The revival of the Medal of Honor series by Electronic Arts has garnered quite a bit of attention thanks to its true-to-life subject matter set in the present-day universe. While the general consensus appears to be the every nation and their mother against EA, a competitor has risen to the “call of duty” in defense of Medal of Honor.
Developers of the upcoming competing title to EA’s first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Treyarch saw it fit to speak out against antagonists of the video gaming industry. According to the studio head of Treyarch responsible for CoD: Black Ops, Steve Lamia:
“We cover the Cold War era [in Black Ops] and there are definitely some controversial topics in there. But I look at it as creating a piece of entertainment and we are strong advocates of creative freedom. Our game is entirely fiction-based–we’re not doing a historical recreation. We do our research and create that setting so you can immerse yourself in it but that’s just a backdrop for our narrative.”
Why would a developer of a competing title defend a game releasing in the same timeframe? As the interview with Lamia continues, the boss explains how the treatment of video games in general by the mainstream population is simply “unfair”.
“Our story weaves itself around all kinds of controversial historical periods, but there have been many books and movies that do that, so to single out games in that way seems unfair.”
It is great to see video game developers unite together to prove a point. This just goes to show the video gaming industry is not just a business but also a community. Medal of Honor releases on October 12, 2010 while Call of Duty: Black Ops hits store shelves on November 9, 2010.
[Source]
