EA Wants Politics Left Out Of New 'Medal of Honor'

EA may be taking its next "Medal of Honor" installment to Afghanistan, but the company wants politics left out of the game in favor of focusing on characters' personal stories. Such a lofty expectation may be wishful thinking in today's modern media climate where any high-profile game addressing the war in Afghanistan is bound to show up on talk radio shows and FOX News, but that doesn't mean the development team didn't try to sterilize its biases.

"It's not going to be a big propaganda piece where we wave the flag, or anything like that. It's literally about the people that're on the ground," EA Los Angeles head Sean Decker told IncGamers.

Decker picked one of 2009's big Oscar contenders to illustrate what his team was going for, and he wants players to see their finished piece of work for its emotional content rather than the reasons behind American soldiers' Afghani deployment.

"There's been a lot of really good movies -- the Gotham Awards just came out and 'Hurt Locker' was the top one," he explained. "It has nothing to do with the war in Iraq and why it started, or anything else -- it's just about the men on the ground, what they go through on a day-to-day basis, and their emotions."

It's a noble goal, and one that sounds like it will spotlight the most human qualities possible in the men uniform used for the game. Expecting headlines and pundits to follow that focus may be more difficult that building the game in the first place, though.

Do you think it's possible to set a "Medal of Honor" game in modern-day Afghanistan and keep politics out? Share your own thoughts in the comment section below.

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