It’s Medal of Honor Friday and the BBC are jumping on the scandal bandwagon by asking gamers about the controversial setting.
The general consensus seems to be ‘Meh, it’s a game,’ so the Beeb try and stir up some hatred by standing outside an army base and asking the residents of Colchester for their thoughts.
Happily the views expressed are balanced and thoughtful rather than the “Oh my god ban this game NOW!” comments they were obviously hoping for by filming in the town. Next week the BBC will be sending reporters to ask a field of cows if they are fans of Burger King.
Check out the video by clicking here – worth watching for the second interviewee; he makes me proud to be a gamer.
Source: BBC
gazzagb
I pretty much agree with everyone in the interviews. Yes, its just a game and is purely meant for entertainment purposes, but on the other hand as one of them said, there are people out there /dying/.
LeftyFlip
The beeb, once again, trying to crowbar a story where there is none.
Geek1974
Which I’m sure the Mail will help with too. After all, it is what they (and the rest of media) are best at ;)
teflon
Thing is, it doesn’t /have/ to be like this. There have been games in the past (America’s Army a notable example) where you have always appeared as the “goodies” and the other side always appeared as the “baddies” to each individual player.
Which naturally means that nobody ever appears from their own viewpoint to be killing US troops. You’re always killing the Op For’s.
I do think that EA never really considered this to be that controversial, as their close collaboration and press attachment with the US armed forces is what they’ve been touting all along. It was largely US army pressure that forced them to switch, and I don’t think they would go into this intentionally disrespecting the lives lost in Afghanistan.
It’ll be interesting to see if they consider the approach I pointed out above for future games.
Blayney
Did he just go looking for the most unevolved people he could find?
And yet he still ended up with balanced arguments and noone really feeling it’s a scandal.
I haven’t really noticed that much controversy tbh, but then I haven’t been paying attention to the game.
ToastEggsBacon
I don’t expect anything more of the BBC anymore.
I heard Radio One had a week dedicated to videogaming the other week. I barely listen to Radio One, other than in the morning when the wife puts it on while we get ready for work (so I have to listen to that odious cretin, Moyles). Yet in that short space of time, which must have amounted to little more than 3 hours over the space of a whole week, every single news item or story I heard related to gaming was negative.
They did a big advertisement push on the Monday morning, then 5 minutes later when it got to the news bulletin, tried pushing a dubious report about the link between video games and addiction, the conclusion of which even by their own admittance was inconclusive. Why bother?
An-dz
I thought they removed the controversial issue from the multiplayer
Dany2Step
the way he put it across is as if the main campaign is played through the eyes of the taliban. sereiously go watch the intro again. they dont make any mention of the fact that the games campaign has you playing as an american, or that you can play in the multi-player as one either.
to an outsider this report makes the game seem as if its centred around the taliban
seedaripper1973
Did that guy with the stripey top at the end say “kids like me”?? bloody hell, he looked like he was in his twenties??!!
Tuffcub
That’s what a weekend on Meow Meow does to ya :D
solidsteven
And there is an ad for meow meow on here lol :D
3shirts
Kids that look really old?
seedaripper1973
Apologies, i’ve been off my head on ‘meow meow’ all weekend, and i STILL look younger than him :P
Dar-Kaus
Perhaps they just interviewed the staff before the store opened
SocalDave
the 2nd interviewee…I need a translation please