Leaked Footage Reveals Terrorists in MW2, AP Exagerates

by drrandle

This Just In: Players Play as Bad Guy in Modern Warfare 2; AP Ignores All Other Games That Happens In by Randy Marr Ok, so let's get this all out of the way first so we can have an honest discussion: No I'm not a bleeding heart who rests on one wing or the other. People that do are idiots, because you need to side with facts on a case per case basis, not play partisan politics for personal agen...

This Just In: Players Play as Bad Guy in Modern Warfare 2; AP Ignores All Other Games That Happens In

by Randy Marr

   Ok, so let's get this all out of the way first so we can have an honest discussion: No I'm not a bleeding heart who rests on one wing or the other. People that do are idiots, because you need to side with facts on a case per case basis, not play partisan politics for personal agendas. So no, I'm not hear to scream about a liberal media trying to let the gays rape your family, and I'm not hear to claim right-wings are trying to take our fun away. I'm just saying that I have a problem with this ONE article. Barbara Orutay wrote this, and I have no clue who she is. She's just a public person who saw something, and has a place to write about it, just like the rest of us. What she saw clearly stuck in her head something powerful enough to want to try and share it to the world, and I'm just doing the same.

   Now let's talk about public perception.

   It's clear to me that this article was written as a reaction to some leaked Modern Warfare 2 footage. Do me a favor and read that all the way through but keep your mouth quiet for a moment because we're discussing this rationally and I don't need knee-jerk comments. My problem here is this: Barbara clearly writes this with the surprise that you're playing as a terrorist in a segment, and although there is little context, the fact is that you are doing something that looks bad. That's clearly the intent of the scene.

   It's also not the only time in video games where you've played the bad guy and done horrible things.

   Oh sure, I get it, violent games aren't so bad anymore, but playing as a terrorist ("Isn't that a popular word these days?" - Ramon Salazar from RE4) strikes some post 9/11 emotions in some people that can't let go and move on. So why is it newsworth that you're running with a terrorist cell, possibly in a "deep undercover" scenario, but when Commander Shephard punches a news-lady in the face because she wouldn't be quiet, nobody cares? Or when Fearmonger sets a whole town on fire in Fable 2 because it's funny? Or when I Protagonist blows up an entire city of people with a small nuke in Fallout 3?

   Perhaps realism is a debatable point here, but I object to that simply because you're playing a video game. I don't care if it's zombies getting gibbed in L4D or medic's blowing to chunks in TF2, blood is blood no matter how cartoony it looks and violent acts are still violent acts. If Barbara is upset because of this Modern Warfare footage, clearly she hasn't seen a large number of games played. Which brings me back to public perception.

    We need to change it. Do me a favor, and I'm not kidding, talk to your family about video games. And I'm absolutely fucking serious when I say this, but I do apologize that it sounds like some bass ackwards after-school special. Now that you're old enough to understand the difference I hope they taught you between right and wrong, go back and explain to them what they see on TV, or might see. People are going to read that article somewhere, and it's our jobs to make people understand what's going on before they read that and start having weird fits about video games.

   We are the ones that will make it happen. Don't believe we can? How do you think The Wii got popular with moms and grandmoms in the firstplace? It was us. We gamers took the Wii with us for Thanksgiving and Christmas and showed it to normal people, because we knew they would appreciate it, and clearly they did. Now we need to do something better; explain to them, in a calm, rational tone, what video games are doing and how they're evolving.

   If you have anything you'd like to say I'd love you to leave a comment. If you have any advice you want to give or like the idea but need me to elaborate on some specifics, feel free to drop a comment or PM me. I don't know why, but this article made me realize that the whole "video games are bad" perception isn't going away unless we help change it. And we can't change it unless we're calm, intellectual, and not like we usually are on message board forums. It's time for video gamers to show the world that we've grown up.