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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Games In Which I Foster Discussion And Make Hippies Cry

Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 2:14 AM

Fair warning kids: If you've ever described any soldier as a "baby killer," refuse to eat meat because it's cruel to adorable lil' cows and chickens, or regularly substitute patchouli smoke and clove cigarettes for soap and water, you might wanna skip this post. This one will almost certainly contain images and content that will offend you, and may make you puke up the soy milk and garden-burger you had for lunch.

My review of Modern Warfare 2 went live moments ago, and in the text I attempt to describe a certain, now infamous mission from the game, while simultaneously doing my best to avoid dropping too much info, lest I spoil one of the most shocking, poignant, emotionally charged moments you'll find in a videogame this year.

I realized while writing the review that there are many of you who will never actually play the game for whatever reason, and will thus entirely miss out on such spectacle. Thus, in the interest of fostering an active discussion on what the mission and its contents actually mean in the greater scope of things beyond the limited capacity of 330 words in a paper n' ink institution like the Mercury, I've got a very special present for all of you, if you'll only be so kind as to follow me past the jump.

Remember, you had your warning. Now, without further ado, "No Russian:"

Pretty brutal huh?

You can probably guess why this scene is so controversial, and why the Russian government has taken time off from killing people with umbrellas and being rampantly corrupt to block the sale of the game in their country. If the mission had you gunning down a few hundred civilians in Dulles or JFK, you can bet that Tipper Gore would grow a penis specifically so she could have an erection at the thought of the angry crusade of censorship she would wage against developer Infinity Ward, Microsoft, Sony, and, presumably, 2 Live Crew, just for the fuck of it.

I realize there are a lot of you out there who are going to say "Damn your censorship! It's a work of free artistic expression and I see nothing wrong with people playing whatever they like in the comfort of their own home!"

At the risk of tipping my comically oversized hat a bit early, I'm with those first guys.

Of course, as I mentioned above, there are a number of anti-violence types who are going to see this as a glorification of the evils perpetrated by the military-industrial complex (setting aside the idea that the mission, and the entirety of the game, is a sort of dark satire on that very concept). I sound as if I'm mocking these granola beard hippie types — probably doubly so when I refer to them as "granola beard hippie types" — but I can see their side of the argument as well. It does has its merits.

What do you make of this scene, almighty vox populi? Is this some severely fucked up shit, proving that gaming has crossed a big-ass line marked "IMPROPRIETY" in huge flaming letters, or should videogames be cheered for finally hitting people with the emotional impact of the best Hollywood films?

 

Comments (14) RSS

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1
"in which I foster discussion..." blah blah. You're not really fostering any discussion. You're just baiting people into typing in all caps. Boring. I guess it's easier than actually writing reviews though. Now get to work you lazy turd!
Posted by montaqua on November 19, 2009 at 6:28 AM · Report
2
I played the game and was a bit shocked by this sequence. My beef is that the whole storyline was kinda silly, and so it made this part seem weirdly out of place. I mean, compare this level with "wolverines." It just didn't seem to be part of the same game. It's just knee-jerk shock tactics tacked onto a stupid plot. Either that or some game developers are taking themselves far, far too seriously.
Posted by warmgray9 on November 19, 2009 at 7:07 AM · Report
3
I like the level where you roll everything up into a ball and then pandas vomit rainbows (http://www.flickr.com/explore/panda)
Posted by mars on November 19, 2009 at 8:56 AM · Report
4
Pretty much the entire FPS market has gone stagnant. What has come out that's been inovative or creative? Bioshock and Half-Life 2? Anything else? It's all the same stupid concepts over and over and over and over again. Stale genre.

Oh wait... there are the Metroid Prime games. I guess there's like 5 FPS games out of 200 that aren't ass.

And as towards COD:MW2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THU2H5_nadQ
Posted by Graham on November 19, 2009 at 9:51 AM · Report
5
I'd like to how it fits into the story of the game. I've heard reviewers say the scene is disturbing, but that it's obviously intentionally disturbing - the story was supposed to elicit a visceral reaction. The same scene in a movie wouldn't result in any calls for censorship, and if they are using the video game platform to tell an interactive story, the game should receive the same treatment.
Posted by Reymont on November 19, 2009 at 10:10 AM · Report
6
Um....yeah. It's a video game.
Posted by The Showstopper on November 19, 2009 at 10:28 AM · Report
7
Jason, I already wrote the review. It's linked in the blog post. I expected people to grasp that, but since I'm also baffled by how exactly I'm "baiting people to type in all caps" -- Am I inviting the denizens of 4chan or your elderly relatives to comment on the topic? -- I'm not sure if you even read what I wrote.

I think I should probably be insulting you for being a twat about this whole thing, but I'm kinda baffled by everything you typed, so I'm just going to stare at your comment through slitted eyes and slowly shake my head back and forth.
Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on November 19, 2009 at 10:42 AM · Report
8
So, later in the storyline, does your character get court-marshaled and incarcerated for taking part in the massacre of hundreds of civilians?

Seems like if the overarching mission is to take out this Makarov guy, you get plenty of opportunities to do so in that scene alone...
Posted by Broseph Goebbels on November 19, 2009 at 12:02 PM · Report
9
What bothers me is that they didn't implement the sequence better. The first MW had that very visceral scene where you are the deposed dictator riding in a car on the way to getting shot in the face. That was moving and immersive and extremely violent, but it fit with the story.

I guess it just bothered me how they decided to go with the "Makarov is PURE SHITTING EVIL, so the only way to stop him is to pay him lots of money and have you murder frequent flyers on his behalf. But it's cool, hypothetical millions will thank you."
Posted by atomic on November 19, 2009 at 12:35 PM · Report
10
"So, later in the storyline, does your character get court-marshaled and incarcerated for taking part in the massacre of hundreds of civilians?"

Not so much, no. The mission is an undercover op designed to get you in good with Makarov's forces so he can be taken out all legal like.

Then again, considering that the overall aim is essentially to remove that one dude, yeah, it probably would have saved everyone a lot of time and corpse clean up to just aim the SAW toward Makarov instead of the fleeing civilians.
Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on November 19, 2009 at 4:10 PM · Report
11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoehorn
Posted by atomic on November 19, 2009 at 4:49 PM · Report
12
Nex, I think Jason thinks your bait is how you're like, "All you pansy hippies can shut your smelly traps. But also, listen up 'cuz I'm here to offend (hopefully)." It's like you just figured out the key to offending the people who annoy you: you call them names and then say wotwot.

Anyway, I'm with Showstopper.
Posted by ROM on November 19, 2009 at 6:36 PM · Report
13
Yeah, I assumed it was something like that ROM.

Which either means he's one of those easily offended hyper liberals who are just as annoying as their hyper conservative counterparts, or he has no grasp on the concept of why giggling at ultra sensitive neohippies is funny for those of us who don't wear our political/moral/ethical affiliations on our sleeves, backpacks or ponchos.

Ah well, he made me giggle for a few minutes. I only wish I had an aircraft carrier and a sign saying "Mission Accomplished!" that I could pose in front of.
Posted by Earnest "Nex" Cavalli on November 20, 2009 at 1:26 AM · Report
14
In addition to what I said above, you basically started this discussion with: "I already know exactly what I think of this, and no opinion/perspective you have will make me change my mind at all. So let's discuss this thing - so we can go over how you're wrong." Which, yeah, can sometimes elicit responses from people... but all in all, it's not really going to go any where. Keep in mind that we're not reading the gaming boards and sites, and don't know jack about the controversy around this segment of the game before you posted it. No one here was up in arms about it. I honestly don't feel comfortable saying that I'm not into it, because according to you that pretty much automatically shoves me into the easily offended hyper liberal camp. I don't know how to respond to this post without just falling into some set for you to mock.

I get the impression that in Level 1 (of your life) you were attacked by a gang of hyper liberal mama-lezbos, and were injured so badly that you vowed in Level 2 to get the jump on them and bash in their granola brains?
Posted by ROM on November 24, 2009 at 12:23 PM · Report

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