My advertising ops are blacker than your advertising ops. 

Developed in close cooperation with the US Navy SEALs of SEAL Team 6, it was intended to give players the chance to step into the shoes of members of today's best special forces and experience modern warfare at first hand. What began as a technical masterpiece and ambitious project soon turned into a controversy: Political responsibility in the entertainment industry, involvement of active special forces soldiers, specially developed high-quality camouflage patterns, Pakistan banning the game from the market, collaborations between supposedly “evil” industries and the creation of its own pop culture. 

May 2, 2011, Abottabad, Pakistan, 01:00 AM

“Usama!”

Nothing seems to move. Everything is flooded in green light. Bright dots dance on the wall - the usually invisible IR lasers wander through the room, searching corner by corner.

“Usama!”

Footsteps. A brief shadow. Two muffled hisses. Two shells are ejected from the HK416 and land on the carpet. A muffled rumble as the lifeless body slumps.

“Possible jackpot!” is announced through the DEVGRU operator's headsets. It's over.

This Scene from "Zero Dark Thirty is more than popular: Its iconic. Picture: Sony Pictures

So: What is Medal of Honor: Warfighter all about? 

The Global War on Terror, which was unleashed immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001, is more than just a military conflict. It has spawned an entire culture - a culture of relentless hunting, covert operations and a world in which counter-terrorism and military excellence go hand in hand. This culture has influenced the way we think about security, surveillance and the ethics of military intervention. The moment in Zero Dark Thirty when the SEALs sneak through the darkness of a house to capture a man they've been searching for over 10 years helped establish this culture - a culture where HUNTING for a shadow is as important as WHAT shadow you find. 

And hardly any video game at the time portrayed the hunt for these shadows as accurately as “MEDAL OF HONOR: Warfighter”. Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a tactical shooter based on the experiences of members of the US Navy SEALs in the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Working closely with active DEVGRU guys, the game was developed with a high degree of authenticity, immersing players in various special operations forces around the world. So authentic, in fact, that the DEVGRU members involved later had to testify before the US Department of Defense. Having active service members of DEVGRU involved as consultants in a video game production was new. We must not forget one thing: It had only been 17 months since Operation Neptune Spear. And it didn't stop there.
 

Picture above: Excerpt from the behind-the-scenes footage of “Warfighter”. The involvement of active DEVGRU members later caused a stir. The US Department of Defense was “not amused.” Source: EA
 

The promo starts.

“Bring me home in a blinding dream
Through the secrets that I have seen
Wash the sorrow from off my skin
And show me how to be whole again”

A verse from one of the most famous songs in modern rock history, Castle of Glass by Linkin Park - one of two songs written for “MOH Warfighter”. In perfect tune with the game and the music video, the song is about being broken. Members of the special forces repeatedly report on the brutal dilemma of balancing family life and their role as Tier 1 operators. On the one hand a caring and loving husband, on the other a professional tool for the worst kind of missions and spearhead used in the most dangerous operations.

“Castle of Glass” points out that this balancing act is not always successful. Rarely works. 
 

To address this problem even more effectively, EA founded the Project Honor Initiative. In short, it was a non-profit initiative to draw attention to the challenges faced by members of the special forces and their families and to collect donations for the families of fallen soldiers in the special operations community. Well-known names such as Magpul, London Bridge Trading and Surefire took part in the “Partnership Program” and donated to the “Navy SEAL Foundation” and the “Special Operations Warrior Foundation”. As part of this collaboration, their products, which are used in real-life operations, were integrated exclusively into the game. Some partners even produced exclusive “MOH Warfighter” merchandise, the proceeds of which benefited the foundations. (More on this later.)

All of the brands that we associate with special forces today were official partners of the game and were even officially advertised on the game's website: SureFire silencers and lights, SOG knives and tomahawks, Magpul, Trijcon, LaRue Tactical, Larry Vickers - they were all official advertising partners with some even making direct appearances in the game. All in all, a win-win situation and a unique cooperation to date.

Picture above: A mission in Pakistan in “Medal of Honor: Warfighter”, you can clearly see the well-known “Trijcon RMR”. This form of product placement was to reach its peak in the following years. In fact, missions like this one led to the game being banned in Pakistan. Image source: EA

The “Medal of Honor” camouflage.

Or:

How to take marketing to the absolute limit.
 

As part of the Project Honor initiative and collaboration with Medal of Honor: Warfighter, London Bridge Trading (LBT) developed an exclusive camouflage pattern that was both used in the game and sold as a real, commercial product. This camouflage pattern, designed specifically for the game and the initiative, was a unique creation by LBT and added to the authenticity of the game by incorporating a real and functional design into the world of Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

It is essentially a modified version of Multicam, one of the best known and most widely used camouflage patterns used primarily by US Special Forces. Multicam is characterized by its versatility and adaptability in different environments - from deserts to urban areas. However, this design was further developed for the game and in collaboration with LBT.

The resulting pattern is a digital camouflage pattern strongly reminiscent of the Latvian M07 camouflage pattern, which was introduced just a few years after the development of the MOH camouflage pattern.

The background of the pattern is a light “tan” or sand-like color, while the foreground is dominated by various shades of green and a dark brown. The logo of LBX (a subsidiary of LBT - London Bridge Trading) and the emblem of Taskforce 1 from Medal of Honor are spread across the entire pattern. In the final mission of the game, this taskforce wears the logo as a patch on their uniform, which in turn features the camouflage pattern - an ironic meta-level allusion, if you will.

But it gets even better: the digital elements of the pattern essentially consist of the LBX logo (a stylized lion's head), which has been digitized and superimposed in different colors.
 

Picture above: The camouflage pattern specially developed for the video game and its development. Clearly recognizable: The digitized lion's head. Source: Uniform History

Afterwards, the camouflage pattern was greatly enlarged to ensure effectiveness at greater distances. LBT distributed a variety of gear, including chest rigs, plate carriers, pants, combat shirts and holsters - there was even a dedicated spray paint kit that allowed the camo pattern itself to be applied to gear, analogous to the in-game option.

The highlight of this “rabbit hole” was probably the coming-up of a picture from 2017 showing a SEAL team operator in Afghanistan wearing a combat shirt in exactly this camouflage pattern. We finally completed the circle.
 

Image above: SEAL with the “LBT” x “Medal of Honor” camo. From reality to game to camo to reality.

How are we being influenced?

Whether you want to admit it or not, video games are increasingly shaping our society. While the generation before us grew up with the rising of televison, the generation from the 2000s onwards was influenced by video games. Linear television is becoming less and less relevant, and Warfighter was one of the earliest and most tension-filled examples of how this change was felt in society. Parallels were even drawn with the “School Shootings” when the violence in the games was linked to real-life tragedies.

It mattered less whether TV shows or movies glorified violence - the new “villain” was the video game industry. In the 1950s it was violent comics like Vault of Horror, in the 1980s it was music. Songs like “F*** the Police” by N.W.A. were met with fierce social disapproval, as it was feared that they would cause harm to young people. In the 1990s, there were discussions about films such as Rambo, which were considered problematic because they portrayed violence as a solution and could influence young people. Since the 2000s, the video game industry in particular has been the focus of criticism. But no matter how you position yourself in this debate: Video games are shaping culture and society - and increasingly so.

International cooperation in the fight against terrorism, here between the Polish “GROM” and the US Navy SEALS, are an integral part of the game.  Picture: EA
 

The influence of video games on today's generation is undeniable. Games like Medal of Honor: Warfighter or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare not only provide entertainment, but also a sense of belonging and an understanding of the reality of military life, even if it is only fictional. They make us think about difficult questions, about how to deal with terrorism and the impact of conflict on human behavior. The culture that has formed around these games is deeply embedded in our society, and even people who don't play regularly are influenced by them

At the latest when adults eagerly await a new trailer for Rockstar's GTA 6 or discuss the latest game developments in online forums, it becomes clear how deeply rooted video games are in our culture. They are no longer just a hobby for young people, but part of our everyday media landscape. And Medal of Honor: Warfighter has definitely shaped us as a generation. It has shown us how video games can shape perceptions of history, conflict and even identity - a development that goes far beyond the screen.