Battlefield 1943 players upset over lack of Irish identification

Battlefield 1943
players out of Northern Ireland are surprised -- and angry -- that the
game's official site fails to display the country's flag on their
profile pages. Profiles for gamers in the North are stamped with the
good ol' Union Jack, the national flag of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland and labels North Irish players as located
in Great Britain. Some of you may cry, "So what?" Well, it's a pride
thing -- and it's a law. "If you live in Northern Ireland EA won't
allow you to identify yourself as 'Irish' despite the 1998 Belfast
agreement saying otherwise," writes the UK entertainment blog, SeenIt.co.uk.

According to our history books, the Belfast Agreement
allows citizens of Northern Ireland to identify themselves as Irish or
British, or both. After attempting to change the country associated
with the account, EA tech support told SeenIt changing the region was
impossible because Ireland is "not listed distinctively" and is
included under Great Britain. Seems like a silly thing for Electronic
Arts to put its foot down on, unless it's the first step to easily
categorizing the world. Step two? All Canadians listed as hailing from "America's Hat."