Call of Duty: Modern Controversy
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 9:56AM Seven days ago, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (CoD) was unleashed upon the legions of eager gamers across the world, and it proceeded to rake in a brain-boggling $330 million in sales on day one alone. I’ve joined my fellow CoD nuts in a joyous exhibition of online multiplayer mayhem. But I haven’t touched the single-player campaign. Why, you ask? First and foremost, I play CoD for its online element, which most fans will freely admit is the reason why the game is so immensely popular. However, there’s also a part of the game keeping me away that I find a bit unsettling. Okay, very unsettling…
Anyone following the hype that had been building over the last month or so is aware by now that in one of the game’s missions, you play an undercover CIA agent who infiltrates a Russian terrorist group. This mission has the player accompany said terrorist group into a fictional Russian airport who then proceed to mow down civilians. This heinous act is the impetus for moving the game forward; Russia falsely attributes the attack to the United States and declares war. Infinity Ward, the game’s developers, gives players two separate chances to skip this mission. The game also provides a cinematic cutscene so that you don’t miss out on the story. Even if the player opts to go through it, they can choose to not fire a single shot without being rewarded or punished for doing so.
But therein lays my conundrum: I absolutely love the gameplay and don’t mind the absurd “evil dudes spark a world war” plot, but I feel like a moral line has been crossed here. No, I don’t believe that games like CoD evoke violent reactions from people who play them…but putting players in that position just seems wrong to me. This is new ground for games, and it’s very uncomfortable ground to be on.
I was surprised that several other gaming journalists seemingly shared my sentiments, and didn’t seem completely on board with the decision by the developer to include a situation like this in their game. While playing through the level, the Gamespot reviewer remarked, “The scene in question is undeniably disturbing and undermines your sense of remaining on high moral ground. The game gives you the option to skip this particular level entirely, but the shocking consequences of this grim mission ripple throughout the game, making it difficult to feel like a hero.”
Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo’s appeared on MSNBC to discuss the game and the airport scene in particular. His commentary was very objective, but makes it clear that this scene is not something typically seens in a video game. “It’s a very upsetting level…what’s happening in this mission is extremely unpleasant. You don’t have to shoot the civilians, but the people you’re fighting alongside sure are, and it is very upsetting.”
Nicholas Deleon from CrunchGear hit it right on the money in my mind:
“You realize that you’re running around an airport in a simulated terror attack, right? That’s different than you playing the role of, say, the Allied forces in WWII, shooting conscripted Wehrmacht soldiers. That’s two armies going at it; a terror attack isn’t even in the same ballpark.”
I respect that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a game for adults and Infinity Ward has as much right as any movie director or book author to create the product and story that they want, but was including this level necessary? Was it worth it? Is it a better game because the player is put in that situation? Again, I haven’t played the level, and I don’t intend to. I don’t want that imagery – the sights and the sounds – stuck in my mind for who knows how long. I made the purchase and certainly don’t regret it, but my time will be spent online with other players and not in a Russian airport.
Reader Comments (3)
I had the same feeling about this level, but I'm also interested in games that can evoke an emotional response, so I played the level. I was fully prepared to be disgusted (like I was with the idea and depiction of the infamous God of War 3 head rip - search YouTube), but honestly, it didn't really do much for me. The civilians aren't given as much attention to detail graphically or in their animation, so they come off very cartoony, which I think allows me to not consider them "real" (as real as bits of data in a videogame could ever be). They all do the same thing, showing no real unique, human behavior, so it's almost as if they're just part of the scenery. Frankly, because the game makes your character walk through this portion, it's more boring than shocking. Eventually, you'll take on policemen who are shooting back, and at that point it reverts back to a game instead of a tour of a russian airport with weird, poorly drawn and animated people running around.
I was fully prepared to condemn the inclusion of this level in the game, and to a certain extent, it is condemnable - the developers were clearly angling for controversy - but it really sort of fails to evoke the shock I think Infinity Ward was going for. It's still poor taste to even try, though.
Will- would you have felt differently if the images were more realistic? If the game could somehow use photos of your friends from Facebook, would you have skipped the option to play?
In any case, it does pose what I would hope is an uncomfortable situation for gamers- or anyone really. I know it's just a video game and I don't think even crazy violent games are the root cause for scenarios like Columbine, but whoa. Just whoa. The scene has civilans who don't even defend themselves. That's pretty much a nightmare even if it is just a game on a screen.
While I referenced the graphical depiction as part of the explanation as to why I didn't "care" if I shot the civilians, I think it has more to do with connection. They're faceless non-entities and the game does nothing to create a connection to them. I don't know how it could have created a meaningful one for me to a huge number of people, but games are capable of creating a sense of relationship. I didn't "know" these civilians, so it didn't matter if they died. Pasting images of my Facebook friends wouldn't change that either, because in the context of the game, they'd still be strangers.
Examples of how games can create meaningful bonds can be found in Alyx in Half-Life 2, your dog in Fable 2 and pretty much any game from Bioware.