The UK Defence Secretary and Fox News are already in uproar over EA’s forthcoming Afghanistan-set Medal of Honor shooter – JOE wonders will videogame vilification ever end?
A year after the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, military-based videogames have once again become embroiled in the type of reactionary, mass hysterics that have dogged the genre since its recent popularisation. The latest victim? October’s Medal of Honor release, which features playable Taliban for the shooter’s online multiplayer component.
The rumblings of discontent over Electronic Art’s forthcoming series reboot reached an impasse this week as Conservative Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox described the Afghanistan-set war title as ‘thoroughly un-British’ and even stated his desire for a full retail boycott of the title’s release.
In a damning statement, Fox said he found it “shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers”. He continued, “I am disgusted and angry. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.”
Conservative Outrage
Across the pond, US network Fox News have also got into the debate by interviewing a “Gold Star Mom”, or more accurately the mother of a fallen US solider, on a morning segment. Karen Meredith, member of the American Gold Star Mothers appeared as the lone guest for the news piece, though the station did repeat EA spokesperson Amanda Taggart’s statement that, similar to childhood ‘Cops and Robbers’ games, “in Medal of Honor multiplayer, somebody’s got to be the Taliban.”
Ban this sick filth!
Mrs. Meredith stated that she felt EA’s release was “disrespectful” and that “war is not a game, period”. When pressed on her views that the Medal of Honor games had previously featured the WWII Theater, the bereaved mother said that she felt “the fact that they’ve already done games about World War II, that’s far removed from our current history. People aren’t dying in World War II anymore, that’s far removed. It’s not based on real people.” One could argue that the millions of fallen soldiers in WWII were real people, but let’s get back to basics for a moment.
One of the main issues in the Medal of Honor controversy is the alarming degree of misinformation presented by critics, and even defenders of EA’s Taliban inclusion. Firstly, despite Defence Secretary Fox’s “un-British” view of EA’s choice, no British soldiers are set to feature in the game. Secondly, even as Ian O’Doherty defended the title in his Irish Independent column today, he too felt that the shooter featured a playable Taliban character gunning down soldiers during a single-player level.
Ask any online shooter enthusiast and they will tell you that gamers have ultimately no preference over which side they are randomly selected to represent in multiplayer match-ups – whether you’re fighting as American soldiers or a vaguely Eastern European or Arab collective, it’s a decision that’s as meaningless and arbitrary as fighting for either the red or blue side in online Halo battles. All EA have essentially done is chosen the single-player antagonists to be an opposing collective for the game’s multiplayer option – something the Gears of War series amongst many others have done in the past.
As for the source of Medal of Honor‘s critics, neither should come as much surprise. The Conservative Party scrapped the Labour-proposed UK videogame tax break plan, which was first proposed to reverse the tide of UK development staff emigration, in early July, despite some of the finest development houses such as Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto), Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham Asylum) and Lionhead (Fable) losing an average of 6 per cent of staff to overseas employers since 2008 alone.
Fox News, on the other hand, need no introduction. Its report on sci-fi RPG Mass Effect was castigated by its publishers EA (again), who produced a lengthy statement to combat the segment’s ˜insulting” array of inaccuracies regarding the title’s miniscule sexual content. Considering the average US purchaser of videogames is 39 years old, how is it that adult-themed, mature content in the world’s fastest growing entertainment medium are still subjected to the same level of misinformed moral panics reserved for the “video nasties” of the 1980s?
If EA are starting to feel the heat, they can take solace from the post-release success of its biggest rival, the Call of Duty series. The Activision-published franchise ignited a firestorm of controversy last winter with a single-player level that genuinely placed gamers in the company of terrorists (as an undercover agent), and included an airport-set massacre of innocents. Despite much hot air and discussion in the House of Commons, no bans or boycotts preceded the title’s release and Activision ultimately sold 20 million copies of the game worldwide.
If anything, behind closed doors, EA must be thanking their lucky stars for the current brouhaha over Medal of Honor. The actual confirmed content of the title is nowhere near as confrontational as Modern Warfare 2’s aforementioned “No Russians” level and could easily be swatted away in any balanced televised debate or PR rebuttal. Having said that, the company’s earlier comparison to ‘Cops and Robbers’ for the demarcation of multiplayer team battles was a somewhat juvenile choice of words, especially considering the ongoing nature of its real-world equivalent.
Excellent Timing
Another aspect that should not go unnoticed is that Medal of Honor is the first title in the series’ back catalogue since 2007, the year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare effectively wrestled the military gaming crown from EA’s franchise. It’s also no secret that EA’s series reboot is the first in the franchise to move from a WWII setting to the modern conflict of Afghanistan. Whether it makes readers comfortable or not, modern warfare is big business in the videogames industry, and Medal of Honor‘s promotion and timing of release are looking more ingenious each passing day.
Though it was not the first World War II-set first-person shooter to hit consoles upon release in 1999 (Wolfenstein 3D featured Nazi-killing as far back as 1992), the original Medal of Honor release became synonymous with the emerging WWII genre by virtue of great reviews and expert timing – it hit the shelves just one year after Steven Spielberg’s 1998 Saving Private Ryan became the worldwide highest-grossing movie of the year.
As the series grew, it followed yearly sequels and spin-offs, each assigned to different development teams, one of whom (Medal of Honor: Allied Assault) was created by a departing group of project leads that formed the Infinity Ward development team. EA would never forget the names of IW’s creators Jason West and Vince Zampello – they went on to create the franchise that would usurp Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, under their new publishers Activision.
If the Tories get their way, MoH-buying gamer’s doors could be kicked in with brute force
After last year’s Modern Warfare 2 release, there was much industry whispering that all was not well between Activision and the creators of its golden goose franchise. In March of this year, both founders were unceremoniously fired by their employers. Both parties have filed lawsuits; Activision claiming that both founders had met with former employers EA and West/Zampello claiming their publisher was withholding royalties unless each began immediate development on Modern Warfare 3. Weeks later, West and Zampello, alongside 46 ex-Infinity Ward staff that left Activision in disgust, formed Respawn Entertainment, an independent gaming studio, under the EA Partners program, giving Electronic Arts exclusive publishing and distribution rights for their future titles.
With seven weeks to release, everyone from gamers to politicians and news pundits, can’t seem to stop chattering about the triumphant return of the Medal of Honor franchise. Even better for developers EA, the company has essentially bought the bulk team of its Call of Duty rival developers and creators, while its main competition this Christmas is the November release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, produced by Treyarch Entertainment. Treyarch are largely considered the Danny De Vito portion of the Call of Duty series’ now-twin development teams.
With positive previews from the gaming press coupled with indignation from reactionary tabloids – whether intentional or not, everything is falling right into place to ensure Medal of Honor is on the tip of everyone’s tongue for the coming weeks and months. And what about the potential to shift 20 million copies of its own? At this stage, only a Conversative Party/Fox News-backed Tali-ban of EA’s juggernaut could now stop its inevitable success.
Medal of Honor is released for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on 15 October. JOE has been invited to sample the shooter at a London event, so look forward to our hands-on impression later this week.
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