I largely agree with this, though I would like to clarify the whole "why don't you just shoot Makarov" thing. Keep in mind that part of Makarov's whole mentality is that he is avenging or carrying on the work of Zakhaev. Killing Makarov would just make another Zakhaev clone pop up.

The CIA isn't stupid, and they know this. As much as conspiracy theorists love the idea, CIA agents aren't hitmen. They infiltrate organizations, work their way up to the top, gather information on everyone in the organization, and then the CIA or another organization takes them down. Additionally, terrorist organizations are a bit different from a traditional military. Radical groups do have a command structure, but everyone in the organization is united by a single belief or ideal, and individual terrorist cells are capable of autonomous function. In other words, you can't just kill the leader of a radical group, you have to round up everyone associated with the group.

I know, I'm terrible, I fapped.

My response was a little short there wasn't it? Well I just want to let you know that I fapped because I agree with you. I really don't see the big deal at all. They really all do have the same death animation and there isn't much that's gruesome about it. I thought about the death animation when I first saw the video and how silly I thought it looked that all the civilians are falling over the same way. I hope this scene continues to cause less controversy, you know how people go batshit about things before they know the whole story, and people start to see that it's nothing to take to heart. It's just a made up story about things that never happened. Also, I think it's illegal to be able to kill children in games, or something like that? I never see children running around in videogames outside of Fallout 3 and you can't kill any of them.

For starters, I agree with everything mackie junior said. I will add that just watching a video is very different than actually playing it. When you're controlling it, there's no time to examine the death animations, and it's difficult to just watch it so dispassionately.

I tried shooting civilians when I started playing, and it just left me feeling... wrong. And as the level went on, I started feeling queasy. I don't think this makes me insane, and it definitely doesn't make me "likely to be changed by them at some psychological level and start really killing people." I don't understand how you could even come to the conclusion that being sickened and disturbed by killing innocent people makes someone more likely to want to kill innocent people.

@Danielzilla
And that's fair enough, satire is all well and good. I think the way that this differentiates from other "mass killing scenes" is in the manner of the context. I mean, people have been repeatedly making comparisons to the Grand Theft Auto games (both in supporting and condemning the scene), and to be honest I think the comparison is a bit of a farce. Part of GTA's appeal is that all of the horrible things you can do in it are really a mark of dark humor, whereas this is sort of a different situation.

I'll be clear and say I don't condone or dismiss the scene's appearance in Modern Warfare. In some way I'm seriously indifferent to its presence. What I did think was significant, though, was the way in which is was presented, and I think that's where you and I differentiate in regards to opinion on this. Watching the playthrough, there was a lot that sort of left me stunned. You're right that there's nothing done in terms of individual characters to make you feel anything regarding the civilians themselves once the action has started, but that's not even really what resonated with me. It was other things, the behavioral things in the environment and in the characters acting as your cohorts.

Nobody in the group opens fire until the conversation in the security queue quiets down and everyone turns around to see the gunmen in this sort of surprised stupor. The metal detectors go off without any consequence as they progress, and then they all just continue to stroll, very liesurely through the building as they gun people down. The entire list of departures and arrivals switches to "delayed" or "canceled" or what have you in a scripted event as the player descends the escalator, all the while screams filling the room. Those are the things that elicited responses from me, and why I thought that it was at least well done.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting you to respond to my one off, and if you did I wasn't expecting it to be anything other than a return of discourtesy in kind. So I owe you an apology. I disagree with your view, but you still get a fap.

@Micorku

That was honestly meant to be a more generalized, blanket statement then it was meant to be specifically about this scene in general. I just think that if you're going to argue that it's sickening to see civilians getting shot in a game, you should really look at yourself and ask why you aren't affected when you kill "bad guys" in the game.

@Funsky

Agreed good sir!

@HolyEtheline

The lack of children in Fallout 3 and GTA distresses me as well and I don't forgive them any more for it than I do this game. I don't personally want to kill kids for any reason but you lose any measure of realism with these empty childless worlds. If they really wanted to shock, they should've had the terrorists mow down a nursery.

@ThaJinx

Thanks for the second response sir. and I meant and felt no offense. A response is a response I feel fulfilled by blogging as long as SOMEONE reads and responds to whatever nonsense I put on here. Anyway, I too am completely indifferent to the scene. It's another scene in another military FPS I would've never seen if the entire world hadn't made such a big deal about it. Then I watched it and saw that it was nothing. I fully understand that some people are going to get some sort of emotional response out of it. But doesn't someone have an emotional response to almost everything. I'm prone to getting wrapped up in the opening to the Pokemon cartoon and just losing it. Ash just wants to be the very best... and him and his pokemon are friends and they take care of each other... It's heavy stuff for me. Anyway, as I was saying, I honestly feel like this whole scene being "leaked" and everything is a total publicity stunt. I just don't think Infinity Ward, a company obviously made up of intelligent and talented individuals, honestly feels that their main audience of generic drunk guys and high school kids are going to be in any way affected by the scene en masse. Again I know some will be shocked and morally outraged and confused and will throw up or pee on themselves out of sheer guilt for the merciless slaughter of the airport patrons but for the most part I just don't see it happening. If you do feel too violated by the scene just keep in mind that at least part of those people are probably unidentified child molesters and rapists.

@mackie junior and micorku

Thanks for the responses and I say again rapists and child molesters every one of them. In all seriousness though this portion of the game isn't presented in any more of a realistic manner than any other part of it. If anything as I've already discussed these faceless nameless pedophiles too closely resemble each other for me to see the attempt to make anyone care about them. Not to call your judgment into question but are you sure you don't care so much about the scene because you feel obligated to as a fan? I know I'll personally defend a shitty Gundam game to the death for the most part. I love the franchise and have a hard time seeing it's obvious failures sometimes. At any rate I do definitely appreciate the awesome feedback and I'm looking forward to more in the future!

@ Mr Dillinger

I agree, there is nothing wrong with any emotion however I just don't see it coming from that scene. I'm glad you enjoyed it though, I think it'll miss the mark with most of its audience.