The Guardian’s Marina Hyde Takes on Liam Fox’s “Idiocy”

With the recent tabloid outrage over Liam Fox’s comments regarding the new Medal of Honor, there’s been an outcry in the videogame press about what an idiot he is and how, plainly, he simply just doesn’t get us.

Well, it’s not just us. Guardian columnist Marina Hyde brought her opinion to the issue over the weekend, arguing convincingly that Fox is clearly misguided when it comes to the disgust he reserves for the game. Hyde points out the kind of character Fox is (“a walking Daily Express leader column”)  and quite astutely notes that it’s kind of worrying that the defence secretary is overly concerned with a videogame which features virtual representations of the Taliban: “Hang on – the secretary of state believes a video game is part of the wider defence picture? “Yes, he does,” [says a spokeswoman]. Aha. Are you on the point of seeing why we’re losing?”

If nothing else, it’s just nice to see somebody who isn’t part of the videogame bubble commenting on a game in a way that isn’t condescending, written in ALL CAPS OUTRAGE or contains the words “sick”, “filth” or “tax payers money” 30-plus times.

While not exactly the same subject matter, Andrew Kauz over at Destructoid has written a rather awesome article on the “lobotomisation” of videogames in which he mentions the recent MOH furore: “The Taliban in Medal of Honor does absolutely nothing for the advancement of videogames. It affects the game’s quality in no way, appealing only to those who feel a need to hold signs protesting the release of the game or those who feel the need to mock those protesters to legitimize a pointless inclusion in a videogame.”

I sincerely suggest you read both articles as they equally bring some great points to the debate.