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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."
Eat my shorts slashdot !!
And you too commies !!
Oh boo hoo. Russia has a bad history, it should expect criticism
All your 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 are belong to us
> Before you overly criticize the Russian government, there may be some truth to the claim that the game's story line overly demonizes Russians
Oh, I guess that makes it okay, then. The Russian government has every right to make up your mind for you.
It's sad and pathetic how some countries have such thin skins. It must be so awful to be a major nuclear power and yet be so terrified of any kind of real or imagined insult.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Its actually illegal to display swatika's in public in Germany and Austria.
RTFM is not a radio station.
I'm a casual gamer, and me and two other buddies play for an hour 2-4 nights a week. Its a great way to keep in touch.
Anyways, here's what I REALLY don't like:
* auto-aim across a map. Takes all the skill out of a good shot. Zoom. Fire. Zoom. Fire. Zoom. Fire.
* Works with pistols. At a 1000 yards.
* Disabling party chat on open-gaming. Now we HAVE to listen to the stupid chatter of the 14 year olds. We're in our 40s. Good god shut it off. Yes, I know I can mute all but friends. And since when can a game disable a console feature? I paid for party chat with my XBL sub!
* Can't play co-op mission.
* Can't play spec-ops with more than 2 people. (there's 3 of us, remember?)
Damn, its SOOO close to being perfect its not even funny. Amazing how a few minor changes make me wish I hadn't bought it. Looks like we'll be getting more play time on WaW. Those last two points SUCK BIG TIME for the 3 of us!
Assuming that it portrays them in an objectively false way, you still have to demonstrate that censorship is a good idea.
I propose that it's a lousy idea, that games are art, and that inaccuracy isn't a reason to suppress art.
Consider the Russian government "overly" criticized by me!
-Peter
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
The Wolfenstein issue seems very unrelated. Germany has had for a long time regulations about displaying anything related to the Nazis, and this even effected the removal of the symbols from earlier games bearing the Wolfenstein name. Bringing it into this argument is just sophisticating the issue that the poster (or the article it read) is trying to raise.
When are the Vietnam missions coming out where a villiage gate opens and you have to pillage and rape all the civilians? That's right, nobody is stupid enough to do it for the same reason.
Oh boo hoo. Russia has a bad history, it should expect criticism
While we Americans were sitting on our rears eating bon-bons, more Russians died than in all of America's wars combined fighting Adolph Hitler. Love them or hate them, forced by circumstances or not, the Russians did more to save Western Europe from Nazism than anyone else.
This is my sig.
The fact that the games existed in order to be recalled shows that the issue is with the countries, not with the gaming world.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
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.
There is a slight difference in the two. The Wolfenstein recall in Germany had little to do with cultural sensitivity, and a lot more to do with the fact that in Germany it is illegal to perform a Hitler salute, wear a Nazi uniform or display the swastika, all of these being good for up to three years in prison.
Given that, it's probably not unreasonable to think that some people in a given culture might find being demonized for a game not to their liking. Make a game of the early white settlers murdering millions of native american indians, and you'd probably piss off the indians and the poor rednecks who were never taught about it before they dropped out of school.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols.
Germans are anti-nazi-nazis.
Would you play the Jihad Freedom Fighter game that one day demonizes the US?
Having played through and beaten the game. I don't think anyone comes away with their hands clean. The games name is "Modern Warfare" and it's dirty, gritty and cold blooded.
Grand theft Auto I - IV never left me questioning anything I did because of the comedic gameplay. This game did.
I don't think they should mess with the content but I do think they should have said something about it. Politely, formally, respectively. I mean this is Russia: if they can't pirate it, who will?
In 'No Russian', you play as an American CIA agent, and you, as an AMERICAN agent, lay round after round into the innocent populace, alongside the Russian antagonist. I think the even larger message Infinity Ward sends with this mission is the atrocious things the American government is willing to do for the sake of 'National Security'.
Does anyone else see the hilarity in this? Not to mention their foreshadowing of American soldiers torturing an informant via electrocution! Each side of the geopolitical spectrum gets demonized in their own right.
But hey, lets just hate on the game that shows the gritty reality of the world.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
How many sales do software companies even make in Russia? Russia is notorious for hacking, pirates, and spam; not a place where a lot of sales are to be made.
The US military spends half the game trying to recapture a Burger King and the other half trying not to bomb their own White House. At least the Russians get portrayed as *competent* terrorists.
...the Russian government should probably pull all the Red Alert titles from the shelves too. Using FMV to portray actors with terrible Russian accents is an affront on everything the Russian people hold dear.
It would have been nice if there were a discussion of the "demonizing" of Russians from a site in English- to hell with site translators. I haven't played the game and don't really know if the game portrays all Russians as terrorists. I'm fairly sure they would have been content to depict Muslim Chechens as all being terrorists though. A Russian guy once told me about how Russian police(?) wrapped Chechen terrorists' corpses in pigskins to prevent their souls from escaping their bodies.
While I confess I've never even visited Germany before, I had a teacher who did a while ago. I remember him telling us the Germans had a culture of denial, when it came to the WWII Nazi era. History textbooks would completely gloss over that part of history with only the vaguest mention of Hitler and his ambitions. At first, he tried to discuss and question it with people there, but he said it was almost like running into a brick wall. People would practically tell him to quiet down, because "we don't talk about that here anymore".
If that's accurate, then it goes a LONG way towards understanding why they'd ban a game like Wolfenstein, and why they're so adamant about banning sales of Nazi era items on eBay, etc. etc.
Seriously,
My fictionally perfect game that will sell WAY more than this title will have country-specific enemies. Marketed in the U.S? Russia. Marketed in Russia? U.S. Marketed in India? Pakistan. Marketed in Pakistan? Indians.
They'd sell more games pandering to country-specific deeply ingrained cultural enemies. Maybe the game engine doesn't support locales like that though.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Agreed that the game does slant a bad image of Russia. An introduction to the themes and a disclaimer could have really cleared up all the mess. When you portray a nationality as the antagonist, thick skinned or not, it does kind of sting a little. At the very least, a few people might be self conscious now that the rest of the world views them as imperialistic "will to power" war mongering opportunist. ALA USA post 9/11.
A brief disclaimer and introduction to the themes/plot narrative would have cleared the air that this is fiction and they just choose russia as the bad guys, purely out of fiction.
The problem Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs had with the mission is not with how the Russian villain is portrayed (although that probably didn't help the game get a positive reception), but with the fact that the mission is about killing innocent Russian civilians. It does not matter whether the villain is Russian or French or American or Martian - killing civilians at an airport is, according, to a Ministry spokesman, "propaganda of terrorism" and hence illegal.
See http://www.gotps3.ru/article/call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_zapretjat_v_rossii/ for more details.
Russia has a bad history and so does everyone else. I don't see the mainstream video games industry making much effort to portray the negative sides of countries they're based in or where their major markets are. You can use art, including video games, as a critical tool - but if a developer really has an artistic interest in social commentary, rather than just finding convenient stereotypes to build plot around, I'd expect them to be tackling the dirty laundry of other major powers from history. That said, being located in an unstable region with various power plays going on in their vicinity, Russia does make a plausible setting for dramatic military stuff to go down.
Just to be clear -- mw2 does NOT portray russians as terrorists.
It portrays one guy in particular, who happens to be russian, as a
a terrorist. He happens to slaughter a bunch of civilians (along with
the american CIA mole) and pins it on the US, which leads the
russians into a conventional war against the US. This is (with
the exception of the terrorist framing a major government) entirely
analagous to the US going into Afghanistan after 9/11.
the "no russian" mission is pretty hardcore violent, and you're
warned about it when you set up the game.
So I don't think anyone can justifiably say it portrays "russians"
negatively... in the context of the game, they're pretty justifiably
pissed off, not invading "as terrorists".
If anyone recalls the game for nastiness, I'd expect it to be for
the "no russian" mission purely because it's... hardcore violent.
I can't comment on the russian rationale for the recall, as TFA
is in russian. The english articles citing it are gaming sites
citing other gaming sites, I don't see original English sources
explaining why the recall is happening.
In an effort to make the Russians appear less bloody thirsty the new release of the game will have Russian weapons replaced by flowers and instead of running the Russian characters will skip.
I thought the Allied Powers wrote the law in 1945?
Best Slashdot Co
we need to crack down on demonizing countries and people in video games. as an example, theres a notable portion of the populace that have an extremely difficult time discerning between sean hannity's tangential commentary and REAL news. What is to stop this portion from being creatively incensed even further to adopt a polarized stance to the rest of the world based on gameplay they forgot is not part of history or even a remotely accurate portrayal?
lets go back to places and people that arent real, so we can be free to form our own opinions without entertainment media driving them to extremes.
Good people go to bed earlier.
why dont they just make a game where the RIAA are the bad guys?
Release an alternative mission that involves first going into an American school and massacring the schoolkids, then by chance stumbling upon the president out on a jog and killing him, who happens to be Obama.
-5billion flamebait.
The article isn't specific on whether the infamous airport scene is being removed because of its portrayal of Russia, or whether it's being censored because it's an unpleasant part of the game. Most other countries have had uproar about this scene and I'd expect to see it refused classification in some places (e.g. in Australia where Left 4 Dead 2 recently encountered problems). A national classification body refusing to allow a game to go on sale does, effectively, constitute the government disapproving of something - but it's a very different situation to central government stepping in and banning something directly for political reasons. Maybe this is happening behind the scenes but the article *doesn't say*.
It's certainly suggested that the Russian gaming public weren't all overjoyed to see the portrayal of their country in the game. That's hardly surprising, though - I expect most gamers from other big markets such as Europe, the US and Japan would also be quite easily offended if their unpleasant past was dredged up. People don't like to think of their country ever being the villains and yet pretty much every country in the world has been villainous in the past, often surprisingly recently.
In Capitalist America, you ban the game.
In Soviet Russia, game bans YOU!!
The mission is called "No Russian" for a reason. Without being too much of a spoiler, the title is from the words to you by the terrorist leader at the start of the mission, reminding you not to speak any russian. Because he plans to blame the attack on outsiders for political gain. So theres no real implication that the game is portraying Russians in general in a bad light in this mission. That being said it was one of the more shocking experiences I have ever had in a video game. There is very little explanation of the mission objective before hand, so when your 'squad' opens fire you are completely confused. I bet it would make for a psychology case study to see what people do when prevented with this situation. But anyways, its really an interesting game for the situations they put you in. Its a lot different from the last one, as you're not shooting at generic arab terrorists for most of the game anymore. Eventually you really start wondering who's side you're really on or who the good guys are. I really liked it.
"at least I have job..." lol
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
In Raiders, Major Eaton claims that
for the last two years the Nazis have had teams of archeologists running around the world looking for all sorts of religious artifacts. Hitler's gone nuts on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. And right now, apparently, there is some kind of German archeological dig going on in the desert outside Cairo.
But how true is this claim? Is this perception simply a failure to grapple with the fact that Hitler was not insane, he was not possessed by demons, and simply made a cold blooded choice to slaughter millions?
Wolfenstein encourages the player to think of Nazis as creatures of myth and masters of the dark arts, rather than as ordinary criminals, capable of making ethical decisions and thus fully culpable for their actions.
Not to mention how buddy-buddy they were with each other when it came to taking a bite out of Poland. If Hitler wasn't so retardedly ambitious, the whole of Eurasia, Africa, and probably some other parts of the world would be Germany, Russia/USSR, and Japan now. Or maybe not, as the empires would probably fall apart on their own, but that's not the point.
Considering the ridiculous amount of hours the players will spend playing this game, these fictional scenarios are bound to cross boundaries with reality in the minds of avid gamers. Russia has a valid concern.
You mean those long 5 months? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
Seriously, Stalin let Hitler attack Britain & Poland. They were double-crossed. The Soviets did sacrifice a lot, but let's be honest. They were bastards.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
A good percentage of games and media made in the U.S. portray the U.S. government in a bad light, and yet they don't get yanked. (pun merely fortuitous)
The game was supposed to draw parallels to Afghanistan without being that obvious (imagine your country being invaded all because of the acts of one person/small group of people). Its clearly criticism against he US government.
Oh well, the Russians aren't missing much. The plot was quite frankly kind of stupid, like it was written by Michael Bay. The snowmobiles/speedboats move at 150 mph too and don't feel even remotely realistic.
tiresome in video games? I think it's silly to take offense to the fact that video games usually portray the American G.I. Joe hero archetype as the player character. That's simply what sells games because the U.S. is such a huge market. Russia is a convenient adversary because of the extensive black market for weapons; it's possible to write a paper-thin plot without any effort if you center it on Russian terrorists.
Personally though, I find that the standard American hero portrayal is just boring. It's been done too often. The first Call of Duty did a decent job covering all the ally forces, in fact, the Russian campaign was quite good for that one and I thought that it was a fair portrayal. Some other games do a good job of exploring other factions but not many. I think that it's about time that the video game industry expanded it's cultural inspirations just to avoid doing the same bloody thing over and over. I believe that there is a market for it.
Tell ya what Russia... you stop making nukes for countries with extremists and an itchy trigger finger for incumbent governing bodies... we'll stop presuming you lean towards the "evil" side of things.
That all aside, if their economy warranted for publishing world-market games, I'm sure they'd have no issues depicting any other nationality as evil.
In Soviet Russia, game ban you!
AMERICA. FUCK YEAH! we really do kick that much ass.
My other sig is a knife wound.
If you trace the the story back it all originates from a forum post on a Russian game site. Despite this, the story has been picked up by the Guardian UK, PC World, Gamespy, to name but a few. Yet not a one of them has done anything to verify the report. How hard is it to call a Russian retailer or "My Gosh!" someone in the gov't. This is just another example of the incestuousness of today's news where the reporter's job entails nothing more than reading newspapers and websites.
I overly think the word overly is the only overly used card.
Imagine if Japan release a game where you shot at fat Americans leaving various fast food chains.... oh who am I kidding we would play that too. Probably while eating sushi.
and the right amount of money and suddenly it all becomes a misunderstanding.
The Russian government is as corrupt as any other because it still is staffed by humans
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Well, the Germany recall has nothing to do with being politically correct. There is a law in Germany that forbids the use of the National Socialist Party symbol and any type of Naziism period. If there is a mention of any type of Nazi principles toward government organisations, those people are able to be apprehended by the police. So, nothing new there. It comes down to the laws. If people don't pay attention to the laws they will unfortunately pay the price.
Does this have anything to do with antiquated thinking and beliefs... totally. Do people have to grow up and realize it is a part of life... sure. But, that is not the issue. The law is no Nazi affiliation or symbolism is allowed in Germany.
The fact that Infinity Ward decided to "demonize" the Russians or a faction of Russia... that's their own fault. They should have stuck with non-descript or fictitious governments.
Why isn't there a mission if MS flight simulator to crash a plane in a building?
Why aren't there carpet bombing missions in MS combat flight simulator over vietnam and cambodja on civilian targets?
Why don't you get to kill american troops in America's Army?
The US calls other thin skinned when they censor themselves silly about themselves.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
SPOILER
Not only that, but the whole airport incident was orchestrated by an American. Its actually americans that are the bad guys of that whole scene, not Russians at all. The Russians are just the put upon victims.
Really, if anyone has a case for recall, its americans.
Is cultural sensitivity becoming an overly played card in the gaming world?
Yes. Yes it is.
Reply to That ||
First of all, I'm Russian so feel free to disregard my words and call me an ignorant enemy of liberty. Now, for the comment
Sure, the recall of the game is overreacting and completely ineffective since most players will just go buy the English version of the game on Steam. However, I find it really unsettling that everybody here is criticizing Russia for censorship. Many people in the comments have already said that such criticism is hypocritical because in the US would do the same. There has never been a game released in the US (or Europe for that matter) where Americans are portrayed as the villains and were such a game made, it would be pulled from the shelves pretty quickly - if not the government, then some patriot group or overly sensitive player would sue the developer and\or publisher. And what's the best rebuttal that the opponents of this could come up with here? "It's never happened so you can't say it's true". I'm convinced that all of you know precisely what is wrong with this rebuttal and are simply unwilling to admit it.
Cheers,
ANonymous Coward
Russians who believe they single-handedly took down the Nazis are as foolish as Americans who think they single-handedly took down the Nazis.
As any reasonable historian will tell you, it was a combined effort. The Nazis lost because they were outnumbered. Had the Nazis not invaded Russia (or at least waited until the UK fell) or Japan hadn't bombed pearl harbor, the war would have been quite different. It's a testament to both the Russian and US soldiers for what they had endured, but to say simply that the only factor was how awesomely great one army was over the other discounts the thousands of factors that go into modern warfare.
Oh and by the way, we didn't get a whole lot of help from the Russians in the pacific theater. You like to take a lot of credit over the Nazis and you forget that the Italians and Japanese were allied with Germany and someone had to deal with them, and it sure wasn't the Russians.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Is there a mission where you kill American civilians as some Al Queda member? No? Why not?
I play games since 1980s and I keep "killing" Russians, "bombing" Russian towns, watching dumb Russian soldiers.
It really seems someone at "New World" better start a global political correctness fashion.
I think they knew the game wouldn't sell original copies too much in Russia so they basically trolled with that "No Russians" level, predicting this or less would happen.
Income: PR, "Reds banning American game", Slashdot YRO story etc. It is far more than the game would sell in Russia.
I, on the other hand, don't think it's realistic enough.
LRN 2 SWM
SPOILER ALERT. I got the game yesterday for my bday and I just beat the game today, stayed up all night and day playing it on PC. This has to be one of the best FPS single player games I have ever played (haven't tried the multiplayer yet). But keep in mind, it is entirely fiction. In the end it actually makes a U.S. General look like a backstabbing s.o.b. and the Russians are just reacting in retaliation for something they *think* we did to them. It doesn't actually suggest that the Russian government is terrorist in any way. In this entirely fictional plot, there is a terrorist element similar to the Irish IRA inside of Russia. They cause a blood bath at a Russian airport and leave behind the dead body of a CIA agent in the middle of it to take the fall for it. When in reality the CIA agent was there to infiltrate their terrorist organization and expose them. However, the CIA/USA end up getting blamed as the cause of the bloodbath, so the USA ends up looking like the terrorists in the eyes of the Russian government and people. It is entirely a misunderstanding and as a result an all out war breaks out which involves the USA being invaded by Russian forces, which eventually leads to a nuclear attack.
I would suggest that the Russians take a closer look at the plot line, so they can realize this isn't in any way suggesting that the government of Russia is evil or terrorist. This entirely *fictional* plot is a series of misunderstandings and betrayals on both sides. If anything, the U.S. should be concerned that it makes our Generals look like self-serving backstabbing scum. However, it is fiction, artistic, amazingly well done and is a perfectly proper use of free speech. There is no slandering going on here, just a fun & exciting yet disturbing depiction of a hypothetical future world. Please, let the Russian gamers play this game, it is just plain fun and one of the best FPS I've had the honor of playing.
To answer the general question everyone asked about what would happen if this mission had been about Americans I'll refer you to Six Days in Fallujah. One of the severely downplayed (though not the biggest) reasons that game was shelved was due to the amount of civilian casualties caused by Americans in their hunt for insurgents.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/04/fallujahkonamicancel.html
"Reports claim that up to 6000 civilians died throughout the operation." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
That being said, I realize that the situations are only relatively similar but they clearly favor the argument stating that such a game made about America wouldn't make it financially speaking. As for it being outright banned or recalled, doubtful.
> 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.
My knowledge of German law/history is hazy, but Nazi symbols are illegal in Germany (and Austria ?) under the constitution except in certain cases. (And the constitution was initiated and signed off by the Allies.)
i.e. it was not "cultural sensitivity", but illegality that affected Wolfenstein.
"Recall" is a euphemism for "ban."
The real question for me in the Modern Warfare series is why the bad guys are Russian at all.
Why aren't they the usual terrorist stereotype? You know - Muslims.
Probably because instead of a recall they'd be facing death threats like that Cartoonist fellow.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
The US General is the real "Bad Guy" in the game.
Is buying a Harley Davidson as your first motorcycle since you were 16 at age 49 a midlife crisis issue?
North Vietnam: Former French & American Ally
Iraq: Former French & American Ally
Nazi Germany: Former French & American Ally
The game is not recalled. It's just patched, so that there's no airport mission. Well, I don't give a damn about it, actually.
That will teach em to remove dedicated server support.
In Soviet Russia the... Uh... whoa.
I'm from Russia and i'm very glad that people in another country understand that "the Russians did more to save Western Europe from Nazism than anyone else. For example in Russia during WW2 died about 30 million of people ... what about game... I had been realy disapointed when i see that i should to shoot in Russians.
P.S. sorry my bad english )))
everyone else. Is cultural sensitivity becoming an overly played card in the gaming world? no.
If you want to sell the game, you'd probably do that kind of thing (cutting the mission in question). Why not try to sell Hiroshima bombing simulator to Japan? Will we ever see 9/11 mission in H.A.W.X.?
modern warfare.
Hey, that's the name of the game!
Russia make about 80 % to took down Nazis. just because about 30 millions of Russian were killed in WW2 it's much bigger than in all other countrys
In communist Russia Modern Warfare 2 recalls Russia.
The interesting thing in all of this, is the terrorist is a Russian, but he's not working FOR Russia. Half of the game is trying to get information to show Russia what happened and why.
More interesting to me is the fact that the US military (well, at least certain people in it) aren't exactly cast in a good light either, yet no one is railing against it here.
Americans are slaughtered in any number of American made games. Big deal, it's a game.
That said, it's their government, they can ban what they like. How very American of us to get outraged at what another country does to it's own citizens. Perhaps a more enlightened approach would be to let them do as they please on their own land, eh?
Just another ignorant American.
If a game came out that portrayed the US Government as a malevolent system ... I think that US gameplayers and the US Government might have some objections
Sure they might have some objections. There would almost certainly be objections. However, despite those objections, our constitution does not allow our government to censor speech. (First amendment to the US Contitution protects the free speech of US Citizens.)
Wolfenstein already was censored like hell by the publisher, but there was one tiny pixel Swastika left one some texture that "caused" the ban of the game in Germany.
There it is: http://www.schnittberichte.com/www/SBs/5982811/haken.jpg (My very first slashdot attack)
The german authorities are crazy like shit after stuff like this. It's not even funny in its pathetic way anymore. They even did go after kids that used crossed out Swastikas that where intended to be simbols agains Nazis...
And please, after reading this do not belive that german authorities do anything agains real Nazis!
In the end, however, the game would remain on store shelves because of the First Amendment.
The first amendment doesn't keep the retail box on the shelves at Walmart. It doesn't guarantee you access to the console market.
Amazon can cut you loose. Steam can freeze you out.
The developer's only protection is against government censorship.
He can't stop the VFW from circling the Congress with a picket line. This time he probably won't be able to stave off adoption of a mandatory ratings system with teeth.
The Supreme Court has ended the execution of juveniles in the U.S. It may put an end to life without parole for the juvenile offender.
When the intellectual and moral immaturity of the child becomes so important and embedded a principle in the law - it becomes possible to argue with a very real chance of success that some games should be accessible to adults only.
No excuses and no exceptions.
Sometimes I wonder if the people leveling criticism at the game have actually completed it at all, or simply weren't paying attention.
Modern Warfare is mostly critical of... modern warfare. The ease with which a single deception can lead to mass conflict, the mutual exclusiveness of the extremes of patriotism with morality, the callousness of weighing actions by the "potential" number of lives lost, and the physical and spiritual sacrifice soldiers of all sides are forced to make... the only crime IW committed was bringing the true ethical dimensions of war uncomfortably close to gamers who until now have only exprienced it in the comfort of home, who "recall" war with implanted sentimentality. No mass conflict unfolds without taking innocent casualties, no one's hands are left clean... not people like Shepherd, nor people like Price. In fact, they were two sides of the same coin.
The No Russian stage needed to be in the game, because people NEED to be sickened by war. This doesn't even come close to the kind of soul-wrenching decisions real soldiers face on the battlefield every day to serve their country. Most of us can barely take it in a fictional video game.
In Soviet Russia game recalls you
Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols."
You should've also read the discussion on that when it was posted, and noticed that a lot of german readers have pointed out that all that goes back to a bundle of laws the the allies, i.e. you americans, most of all forced unto Germany after WW2, before the Federal Republic of Germany was founded.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Everyone should just do things the American way because it is the right way to do things.
As a Russian, let me share my opinion on this.
First of all, I'm generally irked by portrayal of Russians in U.S. mass culture, including films and video games, especially action ones. "Hordes of dumb evil rampaging barbarians" is so cliche. You can do better.
CoD series was never good at it in the past, either - e.g. in CoD5, all Soviet missions seem to emphasize brutality and human waves as much as possible, especially by character dialogue, while American missions seem more focused on "fighting the bad guys". This is clearly evident in two prisoner-taking scenes - in Soviet one, Germans genuinely surrender, but you have to execute them (or have your squad do so), and your only choice is between shooting them and burning them alive. Either way, it's clearly a war crime. In American mission, Japanese fake surrender, and you cannot shoot them until they try to overpower and kill your fellow soldiers restraining them (and then, of course, killing them is perfectly justified). I didn't see much difference in MW2 in that regard. If anything, the first MW was more ambiguous in that regard, since at least you had "good Russians" and "bad Russians"; in MW2, the former kind has apparently rapidly died out again, so we're back to good old stereotypes.
On the other hand, I actually have to thank Infinity Ward for MW2, for one simple reason: it's been a while since any American game depicted a proper, honest-to-God Russian invasion of U.S. soil, complete with shelled cute "American Dream" neighborhoods and burning White House, and the overall gloomy atmosphere of verging on defeat. At least it's markedly different from your typical drivel of a U.S. Rambo squad on rampage somewhere in Siberia, taking out Russian soldiers by the thousands. Just as unrealistic, too, but hey, at least you can appreciate how it looks from the other side now. I only wish there was an option to play for the paratroopers in the initial wave :)
Finally, regardless of my personal likes and dislikes of this and other games touching on the subject at hand, I firmly believe that any kind of political censorship is wrong; and this, especially, is one really stupid reason to ban a game.
" Not too long ago, Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany for containing Nazi symbols."
It's illegal to have Nazi symbols in Germany had nothing to do with the Game. Call of Duty and Medal of Honor Eliminate Swastikas from German Copies of the Game
There often is a sort of cartoonish view by America of the rest of the world.
the japanese don't self-flagellate that much
and so they do this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Yasukuni_Shrine#Politicians.27_visits
and they get that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Japanese_sentiment_in_China#Effects_of_World_War_II
a little self-flagellation by the japanese would be less harmful for the japanese than visiting that stupid shrine. however, pride being what it is...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Glad to see I'm not alone. +Interesting
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Wait a second here... Russians actually buy their games?!
As far as i know, displaying Nazi symbols is ILLEGAL in Germany.
The German General Staff in WWII suffered from the same sort of flaws that pervade the American military today. To wit - the commanders are superb tacticians but terrible strategists. By comparison, American generals in WWII were aweful tacticians, when Patton's yer best, you got problems, but, super strategists. Right now, in our present wars, I would much rather have an Eisenhower or a Marshall, someone that can think of the whole picture, rather than Rommel-esque guys that can carve up a country in a few weeks but can't hold an inch of the pie.
I would make the argument that in our admiration of skillful German tactics, we underestimated the civil engineering heritage that used to be a hallmark of the academy prior to MacArthur's bringing in all the sports and placing an emphasis on warfighting rather than army running.
When push comes to shove, I'm pretty dour on old D-Mac and I wonder if he might not be those most overrated American generalissmo of all time. He blew the defense of the Phillipines, he was nothing compared to Nimitz when it came to the Pacific, and he damned near blew the Korean war both before Inchon and after, and he almost blew Inchon as well.
This is my sig.
SPOILERS: -You will find that a corrupt US general is responsible for triggering the conflict and is the main antagonist of the story. -The Russians are merely reacting to a perceived false-flag terrorist attack perpetrated by the US. -You will be killing American soldiers at the end of the game. -Not a single individual in that game could be classified as a hero.
Why is this a troll?
There's a pretty good factual argument to be made that the USA literally picked the English side in World War I precisely because of the massive debts England and France racked up. Yes, there was a common heritage with England, but the USA at that time was nearly as much German as it was English, or had a huge German minority - particular in the midwest.
The fact is, Imperial Germany bent over backwards to avoid war with the USA and the Zimmerman telegram was basically a "WTF do we do if the USA goes against us... maybe Mexico will join us"... but the German high command KNEW they were losing the war, KNEW the war was over if the USA joined it, just on naval strength alone and they threw the hail mary. The british intercepted it.
Woops.
This is my sig.
it will be zombies, aliens and rednecks from here on out. When we discover aliens, it will end up being alien zombie rednecks. In any case rednecks will always be OK to shoot at as long as they are zombies and so long as they are not pregnant with anything other than alien zombie babies.
Its really pretty strait forward put any other way.
Wait, I forgot about demons.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Excluding the controversial mission (in which by the way I find it kind of hypocrite that you can get away with shooting only for self defense; if I were Makarov and one of my squad members showed less than zealous to participate in the "mission", I'd discipline them right away), there is one more basic question I have regarding war games:
How does it feel for people to play games where they have to mow down legions of soldiers of their own ethnicity? How come Russia is upset mainly for the terrorist scene, but I don't see anyone complaining much for having to wipe out wave upon wave of Russian paratroopers?
Mind you, I'm not questioning the fairness of defending against an aggressor (in a given premise), I'd just like to find out what Germans feel when placed in a position where they have to shoot German soldiers, etc. Is there still fun to be had, or does it feel weird or wrong?
Having said that, I can only think of Half-Life 1 as an example of US Forces being portrayed as the bad guys, and would certainly like to see games or movies present matters from another viewpoint, for some balance.
Wolfenstein was recalled in Germany because Germany has strict laws about display of swastikas and other Nazi insignia, which the game violated. Not simply because it gave offence.
[quote]Did you even play the first game? Half of the plot is fighting in a chaotic (no longer Saudi) Arabia taken over by Muslim terrorists.[/quote]
I've played all the COD games since the first one, except for COD3 which was only for consoles.
But it's been a long time since I played single player so I can't remember the plot line of COD4MW.
The OpFor forces just always struck me as Russian or Russian-backed. I guess it's the Hind helicopters.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
For those who are complaining about the scene specifically - It's a game meant for entertainment, just as there are massacres in movies, there can be massacres in video games. They're both meant for the same age group. For those who are complaining about the negative portrayal of Russia - There was also a corrupted general who killed his own men in this game too. It's a fictional storyline, get over it.
I shot as many as I could and ENJOYED every minute of it... it may have saved a real life that day, considering all the texting, cell phone using idiots i drive on the road with every day.
Reagan said to Gorbachev "In America, anyone can go to the white house and say to the president, 'Mr. President,I don't like what you are doing with this country'. In Russia, anyone can go to the Kremlin and say to the prime minister,'Mr. Prime Minister, I don't like what the American President is doing with his country'". now, its the Russian land, so the Russian government can decide what they want. Cant argue much about that.