Reader/Listener Anatoly N. writes the following note regarding the banning of this game in Russia:
John, please watch this and tell me this game should be available in Russia. Bear in mind that in Russia we don’t have age differentiated rating for games & movies it’s our fault, i know.Also picture that game’s action is taking place in “US airport named after Osama Bin Laden”. But at 1:27 in the clip it says “Zakhaev International Airport, Moscow, Russia”. There is no such airport. It’s obviously named after Akhmed Zakayev the Chechen ex Prime Minister accused by Russia of terrorism. And even if we don’t care about this crap, this scene should not be in the game anyway. It’s too cruel.
This scene is ridiculously sick, I agree. But if you can actually watch it, it makes you cringe because there are too many airports that are crawling with lots of machine-gun toting security forces. Kind of creepy to think about what would happen if one went berserk.
Big deal. If you’ve played any of the other CoD games, you see similar, although not nearly as bloodthirsty elements. The whole point of the CoD franchise is showing real-world squad-based military action. Anyone who thinks that their government hasn’t used such tactics is fooling themselves.
As long as they sell it to people over 18 years , (like here in the Netherlands) i don’t see the problem.
And there are in-game warnings;
notice 1
notice 2
Here’s an article about the Russian version.
In terms of the airport name, you need a little context. Zakhaev was the ostensibly the antagonist of the previous Modern Warfare. In that game Russia is under the control of separatists lead by Zakhaev, so it makes sense that the airport is named after him.
In terms of the scene above you have to give the developers of these games some credit; this scene represents a massive lapse of judgment by the protagonists that hurls the world into a huge and deadly war. It’s brutal and tough to watch/play, but it does make sense within the greater context of the story, i.e. bad guys are bad and the good guys really screw things up too.
Just training your kids for the near future ma’am. Nothing to see here…move along.
I SAID MOVE ALONG!!!!
I just wish we could just make a cake filled with rainbows and butterflies, and then we could all eat it and be happy…
Let this be a lesson, do not hide and then run as terrorists approach, play dead.
#7 agreed. I also wonder how this scenario would play out if YOU the American sucker with the machine gun killed the guy you were supposed to follow along with the other guys shooting up the place. If that’s not allowed in the game play then the game stinks anyway.
Just like with any other media, if you don’t like it, don’t play/watch/listen to it.
Wow! Almost, a month late with this one John. I notice you didn’t even bother to post the response that IW wrote a few weeks ago, and that you have the option to skip the scene entirely, and that this very scene is the catalyst in the game for New Russia to Attack the States.
Meh. A fairly accurate depiction of CIA practices, as far as I can see: provide support to terrorist organisations, then get screwed over in the end because it turns out that supporting terrorists is a rather stupid idea.
Totally unrealistic and unbelievable, especially for a Russian airport. I rate it 1 bullet… between the eyes.
Hey that was way too cool & exiting. But I guess if you really want to feel alive, and feel some real power, you’d want to do that for real. If you don’t like that, don’t watch.
RBG
What the f**k is wrong with the people making these games, and the sick twisted children that sit in their basement pretending to murder unarmed people. This is beyond ‘get a life’. This is more like ‘get some therapy you sick sob’.
#13 – JimR
It’s a video game
You can play this mission with out ever pulling a trigger on any of the civilians. It’s only once you get back out side and you’re dealing with the authorities is when you need to start killing.
However I do find this mission to be pointless since your character dies at the end, so it’s not like that particular undercover agent gets his story played though towards the end of the game’s story.
But then something similar happens again on a different role you play in this game too (betrayal).
John
As the player you don’t have to kill anyone, just follow along. You can’t kill the terrorists, but that is because the story is centered around this action. IF it didn’t happen, the game would just end.
John, there is no way to change the story arch in the game. If you did not fire your weapon hence removing the evidence that a USAian did the shooting nothing changes.
sigh- It probably is time for a world CTRL-ALT-DEL.
“Kind of creepy to think about what would happen if one went berserk.”
– I was also thinking that even if the shooters weren’t security – just armed nut-cases — just how useful would the TSA security be?
I’m hoping someone does a special “TSA” version where all you do is walk around shooting* TSA guards while they shout “take off your shoes!”.
*And, seriously, I’m not advocating actually shooting anybody. It’s game. It’s not real. I love the TSA. I love Big Brother.
There are bobbies carry H&H MP5’s in England now. 800 rounds per minute in public?
“just how useful would the TSA security be?”
If the TSA is anything like what we have around here – slow and overweight – then at least you can use them to hide behind.
I’m honestly sick in my stomach… Those screams really do the trick for me… What next, an abattoir game?
This is no GTA. GTA has a kind of humor that’s totally absent here!
Bottom line it’s a GAME. Keep it in the context of it being a game. Also, you have the option to skip that part of the game. It is a fictional future where a war is sparked between the US and Russia. Is it graphic? Sure. Does it have a warning on it? Yes. Are you able to skip the mission? YES.
There are much bigger things to worry about instead of content in a video game.
Lighten up idiots. It’s a game that mimics real life. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Go crawl into your little church corner and keep pretending you can stop the real world from the pulpit of your beliefs.
The game asks you a couple of times if you want to skip offensive scenes. I said “harumph, I think I can handle it…” with a grin.
And then, this scene.
For those that haven’t or won’t play – you have ZERO idea what is about to happen until that elevator opens.
It gives you pause. I found it disturbing more than offensive. Then, you suddenly are faced with a “uh, what should I do?” situation.
That’s the point.
Interestingly, my friends and I that played this discussed it afterwards (we all played separately) – and ALL of us walked around the airport firing off rounds into signs and stuff, so we wouldn’t be noticed by the bad guys. And, you can’t shoot the aholes, I tried. 😉
None of us shot civilians. Then, when the fight turns back against the troops that come storming in, it was natural to resume normal game-play.
Masterful piece of art, IMHO, moving beyond just a game into making a grown man think about things.
well, i think it teaches a great lesson. you go undercover and you have to do this mission in order to get close to the guy and in the process you do something utterly terrible….and you end up dying. it looked to me like there was a little moral fiber in that when i played it…..don’t kill innocent people lol
Controversy surrounding this game will only help fuel sales. And the scenes are only disturbing because we’re reminded that we’re not truly safe. Suck it up or put your head under your pillow…it’s a game that is portraying terrorism by today’s standards.
I feel like doing somehting similar EVERY DAMN TIME I’m stuck behind some fat bastard at the post office or have to wait in a doctor’s surgery where a bunch of a-hole mothers think its okay for their spawn to run riot about the sick people yelling and throwing the (out of date) magazines everywhere.
Anyone who thinks the stuff in the clip was sick just needs to sit down in front of possibly any hollywood blockbuster made in the last 15 years and you’ll see much worse.
FUCK YOU Jack Thompson!!