Why we need to play as the Taliban

When I read that UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox was disgusted by Medal of Honor – particularly the appearance of the Taliban in it – I sighed. It’s exactly the kind of opinion that prevents video games from getting due respect. In this case, it’s also completely unfounded.

In a genre designed to let gamers experience some of history’s most important events firsthand – D-Day, the Battle of Stalingrad, the US Invasion of Iraq – it’s no wonder the new MoH turns to the Iraq War for inspiration. The Taliban happen to be a key element of that war, and – because MoH is a series whose multiplayer mode includes both sides of a conflict – a very playable one.
The game does not seek to glorify the Taliban, or encourage sympathy for them: it offers them as an option, not part of the overall story. Granted, that option requires performing real Taliban activities like murdering American troops and civilians, but that’s what the Taliban do. Watering them down in a game based on a conflict they are participating in diminishes their impact upon our current history.
Gamers need to to play the Taliban missions in a way that properly reflects the organization, and also gain a comprehensive understanding of the group. If done well, that Taliban option can give gamers a whole new sense of respect for the men and women fighting them in real life. That would be an enormous accomplishment for anything. In any media.


As with most gaming naysayers, Secretary Fox is disgusted more by the idea of what the game represents than by the game itself. On the British site TalkTalk, he stated:
I’m not quite sure what Britishness has to do with the Taliban, but his disgust here is aimed squarely at the terrorists. He may not know that they’re only in multiplayer mode. It might not matter to him; all that he sees is a video game that invites people to play as terrorists. As if that would inspire real-life terrorism.
Naturally, EA has bollixed the whole situation by refusing to own up to it.


That’s a corporate non-answer if ever I’ve heard one, and incredibly irresponsible given the subject involved.
As our Features Editor, Thomas Rivas penned two weeks ago in Why Video Games Deserve More Respect, video games “change the way we, and future generations, experience life.” Part of that experience is interacting with our world in a way that makes it mean something to us, even if that interaction causes us to temporarily become terrorists. That’s how we learn. That’s why we need video games.


I applaud Medal of Honor for bringing relevance – and real cultural currency – to its genre. I just wish EA would support it.