Gamers Can "Play" as Taliban

[Army of GOD]

I'm just gonna quote what I said in a private forum.

There are plenty of games out there that let you play as Germans in WWII, and I can't say I've ever heard complaints about that. Anyways, despite knowing virtually nothing about the game, I'm sure that the single player aspect of the game takes place only from the American perspective.

The bottom line for me is that in your average multiplayer First Person Shooters there have to be at least two sides (there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare). If you're basing your game off of real events, that means that two real groups are going to be killing each other.

OMG! I WAS THERE!

[Frigidus]

I'm just gonna quote what I said in a private forum.

There are plenty of games out there that let you play as Germans in WWII, and I can't say I've ever heard complaints about that. Anyways, despite knowing virtually nothing about the game, I'm sure that the single player aspect of the game takes place only from the American perspective.

The bottom line for me is that in your average multiplayer First Person Shooters there have to be at least two sides (there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare). If you're basing your game off of real events, that means that two real groups are going to be killing each other.

OMG! I WAS THERE!

THAT THREAD IS SO AMAZING, RIGHT?! EVERYONE IS MISSING OUT!

[Army of GOD]

I'm just gonna quote what I said in a private forum.

There are plenty of games out there that let you play as Germans in WWII, and I can't say I've ever heard complaints about that. Anyways, despite knowing virtually nothing about the game, I'm sure that the single player aspect of the game takes place only from the American perspective.

The bottom line for me is that in your average multiplayer First Person Shooters there have to be at least two sides (there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare). If you're basing your game off of real events, that means that two real groups are going to be killing each other.

OMG! I WAS THERE!

THAT THREAD IS SO AMAZING, RIGHT?! EVERYONE IS MISSING OUT!

LOL REMEMBER THAT TIME THAT DOLPHIN DID A GEOMETRY PROOF WHILE HIGH ON COCAINE?!?!

[Baron Von PWN]

Look at the lack of intelligence of the highest rated comments for that video. I could care less what the ignorant gamers think.

This was a bad move by EA IMO. I don't think it was good idea to make the game to begin with, but at least don't allow the user to kill American soldiers. That is just a pathetic move by EA and they should have had more foresight.

BTW MV - I think you posted some cowardly comments on this thread. I'll leave it at that because I'm not trying to flame.

Have you ever read youtube comments before? You're lucky if its legible.

[heavycola]

As horrible as it is to lose a family member in combat, what the f*ck does this have to do with EA's game?

It a friggin game, in COD you can kill american soldiers in GTA you can kill cops etc etc This is the typical thing where someone who has suffered takes it out on the wrong people and no-one can disagree because of said persons suffering. I wont buy the game if it does come out I really don't give a sh*t about it but this is just much ado about nothing.

I have friends and family in the military. Fortunately none of them have been killed. You don't have to have a loved one killed in the military to know that this game is offensive. Yes I realize that many gamers legitimately enjoy the game and they don't have the same mindset as this lady. But the game is in poor taste.

There's an old chinese saying: if you don't want to get wet, don't become a plumber.

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

[Woodruff]

As horrible as it is to lose a family member in combat, what the f*ck does this have to do with EA's game?

It a friggin game, in COD you can kill american soldiers in GTA you can kill cops etc etc This is the typical thing where someone who has suffered takes it out on the wrong people and no-one can disagree because of said persons suffering. I wont buy the game if it does come out I really don't give a sh*t about it but this is just much ado about nothing.

I have friends and family in the military. Fortunately none of them have been killed. You don't have to have a loved one killed in the military to know that this game is offensive. Yes I realize that many gamers legitimately enjoy the game and they don't have the same mindset as this lady. But the game is in poor taste.

Viperlord, there are a large number of games where one can kill American troops. This is not an unusual situation at all. The ONLY difference is that this one happens to be the ability to do so while being part of a Muslim organization. Is that really worse than doing so while being part of a Nazi organization? I don't really think so.

[The Bison King]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

[thegreekdog]

There is a difference between these two things:

(1) Not being sympathetic to a parent who has lost their child in war, whether the child voluntarily enlisted or not. I think we should all be sympathetic to anyone who loses a loved one regardless of the circumstances.

and

(2) Not caring about a video game that glorifies violence, in whatever form. Because, frankly, I don't give a shit what games they put out; if you don't like the content of the game, don't play it.

So, anyway, let's divide the issues on those grounds... because they are different.

[saxitoxin]

I say this as someone who likes playing World in Conflict (only in multiplayer mode, though, so I can play the good guys ... Saxi loves being able to take pot shots at the Space Needle from the turret of a T-72! ) ... but, I don't care much if you can or can't play the Taliban, this game still rather offends me.

FIRST,
EA are war-profiteers as much as Raytheon. This game wouldn't sell as well as it will if it was a game in which Flumpy-Wumpy's battled Purple Pony Princesses. EA is about to generate shareholder profits from an active war.

SECOND,
The idea that fat, lethargic American adultolescents can sit in their basements living out their gung-ho fantasies while their more physically and mentally fit peers are actually in-the-field doing what they're pretending to do is microscopically amusing but macroscopically disturbing. It continues the desperate efforts to prevent emasculation of the majority inferior segment of the American male stock by equalizing their mundane jobs as accountants and gas station attendants to the profession of soldiering.

As a dialectic Marxist-Leninist I'm fundamentally opposed to US foreign adventuring, however and nonetheless, it recognizes a fundamental perversion of natural order when non-soldiers are afforded first breeding opportunities owing to their domestication. This lowers the genetic value of the male stock. (Though, it's a trend throughout the English-speaking world, not just the US.)

[mviola]

(1) Not being sympathetic to a parent who has lost their child in war, whether the child voluntarily enlisted or not. I think we should all be sympathetic to anyone who loses a loved one regardless of the circumstances.

I'm not saying we should rub their noses in their kids' death, they shouldn't publicly complain, in my opinion

[tzor]

FIRST,
EA are war-profiteers as much as Raytheon. This game wouldn't sell as well as it will if it was a game in which Flumpy-Wumpy's battled Purple Pony Princesses. EA is about to generate shareholder profits from an active war.

Now you tell me this Saxi? I bet my former employer (Acclaim) would never had gone out of business had I the evidence to prove that "Fur Fighters" would be a total flop. "Fluff You" for not telling me this sooner. (Not that the idiot would ever listen anyway.)

While Fur Fighters was not a tremendous financial success and went almost unnoticed by the majority of gamers at the time, critically the game was almost universally praised for its size, scope, sense of humour, and attention to detail. The fact that mindless violence was not the sole gameplay element impressed many, and the game went on to become a sort of cult classic.

[Georgerx7di]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

Wow man, you're really on top of things. You definitely understood this post.

[The Bison King]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

Wow man, you're really on top of things. You definitely understood this post.

Unless it was really was sarcasm in which case I apologize. If not, I stand by my WTF.

[The Bison King]

Correction: If it truly was sarcasm I do more than apologize and applaud Heavycola's cunning whit and am in complete agreement with the statement.

[thegreekdog]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

Wow man, you're really on top of things. You definitely understood this post.

Unless it was really was sarcasm in which case I apologize. If not, I stand by my WTF.

Relevant to this - http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/13/

[Night Strike]

I'm just gonna quote what I said in a private forum.

There are plenty of games out there that let you play as Germans in WWII, and I can't say I've ever heard complaints about that. Anyways, despite knowing virtually nothing about the game, I'm sure that the single player aspect of the game takes place only from the American perspective.

The bottom line for me is that in your average multiplayer First Person Shooters there have to be at least two sides (there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare). If you're basing your game off of real events, that means that two real groups are going to be killing each other.

I think there are two large differences between fighting as a Nazi versus as a Taliban. The first it the proximity in time to the battle. WWII happened 65 years ago while the War on Terror is still an active war with skirmishes against the Taliban an ongoing reality. Time doesn't heal all wounds, but it does take the edge off of them, and the wounds are still too fresh for many families of loved ones currently fighting. Furthermore, many families of soldiers know that this war is a fairly unpopular one, so some families may believe that a game that promotes the killing of US soldiers is a way to make a political statement against the war.

[Georgerx7di]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

Wow man, you're really on top of things. You definitely understood this post.

Unless it was really was sarcasm in which case I apologize. If not, I stand by my WTF.

It was definitely sarcasm.

[Frigidus]

I'm just gonna quote what I said in a private forum.

There are plenty of games out there that let you play as Germans in WWII, and I can't say I've ever heard complaints about that. Anyways, despite knowing virtually nothing about the game, I'm sure that the single player aspect of the game takes place only from the American perspective.

The bottom line for me is that in your average multiplayer First Person Shooters there have to be at least two sides (there are exceptions, but they are becoming increasingly rare). If you're basing your game off of real events, that means that two real groups are going to be killing each other.

I think there are two large differences between fighting as a Nazi versus as a Taliban. The first it the proximity in time to the battle. WWII happened 65 years ago while the War on Terror is still an active war with skirmishes against the Taliban an ongoing reality. Time doesn't heal all wounds, but it does take the edge off of them, and the wounds are still too fresh for many families of loved ones currently fighting. Furthermore, many families of soldiers know that this war is a fairly unpopular one, so some families may believe that a game that promotes the killing of US soldiers is a way to make a political statement against the war.

There are also games about Vietnam and Desert Storm. I know for sure you can play as the Vietnamese, probably can play as the Iraqis in one of the other games (I haven't played any Desert Storm games, just know of them). There have also already been movies made about 9/11 that came out a few years ago.

Ultimately, I think that this is a big issue for people more because video games have a stigma attached to them rather than that the content is offensive. You see the same things when people are upset over Grand Theft Auto and not Godfather or The Sopranos. Certainly the content will upset some, but I don't think that you just have to wait a certain number of years before it will suddenly become OK. Games and movies based on reality are naturally offensive. I don't see what EA is doing as any more offensive than other, similar games (and it is much less offensive than fucking Madden).

[Night Strike]

I'd agree with those sentiments. EA had the right to do it, but they also have the obligation to take the criticism from those how disapprove of the game just like any other game. I personally don't think the game should have been made, but it has been and should not be pulled.

[MeDeFe]

But on the whole, I agree. I'm happy to let my 8-year old son play these games, as long as he only blows the shit out of computer-generated reprersentations of camel-jockeys, russians and ethnics. I will NOT permit him to point his fake DeathFuck2000 semi-automatic at any computer-generated representations of Americans. Don't want him getting all fucked up in the head, do we?

WTF are you talking about! If anything is going to f*ck him up in the head it's the shooting part! So you're telling me that it's ok for your 8 year old son to learn to kill ethnics from video games just so long as he doesn't learn to shoot Americans (or at least non ethnic Americans. WTF is with all the fucking racism on the forums lately!

Please tell me that your post was sarcasm.

Wow man, you're really on top of things. You definitely understood this post.

Unless it was really was sarcasm in which case I apologize. If not, I stand by my WTF.

It was definitely sarcasm.

Confirmed.


Now, why is the word "play" in the title of the thread put in inverted commas? I don't see a good reason for it.
So gamers can play as the bad guys. Whoop-de-doo. Wasn't that big news in 1970 or so? Other than "it's in bad taste", I don't see how any charge can be leveled at EA. And so what if it is in bad taste? Things that are in bad taste have been produced since, roughly, things have been produced.

[ksslemp]

"My son didn't get to start over when he was killed."

He shouldn't have went overseas then.

f*ck YOU!!!
What a Fucking Piece of Shit you are for saying that!!!!

[mviola]

"My son didn't get to start over when he was killed."

He shouldn't have went overseas then.

f*ck YOU!!!
What a Fucking Piece of Shit you are for saying that!!!!

Really, calling me names to get me to keep my opinion to myself? Not all of us support the war you know.

[thegreekdog]

"My son didn't get to start over when he was killed."

He shouldn't have went overseas then.

f*ck YOU!!!
What a Fucking Piece of Shit you are for saying that!!!!

Really, calling me names to get me to keep my opinion to myself? Not all of us support the war you know.

Yeah, so... you didn't really read any of the comments did you? Sometimes it's better to apologize for making grossly insensitive comments when what you should have said was, "I don't agree with this woman. It's just a video game." and left it at that.

There is a difference between not supporting a war and not supporting the troops engaged in the war. You've crossed into "not supporting the troops" territory. The vast majority of people don't appreciate this and the vast vast vast majority of people tend to think your comments are rather disgusting honestly.

[ksslemp]

"My son didn't get to start over when he was killed."

He shouldn't have went overseas then.

f*ck YOU!!!
What a Fucking Piece of Shit you are for saying that!!!!

Really, calling me names to get me to keep my opinion to myself? Not all of us support the war you know.

Not trying to get you to keep your opinion to yourself!
Just saying you are a Fucking Piece of Shit for having that opinion! Capish?

Maybe you could go over and give the Taliban a great big hug, then they will know how nice Americans are and forget all about enslaving people.
Give them a cd of 50cent, i'm sure they'd appreciate it.

Take in some sights while you're there, maybe go see the large Buddha rubble pile or head over to a soccer stadium and watch a couple quarters of stonings. pack extra kevlar and leave your Bible!

Bon Voyage

[MeDeFe]

"My son didn't get to start over when he was killed."

He shouldn't have went overseas then.

f*ck YOU!!!
What a Fucking Piece of Shit you are for saying that!!!!

Really, calling me names to get me to keep my opinion to myself? Not all of us support the war you know.

Not trying to get you to keep your opinion to yourself!
Just saying you are a Fucking Piece of Shit for having that opinion! Capish?

Maybe you could go over and give the Taliban a great big hug, then they will know how nice Americans are and forget all about enslaving people.
Give them a cd of 50cent, i'm sure they'd appreciate it.

Take in some sights while you're there, maybe go see the large Buddha rubble pile or head over to a soccer stadium and watch a couple quarters of stonings. pack extra kevlar and leave your Bible!

Bon Voyage

Just what does any of this have to do with computer games?