Public service announcement: If you’re doing one of those Modern Warfare 2 pre-release media blackouts, I’d recommend ducking and covering right about now because this article contains heaps of spoilers.
As everyone on the planet probably knows by now, a controversial Modern Warfare 2 mission video was leaked last week. Initially lacking any sort of context because it was all in not-English, viewers gawped as the demonstrating player ran riot through a crowded civilian airport, gunning down anything with eyeballs. Moral panic promptly ensued – first the dedicated servers, now the inviolable sanctity of human existence (except for bad guys) – it’s like Infinity Ward has unfurled vast leathery wings, and proceeded to **** heavily upon the very tenets of civilised civilisation itself with great zeal and reckless contempt.
Actually, that’s probably a bit hyperbolic . If the comment boxes of the internet are an accurate barometer (of anything), it seems almost everyone watching this video had no response beyond “lol”, “lmao”, and/or “its jsut a gaem lol lmao”. Of course, these are the same people who write “your” for “you’re” and wouldn’t know narrative context or substance if it broke their legs because they’ve never read a book in their lives and can’t possibly imagine any sort of entertainment that doesn’t flicker in front of their slack faces 60 times a second.
Inevitably, of course, disingenuous comparisons were made with Grand Theft Auto IV – disingenuous because, in GTAIV, killing innocent people (bad) incurred overtly negative consequences (cops). I’m not sure how people failed to take this into account, but then, these are the same people who brandish “lol”, “lmao” and/or “its jsut a gaem lol lmao” like truncheons of intellectual discourse.
Elsewhere, however, a tiny minority of people declared (another) boycott on the game, claiming all this lurid violence obviously condoned terrorism, and by extension, condoned Al-Qaeda / communism / national healthcare / low-fat ranch dressing / other kinds of non-freedom that Americans hate. Oh, and of course Australia’s calling for a ban.
Anyway, a press release turned up briskly, putting the whole thing into some sort of perspective.
“Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 features a deep and gripping storyline in which players face off against a terrorist threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. The game includes a plot involving a mission carried out by a Russian villain who wants to trigger a global war. In order to defeat him, the player infiltrates his inner circle. The scene is designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism,” read Activision’s damage control. “At the beginning of the game, players encounter a mandatory checkpoint in which they are warned that an upcoming segment may contain disturbing elements and they can choose not to engage in the gameplay that involves this scene.”
Presumably, of course, players can also choose not to murder innocent people, although not murdering innocent people won’t look good on your terrorist resumé. MORAL QUANDARY! Not an especially clever moral quandary, perhaps. I’ll grant there’s something a bit clumsy, a bit cheap, maybe a bit contrived about it. I mean, I’m kinda bored of all the OMG TERRORISMS and impetuously unsubtle GO GO TEAM DEMOCRACY subtext leering behind the facade of mainstream entertainment these days, but a bit of questionable ideology is better than the yawing voids masquerading as plots that fill up games everywhere else. Hey, at least it’s questionable. If it’s making you uncomfortable, it’s probably working.
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