Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, has launched a scathing attack on the forthcoming video game Medal Of Honor, over reports that it allows players to kill British troops as Taliban soldiers. Fox has branded the new shooter from Electronic Arts un-British and has called on video games retailers to refuse to sell it.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Fox said: it's shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban.
At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands. I am disgusted and angry. It's hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.
Medal Of Honor, the latest instalment in EA's military first-person shooter, is set in present day Afghanistan and the single player campaign is centred around the efforts of US troops to defeat the Taliban. The publisher has reponded to the criticism from Fox by citing the game's authenticity. It also went on to point out that the reports stating that the game allows players to kill British troops for points are wholly inaccurate.
âMedal of Honor is an 18-rated highly authentic depiction of the soldier's experience in Afghanistan â matching US forces against the Taliban in today's war, an EA spokesman said.
Multi-player combat is a long-standing, common and popular feature of videogames. In multi-player, teams assume the identities of combatants on both sides of the conflict. Many popular videogames allow players to assume the identity of enemies including Nazis and terrorists. In the multi-player levels of Medal of Honor, teams will assume the identity of both US forces and the Taliban.
The Sunday Times and other media stories on Medal of Honor contain inaccuracies, he added. For one, Medal of Honor does not allow players to kill British soldiers. British troops do not feature in the game.â
Video games site Eurogamer.net has reported that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has distanced itself from Fox's remarks, describing his comments as a personal view.
