Modern Warfare 2 isn't exactly the most culturally sensitive of games. However, one Pakistani gamer has noticed some real racial ignorance from Infinity Ward -- exposing the apparent fact that IW believes anybody who is brown must be some sort of Arab.
"I, being a Pakistani, was so excited at seeing a Karachi map and then immediately so disappointed when I played the map," one Karachi resident tells Kotaku.
The problem is this: All the writing featured in the Karachi map is in Arabic, despite the fact this is supposed to be Karachi. Nobody in Pakistan would write Arabic on a storefront or street sign, considering the country's two major languages are English and Urdu. Arabic simply would not be relevant to a Pakistan resident.
"Infinity Ward probably thought, 'Oh hey its a Muslim country so Arabic is the language,'" explains the man known only as Saad. "Someone who doesn't know Urdu won't be able to tell the difference. It's like Spanish and English, I guess. Some letters are same, some are different but the words are completely different."
There is no Urdu at all on the Karachi map. While it won't make a difference to Western gamers, that's the kind of basic research that Infinity Ward should have done.
Something Modern Warfare 2 Got Wrong About Pakistan [Kotaku]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
101 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
11:30 AM on 12.28.2009
| 
Just not the ones who actually should be.
*spoilers*
Except it's not like that at all, since the real bad guys are "those evil patriotic war mongering Americans" who cause all the killing and everything, plus all the characters who do all the badass stuff are British. So um no, the game is not "AWWH YEAH AMERICA" in anyway what so ever, this was just a simple mistake probably.
lol @ walkyoupath: Call of Google : Modern Research 2
Well, I didn't play the game, but isn't it a tour around the world blowing everything up Team America style? Even if they have a moral twist at the end...
Couldn't IW enter wikipedia to find out which language people speak in Pakistan? Or found some Pakistani person that would write some stuff in a piece of paper and send it to them by e-mail? With all the million dollars you spend in the game you couldn't spend half a day doing research?
Okay, so they used Arabic in a non-Arabic country. That's not racist. That's like saying that using Spanish instead of Portugese in Brazil is racist ignorance, or using Russian in Bulgaria (if there would be such a level) is racist ignorance. They're nothing of the kind. What's next? Using Mandarin instead of Cantonese during a level in China is racist ignorance?
You so racist!
And when did it become "the thing to do" to hate on IW? I've been here almost since the launch of the site, and I remember editors and community members being quite stoked for the original MW. From what I've seen and heard, MW2 continued the high quality of IW's titles, with the exception of mp glitching. So why all the hate???
Oh, that's right...MW blew up and MW2 was huge. We have to hate popular things, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58OabCRCx_Q
Although heartbeat sensors completely ruined Search and Destroy, every rat is running around with that thing. I love getting behind the enemy lines and throatfuck 'em all with a knife and when they're all equipped with heartbeat sensors, it's not an easy thing to do, because they are aware of everything without paying any attention to what's going on basically. They're just watching the monitor.
Still, it's a great pick-up-and-play arcade game for everyone and it's fun, and what's fun can't be bad. Maybe except for heroin and fascism. And a couple of other things.
Using Mandarin instead of Cantonese on a Chinese level. LOL!
Pffffffffffft..
This does strike me as rather racially intolerant, but -from the vocal IW members at least- I can gather that they couldn't give a shit anyway, bunch of douches.
Well, since both are Chinese dialects it seemed fitting in order to show the absurdity. ;)
First of all, classy name. Secondly, bashing Kotaku has absolutely nothing to do with this thread. The man contacted Kotaku, Jim was correct in seeing this as a legitimate news story, and our favorite Brit simply relayed it to us. IW dropped the ball big time with this one. It would be nice to see them fix this with a patch if possible.
I was actually surprised that the Team America-level, jacked-up "patriotism" really only pertained to the levels where you play as the Army soldier. It felt so forced at times (almost to the point of parody) that it seemed as if IW wanted to balance it all out given the ending of the game.
Bullshit. Fox News would be all over that like Jim Sterling on a doughnut.
But it was kind of lazy on their part. Oh well. He'll get over it.
Hahahahahahaha!
god i wish most of us knew what other countries thought of us. someone stated that we just like to run around and blow shit up. dude ... just to let you know, that's what the entire world thinks of us. just throwing that out there.
and look, just cus there's an article pointing out the differences between IRL and this map, or even in SSIV, doesn't mean they're hating on IW or Capcom. just pointing it out there
The irony of your generalizations is almost a work of art.
dude she's calling you fat. in case you missed it =)
Also most gamers don't give a shit if the language on the storefront is correct before they blow it up.
My wife isn't American and yet she has to put up with all sorts of BS about her home country. Bits and pieces are true but most people don't know or care about this stuff.
These people who bitch about this shit are politically correct assholes and political correctness is cultural marxism, Google it, look it up! Learn something new today!