UPDATE: Our Medal of Honor poll is now open. Is EA right or wrong? You tell us.
The inclusion of the Taliban in Medal of Honor was inevitably going to come to the attention of politicians. They can’t resist. The idea of a violent, controversial video game, some “sick filth” that needs banning is like catnip to politicos. They’ve been calling for games to be banned since pixellated prehistory (Space Invaders was once the scourge that would turn American youths to illiteracy and degeneracy).
Of course the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, was going to profess himself “disgusted” with Medal of Honor without ever having played the game. When it comes to gaming, most politicians see an easy target and even as MPs who grew up playing the NES and the Mega Drive make it to Parliament, that’s not going to stop…
I wrote last week about why I’m not planning to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops or Medal of Honor and talked about why the idea of playing as the Taliban feels uncomfortable to me. But I never suggested it should be banned. Games are an art form like film or television and have as much right to represent topical issues.
You’d think that Fox would have bigger issues to concern himself with. Say for instance the number of British service people killed and wounded in Afghanistan, the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons or deciding which overstretched part of the armed forces he’ll cut. But no, he thought it was wise to pass judgement on a game he hasn’t played and doesn’t understand.
Let’s dissect his comments to The Sunday Times for a moment. He said: “It is shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers…it’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game.” Then he urged shops “to show support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.”
Putting the the jingoistic overtone of his comments to one side, it’s clear that Fox doesn’t understand what EA is proposing to do with Medal of Honor. The game features American Special Forces, there aren’t any Brits featured and the Taliban are included in the multiplayer game rather than the main single player campaign.
By quickly shouting for Medal of Honor to be banned, Fox has put himself in the pantheon of clueless politicians who’ve embarrassed themselves by spouting off about the evils of video games. He follows in the footsteps of Labour Keith Vaz who got himself het up about Modern Warfare 2 this time last year and Ian Duncan Smith who, in January, accused Grand Theft Auto of “driving children to lose their childhood”.
Fox’s comments have been brushed off as his “personal view” by the Department for Culture Media and Sport which rightly points out that there is a ratings system and Medal of Honor will be an 18. But Fox won’t be the last MP to flail in the direction of a “scandalous” video game.
Attacking films, TV series or books makes you look the an authoritarian boob. But scare stories around games play well in the tabloids. They stick to the misnomer that gaming is for kids (when most Medal of Honor players will be in the mid-twenties and thirties) and are always particularly aggrieved about perceived slight to “our brave boys”.
Politicians lunge for cases like the Medal of Honor controversy because they seem simple: developers bad, game evil, must ban. And every time they come off looking foolish. If they were playing a game, they’d never get past the first level.
Or am I wrong? Is Liam Fox right to slam Medal of Honor and call for the game to be banned? Fling yourselves into the comments to fight it out.
