Yet again, a video game has stirred up controversy, and yet again, a bevy of crusaders have come out to try to convince parents of the world that if you let your children play violent video games, you might as well move to the woods to minimize the damage that they will inevitably do when they snap and decide that a murdering spree is in order.
With the new Medal of Honor game due out in October, there are two distinct groups of protesters aligned against it, one is legitimate, the other is not. The first has an issue with the game’s multiplayer modes, which automatically assign one group of players as U.S. Special Forces, and the other as the Taliban. The protesters see it as disrespectful. The other group are essentially the hangers on. If the first group were a piece of legislation, the second group would be a rider. They are the Jack Thompson’s of the world that also think the Taliban’s inclusion is disrespectful, but they go way beyond that. Way, way beyond that. Thompson and his ilk are honestly claiming that this video game will make people want to join the Taliban. Medal of Honor might end up being a great game, but I doubt it will be good enough to make people join a group of religious zealots determined to kill people. If it is, I will definitely give it a 10 out of 10.
I want to make a clear distinction here — I am not arguing whether or not it is disrespectful to include playable Taliban characters in EA’s Medal of Honor. I understand the respect issue, and it is a problem with no solutions and several opinions. What I do take issue with is that Thompson (and he is not alone) is claiming that besides the asinine fact that in his mind the game will turn a generation of American children into religious fanatics hellbent on joining the jihad, he believes that regardless of whether or not you play as the Taliban or as the U.S., the game is actually bad for society in general, and he feels the same towards all first-person shooter-style games.
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