Anyone else think this is in bad taste? MoH Rising Sun in JP

[zurich]

Conversations this reporter had with gamers themselves indicate emotions run a bit warmer than the mainstream press suggests. Although some gamers may write it off as "just a game," many are uncomfortable with the premise of Rising Sun. As one gamer put it, "You know, even though it's just a game, those are our fathers and relatives we're killing. There's something about it that I just don't like." Another wondered how a game like this would be received in other countries, saying, "...this is a game in which you play as a foreign soldier and try to kill troops from your own country. I bet that you couldn't even sell a game like this overseas. I have a feeling that Japanese are the only people who would brush this off because 'it's only a game.' I don't know if that's good or bad..."

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/medalofhonorrisingsun/news_6084198.html

Like I said, that's pretty poor if you ask me. I remember reading a review a few years ago on a German gaming site for Return to Castle Wolfenstein heh :?

 

[PC-Engine]

Add the PC game VIETCONG to that list.

 

[fbg1]

Payback for historical revisionism. That'll teach 'em to rewrite their history books! Next we need to send them a game where you play a Chinese woman during the Rape of Nanking...

 

[zurich]

Payback for historical revisionism. That'll teach 'em to rewrite their history books! Next we need to send them a game where you play a Chinese woman during the Rape of Nanking...

All history is revised. Don't think whats in your textbook is what actually happened, word for word.

Fact is, releasing MoH Rising Sun in Japan is pretty bad taste. The plethora of Japanese WWII games about the pacific never showed up in Western stores for good reason. I doubt you'd be too keen on piloting a Zero and killing Americans heh.

 

[marconelly!]

Well, the other MOH games, and other games where you kill Nazis, are usualy released in Germany, I think that is the reasoning EA is applying here. I guess the idea is that you are killing the bad, warmongering guys there, regardless of their nationality... Bah, who am I kidding, what USA did to Japan is simply f-ed up no matter how you rationalize it... it's just not the same situation as with Germany.

 

[Vince]

I doubt you'd be too keen on piloting a Zero and killing Americans heh.

Actually I'd love to. What's so bad with that? Are all of us who've played table-top wargames as the German's suddenly tactless? I think you need to seperate the fact that you're playing a simulation (in many a cases to create a victory where historically they failed) for the What If value rather than believing in some perverse ideological spirit and state of mind that was present in just a small fragment of the population at that time.

For example, I believe at the Naval War College they replay the battle of Midway annually. And AFAIK, they have yet to recreate the battle as it was... which is a testiment to the brilliance (and luck) exhibited then. Why should we forget our history in the name of PC?

Bah, who am I kidding, what USA did to Japan is simply f-ed up no matter how you rationalize it... it's just not the same situation as with Germany.

Tell that to someone living in Dresden.

 

[cthellis42]

Mmm... firebombings...

Heh. We all grew up with Axis and Allies, eh? Most of my friends WANTED to be Germany! 'sall been done before--I wish people wouldn't be so concerned with that kind of stuff.

 

[Paul]

I play as the Iraq side hiding in mountains with a Stinger waiting for low flying American planes and helicopters all the time in Desert Combat. A terrorist role. I usually have a vehicle waiting nearby waiting so I can go back for supplies or something.

I'm American, and find nothing wrong with this, Infact I think it's fun.

They are just games.

 

[Fox5]

Payback for historical revisionism. That'll teach 'em to rewrite their history books! Next we need to send them a game where you play a Chinese woman during the Rape of Nanking...

All history is revised. Don't think whats in your textbook is what actually happened, word for word.

Fact is, releasing MoH Rising Sun in Japan is pretty bad taste. The plethora of Japanese WWII games about the pacific never showed up in Western stores for good reason. I doubt you'd be too keen on piloting a Zero and killing Americans heh.

What about 1942, was that Japanese?

 

[fbg1]

I doubt you'd be too keen on piloting a Zero and killing Americans heh.

Been there, done that. Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 2.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs2/features.asp

 

[notAFanB]

They are just games

words of wisdom indeed.

 

[incurable]

Fact is, releasing MoH Rising Sun in Japan is pretty bad taste. The plethora of Japanese WWII games about the pacific never showed up in Western stores for good reason. I doubt you'd be too keen on piloting a Zero and killing Americans heh.

Hmmm, I'm German and still I play and enjoy BF1942 and RTCW, on both sides. I just don't see where the bad taste is in publishing such games in participating countries ... it's all games.

cu

incurable

 

[cthellis42]

I play as the Iraq side hiding in mountains with a Stinger waiting for low flying American planes and helicopters all the time in Desert Combat. A terrorist role. I usually have a vehicle waiting nearby waiting so I can go back for supplies or something.

TRAITOR! I'm calling John Ashcroft!

 

[bukima]

As always in a case like this: If the Japanese get offended at a game like this, I can understand and respect that. Likewise if they don't. But more importantly - let the Japanese people decide on this themselves. I find it odd that we (those of us here who are not Japanese, of course) should sit and talk about what is bad taste and what isn't on behalf of someone else who can make their own mind up and speak for themselves.

 

[Deepak]

As always in a case like this: If the Japanese get offended at a game like this, I can understand and respect that. Likewise if they don't. But more importantly - let the Japanese people decide on this themselves. I find it odd that we (those of us here who are not Japanese, of course) should sit and talk about what is bad taste and what isn't on behalf of someone else who can make their own mind up and speak for themselves.

Try telling that to Bush.....