Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Military Censorship Games Your Rights Online

GameStop Pulls Medal of Honor From Military Bases 362

donniebaseball23 writes "EA's Medal of Honor reboot doesn't ship until October 12, but it's already seen a fair amount of controversy thanks to the publisher's decision to allow people to play as Taliban in multiplayer. The controversy just got escalated another notch, reports IndustryGamers, as the world's biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won't sell the title at its stores located on US military bases. The new Medal of Honor won't be advertised at these stores either. GameStop noted that they came to this decision 'out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.'"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

GameStop Pulls Medal of Honor From Military Bases

Comments Filter:
  • Censorship? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by jgtg32a ( 1173373 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:07PM (#33457218)
    Seems more like discretion to me.
  • Another bending over (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fey000 ( 1374173 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:10PM (#33457240)
    Out of respect or out of fear of vociferous soccer moms? They have certainly never found issues with war games in the past, even when the opposing sides were concurrent.
  • by corbettw ( 214229 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:11PM (#33457252) Journal

    Not all of them are, but the ones likely to get upset by this have: access to weapons; combat training; learned how to deal with the emotional cost of killing someone. Not the kind of person you want to risk upsetting.

  • Censorship... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Pla123 ( 855814 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:18PM (#33457346)

    So even if they wanted to buy it they won't be allowed?
    They are allowed to die in battle but not to chose what to play?

    Imagine the game was very realistic - It would give them big advantage to see their own weakness through the eyes of the enemy.

    How is that any different than any WW2 game?

  • Re:Respect? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by countSudoku() ( 1047544 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:22PM (#33457402) Homepage

    Actually, they signed away most rights when they joined. If the Col. sez "no one gets to do X" and X is something like a controversial game or the dangerous and useless facebook, then they might have to give that up. No lawyers will be assisting with that, I can assure you. I gave up mine too, but I got mines back, son!

    What's next though; playing PacMan as the Ghosts?! Surely not! Blasphemers! Game Stop, STOP them from gaming!

  • Re: Censorship? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:34PM (#33457524)

    but how can you justify making the game completely unavailable to them?

    I'm going to guess that the GameStop executives had an emergency meeting on the topic "What high-profile action can we take to defuse this controversy real quick", and the geniuses came up with this.

  • by imthesponge ( 621107 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @05:55PM (#33457776)

    Though technically the request was made and GameStop decided to honor it, but of course not doing so would mean bad press.

  • by linzeal ( 197905 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @06:00PM (#33457830) Journal
    Already happening, sending 3 copies to a friend stationed in Iraq. He plans to sell them for 100 bucks a pop.
  • Re:Censorship? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bhcompy ( 1877290 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @06:07PM (#33457936)
    You get killed by the same people in America's Army and that is a free game made by the US Army, so what's the difference?
  • I call PC BS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TiggertheMad ( 556308 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @06:11PM (#33458008) Journal
    Maybe someone who just lost a friend to the Taliban might not really be in the mood for seeing a game where they can re-enact killing their friend.

    Perhaps my father was killed by VC, does that mean that nobody should make historically accurate Vietnam games? What if my grandfather was killed by a German, does that put ww2 games in bad taste?

    Sure the time scale is greater, but its just being fucking 'PC stupid' to go to lengths like this. I think if I was killed in Afghanistan, I would be pissed off by politically correct assholes who want to sweep everything under a rug, 'out of respect for the survivors'.

    What the HELL is wrong with a factually depicted game? Telling an accurate story is very respectful of those who served.
  • Re:Censorship? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by VortexRing ( 1892618 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @06:45PM (#33458462)
    If this was the case then how about the people who see adverts for GTA when their loved ones have died as a result of street violence, or WoW when their family has been eaten by evil dwarves? How about other games that let you play as "the enemies of the west", or even as enemies of humankind! (Battlefield2, Left4Dead) I disagree with this type of censorship, "in case someone is offended". Nobody has the right to not be offended, and certainly nobody has the right to be offended on behalf of anyone else, especially me! I am a serving military officer, and I find being patronised in this "politically correct" manner offensive!
  • Re:I can see (Score:3, Interesting)

    by carp3_noct3m ( 1185697 ) <slashdot@NoSpAm.warriors-shade.net> on Thursday September 02, 2010 @07:05PM (#33458736)

    I'm a USMC OIF combat vet that has suffered from PTSD. I can barely survive the fourth of July, but games like ARMA II are surprisingly cathartic for me, and have helped de-stress me when symptoms raise their ugly heads. This move is insulting to the principle for which military people stand for. I swore an oath to one thing, and one thing only, that being the constitution. By disrespecting the constitution and the freedoms that come with it, moves like this are counter-productive to the forward movement of the evolution of American values in modern society. (on a side not, formerly holding clearance and being a staunch anti-weed guy, the ganja has changed my world for the better, more guys should try it...)

  • by siriuskase ( 679431 ) on Thursday September 02, 2010 @10:43PM (#33460814) Homepage Journal

    He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
    He fights with missiles and with spears.
    He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
    Been a soldier for a thousand years.

    He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
    A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
    And he knows he shouldn't kill,
    And he knows he always will,
    Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

    And he's fighting for Canada,
    He's fighting for France,
    He's fighting for the USA,
    And he's fighting for the Russians,
    And he's fighting for Japan,
    And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

    And he's fighting for Democracy,
    He's fighting for the Reds,
    He says it's for the peace of all.
    He's the one who must decide,
    Who's to live and who's to die,
    And he never sees the writing on the wall.

    But without him,
    How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
    Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
    He's the one who gives his body
    As a weapon of the war,
    And without him all this killing can't go on.

    He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
    His orders come from far away no more,
    They come from here and there and you and me,
    And brothers can't you see,
    This is not the way we put the end to war.

    Univeral Solder [lyricsdomain.com]

Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"

Working...