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Russia Recalls Modern Warfare 2
eldavojohn writes "You may recall much ado over some questionable footage in the latest Call of Duty game. Well, that footage has led to a recall of Modern Warfare 2 in Russia. Seems the Russian government was none too happy about the portrayal of Russia in the game and decided to yank it from stores. Infinity Ward has responded with a patch that removes the 'No Russian' mission (the content in question) from the storyline. Before you overly criticize the Russian government, there may be some truth to the claim that the game's story line overly demonizes Russians as just terrorists as the Russian site GotPS3.ru alleges. Is cultural sensitivity becoming an overly played card in the gaming world? Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols."
obviously they still do not have any real concept of freedom of speech.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
Unfortunately, a proper retort to the Russian oversensitivity gives away key plot points from the game. Sadly, I can't say more. Suffice it to say that their hand-wringing is baseless.
Thanks for the warning AC, putting on my tin foil hat now.
Like Vietnam or Iraq wars. They are part of bad history. Ou, wait, it is not related to USSR or Russia?
North Vietnam: Former Soviet Puppet
Iraq: Former Soviet Ally
Nazi Germany: Former Soviet Ally
but its clear the whole game romanticizes Americans.
Imagine that. You'd almost think the game was written by an American gaming company or something.....
Seriously, who cares? Who cares if the game presents Americans as wholesome apple pie eaters and Russians as murderous baby rapers? Is this really something to get Governments worked up about? Shouldn't the story here be about censorship rather than game content? Make a game that portrays Americans in a negative light and sell it here -- I doubt our Government will feel the need to prevent our people from buying it.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Does it matter that Stalin was, in fact, not Russian? Just askin'...
No. Just sayin'...
The fact of the matter is that any former member of the Soviet Union will be forever ingrained in the heads of the West as simply being, "Russian." Don't like it? Tough cookies.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
While only antidotal evidence, my experience with native Germans was quite similar. Attempts to speak of the Nazi era were generally dismissed with the tone that an American northerner would dismiss slavery. Pressing the issue yielded more awkward results. Only the Jewish population had any interest in anything beyond tacit acknowledgement of the Nazi regime. Given the culture of quite denial, it’s not shocking that many German laws focus on keeping this portion of German history out of the spotlight.
We did that in WW1 and got nothing out of it
You mean apart from getting the money you lent to Britain and France back? The Lusitania was an excuse just as much as Franz Ferdinand was.
WTF? Just because satellite images are spoofed, you can somehow sneak an entire invasion fleet across the Atlantic? Whatever happened to combining multiple sources of data, like, say, journalist reports of a massive Russian fleet, our own patrolling ships, the Coast Guard, etc?
That's like saying, "I didn't know I was being mugged because Google Friend didn't show anyone on my block."
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.