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GameStop Pulls Medal of Honor From Military Bases
donniebaseball23 writes "EA's Medal of Honor reboot doesn't ship until October 12, but it's already seen a fair amount of controversy thanks to the publisher's decision to allow people to play as Taliban in multiplayer. The controversy just got escalated another notch, reports IndustryGamers, as the world's biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won't sell the title at its stores located on US military bases. The new Medal of Honor won't be advertised at these stores either. GameStop noted that they came to this decision 'out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.'"
"Gimmie that!" *yoink*
"But...!"
"Because I respect you!"
I can still play as Germans in WW2 games, though? Phew. For a second there I was worried.
Respect would be acknowledging that our men and women in uniform are adults and can decide for themselves how they want to spend their leisure time.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
We trust those men and women with automatic rifles, artillery, tanks, fighter jets, and battleships. We trust them to shoot and kill people to (in theory anyway) protect our way of life. We trust them to literally take a bullet so that people back home don't have to (again in theory at least). I think that we should give them the respect they deserve and trust them to make their own decisions about what games to buy and play. Pulling the advertisements I can agree with, maybe even putting the game behind the counter out of sight, but how can you justify making the game completely unavailable to them? But that's just my opinion.
My point from my original post which you seem to have missed:
I think that we should give them the respect they deserve and trust them to make their own decisions about what games to buy and play.
Telling people who are risking their lives for us that they aren't emotionally stable enough to handle this game is insulting. Maybe some of them can't, but that should be their decision, not yours or mine.
What about some guy who lost his Afghan/Iraqi/Pakistan friend when US soldiers shot them? Maybe he even wasn't an soldier, but a civilian. There have been countless news about those shootings. What makes it more right to be an US soldier shooting them than being the "enemy" and shooting US soldiers? Hypocrisy at its best.
You know, they are people just like you. They have families, childhood, friends, loved ones, dreams. Don't forget that on your high horse.
Telling people who are risking their lives for us that they aren't emotionally stable enough to handle this game is insulting. Maybe some of them can't, but that should be their decision, not yours or mine.
Well, technically it should be GameStop's decision, since it's their stores. And they're deciding. But like many of the posters here you're mistaking discretion/respect for "fear of an emotional collapse."
Like, if I see you waiting on line for a movie, I am not going to just cut ahead of you. I won't do this not because I'm afraid you'll have an emotional breakdown then and there, but because it shows politeness.
but how can you justify making the game completely unavailable to them?
I'm going to guess that the GameStop executives had an emergency meeting on the topic "What high-profile action can we take to defuse this controversy real quick", and the geniuses came up with this.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
... that they can't acquire the game some other way if they really wanted to.
I didn't realize "making sure computer games are readily available to soldiers" was a priority of the US military, much less a priority for a private company who themselves have the freedom to do what they want.
"We're fighting for your freedoms, just don't exercise them."
Yes, and what I'm saying is that pulling the game from your stores does not show politeness. It's a highly anticipated game that doubtless many people in the military are interested in playing, Gamestop is just saying "nope" without even asking what they think about the matter. As I said before, I could understand not putting up giant displays advertising for the game, and I can even understand putting the game behind the counter and making available by request only, I cannot understand taking that decision away soldiers themselves.
As someone below this post put it much more elegantly:
"You can't have that."
"But-"
"Because I RESPECT you!.
"Sorry, you can't buy this game here. We're showing respect for you and refusing to sell it to you."
TFA doesn't make this clear. Here's a better one: Video Game Pulled Globally From Military Stores Over Taliban Inclusion
Since there are still WWII vets around, games with Nazis should be no-go. Anything after WWI really. Of course, some people may have lost relatives in previous wars, so war games should basically be banned, out of respect.
Do they let the American soldiers in the game shoot civilians, rape young Afghanis and bomb weddings with UAVs?
Try to remember this is only a game.
Maybe someone who just lost a friend to the Taliban might not really be in the mood for seeing a game where they can re-enact killing their friend.
Perhaps my father was killed by VC, does that mean that nobody should make historically accurate Vietnam games? What if my grandfather was killed by a German, does that put ww2 games in bad taste?
Sure the time scale is greater, but its just being fucking 'PC stupid' to go to lengths like this. I think if I was killed in Afghanistan, I would be pissed off by politically correct assholes who want to sweep everything under a rug, 'out of respect for the survivors'.
What the HELL is wrong with a factually depicted game? Telling an accurate story is very respectful of those who served.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I'm a USMC Infantry Machine Gunner. I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan. For a time, I was the farthest forward-deployed unit in our military. I'm pissed. GameStop just lost all my business. I don't care that you can play as Taliban on a game, even I'll do it just for kicks. I seem to remember something (http://www.slate.com/id/2096112/) about the Japanese fighting against the Japanese in a different MOH title. It's not a big deal. Really, though, thanks for treating us like children, and "protecting" us from the evils of those Taliban, who we haven't walked with on streets holding rifles, or shot at or been shot at in reality. We obviously cannot handle it. GameStop, I hope you die.
Sun Tzu put it best why American soldiers should play as the Taliban:
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.