The UK defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has spoken out on popular Electronic Arts war game ‘Medal of Honor’ and called for a sales ban.
Fox said he was “disgusted” by the game, which he found “shocking” due to the fact that it allows players to take on the role of a Taliban member in Afghanistan and kill British soldiers.
“Absolutely shocking, I can’t believe they brought out a game such as that,” said Fox.
“At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands,” he told the BBC.
“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 publisher Electronic Arts has responded to Fox’s criticisms defending the game as a modern way of story-telling.
“Medal of Honor is an 18-rated highly authentic depiction of the soldier’s experience in Afghanistan – matching US forces against the Taliban in today’s war,” a spokesperson for the company is quoted as saying on the Guardian website.
“Multi-player combat is a long-standing, common and popular feature of video games. In multi-player, teams assume the identities of combatants on both sides of the conflict.
“Many popular video games 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 spokesperson added.
