Yeah, yeah. I know people. I know that this issue has been talked to death. But I am not here to talk about the level in question
(to which I morbidly got great satisfaction from playing). I am here to discuss this issue that is; What the fuck is wrong with everybody?!
Most of the population
(including many individuals of Destructoid) have stated that the
'No Russian' section of Modern Warfare 2 is of bad taste and it could have been extracted from the game entirely without weakening the title. All I can say is, put some cement in your breakfast cereal and harden the fuck up.
If you want to argue the point that games are just as much for adults as they are children, you would appreciate the fact that a game developer has gotten the balls to do what most wouldn't even consider after it being brought up by designers in the development stage. Yes, it is difficult to watch given the fact that we are watching innocent civilians being massacred, but last time I checked...
These things happen...a lot. I don't know if it is just me, but I am sick to death of the people up on high thinking that the best way to avoid the issues of the world is to pretend they don't even exist. I don't want things sugar coated, I want the bare back truth. Not some collared up, pink polo shirt version of it.
Yes, shit happens and yes, we have the power to either cause it or fight against it, and the fact that Infinity Ward have decided to man up and say
"This is what the world can be like so have a good hard look" is something I think most pessimistic fuck heads should consider to be a wake up call more than a Columbine wanna-be simulator for the one in every millionth teenager with stability issues and access to daddy's gun cabinet.
The problem with this World is that most people are so ashamed of what it has become that they believe you are better off without eyes, so you can't see the horror of the shit hole it has become thanks to human nature. Try and remove my eyes and I
(as Edward Norton so poetically described), this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho that I am, might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers.
Oh wow...I do have a killer in me after all, as I am sure you do.
P.S - On a more gameristic (I just made that up) note I am so glad I have finished writing this so I can go back to Modern Warfare 2, aside from the menu's, it is one of the greatest gaming experiences I have ever played through.
Samuel Dillinger's blog
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The crowd should have been more panicked/emotional. It shouldn't have been skippable.
Also, I heard a lot of people didn't even try shooting the civilians: they should have made you do it, perhaps as an initiation of sorts. It would look suspicious if you joined them, and didn't do anything. I'm also surprised that no one is talking about the fact that suburban America was turned into a war-zone: which is rarely seen in any medium, even films.
I know man! I was playing through the U.S streets, walking through peoples half blown up houses. It seemed so surreal. They really have made a game with impact.
In short, thank you Infinity Ward for having the balls to go for something so polarizing and impacting.
lol, i love you, you idiot
All and all the Airport mission didn't do it for me - it seemed idiotic how linear and scripted the game was in general. I personally would have opened up on the backs of the terrorists fucks from the start, what possible advantage does the US have to gain by infiltrating this group in such a violent fashion?
I agree, people should harden the fuck up.
Remember the end of Halo 2...
Think of that!
Still an epic game though, the campaign was brilliant. Short but sufficient.
NOW ON TO MULTIPLAYER! See you at the beach tonight Dan.
"All and all the Airport mission didn't do it for me - it seemed idiotic how linear and scripted the game was in general. I personally would have opened up on the backs of the terrorists fucks from the start, what possible advantage does the US have to gain by infiltrating this group in such a violent fashion? "
That's a dangerous point to try to make, I mentioned a few times and got cried at about how I didn't understand the world and all this jazz hardcore. Apparently, we're both idiots and shooting someone before they kill hundreds of innocent people is not the most logical way to handle that situation.
We sit in our lounge rooms and look at a television. I'm sure real life would differ to what we play on screen, but the game still makes a point through a mission like this.
Not all forms of killing for a country are righteous forms.
A warning would be sufficient. That's fine. Let people mentally steel themselves for what's to come (and even those people with the warnings were quite shocked, indeed). But letting the user skip over the bad parts because it rubbed people the wrong way? What the hell. You know what that is? That's a rated R movie airing on a local station. People say "forget you" and explicit violence is taken out for the kiddies at home. And you mean to say this is supposed to be realistic?
I'm sure said airport mission is brought up again somewhere else in the game. Otherwise I'd be even more rolling-eyes over this. When I go to make a game, you know what I'm gonna do? In order to start, you have to strangle a photorealistic puppy/kitten to death. Watch it cry, whine, squirm, and watch the life just drain out of its eyes. Just to start the game. Oh yes, you can skip it--and not play the game, but I have a message Goddammit, and I'm going to make damn sure that you can't ignore it.
...dammit, now I'm gonna be thinking about this while trying to sleep. Thanks a lot, me. *sigh*
Righteousness really lies in the eye of the beholder though doesn't it.
<img src=http://www.fischart.com/assets/art/artwork/Games/d20/beholder.jpg>
Dude, they had to put those warnings in just so they could release it.
Well said!
Honestly, this can't be the first time gamers are feeling a moral dilemma about shooting a person. I mean think back about all those "people" you've shot throughout the years. The millions you have killed. Do you really think that everyone of them was a "bad" person?? I'm sure most of them were just doing what they could to survive in this world. They were victims of a shitty life. They had families to support and take care of by any means necessary. I know the deeper I got into Killzone 2, the harder I found it to keep killing the Helghan. I felt like I was just killing people who were following orders and trying to protect their home. It was all just a political battle with people starting a war over egos. It didn't help that my comrades were turning it into a "race war" either. Maybe someday I'll get to play KZ1 and that will change my opinion though.
Yes, but you had to "play the part", technically. They're suspicious, but you don't (as the character) "know" that.
I agree.
... I haven't played the level yet, but it seems "unimaginative" and uninspiring. It does seem that there are other and BETTER ways this could have been done to more truly show the "terror" of terrorism.
Picking up the game today or tomorrow as my husband and I will both be playing the campaign...
1. Make it a cutscene you can watch.
2. Have you play as an undercover CIA agent who is a civilian/airport worker who has to take out the terrorists after they kill a few civy's
Kids are going to get their hands on this game despite it being "M" rating, the same way many of you (Dtoid readers) get your hands on drugs despite them being illegal . To think otherwise is pretty nieve. I used to teach high school and middle school and know first hang how kids really think about these games when their parents are not around, or maybe even when they are.
Again I respectfully disagree, IMO this level being playable is tasteless and irresponsible.
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On a side note MrDillinger, we have EB games here in the US. (per your blog side bar)
I would just like to respond to your recommendations. As to your first suggestion, you said you used to teach high school and middle school. One of the things that I learned during that time (so many years ago) was that, in order to tell an effective story through writing, you need to show the reader what is occurring, rather than merely telling them. As a writer, you need to set the stage and bring the reader along with your text as if they were actually there. It is easy to merely tell someone the sequence of events, and it is an art to make use of the medium the best that you can.
I know that was long-winded, but it does relate to the MW2 airport scene. It would have been easy for Infinity Ward to play a cutscene to demonstrate the events, but to truly generate player attachment to those events and the evil behind them, IW took the player along for the ride. For me, that ride was grueling, but I did feel a greater sense of urgency to stop Makarov after I had experienced fully what he was capable of.
With respect to your second recommendation, merely playing as another undercover agent (or a civilian airport employee) would not have conveyed the full evil of the events. The way that IW set the scene, the player was going to be present for the entirety of Makarov's plan, thus contributing to the player's urgency to stop him later in the game. Playing as an outside individual would have forced some disconnect between the horrific events, which would have resulted in the player being told what is happening (which gets back to my first point).
This is just one of those situations where people are going to have to agree to disagree. I'm glad you shared your perspective and I hope to see you online.
lol, yeah, the reason that people support IW's choice to include the airport scene do so because they "love gore"! How many kids that you taught ended up becoming serial killers or taliban? Growing up, I knew lots of kids who were playing mortal kombat before they were teenagers (myself included) and to this day, none of them have ever decapitated anybody to the best of my knowledge. I seriously doubt that IW's game has the capacity to turn any kids who's happen to get ahold of them it into taliban soldiers. To become a gun toting psycho you need to have a seriously fucked up brain or have parents who raised you to be a mindless religious nut.
Yeah let's play some online. That is really the main reason I got the game in the first place. Spec Ops sounds pretty great too!
XBLID: thejesusninja
Cheers for your feedback guys. There is some really intelligent rebuttals in here and I see it as being more constructive than usual.
See you online.
with razor flakes...come on man. You think too less of me :)
I watched the video of people playing it before release just like everyone else, and I cheered for IW. Finally a developer has the balls to do something risky, and even though there were warnings on it, at least they actually did it, right?
But when I played the full game, and when I realized five minutes before the airport I had just jumped over a giant cliff on a snowmobile while gangster shooting bad guys, the scene didn't seem all that serious anymore. It didn't seem like a "this is us making a statement" instead it became "oh this is like in that Michael Bay movie where the villain spouts off nonsense." I couldn't take the scene seriously anymore. Everything had become so far fetch'd and bizarre it makes me believe they were going to for shock value for sales, not shock value for thoughts.
That's what I think everyone is saying when they say it was "poorly done." Of course there are a lot of people who just damn the whole thing, but I think a lot of people like myself want to give IW credit, but they don't really deserve it.