Fighting Words: How Call of Duty Stopped Lamenting War and S

[News Portal]

When Call of Duty first began, it treated you to powerful quotes about the horror and brutality of war, and reminded you that war was not a game. Now, says Patrick Stafford, the series has changed to glorify and worship the very thing it once sought to treat respectfully.

Read full article by Patrick Stafford

[elliotENGi]

It's looking like the next Medal of Honor may be taking some steps back in the right direction - I hope so. Time will tell.

[exe3]

Excellent article. Sums up a good chunk of what I hated about the series the moment CoD4 was announced to no longer be in WW2.

[wazzuppi]

The only cod I really enjoyed and still play is world at war, the LAN coop is unbelievably fun and play it all the time with friends. Why did infinity Ward axe cooperative gameplay. Really turned me off the whole series

[exe3]

Infinity Ward didn't do World at War and it probably wasn't in Black Ops because Black Ops had such a focused storyline. It was a lot more solo driven like the Modern Warfare games than the real Call of Duty games.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I've got mixed feelings on this one. Personally I view games as a form of escapism and never viewed the COD series as being some deep meaningful conduit for spreading the message of the horrors of war. I'm the type of person who would rather visit museums, read books, watch documentaries or research the internet on this subject.

On the other hand I appreciate the need to try different mediums to convey a message. Its just that an occasional quote during a death screen seems kinda pointless when the rest of the game "rewards" you for killing an enemy AI.

[debri]

I think you can download the "War is hell" quotations pack dlc. Only $30!

[Nekosan]

I've got mixed feelings on this one. Personally I view games as a form of escapism and never viewed the COD series as being some deep meaningful conduit for spreading the message of the horrors of war. I'm the type of person who would rather visit museums, read books, watch documentaries or research the internet on this subject.

On the other hand I appreciate the need to try different mediums to convey a message. Its just that an occasional quote during a death screen seems kinda pointless when the rest of the game "rewards" you for killing an enemy AI.

Agree with Ralph on this one, COD has never been (and will never be) about lamenting war, there are thousands of well written books out there if you want that.

on another note: I also get somewhat annoyed when people cry about "glorifying war" (usually it's someone who can make some money by crying), for tens of thousands of years we've done exactly the same thing in smoky halls and around camp fires, making a movie or a video game in 2012 is no different, fighting(and stories of) is a fundamental part of who we are as humans and no complaining is going to change that.

Let games be games ffs.

[BuZeR]

If war was not glorified no one would fight.

I think the change in aspects of the franchise is only one small factor that has helped to desensitize people to war and killing - CoD does not wear the whole blame.

It is more main-stream now, people are exposed to it at a younger age and more often. This is the main reason, in my opinion, that has driven the 'Glorification'.
One way to try turn that back is deeper penalties for death, lock the game out for an hour, people would be more scared of the most dangerous course of action materializing.

Saving Private Ryan is one example, when that first came out it was very gritty, heart felled, moving bit of cinema. But to show that to an adult in 10 years who has grown up playing FPS games would have no where near the same effect. Our growlingly blasay attitude to sex is another example, its just inevitable.

[Nekosan]

The problem is that games are designed to entertain people, it's virtually impossible to make a popular game that penalizes people for playing it, it just defeats the entire point of the product. Maybe we should also start making movies about normal people living normal lives, bet that won't sell too well though.

[IvanTSR]

Probably the best analytical piece I've read on GoN. Ever.

So much of fps gaming is built around war and combat. There really is that risk of glorifying it.

I think CoD 1 and 2 really did a good job of capturing those, '****. I would be so scared if this was really me' moments. I never really got the absolute horror of war until my son was born and I thought, 'holy ****. what if he has to do this one day?'.

Even Modern Warfare wasn't that bad. The scene in which your character dies as the result of the nuclear blast really brought it home for me in the sense that there was finality. The character you had been playing was dead. You couldn't reload, you hadn't played badly, you are just dead. I actually felt really uncomfortable with that part of the game. It was confronting.

CoD is now just mass entertainment. It went from the gaming equivalent of Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, the Pacific or Generation Kill to every rambo and delta force movie ever made.

[CJGordon]

I view the COD:MW series of games as a glorified dramatization of war, and whilst I am old enough to know that war is not like COD in any aspect, it's the younger generations that have access to these games that think war is fun and its all about running through killing people and enjoying life, I see it a lot in my younger brother and his mates, they all play COD then get into talking about how awesome it would be to go to war and just run in killing people with dual pistols then referencing their 'skills' in the game as their real life abilities when it comes to war, someone would say what if someone sneak's up behind you, one would reply with I have great reaction time I would just turn around and shoot them before they got me, it's at this time I find myself interrupting them and trying to explain it, to when they reply, you have never been to war how would you know.

If anything COD should be targeted at adult audiences only, but than again I believe any war game should only be viewed by an adult audience.

[Marcus Dunn]

Great article!

I am a litle hazy about the original CoD, though I recall Medal of Honour was a superior game originally (in my opinion anyway), re-creating the horrific opening scene of Private Ryan at around the same time from memory.

The main thing that stuck in my mind of the original CoD's, perhaps it was number 2, were Russian commanders killing friendlies to urge them on in Stalingrad. You are dead right, they were depressing, they were war, not cowboys with uzi's.

[Nebby_99]

As games, they're free to depict killing and reward violence, but the way it's represented is important. In context, I don't think Call of Duty 1 promoted killing for it's own sake, or as a test of skill. The game was a test of skill, but it was depicting a horrific and brutal survival situation in which your skill was tested.

It's easy to trade on the established cultural norm of glorified violence, but you contribute to the backwards thinking that sends our loved ones to war. As publishers they have a moral responsibility not to reinforce dated and harmful attitudes. If they advance the discourse by showing people new perspectives and ways of thinking, then they elevate it to an art form. Not every game has to do that though.

[coatsy22]

CoD is now just mass entertainment. It went from the gaming equivalent of Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, the Pacific or Generation Kill to every rambo and delta force movie ever made.

Wasn't Band of Brothers made as an apology to the ww2 vets, since Saving Private Ryan was more in the Rambo camp than not?