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Military Personnel Weigh In On Being Taliban In Medal of Honor
SSDNINJA writes "This is a feature from gamrFeed that interviews nine US service members about playing as the Taliban in the upcoming Medal of Honor. One soldier states that games like MoH and Call of Duty are 'profiteering from war.' Another says, 'Honestly, I don't really see what the whole fuss is about. It's a game, and just like in Call of Duty, you don't really care about what side you're taking, just as long as you win. I don't think anyone cares if you're part of the Rangers or Spetznaz, as long as you win.' An excellent and interesting read."
something like "When our youth is playing "Swordsofthe Faithful"; it really tweaks my turban when they play the infidel 10th Army Division soldier... I mean, cmon, it really takes the bang out of suicide vest boys who are giving their lives for our cause....."
Get over it.
Fuck Ajit Pai
profiteering from war is bad?
Except for all those nice upstanding defense contractors and other related service companys we give billions to....
Damm... now i'm confused.
One soldier states that games like MoH and Call of Duty are 'profiteering from war
Oh boy, if that soldier only knew who was REALLY profiteering from war.
There was always something wrong with the kids who wanted to play indians. And how dare they fight back.
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief",
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, one.
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no no no,
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Those soldiers would a lot more angry if they knew about the license fees paid to the Taliban to use their logo, names and likeness.
But the gameplay would suffer if it weren't an officially licensed Taliban product.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
I don't think anyone cares if you're part of the Rangers or Spetznaz, as long as you win.'
just like real life.
Haliburton profits from war. Churches profit from war. The Boy Scouts profit from war. Flag makers profit from war. That soldier profited from war.
Games just wrap the same thing in different skins. If you put modern equipment skin on Halo, then it's profiting from war?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My sister had a Nazi Barbie, and it was her favorite toy. She always said playing with that doll was a real gas.
Space Ship Pilots Weigh In On Playing As Space Rocks In Asteroids Deluxe II RPG: The Revenge of the Asteroids! It's just as relevant, no, MORE relevant!
This is the NSA, we're gonna geet U h@x0r5! Also, what is a h@x0r5?
...but if we changed the locations to fake ones and the names of groups like the Taliban to imaginary groups it's no longer profiteering? Everyones trying to make a buck, not sure why this is so surprising.
I think it's a reference to the German origin of Barbie (Try googling Bild Lilly Doll) and that she's a blond haired blue eyed white girl; rather than a particular line of Barbie products.
During military wargaming exercises, it's pretty much always Red vs. Blue.
But I guess Halo covered that already.
http://redvsblue.com/
All war games, from chess (probably the game where the author wanted to have the biggest profit ever, according to the myth) to latest Medal of Honor profits from war What makes right a game about WWII? Or selling toy tanks for childs. Should Sun Tzu book be banned? Not defending that the games should profit from war, but the notion that just that game is wrong doing what everyone else is doing, probably including most of army.
Posting anon because of above: I don't have any problem playing make believe. We do it all the time, look up what aggressors do in exercises. They use taliban tactics and pretend to be taliban to prepare our soldiers for war. On the flip side, playing as taliban is also make believe in video games that may or may not be beneficial. It may cause soldiers to realize that the taliban are people too. It may also get them comfortable fighting next to people who look, dress, and sound like that.
Why do these people continue to try to make controversy around games. They're just going to make the game more popular. I remember the first time I heard about GTA was on the news about the controversy surrounding it and I remember thinking wow that game sounds really cool. If they don't like the game and don't want people to buy/play the game they should shut their mouth. Doing things in games that you can't do in reality is just part of what makes them fun.
We'd better ban any books or movies that tell any story from a non-American point of view. Oh wait, that's right... video games must be treated differently than all other media. I forgot about the, "freedom of speech, except for video games" clause in the Constitution.
Was it amusing?
There have been computer games that let you play as the "bad guys" almost as long as there have been computer games, in eras ranging from pre-historic times, through to the World Wars, Cold War, Vietnam and even fictional SciFi enemies such as the Sith. Sometimes being the bad guys and blowing of steam is also a heck of a lot of fun! The only thing that seems to have changed is that as modern society has had increasingly immediate access to current events, the period between the event and the entertainment based on it has reduced. Well, guess what? If you fight a war for a longer period than that grace period, then you are going to start seeing entertainment while the combat is still on-going.
Besides, one of the tenets of the military is "know your enemy"; I'm pretty sure Sun Szu's "Art of War" is still going to be required reading at West Point, and the like. If the simulation is good enough, then why not use it to train the troops in Red Team / Blue Team exercises. Surely, it's better that people get their asses kicked and then learn from their mistakes in a simulator than getting their asses kicked on a battlefield and not getting the chance.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
I've enjoyed (mostly) playing Counter-Strike for years, and one of the two teams is "Terrorists" whose purpose is to shoot police to death and plant explosives. I've played along side numerous soldiers and marines and they don't seem bothered.
I think the difference is the nebulous nonspecific "Terrorists" vs the specifically named Taliban, which strikes a much deeper tone.
Was it amusing?
You'll just never know, will you?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
The beta was terrible.
I think somebody mis-vocab'd
Profiteering is bad, but definitely didn't happen here.
There's nothing wrong with Profiting. The game profits from the war, the soldier profits from the war, the citizens profit from the war (hopefully).
No, there is no "-1 I'LL NEVER ADMIT BEING WRONG!!!" mod.
Ken always did look like metrosexual SS officer.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
If games about frolicking through Candy Land killing unicorns sold millions of copies every time an expansion came out, you'd see just as many of those types of games, guaranteed.
Classic game, I have such fond memories of it as a 6 year old. I look forward to a remake that involves both more frolicking and more unicorn killing.
Not only that, but in his world that volunteer soldier who is drawing a combat salary from the US government is "not" profiteering from war?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Was that you spent the last 1/3rd of the game running around killing American soldiers. I found it to be a very jarring sort of set of circumstances, I suppose thats what it was designed to be, but then again I thought the story in MW2 was heavily convoluted with crap and was a terrible sequel (at least story wise) to the original MW anyhow. That being said, I can't imagine being the Taliban is going to be any fun. Do I get to stone chicks to death and cut off their noses too? Perhaps I'll get to play as someone who lets off a car bomb next to a line of school children heading home? Geez, in addition to watered down crappy console ports, now I have to play as a bad guy doing shitty things all the time. I'm thinking CoD as a series has jumped the shark.
I'm not that curious how 9 random soldiers feel about playing as the Taliban. What I am curious about is how 9 soldiers that have been in combat against the Taliban feel.
Just as I'm more interested in an interview with a WWII soldier about WWII games than in anybody else's sense of the emotions. Everyone else is only anticipating offense or ambivalence.
As far as I can tell from a skim of TFA, there's no indication of these soldier's backgrounds, other than rank. Have they been in combat? Was it in this conflict? It's lazy reporting to ignore the detail, or to not make the effort to find people with an actual experience to found things on.
I worked on a grant from NASA. Are you going to expect special insight from me about the emotions surrounding the Columbia disaster? I'd hope not. I don't have any more connection to it than a shared high level boss.
Getting diabetes AND salmonella would be a bad weekend.
What about War movies? war documentary's? Money was made with those. Same thing. Noobs
Get your Celtic knot necklace!
They can do what they want. I don't care. It's a damned VIDEO GAME. And I'll play it, too, regardless. There are much more offensive things than then Taliban in games right now.
Yes and this is an interview with a soldier, not a pedantic toy historian. It's not a huge stretch to mistake a 1950s German Aryian ideal doll for a Nazi.
When I was in the Marines nobody cared about there being another team in military based shooters, this is just some journalist trying to create a story. The really offensive thing here is how fucking horrible the beta was. Seriously, the game's bad, don't buy it.
You blame the government, I blame media hysteria. The news media make a big deal of everything that happens, especially competitors of their host network. This gets the uninformed (about gaming) masses worked up and believing lies, then demanding a reaction because the media told them it's an epidemic and if it's not stopped the whole country will fall to anarchy. Obviously the government has to follow when the masses demand something and any voice of reason quickly gets drowned out and filtered by the media.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
EA aren't risking their lives for this. For EA it's all money on a balance sheet, for soldiers it might be the last few months of their life.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Yeah, like nipples..
FRA: STFU GTFO
They can do what they want. I don't care. It's a damned VIDEO GAME. And I'll play it, too, regardless. There are much more offensive things than then Taliban in games right now.
Like the price of the dam things or being forced to close process explorer to play a game and don't get me started on windows flipping live.
Always whining.
I'd love to see some sort of strategy/action hybrid where you lead a terrorist cell and try to being about the collapse of a country into chaos. You'd have to choose who to send on suicide missions, scout out bomb builders, etc.
You sure it wasn't just Dominatrix Barbie in her Gestapo interrogator outfit?
Our favortite virgin godesses Freedom and Liberty stand aside: make way for Psychiatrists and Psychologists for great whore of Justice!
are you a scientologist or something?
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
I have 2 sons in the USMC. I also like Medal of Honor. Heck, I just like alot of FPS's. But I just can't bring myself to killing my own people in a game. I just can't do it.
Oh, yeah! Wise guy, huh? Woob woob woob woob! Nyuk! Nyuk!
With the comment "Don't really care which side just want to win" and that's how it is for me in MW2, don't care if I'm special forces or insurgents in a favela, I just want to win.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."