Interesting. Most of the spec op community I have talked to doesn't mind killing the enemy. They-the enemy- were cutting peoples hands off long before this game was announced. This is truth.

Beamer wrote on Oct 1, 2010, 15:53:
I doubt this is for publicity.

a visit to the medal of honor site with the front page announcement of the name change says otherwise.

Exec 1: "Wait you mean the Taliban MoH controversy is dying down?"
Exec 2: "Yep, it's just not as inflammatory as we could have hoped, people are moving on."
Exec 1: "Well what if we just give in and change it? That would get us a mention right?"
Exec 2: "I think you're onto something here..."

Are you a different Bhruic, or are you the same one that just 3 posts below said the real reason they did this was for publicity?

Well, yes, there is that. The point is tho', that the only reason they are getting publicity for it is because it is the politically correct thing to do. If they were changing the name because Greg Goodrich's mother told him to, there wouldn't be any news - or publicity.

tuddies wrote on Oct 1, 2010, 17:12:
How about respect for the American tax payer? Wasting trillions on killing, maiming and destruction for nothing. I want my money back!

You haven't paid for it yet! But you will, oh yes, you will.

While I do think this was and is basically a publicity stunt why do people keep bringing up comparisons to WWII?

Seems fairly obvious that the big difference is that WWII ended 65 years ago, while service members are dying TODAY to the Taliban.
It makes a big difference in how they need to handle things like this and I'm surprised it even needs to be spelled out.

AngryMax wrote on Oct 1, 2010, 17:14:
Too much political correctness America. Grow some balls. Romans staged gladiatorial events involving Gauls after having war with them for longest of time, this is a mild and soft in comparison re-enactment stage of our time. Let it be what it is without the bullshit.

if you think this whole event began or ended with political considerations at the forefront, you probably need to age a decade or two

Silicon Avatar wrote on Oct 1, 2010, 17:13:
We should apply this logic retroactively. The Nazis in Wolfenstein will now be called "Cuddlebunnies".

This honors the surviving WW2 vets and their contribution to history.

Yeah and you don't see Germany going ape shit over that. They simply want to avoid FoX news reporter saying "youngsters training for Taliban in a video game simulation". This is the way things work in a militaristic neo-fascist society we have become.

Too much political correctness America. Grow some balls. Romans staged gladiatorial events involving Gauls after having war with them for longest of time, this is a mild and soft in comparison re-enactment stage of our time. Let it be what it is without the bullshit.

We should apply this logic retroactively. The Nazis in Wolfenstein will now be called "Cuddlebunnies".

This honors the surviving WW2 vets and their contribution to history.

How about respect for the American tax payer? Wasting trillions on killing, maiming and destruction for nothing. I want my money back!

entr0py wrote on Oct 1, 2010, 12:39:
Can they also rename the US side out of respect for the families of Afghan civilians who have been killed in the war?

those people aren't in their sales demographic. so they don't give a shit about them.

In other news Taliban soldiers are outraged that they have been cut from the game.

Wow, this has more replies than Valve going microtransaction.

Weird.

Smart decision because:

Who'd wanna play Taliban except if there's a nice and cruel looking suicide option?

Dumb decision because:

Who wouldn't wanna kill Taliban soldiers? Unless you've some fucked up "there's something good in everybody" morals of course.

I doubt this is for publicity.
They'd get way more if they released the game allowing you to be the Taliban than they do changing the name.

C'mon. What has gotten the most publicity in recent video games along these lines?
2) No Russian. Since that was killing civilians, no name change would help, but had it been a US airport? Oh man.
1) Six Days in Fallujah. So much publicity the game will never see the light of day.


They're trying to avoid being banned. Immense publicity, but the bad kind. As gamers, what the hell do we care? It affects us negatively not at all.

fucking pussies

I GUESS THEY WON'T LOSE THOSE TALIBAN SALES AFTER ALL

This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to.

I'm not up to speed on what the families of the fallen soldiers have been speaking up about but this seems tragically insignificant. I can think of dozens of things that families should be outraged about that make this issue look comical in comparison. Wounded vet care deserves so much more attention than this...

Americans seem to have no stomach for dealing with real issues so instead we gloss over the important stuff and harp all day long on stupid crap like this that isn't going to make any difference in the end. I could care less if it's taliban or opfor or whatever you want to call it but to use those families for a cause as insignificant as this you'd think that this was one of the most controversial topics today...too bad we all know it's total bullshit and we should be talking about a hell of a lot worse things instead.

Edit: poor choice of words

I thought we finally had a game willing to tackle a hot political issue

Nothing about this game is commenting on the existing war in Afghanistan, the single player is pure fiction - only the names on a map are used to give it some form of realism.

The multiplayer is just another generic twitch shooter with kill streaks and meaningless virtual achievements.

Why is that the slightest bit odd? I don't care if they name the enemies "the Taliban". I do care if they cave to outside pressure when it comes to game design. Those two things aren't the least bit contradictory. If DICE had decided that it made sense from a gameplay perspective to name the enemy "The Smurfs", I wouldn't give a damn. It's changing the name out of some sort of PC bullshit that I find annoying.

Are you a different Bhruic, or are you the same one that just 3 posts below said the real reason they did this was for publicity? Of course that's what this is all about. This has nothing to do with political correctness in my view.