Russian Media Link Moscow Bombing With Modern Warfare 2 Scene

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday January 27, 2011 @07:27PM from the taking-cues-from-american-journalists dept.

An anonymous reader tips news that following the airport bombing in Moscow earlier this week, the Russia media is linking the attack to a scene from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in which a number of civilians were gunned down inside an airport. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become a shocking reality ... with so many people seemingly downloading, playing or watching this game, you have to consider whether or not anybody actually thought this game could so closely resemble reality,' said a Russia Today news presenter in the report. It also included comments from US terrorism expert Walid Phares, who said it was possible that computer games might influence the strategies employed by terrorists. Phares, who is director of Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said: 'The issue is we need to know if terrorists or extremists are using these videos or DVDs or games to basically apply the model.' 'I think those who have been radicalized already – that is supposed in this case jihadists, Al-Qaeda or other kind – they look at the games and say these games will serve them to train.'" As we discussed when the game came out, Activision edited out the controversial scene from the Russian version. Violent video games have been taking a similar beating in the US after the shooting in Arizona earlier this month.

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Must surely be correct by RogueyWon · 2011-01-27 19:29 · Score: 5, Insightful

The Russian media must clearly be correct. Nobody ever attacked an airport before.

This is a strong contender for "lowest point in the history of journalism about video games". At the very least, it's tied with the whole MS Flight Sim and 9/11 "controversy". It's hard to see it as anything but an insult to those who died or were injured in the incident.
Highly connected. by cgenman · 2011-01-27 19:37 · Score: 5, Informative

For the record, in Modern Warfare 2, the terrorists are a group of people who gun down people in the middle of an airport with automatic guns. In real life, this guy blew himself up outside the terminal.
Obviously, very similar.

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The ______ Agenda
Blame the video games by sltd · 2011-01-27 20:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Blaming video games for this type of violence is like blaming spoons for making Rosie O'Donnell fat.