It a depressing feature of modern life that, on occasion, young men will take a gun or three and open fire on a school, workplace or some other location where people are gathered. Society recoils in horror and urgently needs a scapegoat for this evil deed. It could be poor parenting, a history of abuse, a pervasive gun culture, or just teenage hormones needing an extreme outlet; but all of these reasons need some analysis, and perhaps some partial acceptance of culpability by those doing the analysing. So it is much easier to blame it on a video game.
The traditional fall guy in these cases has been the Grand Theft Auto series of games, where anti-social behaviour is mandatory and where drugs, prostitution and the elimination of police cars and those who ride in them is de rigueur. But now there is a new target for those who see a link between video games and real life violence (i.e. idiots), and it’s called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
MW2 has the two required features to make it the fall guy when Billy Bob wipes out his school chums. Firstly, it is very popular; having sold seven million copies on the first day of release and taking $500 million in sales in the first week. Secondly, it is deliciously contraversial, thanks to something now known as “the airport level”.
I am fairly crap at shooting games. I no longer have the hand/eye coordination required to jump, crouch, roll and shoot whilst taking on a small army single handed. Luckily, if I get shot up a little bit then I can hide in a corner for a few seconds until the red mist subsides and I somehow heal; or if I get shot up a lot and die; then I can click on the mouse and be instantly resurrected. All very lifelike. But in the airport level, nobody shoots back so I rather enjoyed it.
I am some sort of secret agent trying to infiltrate a terrorist cell. To prove my worth, I must take part in a raid on a Russian airport. This requires me, along with my fellow terrorists, to walk into the departures area, without a boarding card but with a large gun, and massacre everyone in sight. All those people clogging up the aisles with their trolleys; dead. The long queue for check-in populated by idiots who can’t find their tickets once they are at the desk; pile of corpses. The suits with business-provided credit cards loading up on duty free booze; full of holes.
Apparently I was meant to feel some sort of guilt at the prospect of mowing down innocent travellers; but to be honest I didn’t. I was glad of the respite from being constantly shot at in the previous level; and thus dying on a regular basis. And quite honestly, I feel a wave of hatred against anyone who chooses to fly on the same day as I do; so it was gratifying to wipe them all out and have the airport to myself; although sadly I got a little carried away and killed all the check-in staff too so there was nobody left to issue me with a ticket. But, although I enjoyed it, I did think the airport scenario was totally unrealistic; because there were no children; and we all know that children are the real problem at airports.
The little bastards run into your trolley when you are in a rush to get to check in. Whilst waiting to board, most likely you will be hit in the head by some toy that Mummy has bought them to keep them entertained at your expense; and woe betide you if you are sat anywhere near them on the plane. Goodbye any chance of sleep and hello every likelihood of having a fruity dessert dumped on your head. If I had my way I’d have them rounded up upon arrival at the airport, packed into crates with one unbreakable toy and a bottle of water each, and then stuck in the hold. Make life a whole lot more tolerable for the rest of us, including the parents although they would never admit it.
But of course their were no children in the “airport level” because it is a given that, in computer games and movies, you may put children into a little bit of harms way; but in no circumstances can you set up a scenario whereby they can be cut to pieces with machine gun fire in the cosmetics duty free shop. More’s the pity, would have made Modern Warfare 2 truly controversial.
Comments 🔗
2009-12-27| Qon saysi don’t get into the war games but the virtual killing can be rather gratifying in other titles. try Assassin’s Creed, you’ll like that one ;)
2009-12-28| Spike saysSeems like it requires too much jumping between buildings; thus ensuring I would spend my gaming time shouting fuckety fuck fuck as I fell twenty storeys; rather than sneaking up behind potential victims.
Red Faction: Guerrilla is fun; blowing up buildings on a massive scale. Just what you need to relieve the frustration when you think you are improving at dNano racing and then some bastard goes 2 seconds quicker.