Hello there!
A while ago, I put out an episode of Feedbackula about Assassin's Creed 3. In it, I said that my original intention was to have Medal of Honor: Warfighter take the stage, but that reading the comments had frankly made me too depressed to go ahead with it. Some people have asked for a bit of clarification, so I decided I'd just post the script in its uncompleted form for anyone who fancies giving it a read.
In case you end up wondering, UPSOT is the term we use in scripts when we want there to be a big boom or pithy line from a trailer to follow whatever it is we've just said. It's a way of punctuating the video. SOT means Sound On Tape, so UPSOT is Up-Sound on Tape.
Enjoy... if you can.
Hello! Youre watching Feedbackula, the show Cliff Blezinski described as who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house
[Menacing stare]
UPSOT
This week were talking about Medal of Honor: Warfighter - or, more aptly, Medal of Honor: Warfighter-fighter, Tom McShea. This is him. This isnt him. Mc Shea, not Mc Shea. Mc Shea, not Mc Shea. You get the idea.
UPSOT
Anyway! In case you missed it, Tom recently wrote an article called Medal of Honor: Warfighters Dirty Secret Fuels the Flames of Hatred. And, if you didnt guess, it was fairly opinionated. Tom argued that Medal of Honor: Warfighter makes an irresponsible and sickening show of things in its portrayal of the enemy. Combatants are plonked down in front of you without any contextualisation or motive exploration, and to top it off theyre given stupid A.I, further dehumanising them. Tom argues Medal of Honor: Warfighter is designed to widen the gulf between the West and the rest of the world, and to promote an image of warfare as fun.
Having read it, you guys commented on it quite a bit. 2000 times, in fact. I should know, I read them. All of them.
[DRUNK MONTAGE]
Toms article was strongly worded, make no mistake. Our user reaction though was no less intense, ranging from the heavily opinionated to the downright f***ing scary.
tachsniper
I guess we should just go back to killing Germans. no one complained then.
MXVIII
If we humanized terrorists, they wouldnt be terrorists. They dont want to be humanized. They want to be symbols of fear, thats what makes them terrorists.
Bennettfoam
Excellent article, Tom! Congratulations! It is so much easier to paint the enemies in non-human colors, turning the war into a good against evil struggle. It isn't realistic at all, but it is easier.
- non human colours - what, like green?
MoreThot
First of all this is a video game.. No one really wants a realistic war game.. realistic to an extent. But what really happens in combat you can't put into a video game. After having been in afghanistan I don't believe that the developers should give them such justice as giving them a reason or whatever in a game. They are cold bastards that are cowards. Everything that was mentioned in the game could be precisely put toward Call of Duty and even more so.. But since CoD is a cash cow all the HORRIBLE development gets over looked. But its whatever.
Bighalsy
I'm assuming this is a deliberate 'controversy for clicks' style article because no one can be that naive or stupid. Ignorant, possibly, but not that naive or stupid. First off, all muslims are extremists. ALL of them. It's simply a matter of degrees in how extreme they are.
Right, stop there. Its unsurprising a lot of the comments turned to Islam and the ethics of warfare, but thats straight up wrong. Its not opinion, its just bollocks. Muslims arent all extremists. Extremists are extremists, and those people arent true Muslims. Theyre twisting the meaning behind a peaceful religion to meet their own ends and try to gain influence. JUST LIKE MILITANT CHRISTIANS.
[Westboro baptist footage]
Islamophobia is not ok, and saying someone deserves to die because youve arbitrarily designated them your enemy is definitely not ok.
UPSOT
Now I have to say I dont entirely agree with Toms article - I feel like he makes a good point, but this issue is not isolated to Medal of Honor alone, nor is it especially new. That said, one thing it does do exceedingly well is question the form our games take, which - bafflingly - is something many people seem against entertaining even as a concept - as exemplified by this comment.
mariomaster16
In MOH Warfighter, you play as a soldier. As a soldier, you do as you are told, and you do not question orders. If your CO says they're bad guys, they are bad guys and you shoot them. Period. Fleshing out the enemy would bring the player out of the main character's head, and completely ruin the authenticity that Danger Close was going for. (Please note, the word authenticity, not realism.) Part of the authentic portrayal of being a soldier is shooting when you're told to shoot, and not questioning.
Thing is, mariomaster16, when youre playing medal of honor, YOU ARENT A SOLDIER. The same freedom to burst into a room relatively unconcerned about getting shot and killed because you can respawn that the game affords you, is the same freedom which lets you question the validity of whats actually going on. Take your first kill in the game, for instance. This guys just chilling, trying to get warm by a bin, and youre going to shoot him in the head. You can stand there all night if you want, hell never notice you. And you also cant move your reticule to anywhere other than the back of his head. At this point, youve not received any back story other than the few lines of mission briefing before you start. Your first real action in the game is to kill someone based on the blind assumption that they deserve one in the back of the head. Im not saying war games cant be gritty, but its an odd thing to place such a moment right at the start of the game.
bluefox755
And another thing, it's fictional, you don't have to like it, you don't have to play it, you don't have to agree with the story writer, b*tch about it til you're blue in the face, but don't try and stifle it, in an age where many forms of expression are becoming unacceptable, because it might offend someone, or hurt someone's feelings...you gotta stand behind everyone's right to speak, no matter what you think about their words.
RGN07
WTF about terrorist's families are you talking about Tom Mcshea? Who cares about that? The game's storyline says these enemies need to die, and we gamers need to execute that directive. Cut the bull about human emotion and concern. I say frag their asses.
And that is why the army will probably try and recruit you very soon!
[EXPAND THIS BIT]
joju_australia
bigruss51 thats ALL the intention for this articles. There is no grey matter in them at all. They want ratings, they want flame wars. VERY IRRESPONSIBLE REPORTING.
YES, GETTING PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT FORM THE INDUSTRY TAKES AND HOW IT DEALS WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTER! ITS IRRESPONSIBLE IS WHAT IT IS - GAWD ITS IRRESPONSIBLE EVEN TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO TALK FURTHER ABOUT THIS, I MUST BE PUNISHED IMMEDIATELY
[Shot of self flagellation ceremony - flail, gimp mask, sign saying I tried to start an intelligent discussion]
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