Bad news, guys.

[Os Cangaceiros]

No one will be able to play their part in the struggle against US imperialism!

link (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/10/01/medal.of.honor.taliban/index.html?hpt=C1)

[Nachie]

*slowly puts his keffiyeh away*

btw as long as we're talking about completely pointless things, Rick Ross used to be a prison guard and you are a traitor to the revolution for quoting him in your sig.

[Os Cangaceiros]

*slowly puts his keffiyeh away*

btw as long as we're talking about completely pointless things, Rick Ross used to be a prison guard and you are a traitor to the revolution for quoting him in your sig.

That's true, but I think that he's changed his ways.

"This for my broke niggas/This for my rich niggas/Got a hundred on the head of a snitch nigga"

See, right there he's proclaiming his egalitarianism while simultaneously declaring that snitches will not be tolerated in our movement.

[praxis1966]

What the fuck, man... I know it'd be controversial and all, but that shit sells games. Besides, you didn't see Electronic Arts backing down when they produced Battlefield 1942, which allowed the user to play on the side of the Axis powers, or Battlefield Vietnam, where the user could play on the side of the Viet Cong. I guess maybe it's just too soon...

[Os Cangaceiros]

You can still play as the Taliban-esque characters apparently, but I guess that they got hung up on the "Taliban" label, LOL.

[Meridian]

"Opposing Forces". Might as well call them "The Villains".

[praxis1966]

While we're at it, you know what I'd really love to see in the world of FPS's? Faithful recreations of the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of Stalingrad in an MMO format. That shit would be dope.

[Meridian]

While we're at it, you know what I'd really love to see in the world of FPS's? Faithful recreations of the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of Stalingrad in an MMO format. That shit would be dope.


see in the world of FPS's
in an MMO format

In any case, gotta agree that games in those settings would be awesome.

[praxis1966]

I only meant that I'd like to see them done in such a way that you'd have hundreds, if not thousands, of players involved in the same combat scenario as opposed to the squad based combat that's currently en vogue. I feel like it'd be closer to reality that way.

[IndependentCitizen]

Just play Project reality, you can play as: taliban; chechen rebels; Iraqi insurgents and etc against US forces. You use proper insurgent tactics too.

[Pirate Utopian]

Rick Ross used to be a prison guard and you are a traitor to the revolution for quoting him in your sig.
Stop lying on that 50 Cent youtube shit.

Anyway...

"It is shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban," Fox told the newspaper. "At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands."
And what about the innocents who died because of the soldiers from the US & co.?

[Meridian]

I only meant that I'd like to see them done in such a way that you'd have hundreds, if not thousands, of players involved in the same combat scenario as opposed to the squad based combat that's currently en vogue. I feel like it'd be closer to reality that way.
Oh yeah, I always confuse MMO with MMORPG. An MMOFPS would be cool, I agree with your comment that more players makes it feel closer to reality.

[Tatarin]

In that case they should head out for Half-Life 1 in where you shoot (and in most cases have to) kill US marines, or why not ban the X-Files who puts all the government in a bad light?

[AK]

Fucking Christ, just let the kiddies play as the Taliban and let them experience the reality (well, it's very far from it but you get what I mean) of war - the "good" side gets shot to shit and the soldiers get nothing out of it.

I hope there's a "humble peasant" mode where you can launch ambushes on unsuspecting Marines.

[Nachie]

Stop lying on that 50 Cent youtube shit.

http://theanvilreview.org/files/crudo/rick-ross-corrections-officer.jpg

After months of denials and flat-out refusing to address the subject, Rick Ross has admitted to being employed as a correctional officer. - http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1606926/20090312/ross__rick__rap_.jhtml

YOU WERE SAYING?

[GreenCommunism]

the taliban are worse than the nazis, interesting.

[M-26-7]

I don't get it, are they still called "Opposing Forces" when you're playing as them?


Also,

"It is shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the British Army," Fox told the newspaper. "At the hands of the British Army, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands."

[GreenCommunism]

^
exactly what i was thinking.

[Pirate Utopian]

After months of denials and flat-out refusing to address the subject, Rick Ross has admitted to being employed as a correctional officer. - http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1606926/20090312/ross__rick__rap_.jhtml

YOU WERE SAYING?
:( ...His music is still good though.

[Widerstand]

While we're at it, you know what I'd really love to see in the world of FPS's? Faithful recreations of the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of Stalingrad in an MMO format. That shit would be dope.

I shed a tear because it'd be awesome but it'll never happen :'(

[Leonid Brozhnev]

Sounds like they're afraid that EA may depict the Taliban as human beings... not a chance. Anybody remember the depiction of 'Terrorists' by EA in C&C Generals? It was borderline racist.


I shed a tear because it'd be awesome but it'll never happen :'(

You never know, MMOFPS in Stalingrad sounds great. However, I know from experience that any WW2 game that allows players to play as Germany brings the part-time Nazi's crawling out of their holes.

[bcbm]

nothing changed except the name, big whoop. you still can be the "opposing force" gunning down us marines if thats your bag.


While we're at it, you know what I'd really love to see in the world of FPS's? Faithful recreations of the Spanish Civil War

yeah nothing like sitting in a freezing cold trench bored out of your mind for weeks.

[Plagueround]

While we're at it, you know what I'd really love to see in the world of FPS's? Faithful recreations of the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of Stalingrad in an MMO format. That shit would be dope.

The Spanish Civil War one will never happen because a huge flame war will erupt over whether to depict the anarchist partisans as "bold and brave freedom fighters ultimately betrayed by devious Stalinists" or "bumbling idiots who couldn't even fire a gun straight". ;)

[praxis1966]

You never know, MMOFPS in Stalingrad sounds great. However, I know from experience that any WW2 game that allows players to play as Germany brings the part-time Nazi's crawling out of their holes.

Yeah, me too. Which is why shooting them in game is so much more fun.


yeah nothing like sitting in a freezing cold trench bored out of your mind for weeks.

You know very well I was talking about the actual combat. Stop trying to turn a discussion about FPS's into one about RPG's, lulz...


The Spanish Civil War one will never happen because a huge flame war will erupt over whether to depict the anarchist partisans as "bold and brave freedom fighters ultimately betrayed by devious Stalinists" or "bumbling idiots who couldn't even fire a gun straight".

Which is why it would be so much fun. That's the whole point of FPS's. Testosterone driven alpha male aggression.

At any rate, I just thought of something. A hybrid of the MMO format with squad based combat. You could have hundreds of people on the same battlefield at the same time, but divvy them up into squads on either side with clear cut objectives aka fighting the way real combat is done...

Anyway, you guys are probably right. Nothing will probably ever come of it. Or it will, and I won't get paid for it, lulz...

[bcbm]

At any rate, I just thought of something. A hybrid of the MMO format with squad based combat. You could have hundreds of people on the same battlefield at the same time, but divvy them up into squads on either side with clear cut objectives aka fighting the way real combat is done...wwii online and a bunch of shitty games that have come out recently tried this

[Kléber]

If the Spanish Civil War game were realistic then on the Republican side there would be a special group of SIM/NKVD players who were encouraged to hunt down and assassinate suspected anarchist and Trotzkyite players on their own team. But actually it would fail because of lag like planetside and wwii online and jus be trench warfare on the Aragon front.

[ComradeOm]

nothing changed except the name, big whoop. you still can be the "opposing force" gunning down us marines if thats your bagExcept its far more than that. Here's a good article (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6158/persuasive_games_free_speech_is_.php) on how the change completely bankrupts EA's claim to be building/selling a relevant and modern experience in warfare. The key passage (though the whole thing is worth reading) is:


Crucially, Goodrich entreats the public to note the following: "this change should not directly affect gamers, as it does not fundamentally alter the gameplay." This one statement should cause considerable distress, as it suggests a troubling conclusion about Medal of Honor as a work of public speech.

To wit: it suggests that the Taliban never had any meaningful representation in the game anyway. If a historically, culturally, and geographically specific enemy can simply be recast in the generic cloth of "opposition," then why was it was called "Taliban" in the first place?

And if the Afghan war in which the new Medal of Honor is set was one explicitly meant to drive the Taliban from their strongholds in Afghanistan, why should it matter that the game is set in that nation in the present day at all? In short, how was this Medal of Honor title meant to be a game about this war in particular?

If the presence or absence of the Taliban "does not fundamentally alter the gameplay," then perhaps it did not matter that this particular Islamist terrorist group found its way into the game in the first place. And since EA has not altered the experience but only renamed the enemy, then whatever simulation of Taliban life Medal of Honor does offer remains the same save the letters by which it is annotated on-screen.

If a meaningful simulation of the Taliban ever existed, one that meant more than "the name for the current enemy that is in Afghanistan," then the studio would have had to admit that no other name can be given for that opposing force, and that to hedge would ruin the unique artistic expression the game hoped to communicate.

[Plagueround]

wwii online and a bunch of shitty games that have come out recently tried this

Planetside was the best attempt at this until Sony fucked it up. Man I loved that game.

[Crux]

No one will be able to play their part in the struggle against US imperialism!

link (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/10/01/medal.of.honor.taliban/index.html?hpt=C1)
Where is the outcry against being able to play the U.S forces? I do hope it's accurate enough that you can massacre civilians.

[bcbm]

Except its far more than that. Here's a good article (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6158/persuasive_games_free_speech_is_.php) on how the change completely bankrupts EA's claim to be building/selling a relevant and modern experience in warfare.

the change only effects multiplayer, which i don't think was ever going to be a "relevant and modern experience in warfare" any more than in modern warfare 2 or however many similar games. playing as the "taliban" instead of "opposing force" isn't going to change how the mode works. and of course its clear they're still the fucking taliban because of all the publicity.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I'll just play Call of Duty: Black Ops then. That way I can play as the Communists through online. I hear it portrays Vietnam, the Soviet Union, & Cuba. That'll be awesome if true.

[WeAreReborn]

"It is shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban," Fox told the newspaper. "At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands." So according to Liam Fox the American military never have killed someone otherwise they would be excluded from the game. Hmm, I thought that they killed much more people then the Taliban in Afghanistan alone... nah must have been Communist propaganda..

[Cirno(9)]

Does the Taliban cover their faces as much as they do in video game depictions?

I'm just asking because from the documentaries I've seen of the Taliban, no one really covered their face with a scarf wheras it seems to be a very common trope in pop-culture.

Its just that obscuring faces is a fairly easy way to dehumanize an enemy..

[La Peur Rouge]

Does the Taliban cover their faces as much as they do in video game depictions?

I'm just asking because from the documentaries I've seen of the Taliban, no one really covered their face with a scarf wheras it seems to be a very common trope in pop-culture.

Its just that obscuring faces is a fairly easy way to dehumanize an enemy..

Personally I think it's more of a "We're carrying weapons and shooting at an invading army, let's cover our faces so it's hard to be identified." sort of thing

[Tankred]

So, I take it the favorite childhood playground game "Cops and Robbers" is now renamed "Cops and Opposing Force," right?