Medal of Honor: Warfighter avoiding Osama Bin Laden mission

by Alexander Sliwinski on Feb 27th 2012 5:30PM

Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which uses the experiences of Tier One Operatives for its missions and plot, will avoid the conclusion of terrorist Osama Bin Laden's life in its story.

"That's not our story to tell," producer Greg Goodrich told OXM US. "That's 'family business' to [the Tier 1 Operatives]. ... It's been an interesting exercise learning what's okay and what's not okay [to portray in the game]." And who at EA is going to argue with a guy who can kill with a paperclip?

The Medal of Honor reboot also avoided possible offense two years ago by changing "Taliban" to "Opposing Force" for the multiplayer portion of the game.

"The objection was, kind of from an older generation that doesn't understand games, that the sound bite was 'Play as the Taliban and kill US soldiers,'" Danger Close marketing director Craig Owens told us at the time. "There still is, it seems, a group that's still a little bit leery of a game taking place around an active conflict."

Source: OXM, CVG

Tags: Danger-Close, EA, Electronic-Arts, medal-of-honor-warfighter, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (56)

I understand that this is a smart move. But, I still think it would have been very satisfying to do.

@AceManUSC
And the ending could be that your teams chopper is mysteriously shot down, killing all who were involved.

@mywhitenoise Same team (DEVGRU), but the guys killed in that crash weren't involved in the OBL Raid.

@AceManUSC

Then no sale from me, really???? why it´s "wrong" to show the Osama mission??? but ok to..............

COD Black Ops spoiler

kill Fidel in black ops???? even though he ends not being the real one???? or what about killing people in an airport??? ( again COD)........whats the problem??? why we keep making people more and more "sensitive" for some things??? if this goes on then the next game is going to use Nerf bullets instead of real ones to " not hurt sensitive people".

@Hunter141072

Unfortunately we are a species with flexible morals.

I'm of the opinion that either everything is OK, or nothing.

But that doesn't seem to be a popular opinion.

@Hivetyrant

I follow that same mantra.

If it bothers you so much that you don't want it to exist, you've just got to try harder to ignore it.

@mywhitenoise

That has happened Twice now, one a couple of years before OBL Raid, and then the latest one, the Attacked did not remain living for long.

@Hunter141072

Because you illiterate fool,

"That's not our story to tell," producer Greg Goodrich told OXM US. "That's 'family business' to [the Tier 1 Operatives]. ... It's been an interesting exercise learning what's okay and what's not okay [to portray in the game]."

The events in Call Of Duty are complete works of fiction, while the events in this current MoH series are near reflected scenarios that happened to these SEALs, and it's their story.

@mywhitenoise that part seems tacky to me...if I am not mistaken, no one died from that crash.

First no Taliban in the last MOH game, now no Osama mission. I guess the backlash from the last game caused them to self censor.

@Dan50 I bet its more that they don't want to offend muslims. That seems to be the universal mandate these days...don't offend a Muslism because they can't take it.

@sammo21
Dont offend Muslims because they dont deserve it sounds more right to me.

I think that Western civilization is mature enough to handle the appearance of Osama bin Laden in a videogame. We feel no shame about including other horrible people like Hitler and Stalin in popular media, and nor should we. It's just fiction. And I for one think that if something is going to tout itself at 'realistic', then it shouldn't steer itself away from reality for the fear of 'offence'.

But at any rate, he will most definitely appear in these kinds of videogames. Eventually.

It's not (only) about the western audience but killing the other side on a fictional war, portraying them as villains on a black & white context. I don't think the other side would be so happy about it.

@(Unverified) "I think that Western civilization is mature enough to handle the appearance of Osama bin Laden in a videogame."

I don't think so. All the pinheads on the internet(and there are alot of them) will be the first to take it out of context in a very deliberate effort to offend other people. That's why companies put the disclaimer that online interaction is not rated.... because of those pinheads. And they will be the ones to yet again make gamers in general look bad.

@(Unverified)

It's usually OK by the time anyone who can remember OBL is in their 80s.

@(Unverified) There was a game back on the PS2 days called Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror where you get to beat the shit out of Osama.

"It's been an interesting exercise learning what's okay and what's not okay [to portray in the game]."

I don't exactly like this sentiment. If a film was made based on this (assuming its not poorly made) no one would raise a finger, nor say its in poor taste, so why should games be any different?

*Raises a finger*

I would say it's in poor taste. Making a profit on something like this is, in my opinion, entirely classless. Just like all the 9/11 films.

@Granger

But is there anything more American?

;)

@Granger

And why you don´t think the same about the holocaust??? or vietnam??? or all the victims of all the wars that have happened in the world were many people have died in unfair situations??? why the 9/11 is the ONLY thing were we should be "careful" and the only thing were everybody wants to avoid being "offensive???

@Granger

But you see the problem there is that you automatically interpret including Osama to mean wanting profits.

A story could include something potentially controversial without doing it for attention. If your story calls for realism (and in the case of a "real" story I would say it probably should" then you add it.

@FreakSheet Depends on the game, but a mass-market military shooter is probably not a vehicle worthy to tell that story. The actual room-clearing and shootout was a dramatic milestone in a story decades long, involving hundreds of thousands of lives lost, world-wide political maneuvering, massive military operations with dozens of states involved, religious strife, tribal conflict... and it's a story that is not even close to over. It could, perhaps, be done effectively as a tribute to the operators themselves, but the developer would have to be very talented to avoid something that looks like a cheap cash-in.

@Granger Not all. United 93 was excellent.

I didn't expect to kill him in the first place.

@YouAintFatYouAintNotin

That's what I'm thinking. I was expecting the characters from the last game to come back. and osama bin laden wasn't one of them.

It would be kind of goofy if all of a sudden, "oh this game is based on a true story"

@YouAintFatYouAintNotin Capture and take to Den Haag? I approve.

Can we at least get a level of this?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2141875/

@Dirty

It would almost be more surprising if zombies DON'T end up in this game in some fashion.

;)

@Sammo
No, Granger is saying that turning an actual, recent war into mass-market entertainment is classless and vile. With which I completely agree. Whether Osama bin Laden is in the stupid game or not has nothing to do with anything.

Why did they even tell us this? It's only gonna disappoint those who wanted an Osama assassination mission.

a video game about a active war? outrageous! Hell dare they? Do they have no souls? moral...?
I would vent more about but I'm going to see that movie about the war going on, I heard it's got a tense action scene where the US soldiers are trapped and gunned down, anyway see ya all...

Shame :D i would have used a Rocket Launcher on that cun... LoL:D

Pass

Things like the OBL killing require a significant portion of the population to lack any kind of personal emotional connection to the events before such things tend to be OK to talk about. Events like 9/11 are incredibly emotional. But kids who are starting to enter middle school have no memories of the events. They'll be watching them unfold on the silver screen in dramatizations and playing video games based on the war in Afghanistan with little to no controversy surrounding them.

Making Schindler's List would have been impossible to make and market in 1950, but because it waited 40 some years, it was a classic. Today's events aren't going to be any different.

@LaughingTarget
Not sure I'd classify Schindler's List in the same category as Medal of Honor. Inglorious Basterds is a far better example of how what was once an earthshaking historical tragedy is now well on its way to popular indifference.

@LaughingTarget
...to be exploited for cheap thrills, I meant to add.

Seriously, after the last MOH failure how can anyone buy this crap?

Will I be able to toss a grenade across the street this time before blowing up? I mean grenades were so bad in the game that if it's the same thing, then just leave the grenades out.

I still had fun online I might add...

I'm still pissed that none of us have had the chance to play "6 days in Fallujah" b/c of all the whining and bitching that occurred which resulted in Konami backing out of their publishing agreement with Atomic games.

oh well, at least Spec Ops: The Line is coming and the SP campaign sounds like it may be well-written.

Developers: "There will be no Bin Laden mission."

Modders: "Challenge accepted."

@(Unverified)

More like:

Activision: Thanks EA!

A mission in which you kill bin Laden would incite the kind of anger that endangers people in real-life.

@TTH247

No it wouldn't. Do you think all those WW2 games ignite the anger of Germans who feel they are being negatively portrayed as Nazis? Or what about how Black Ops portrayed Russians and Vietnamese? If those games didn't cause any controversy, then people should be mature enough to accept a game where you kill Muslim terrorists.

@(Unverified) You have to consider the fact that the publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper led to worldwide rioting and approximately 200 deaths. Religious zealots don't behave like rational people. That said, screw 'em, publish whatever you want. The freedoms of the West have survived two world wars and the Cold War, at the cost of millions of lives; we're not going to give up on them now because a bunch of g*dd*mn hillbillies throw a fit every time someone says something they don't like.

@(Unverified)
The whole militant Islam thing is still volatile, though. The conflicts that you've mentioned have been over 40-plus years.

I thought the video game industry was about expressing your creativity? They're being pussies and backing down on portraying an Osama Bin Laden mission? Big deal.

"We can't offend anyone! Get rid of the Bin Laden mission now!"

I would really liked to fight a dual-chaingun wielding battlesuit Bin Laden as the final boss fight .

Can’t I play as a European soldier killing US troops? :(
Why are we still stuck in this Cold War / Middle Eastern mindset of West vs them.

What I don't understand is why they can't be creative enough to make up names for the own groups and their own leaders. If they think people are too sensitive to Taliban and Bin Laden.. fine, come up with fake names.

What would Wolfenstein be without Hitler/Nazis? They should include Laden if that's what they want, last I heard this was America. We won't have free speech much longer (whether Congress takes it away through SOPA-like acts or fall to economic ruin I don't know but it's coming), enjoy it while it lasts.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Medal of Honor: Warfighter avoiding Osama Bin Laden mission

Reader Comments (56)

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:38PM AceManUSC said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:51PM mywhitenoise said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:10PM iceveiled said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:30PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:44PM Hivetyrant said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 7:00PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 8:57PM ComedyInK said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 2:08AM sammo21 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:39PM Dan50 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 2:09AM sammo21 said

Posted: Mar 3rd 2012 9:41PM McPo said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:59PM KazamaSogetsu said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:18PM VoodooHack said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 7:19PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 10:53PM gnark1ll420 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:45PM FreakSheet said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:52PM Granger said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:00PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:33PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 7:03PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 11:30PM maxwell97 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 11:48PM maxwell97 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:45PM YouAintFatYouAintNotin said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:57PM eat it said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 7:23AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:50PM Dirty said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:01PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 12:22PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 5:55PM GlockXIII said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:13PM Rauland said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 6:58PM RealityCheck2013 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 7:02PM Traptz said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 7:23PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 12:27PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 12:28PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 8:04PM Traptz said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 8:28PM StarcasM said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 10:45PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Feb 27th 2012 11:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 12:05AM MeAndTheFanboy said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 12:19AM TTH247 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 1:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 7:54AM maxwell97 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 2:08PM TTH247 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 1:37AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 2:13AM Gamblor said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 7:22AM johndrinkwater said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 8:46AM SirUrza said

Posted: Feb 28th 2012 9:13AM Vic Fontaine said

Medal of Honor: Warfighter Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Stiq Figures, May 14 - 20: He's heating up edition

The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Ballin

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW