This game is getting very mixed reviews, and was in controversy for months. But Marc Ambinder discusses some of the expert consultation in the game. Its good to know they are investigating something over there other than Palin’s womb, and joking aside it’s an interesting piece.
The controversy, meanwhile, was over the fact that you could play in multiplayer as either the U.S. forces, or the Taliban. Yeah, that’s right, you can pretend to be our enemies, shooting our soldiers. I mean of course we have had that for years in other games, but never before in a live war situation. They have since renamed them in multiplayer as the opposing forces.
But I also have to suspect that the controversy was manufactured. I remember a few years ago the Army made a game called “America’s Army” which was exclusively multiplayer, American soldiers v. terrorists. But this being from the U.S. Government, it was unacceptable to allow players to pretend to shoot our soldiers. So the army came up with an eloquent solution. If you were on team A, you were told you were in the army, and your teammates would look like United States soldiers, while everyone on team B looked like terrorists. But if you were on team B, you were also told you were in the army, all your teammates would look like soldiers, while everyone one team A looked like terrorists. So both sides believe they were the U.S. Army, killing terrorists.
Now these America’s Army games were a pretty big success. Are you telling me no one at EA knew about it, and how it might be used here? Color me skeptical.
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