Medal of Honor Tali-banned

Peter Chapman 61 Comments

Just take a moment to get over the terrible pun in the headline. There, all better? I’m sorry, it’s a Friday afternoon and I haven’t had nearly enough coffee yet.

The gist of this story is, as you may have guessed, that EA have removed all mention of the Afghan extremist movement from the multiplayer element of their imminent first person shooter. Apparently the Taliban aren’t in Medal of Honor multiplayer at all. You’re now playing as the heroic Spec-Ops adventurers against a nefarious, over-zealous, extremist bunch of terrorists who go by the name of “Opposing Force”. Snappy.

As far as we’re aware they’re still allowed to be the enemy troops in the single player campaign. So it’s okay to shoot hundreds of them, just don’t pretend to be one.

Personally, I think it was all a storm in a teacup but obviously EA have felt enough of a backlash that they feel the need to polish out any mention of the Taliban. What next, WWII games fought against “The Naughties”?

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61 Comments

  1. ‘What next, WWII games fought against “The Naughties”?’

    No that’s not fair saying that, the taliban are scum, but alot of german soldiers were good men who were just doing their jobs.

    • I think there’s an argument that runs along the lines of “there’s a lot of young men brainwashed into extremism”. I think it’s the same argument people made about the Nazis.
      The point is that every issue has opposing viewpoints. You may think that the Taliban are scum (and I may agree with you) but to their families they’re just young men fighting for what’s right. The mothers of young Taliban fighters (or the families of any of the thousands of civilian casualties killed by allied troops) might object to the ability to play as a US “invader”. It’s all about perception and the argument as to which side is “right” and which side is “wrong” will continue for many years. Does that make censorship right? I don’t think so. Who are we to airbrush their side of the conflict out of history?

      • agree entirely, this isnt about how naughty or nice the taliban are. its about the fact that a games dev has been forced to bow to censorship imposed on them unwillingly.

        although since this is a mainstream game, with alot of money riding on it, they do need it to sell millions of copies, and all the probable boycotts wouldnt really help them.

      • Exactly.

      • Those disgusting pieces of shit don’t have a side. The Afghan and Pakistani armies and Police forces are the brave men (alongside ISAF) fighting for their countries and protecting their civilians and families. The taliban are the ones killing their own civ’s, not us. *spit on floor*

      • and I’ve got to hand it to you CB, most other websites are filled with slack-jawed idiots who’d say dumb shit like ‘Duhhh, YoU ArE aN A rACiSt!!11! duhhh’ when you say anything bad about the taliban, nice to know there’s a website with smart people around.

  2. But you can still play as Nazi’s in WAW? I’m offended.

  3. I was trying to fins the pun in ‘knee jerk reactions’ at first!!

  4. Should have called them “The Nabilat”

    • would have been better than ‘opposing force’!

  5. What ever happened to six days in fallujah?

  6. I don’t want to start up a hugh debate like these tossers, but I think opposing forces is the same team name as the terrorists in COD4, just in a shorter name.

    • But its a fictional war, this game is based on a real war so has two very real sides, not america vs the baddies!

      • I mean cod 4 was fictional, obviously!

  7. Good, I needed one more item to finish my rant with (see nofi and colossalblue shuddering as we speak, yes another editing job is in order mwahaha). This will do perfectly. Thank you!

    • go katy! havent had one in a while!

      • Finally.

        And to the editors: If you absolutely have to explain the joke to everyone, please put it after the article. That way it won’t ruin it as much.

    • YES! Been missing those rants, wondered where they had gone.

    • Thankfully it’s nothing to do with me anymore… :p

  8. It might look like a knee jerk reaction, but this will save EA more bad press, and I’m sure they’ll sell more copies now (especially in the US).

  9. That’s a real shame, the most offensive part in all this, imo is that EA have been pressured into censorship because of pure ignorance.. So much for freedom of expression.

  10. Opposing Force. Oooh how catchy. Activision and Treyarch must lauging their socks off now. Another nail in MoH’s already nearly nailed shut coffin surely. Next they’ll be replacing the rifles with water pistols and grenades with water bombs. Actually starting to sound like a fun game now!

    • id play that.

      • Ha! I would too. That actually could be fun if done correctly. Kind of like Canis Canem Edit via CoD? Hmmm.

        Cool avatar man, Is that a labrador in the middle? It’s cool and yet … somehow slightly creepy.

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