The inclusion of the Taliban as a playable in the multiplayer of Medal of Honor has caused a bit of a stir. For his part, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is blaming the mainstream media for manufacturing the controversy.
“The controversy . . . kind of caught me by surprise,” he said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, indicating that it was a non-issue internally, “until a journalist decided to put the game box in front of a mom who’d lost her son in Afghanistan to create some controversy.
“I think that says more about the newspapers than it does the game industry,” he said. “Having said that we’re incredibly sensitive to the challenges that a non-gamer who doesn’t really understand what I’ve just described might imagine when a journalist who also doesn’t understand a game describes it to her. It tends to excite a little bit of angst.”
Riccitiello added that he was “incredibly proud” of Medal of Honor, and argued that it stays, “well within the boundaries that are good entertainment.”
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
