The trailer for Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 premiered on national television Sunday night and it didn’t take long for the question to be posed of whether the game’s environment—a destroyed Washington D.C.—goes too far.
While a story on The Christian Science Monitor website asks just that question, it fails to connect COD:MW2 with Fallout 3, an obvious link given the post-apocalyptic setting (in the same city) of Bethesda’s title and the flack it subsequently received.
The author does attempt to include Grand Theft Auto IV in the conversation however:
And with what’s coming out of the gaming industry these days (Grand Theft Auto IV, anyone?) is this any worse? Maybe not. But this is one of the first times such striking imagery has surfaced since 9/11, when the idea of widespread destruction on US soil was suddenly thrust into reality.
Furthermore, while the story’s sub header states, “Some say the images of destruction on US soil are too much for a post-9/11 audience,” no one in the article is quoted or referenced as saying any such thing. To be fair, the story did generate a number of comments; perhaps this was the ultimate goal of the piece.
Comments
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
That wouldn't explain why he's a "prick" to the Irish, Scottish, and English, though. I'm more of the school of thought that his prickliness doesn't recognize national boundaries.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Equal Oppurtunity Huzzah!
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Remember, its not discrimination when you offend everyone.
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I once had a dream about God. In it, he was looking down upon the planet and the havoc we recked and he said unto us, "Damn Kids get off my lawn!"
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Just goes to show the current double standard in popular entertainment today. If this were a movie, no one would complain as much or not at all. Look at the trailers for the upcoming 2012 where you see both D.C. and the Vatican both get destroyed. No one's been complaining about that...at least not yet (I've noticed the outcry usually comes after the movie's come out; as if somehow they failed to notice it in the trailers prior to release.)
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
There is definitely a double standard, but it's not like gamers help the matter. Every time there's controversy with a game, most gamer's defense is that "it's just a game". I don't remember the last time someone said "it's just a movie"
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Personally I never say its just a game unless its poor quality. I usually respond with a comment about them only hating it because they didn't grow up with the art form the same way their grandparents hated the music they liked as a kid and just like their grandparents grandparents didn't like their music.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
The last time a controversial movie came out, I imagine. The only point you've really made there is that it's been quite some time since ANY movie coming out was considered controversial, whether it was or not.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
The Davinci Code.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Oh yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I remember the Vatican and the whole Christian group attack the book because of claims of inaccuracies in the book and also they said it insult Jesus. Also, anybody watch The Nostradamus Effect, because there was an episode about Da Vinci can predict a disaster. I wonder if Dan Brown was aware of that also. I also like to bring up Harold & Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay had a small controversey. I read it that Amnesty International USA hand out fliers at movie theater screenings to promote awareness about the treatment of detainees and said "Guantanamo is no joke". So yeah, I like to back that up.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Actually, when a controversial movie comes out, it's defended by it's makers under artistic terms - they argue that critics aren't understanding the message, aren't seeing the meaning, or that it simply was for the controversy as a means to force people to question their own values or their pre-held concepts and beliefs.
They don't say, "It's just a movie," because that's saying it doesn't matter. And if it doesn't matter, why defend it? Why care? Why make it to begin with?
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Yes, but those are the creators. Many people would say "it's just a movie" not so much because they think that since it's a movie it isn't really saying anything but rather as a simple and quick way of disregarding the annoying angry person. Average people have that luxury, creators don't. If we were talking about game developers saying "it's just a game" then yes the analogy would work, and they frankly should be using that defence if they do, but as people were talking about gamers then the reactions of a movie viewer would be far more appropriate.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
And when was the last time anyone even had to do that?
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
As someone else already replied, "The Da Vinci Code." There was also "The Golden Compass" (OMG! It makes our kids become Aethists!) and of course everything "Harry Potter," whether book or film, even if that one has died down a bit.
EDIT: And of course HP was mentioned further down, too. I still got one though. Not surprising since the controversy didn't happen until the movie was made, and it sucked, ironically because director completely butchered it in an attempt to not piss off the kind of people who ended up protesting.
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http://www.whatnottodo.tk
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
I'm pretty sure that the majority of people pass all of those controversies off as "immature" or "stupid." Anyone that'd get pissed at those movies is either retarded, delusional, crazy, or a combination of those. lol. And for all of those, I'd give the same answer, "It's just a movie."
-If an apple a day keeps the doctor away....what happens when a doctor eats an apple?-
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Such a load of crap. 'Too much' for a 'post 9/11-audience'? Did anyone watch the last season of 24? They had terrorists taking over the White House, bombs going off in the White House, and they even shot a US Senator. Don't give me this 'too much for a post 9/11 audience' crap.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Not to mention when they nuked part of LA in the previous season.
Saying that Jack Thompson is impotent is an insult to impotent men everywhere. They've got a whole assortment of drugs that can cure their condition; Jack, however...
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
"The Christian Science Monitor website"
I'm sorry, but you lost me the moment you used the word "Christian" and "Science" in the same sentence.
Dinosaur Adventure Land? The Creation Museum? I dont want to get started.
EDIT: I see now i may have been a little hasty in my comments, CSM is a religious publication, but it's not for evangelizing.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Don't worry, there is always one person on GP who makes an ass of him/herself with that exact comment when a CSM article gets linked.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Burnt and Destroyed Eastern European town: Hey! Totally cool with us.
Arab Towns Reduced to Rubble: Totally Kosher, hell you can even nuke one of those and no one gets to upset.
Showing an attack on American Soil: BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! HOW DARE YOU, THAT IS SICK, TOO SOON, YOU INSENSITIVE BASTARDS! YOU HATE AMERICA! WAR IS NOT A GAME!
That is the basic message of the article, and an attitude that is far to common.
Hey and lets ignore the narration of the trailer.
Also, they failed to even do the necessary fact checking to get the name of the game right.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Destroyd Washington DC? Obviously these guys havent played The Conduit...
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Did anyone?
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
i hope not...
Re: Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Imagery Questioned
Still need to see it myself and, here we go again?