This makes me SICK TO MY STOMACH.
On Oct. 12 Electronic Arts, one of the world's biggest game publishers, is set to release a first-person combat title called Medal of Honor. Developed with advice from elite American special forces, the new game is set during Operation Anaconda, part of the Western war in Afghanistan that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.New York Times videogame critic Seth Schiesel predictably tries to explain why this is not a big deal, using the kind of mealy-mouthed and obfuscatory words we'd expect from a paper whose agenda is dictated each morning by the imams in Iran, but I think we can all agree that this is WRONG ON EVERY LEVEL. When the Taliban attacked the World Trade Center on that dark day they committed the greatest atrocity against humanity ever perpetrated. The fact that less than 10 years later these purveyors of video garbage think it's acceptable for gamers to portray them-even in multiplayer mode-is a deliberate punch in the gut to every loyal American who knows that the events of September 11 are a gaping wound which will never ever heal, and never should. We need to remain eternally vigilant. (I, in fact, think we should shoot down every airplane that flies over Manhattan, just in case, but I'm aware that this viewpoint is slightly out of the mainstream and I don't want my agenda to distract from the outrage that we should all be manipulated into here.)So far, so conventional. But in Medal of Honor's online multiplayer mode, in which teams of players battle over the Internet, one side in each match will be the Americans and the other side will play the role of Taliban fighters.
And do you want to know the worst part? I called the national videogame chain GameStop to see if they planned to carry this filth, AND THEY DO. AT THEIR 270 GREENWICH STREET LOCATION. Non-New Yorkers might be unfamiliar with the neighborhoods of the city, but 270 Greenwich is FEET AWAY FROM GROUND ZERO. I mean, thousands of feet, but it's practically right there. It is like GameStop is digging up the corpses from that pit of horror and sticking a controller in their hands and making them play a videogame IN THE ROLE OF THEIR TALIBAN KILLERS.
Now, look, I understand we have a First Amendment in this country. I'm not saying GameStop shouldn't be able to sell their MULTIPLAYER JIHAD KILLER MUSLIM GAME blocks away from the most awful attack in the world's history, I'm saying that just because you HAVE a First Amendment right doesn't mean you should be able to EXERCISE it. Or even have it, really. If GameStop wants to be sensitive to the victims of Ground Zero, and their families, and New York, and Jesus and Pat Tillman and every good-hearted white-faced person in America, they will do the right thing move this game to where it belongs: their outlet in Times Square. I'm not going to stand for this. Who's with me?
Personally, I think every storefront in lower Manhattan should be converted into Burlington Coat Factory Outlets, for America.
THESE SKECHERS DON'T WEAR DOWN
There's one key difference between the game and real life though. In the game, the Taliban lose.
My favorite NES game growing up was SANDINISTA.
My parents wouldn't let me play Contra because they thought it had something to do with Iran/Contra. I am still bitter.
I wouldn't let my kid play it for fear of it having something to do with Vampire Weekend.
Both have something to do with diplomat's sons, right?
I think you're thinking of Bad Dudes.
Remember in Bionic Commando when you got to kill Hitler? That was awesome.
Don't worry, America has the latest in wallhack and aimbot technology. They can't lay a finger on us.
you mean nimble fingered koreanSSS??????
I had a long paragraph written trying defend the game, but realized this has to be satire. Good job.
I was wondering why the Taliban attacked our freedoms on 9/11 and not Al Quaeda
Pre-video games, my dad used to play all these really complex board games that took weeks to complete. Most of them were fashioned on some historically important battles from WWI WWII and Vietnam. I specifically remember one where you are Rommel and control the Nazi army in North Africa.
RISK on steroids.
I brought one of these games, HIT THE BEACH, to a game club last year. I was the only one who did not violently hate it.
Risk!
And who is the twisted, sick person who came up with the rules of Risk?
You got the cards and the dice and the armies and the attacking and the territories and the fortifying of armies and good god, it's nearly impossible to decipher. Especially after a glass of wine.
Just give me Candyland and be done with it.
how about some stratego???
effffffff stratego changed my liiiiiiife
its pretty dope. i think they should update it for modern warfare and/or intergalactic space beings.....but hey who am i an entrepreneur???
Stalingrad!
Axis and MOTHERFUCKING Allies! The new one, with the crazy Russian Winter rules and whatnots!
(Every time I've played it I made the mistake of starting at, like, 11 pm. Just like homemade ice cream, Axis and Allies takes longer than you remember and is frustrating by the time it's almost done and you just want to sleeeeppppp)
if i ever get a chance to attend any bawl i would like for this to mandatory.
(Pssst - if anyone, like me, is looking for a WW2 strategy style game... http://gamesbyemail.com/Games/WW2 is Axis and Allies online, emailing you when it's your turn. And it's awesome.)
~CTB
Jesus I've been writing too many emails. Enjoy my initials, guys!
Axis & Allies is for dabblers, deepomega. If you want to really earn your grognard beard, join me in a brisk game of "The Campaign for North Africa." It'll only take 1500-2500 hours. We'll be modelling every unit down to the individual soldier level, including (infamously) increased water rations required for Italian soldiers (pasta, don't you know).
Cute To Boot?
There's also Memoir 44. Not nearly as good as Starship Troopers.
(I own both of those.)
* call me
10/12/10: NEVER FORGET.
NEVER FORGET 10-10-321
I confess--I'd totally forgotten those old long-distance codes.
> I don't want my agenda to distract from the outrage
You have a sideline in manufacturing rocket launchers? because that would be a) awesome and b) occasion to mention Bruce Cockburn c) what
Ooh, does people rememver the "Axis and Allies" board game? The day I developed nukes as the Nazis and sent bombers to level New York from the bases I had seized in the Carribean was pretty damn awesome.
See Abe, above.
Hah! Should have read farther, yes.
I'm still mad they brought out Donkey Kong right after that gorilla KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE WITH BARRELS.
"When the Taliban attacked the World Trade Center on that dark day they committed the greatest atrocity against humanity ever perpetrated."
Are you serious?
This
This is so over-the-top it can't be anything but a mockery. That said, it still bothers me that even a mockery passes along bad info - as most thinking people remember, the Taliban bastards didn't attack us, it was the Al Qaeda bastards. We must keep our bastards straight in this world!
Great point.
I think if anything it comes down to a case of "Too Soon." I don't remember a big fuss about playing as the Germans in the other medal of honor games- but I might have just missed it.
Facebook commenters!
I don't know about "greatest atrocity against humanity ever perpetrated," because I am old enough to remember the Betamax. But I am definitely in favor of preemptively shooting down every plane that flies over America, just in case.
@pete: Putting the registration numbers after our names was a pretty great idea, because it offers a somewhat empirical justification for our scorn and eye-rolling.
@Screen Name: "Shooting down every plane that flies over America" is the goal of my in-development video game.
(Shocking twist: in multiplayer, you can play as ONE OF THE PLANES).
Keeping America safe from terrorists isn't a game, son. But this sounds awesome! Count me in.
@Gef: EVASIVE MANEUVERS!
P.S. The College of Insurance is a total party insurance college.
I recall the strategy of one of these multiplayer war videogames was to always have your team look like the US military, and the other players look like 'insurgents'.
That's pretty much only America's Army, which is the US Army's video game recruiting tool thinger. There might be some smaller brands that do it, but none of the big dogs run that way
Um, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has "insurgent" teams in multiplayer (keffiyehs and everything!).
Oh, misconstrued the comment. N/M.
You're going to have to learn to move on. I beat the computer at Pong eight straight times, and Pearl Harbor still happened.
i like my taliban like i like my women...digitized and anonymous.
And impersonated by people much like yourself?
god no! i'm an asshole.
You know what is kind of disturbing? The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II mission where you play as a Russian terrorist.
You mean where you play as an American PRETENDING to be a terrorist... making the wholesale slaughter even weirder.
At least they give you the option to avoid the "disturbing content" at the beginning of the game.
(Really stupid aside: I thought the airport was a shopping mall! That added a whole 'nother layer to the "disturbing.")
a bit heavy-handed
You think that's bad, what about the most racist of games - chess? Black vs White. And White always gets the first move. Shakh Mat! Death to the King!
WHOA! You just blew my mind by explaining the etymology of the Russian word (cognate!) "шахматы" (shakhmati)!
Apparently I misinformed you, though! Check this out:
http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/shahmatjan.html
I'm almost certain the brown terrorists were playable in Rainbow Six. Why all the outrage now?
america's knee jerk reactions have slowed. see also, burlington coat terror factory mosque.