I find it rather disturbing that this is considered too controversial to make it into the final product when just last year we were all loading up Call of Duty MW2 and gunning down an airport full of defenseless civillains which was acceptable enough to make it into the final product.

So what they are telling us is that it is OK to murder crowds of innocent people in cold blood, but killing very very very well armed opponents that are, arguably, an agressive invasion force causing destruction just like the Taliban in some respects (please don't talk about war ect. I don't want to open that can of worms) is totally off limits.

In the end, I don't think we should make too much of all this since it is so obviously a transparent marketing ploy that was put into the game just to win some free press (just like COD successfully did last year). I guess EA just didn't expect such a great patriotic backlash even though we are 9 years out from 9/11.

The moral of the story is: use controversial subjects and actions to promote your video game, but, for the love of God, don't insult the U.S. military.

P.S. I guess in some ways I can understand the need to tone down the Taliban a bit. Afterall, in most WWII games you can play as the Nazi's in multiplayer games, but they never refer to you as a "Nazi" (at least not in most games) as they always prefer the much more tame "Axis" lable.

i wont be surprise if they make it come back as a DLC.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Wow, So its ok to kill Russians,Germans,Koreans and Arabic people, but its not OK to kill American soldiers.
Its ridiculous that they removed the name "Taliban" from a GAME to make the USA' Military happy.

LOLWTF is this fanmade or what?

I know its sort of twisted. Also Britain and Canada getting involved is just as stupid. My defence minister (Canada) went and said he was appauled that we would be playing as Taliban against American soldiers because they are fighting alongside us. I mean seriously geez why should we be upset its not even our country, its not like playing Taliban killing Canadian soldiers or British soldiers.

I just think its stupid that the military made such a big issue about playing as the bad guys. As you say its perfectly fine to kill soldiers from tons of other countries, but the second you kill americans the whole west gets pissed off.

We should be able to play as the Taliban, I was seriously pissed to see EA sell their souls to the military, well maybe thats alittle drastic, sell out their product to keep a couple soldiers support.

Then the military still doesn't ban its sales on their bases, why the heck not they sell MW2 and their is slaughtering of innocent civilians. It makes no sense

They will always be the taliban to me even if they are Op For.

Nope, and people should stop being so idiotic and stop complaining. It's okay for amazing use of violence in television, but the moment they hear "video game" they freak. If you don't want to play it - don't buy it. If you don't want your kids to play it - don't buy it!

I'm really upset they removed the Taliban. I hate when the gaming industry is giving in to political correctness. I'm now boycotting this game and every other product from EA except for Dragon Age.

No

They wanna be treated like movies and that other bullshit? Have the same content.