter in Black Ops (beginning of this trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtRnpC7ddv8 ) looks like my dad. My dad was in Laos during the Vietnam war. I am not offended by that.

See... people who have parents who where in Vietnam and even they're not offended. Need I say more.

 

[Naheal]

Would you complain about a movie being done in the same manor? No? Don't complain about a game doing the same.

 

[SsilverR]

taliban are fighting a war too .. they also have friends and have suffered or they wouldn't be fighting ... i think it's tasteless not to acknowledge that each war has individuals with individual experiences that make someone pick up a gun and go to war. not all of them are fighting to nick your freedom ... alot of them are seriously pissed that friends and family got nuked before they're eyes and the entire world are doing nothing

i think it would be a very educational and eye opening experience to the open minded to play as a taliban freedom fighter/terrorist

 

[Klepa]

Just because they didn't bother to make up names like Imaginationstan for the "bad guys", but instead went with the real thing, doesn't make it any more offensive to me.

I don't find games portraying real things as offensive. If I was like that, I'd have imploded from being over-offended, because the Russians get portrayed as the good guys in a lot of WW2 games and flicks.

 

[kickyourass]

While I understand the feeling, I'm going to still give it a chance and at least rent it because I think it's a sign of a good thing. I mean how will games ever evolve as a serious medium, if they always shy away from serious subjects like this? Although if they show the whole thing as just one big frat party with guns, as the entertainment industry sometimes does with war, I'll probably join your side, but I'm waiting for the finished product to come out before I cast judgement.

 

[Jumplion]

CoD was based on a warzone which was very clearly iraq, yes, but even MW2 never stayed in afghanistan long. MoH is focussed purely on Afghanistan.

What does it matter if it's "purely" based in one place or another? The MW series glorify war wherever it goes.

the war in Afghanistan is different to others for the Brits (I add that as I understand Americans are having a similar experience in Iraq now, but their civilian population has never seemed to back or be connected to their forces as strongly as British civilians to theirs). Iraq started quick and clean, but we left there eventually.

I'll admit I don't know much on how Britain is involved in Iraq/Afghanistan, so I'm in no position to comment on how you guys/they are handling it.

Afghanistan has bogged down into attrition grinding stalemate, and everyone i know has lost people out there. we still have friends/loved ones out there now. the point is that with afghanistan its heartless to set a game there when people aren't sure if their brother/father/lover/friend is going to live through their stint.

put simply, people haven't stopped mourning their losses their, and already games execs are trying to cash in on it.

The thing is, there have been movies, documentaries, political commentaries, satire, novels, radio talk shows, TV shows/commercials, posters, all sorts of things regarding the war in Afghanistan/Iraq. Why can't videogames be a part of that?

Okay, I get it, the war is still going on and people are losing their sons and daughter and husbands and wives. I get it, I sympathize, I really do feel sorry for them. But at the risk of sounding cold and heartless, so what? Out here in the US people barely even talk about the situation in Afghan/Iraq, people don't even know how many we're losing over there. Despite the numerous books, documentaries, radio shows, TV debates, etc.... nobody knows a thing about it, myself included.

Why then, I ask, are video games banned from the subject? We have a billion and 1 games on WWII and that war cost millions upon millions of lives lost. Why aren't most people offended by that (I'm sure there are war veterans/Holocaust survivors, but they hardly make news).

There are already plenty of games that glorify war, why can't videogames try a more mature approach to it and pay the troops in Afghanistan/Iraq some respect? Granted, the game isn't out yet so we have no idea whether it does so or not, but that's exactly what you are doing, on the multiplayer no less. Multiplayer says nothing on singleplayer, the fact that you can play as a Taliban soldier in multiplayer is purely cosmetic. Again, MW2 lets you play as Russian and Mid-Eastern terrorists killing US Soldiers in multiplayer, why aren't you offended by that? Not to mention the whole level dedicated just for shock value (No Russian).

Frankly I'm glad that someone is finally going into this war without trying to glorify it. The videogames industry needs to cock it up and stop being such pussies on touchy subjects. If this industry is ever going to evolve then we need to go to places that no video game has gone before.