Military.com has a headline news item that describes British official ire over the fact that the forthcoming Medal of Honor video game has a feature where players can choose to be Taliban first-person shooters.
"At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. It's shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers," Secretary Liam Fox said in a statement. "It's hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product."
Of course, shooting Americans is not new to the Medal of Honor series games. Players can choose to be Germans in the D-Day scenario, for instance. But that's history (although I'm not sure Vietnam War vets would appreciate gamers playing VC and shooting GIs in the virtual Hue City or Chu Lai). The hot button here is that American troops are still dying at the hands of Taliban at a too-regular rate.
EA execs dismiss it as a "creative risk" according to one source, but we're thinking the groundswell has just started on this one.
What do you think? Buy or boycott?
