Military base GameStops reconsidering Medal of Honor sales

by Ben Gilbert on Oct 1st 2010 7:30PM

On the heels of this morning's announcement that Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode swapped the "Taliban" moniker in favor of "Opposing Force," we asked GameStop and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service if they would now allow the sale of the title on military bases. A representative for GameStop referred us to the AAFES, refusing to give comment and suggesting that we should check if the the military retailer's "position had changed."

A representative from the AAFES told us that the service is "aware of reported changes to the latest Medal of Honor game" and that "the organization has been, and continues to be, engaged in a thorough review to fully understand the extent of the modifications." EA's Jeff Brown noted that the publisher isn't directly asking to "rescind the ban on the game," but did send the AAFES a letter last month "clarifying some facts about Medal of Honor." It seems there's still a possibility that this October's release will be available on military bases after all.

Tags: aafes, army-and-air-force-exchange-service, danger-close, danger-close-games, dice, ea, ea-dice, electronic-arts, gamestop, jeff-brown, Medal-of-Honor, Medal-of-Honor-2010, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (32)

someone's ass hurts

I blame the conservatives (FOX News, UK Defence Minister, etc).

@Ballistic H
Of course you do.

@A Sandwich

I blame sandwiches.

@Ballistic H This is BS... They change the name of something and suddenly they change their minds?? "Oh shit! It's a Nazi!" "I think they prefer to be called Cute Kittens now." -_-'

@Ballistic H
You do? Thanks for the info, I don't.

@Cal Not all sandwiches, just the bologna.

Now that nobody knows who the super-secret enemy team is, we're all safe from moral corruption.

@Acosta02 Haha, so true +1

Money is power

What's next? No more Nazis in WWII games?

Good to see that when our soldiers aren't taking stupid photo-ops of each other on the battlefield, they're playing video games.

I know not every soldier does this but man every one on my friends list(thats in the military) or friends friends list have some stupid ass pics involving them while clearly on duty.

Anyway, thanks to the PC people out there for this unnecessary change.

"Wait whats that...is that a Taliban? Ohhhhh it's an opposing force, phew". *goes back to playing game*

@SkyMasterson Also yea, that made me seem like a tool, especially since I do stupid shit at work, but you know what? I'm not representing my country? You know? I don't know. I want to you what you guys have to say about it.

@SkyMasterson
Get back to work!

@SkyMasterson

You DID seem like a tool for a second there, but it was a nice recovery. Heh.

I don't know, I guess I see both sides of the argument. Yes, they represent our country and they have elected to serve in that capacity... but war is rough, right? So if blowing off a little steam by playing some Halo or recording a video of them screwing off somehow makes it a little more tolerable? All the better for them, and for the families they'll come back to. Anything to make that eventual adjustment back into normal society easier, right? It must be hard to remember what 'real life' is like, when you're out searching for IED's in the scorching desert.

WHAT!? Are they crazy!?

Giving freedom back to Americans? The freedom that the soldiers are risking their lives to protect?
Do they have no respect?

(/sarcasm)

Silly military...

You're only allowed to kill REAL Taliban, not imaginary ones! That would just be offensive.

@Chareth Cutestory

I'm pretty sure the offensive part was playing as Taliban and killing Americans in the multiplayer.

@gettinmoney662
but playing as 'opposing forces' and killing US soldiers is ok?
or killing innocents in GTA or any number of other games is ok?

we need to get our heads on straight -- it's a game. a GAME. killing in a game does not equal killing in real life. we either need to accept that, and get over it, or decide that it does in fact lead to a nation of homicidal maniacs. in neither case does it matter what a specific team in a specific game is named.

@Chareth Cutestory

"You're only allowed to kill REAL Taliban, not imaginary ones! That would just be offensive. "

First of all, you haven't actually read the article. You can still kill Taliban. If you play multiplayer,the team that looks like Taliban are called OpFor, so that it's more like a training exercise than you actually killing Us Soldiers in the name of the Taliban.

Guess what: this new scenario is more fun than the old one. I don't enjoy the idea of killing US Troops in the name of the Taliban, but I do enjoy the challenge of a military simulation, where both sides are good folks playing a wargame. This new scenario is going to make more money.

Oh, and you say 'silly military' as though the military made this decision. AAFES is a fortune 500 company.

What a bunch of crap. Why did they fold just because some people were being over-sensitive? Seriously are the people that were being that sensitive even gamers? I am not trying to offend any military personal here or any political side...I just think it is BS that freedom of speech just got crushed by corporate stupidity. And after all aren't our troops fighting for our rights to stay the same?

And yeah, I get it, you were going to be the Taliban killing the Americans, boohoo...Now you are the opposing force killing Americans...WTF is the difference?

I honestly am not buying this game because of this nonsense...Perhaps everyone will just flame me, and I am cool with that...It is just my principles and my personal opinion...So don't take me too seriously...After all who the hell am I? ;) .

@AngryPanda You are a very Angry Panda! Thats who you are! ;)

But really, no matter how good the game is, you wouldn't buy it just becuase they changed the names of some multiplayer skins from Taliban to Opposing force?

I agree it does suck that they caved into pressure. But look at what they caved to, what you call your team in multiplayer, its not exactly a huge retool of the game or story or anything like that.

It just seems to me its not the worst thing in the world to happen.

I'm not trying to flame you on this or anything of the matter by the way, your opinion is your own, and its perfectly fine.

It just seems like to me its not really worth passing the game over for, especially if it looks good in other regards.

@AngryPanda

".I just think it is BS that freedom of speech just got crushed by corporate stupidity."

You can still say whatever you want.

EA decided to say stuff that leads to better sales. No one was calling for curtailing speech. Say something offensive, and people don't want to sell or buy your offensive stuff sometimes. You have to make marketing decisions.

Unless you're marketing your game to mentally ill people, this new OpFor naming is more fun and will be more successful. If you want to go make a game about killing US Troops, the Army is not going to stop you.

The 'Taliban' name should've stayed. I don't care either way what they're called, they're just pixels on my screen in the end, but bowing to media pressure is a major weakness in todays society.

How can we move on and get a stronger backbone towards these extremists if we are afraid of applying their label to a bunch of pixels? That's what the 'Taliban' is, it's a label for a group of extremists.

I understand that there are still open wounds towards the fighting and having 'Taliban' forces effectively killing Americans in a video game, but that's the important words there are 'video game'. This is what happens when the old school politicians wade in with their out-of-date mindset and the media pouncing on headline grabbing "news".

Political correctness at its worst, that's for sure. EA should've made a stand.

I guess its ok to kill american solders as Russians, Vietmanese, and having Nazis in games is cool too. But the TALIBAN? No way, its TALIBANNED.

@US 447

Very few games actually have you killing US Troops in a conflict that is anything like an ongoing one. In fact, only a handful have you killing Us Troops in the name of soviets or Ho Chi Mihn.

WWII games are the major exception, and this is a conflict that ended long ago, where the evil nations were de facto eliminated and replaced with some great nations. It's just not as bad.

I think some companies CEO heard about a certain game getting a lot of reserve sales and decided that honor doesn't sell. Not saying they should have banned the game, just calling this certain company out for have flaky honor.

I'd say there's more of a chance of the soldiers being dissapointed that the game isn't being sold on bases then them actually caring who their shooting at. It's a video game.

I wonder if any of the EA people that came up with the whole Taliban part of it have kids/family members over there?

While I see that double standard regarding Nazis, Russians, etc, the war with the Taliban is happening NOW, not generations ago. As a ex-soldier, I'm really not sure how I'd feel about it if I were active duty right now.

Interesting situation.

I guess they're done squeezing all they can out of that marketing campaign.

@Aguiluz

Disgusting, but that's your freedom.

The Taliban would happily stop you, and there's nothing that you could do about it, aside from pray the US military stops them. Indeed, the Taliban does wish to extend its laws across the planet, and their harboring of 9/11 terrorists was an extension of that vision. Thousands of American civilians are no longer able to speak freely, since they are dead, because the Taliban provided a safe harbor for terrorism.

The only thing keeping that from happening again is the US Military. You want to make a game or a youtube video where people can pretend to kill in the name of the Taliban? Go ahead. It's a free country. And millions of people won't buy your product. EA gets it.

To anyone who thinks AAFES is stupid for refusing to sell this game, keep in mind that their upmost priority is the morale of the troops. If selling a game or movie that is in any way offensive to the cause that these men and women are devoting their lives to, they will not budge for any amount of money. And for the record, AAFES is also a non-profit organization; all profits earned go back to the troops and their families.

Medal of Honor (2010)

Military base GameStops reconsidering Medal of Honor sales

Reader Comments (32)

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 7:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 7:46PM Ballistic H said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 7:58PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:38PM Cal said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 9:22PM Fuzzyhammers said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 11:56PM Crimsic said

Posted: Oct 3rd 2010 2:16AM drone said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:10PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Oct 3rd 2010 3:54PM ALBGunner04 said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:16PM shadowhowl1900 said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:26PM EffExt said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:33PM SkyMasterson said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:35PM SkyMasterson said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 8:51PM RedRose said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 11:57PM Jerk Face said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 9:29PM Esposch said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 10:51PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 11:01PM gettinmoney662 said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 2:02PM ferret said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 12:03PM Dustin F said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 1:07AM AngryPanda said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 1:40AM Zolroy said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 12:05PM Dustin F said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 7:57AM JoeyBananas said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 9:35AM US 447 said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 12:08PM Dustin F said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 11:18AM Integral said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 12:30PM AutomaticClutch said

Posted: Oct 2nd 2010 2:38PM Rajko said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 10:45AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 12:00PM Dustin F said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 8:59PM MauledByJesus said

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