Medal of Honor drops Taliban team from multiplayer mode
(Read article summary)Medal of Honor has changed the name of one of the teams in its multiplayer mode. But the gameplay remains the same.
Earlier this month, military bases across the country moved to block sales of the upcoming Medal of Honor, a long-awaited reboot of the popular military video game series created by Electronic Arts. The reason was simple: Medal of Honor included a multiplayer mode that would have let users pretend to enlist as members of the Taliban, and shoot at pixelated versions of American troops.
Critics like Karen Meredith, whose son, Army Lt. Ken Ballard, was killed in Iraq in 2004, said EA had crossed the line.
"I don't see how shooting soldiers based on real Americans is entertainment while people are dying every day for this country," Meredith told the San Jose Mercury News. "How can they say it's OK for someone to play the Taliban? You'll have people sitting at home, drinking beer, shooting at American soldiers, maybe missing, then starting over. Well, Ken didn't have a chance to start over."
Today comes news that Electronic Arts will pull the Taliban appellation from the multiplayer mode. Crucially, Electronic Arts has not toyed with the actual gameplay – it has merely changed the name of one of the teams.
"[B]ecause the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and Allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force," executive producer Greg Goodrich wrote on the Medal of Honor blog today. Goodrich stressed that the update would "not fundamentally alter the gameplay."
