[Waypoint] 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' Can't Decide Whether War Is Bad or Badass

[Deleted member 37928]

This is the struggle with almost every game that tries to depict violence. What you witness is supposed to be horrible yet doing it feels entertaining and awesome. Making a gruesome finishing move in The Last of Us looks disgusting but at the same time it feels really great.

I'm not sure if Call of Duty will bring anything different when it comes to this. It's the last gaming seriers that I expect to tackle such issues with finesse.

 

[gogosox82]

Sounds like Far Cry 5 all over again

Click to shrink...

Was thinking the same thing

 

[Dragon's Game]

Was thinking the same thing

Click to shrink...

which is silly because the issue with Far Cry 5 was that everyone thought the villains were white supremacists based on leaked art and then when it was revealed that it was really a multi-racial religious cult, people started whining about it

people were crying about something that was assumed. literally assumed

 

[Roy]

This sure is a waypoint-ass waypoint article alright. Concern trolling combined with Austin's hypocrisy when he's a huge fan of OG Gundam has my eyes rolling out of my head. The original "wow look at these giant robots fight with laser swords also war orphans y'all".

It can be both and it can be fine. It may not succeed at either and it can be fine. Let's save the post mortem until the game actually releases, maybe?

Click to shrink...

How do you know it's a Waypoint article since it's pretty obvious you didn't read it?

 

[Hailinel]

So are people who dress as stormtroopers basically equatable as nazi's as well? It's a tad judgemental don't you say? You can like Darth Vader without endorsing the murder of children, just like you can be a fan of Thanos despite his motives being that of mass genocide.

Outside of the visual motifs Zeon aren't really depicted as space nazis anyway technically, the reason for their war of independence in lore is actually quite sympathetic despite their villainous appearance, while the earth federation end up actually being the ones to harbor some nazi like ideals, such as believing people born in space are subhuman and are subject to marginalization and opression, the Zeon just wanted an end to it, they are more in line with American colonists declaring independence than some kind of an Axis allegory. Fighting for equality and independence doesnt really sound like a space nazi to me.

Click to shrink...

When I'm talking about the cosplayers, I'm talking about the guys that go "Sieg Zeon!" and get way too into it, but yeah, that's just an example. There's a distinct "Zeon was right!" crowd online that's pretty weirdly supportive, right down to the whole "dropping colonies on Earth" thing, annihilating the planetary population, and forcing everyone to space.

 

[gogosox82]

which is silly because the issue with Far Cry 5 was that everyone thought the villains were white supremacists based on leaked art and then when it was revealed that it was really a multi-racial religious cult, people started whining about it

people were crying about something that was assumed. They were crying that it wasn't just white racists to kill

Click to shrink...

Well according to journalists, it wasn't presented that way to them by the devs. In the presentations, it was touching on modern day political stuff and it seemed like it was going to be pretty divisive but when the game came out, it was just your typical Far Cry game basically. That is where most of the criticism from writers came. At a certain point, it was political but that changed and I assume some writers were a little miffed about it. It certainly would've been a more interesting game if it had stuck to being more political instead of just being another Far Cry game. So I think Austin is talking about a similar thing. Its going to be hard to thread the needle on this and its just much easier to make your typical COD game like its was much easier to make your typical Far Cry game.

 

[Space Lion]

When I'm talking about the cosplayers, I'm talking about the guys that go "Sieg Zeon!" and get way too into it, but yeah, that's just an example. There's a distinct "Zeon was right!" crowd online that's pretty weirdly supportive, right down to the whole "dropping colonies on Earth" thing, annihilating the planetary population, and forcing everyone to space.

Click to shrink...

The interesting thing is that Zeon comes off as semi-sympathetic because of how Earth treated spacenoids. The way Earth Federation treated people who live on colonies is how they got to the point of ever supporting Zeon and colony drops. That's what makes them good villains.

But you're right in that some take it way too far.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Fleeing from an invading Russian army, Farah and her family are eventually cornered by a soldier who kills her father and who, in an extremely gamey sequence, Farah and her brother must take down in what amounted to a stealth boss fight.

Click to shrink...

I don't understand why he has to italicize 'gamey'. It is a videogame.

Also

a tryhard play for shock value.

Click to shrink...

??

The whole thing reads as if he has a bone to pick, and made up his mind before he even visited the studio.

 

[Dragon's Game]

Well according to journalists, it wasn't presented that way to them by the devs. In the presentations, it was touching on modern day political stuff and it seemed like it was going to be pretty divisive but when the game came out, it was just your typical Far Cry game basically. That is where most of the criticism from writers came. At a certain point, it was political but that changed and I assume some writers were a little miffed about it. It certainly would've been a more interesting game if it had stuck to being more political instead of just being another Far Cry game. So I think Austin is talking about a similar thing. Its going to be hard to thread the needle on this and its just much easier to make your typical COD game like its was much easier to make your typical Far Cry game.

Click to shrink...

I never played Far Cry 5 to be honest, so I don't know how the story went

I just know though that alot of people, pre-release, were upset because they thought they were going to be killing MAGA loving white supremacists. and when it was revealed to be a multi-racial group, many people thought Ubisoft was cheaping out

 

[Deleted member 21709]

But it doesn't, because as you and others have said, as long as it's "fun", people won't mind. And that's part of the discussion and why shooters, especially military shooters, usually don't try to push the idea of the horrors of war.

Jeff Gerstmann this morning said it pretty well, where in the older COD's in their campaigns do have moments of hard shock, but they don't hinge on them to make "WAR IS BAD" statements, mostly because if they did, it'd almost be hypocritical, which is why this trailer, a lot of which feels like stuff you'd see on Live Leak, seems weird to celebrate in a very HooRAH sort of way.

To be honest, I'm actually surprised that COD isn't just a mulitplayer only experience so they can avoid this very thing, having a fun game that can roll around in Military fetishism because they can just say "training exercise, not real, this is how we get better" similar to how Seige does it.

Click to shrink...

Where did Jeff say that? Would like to listen.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

Yes there is. Even the most anti-war Gundam's still make the violence and mechs that carry out that violence look badass. Even its most anti-war story, War in the Pocket.

Click to shrink...

Note I said "indulge", not that the element exists at all. There's a difference.

 

[Space Lion]

Note I said "indulge", not that the element exists at all. There's a difference.

Click to shrink...

No you said Austin specifically criticizes "Gundam series that indulge in Gundams = badass!" Which is literally all of them, even War in the Pocket. This is why Austin is a hypocrite.

 

[Space Lion]

There's literally no way you can watch this trailer and not come away with "mobile suits are fucking badass" and this is the most anti-war Gundam period. Period.

https://youtu.be/gUn7KgXhwwI

Austin Walker, who wrote this article, is a self professed fan of Gundam. His conclusion in this article is, again, vapid and one-dimensional. It also makes him look like a hypocrite.

 

[Barry Sandwich]

I haven't read the article because I'm already confident in my own take - it's clear that games (and most movies) depict war and violence from the perspective of "bad-ass" because they're entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. They're fiction, they're games. They're separate from war, their job is not to comment on war or accurately simulate it. The developers can depict war as bad-ass, whilst still holding the view it is bad.

 

[spam musubi]

I haven't read the article because I'm already confident in my own take - it's clear that games (and most movies) depict war and violence from the perspective of "bad-ass" because they're entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. They're fiction, they're games. They're separate from war, their job is not to comment on war or accurately simulate it.

Click to shrink...

Maybe you should read the article

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

I'm ok with shooters making me feel uncomfortable or not glorifying war. Call of Duty's Nuke and No Russian mission were great at not sugar coating war. Spec Ops The Line also. I personally want to see the gaming equivalent of Generation Kill one day.

 

[Barry Sandwich]

Maybe you should read the article

Click to shrink...

Okay:

Which left me with questions: Is this new Modern Warfare aiming to be an intense exploration of the complexity of war, or does it instead want to celebrate the technologies, tactics, and violence of combat?

Click to shrink...

COD has never been an intense exploration of the complexity of war. It's toy soldiers and fetishization. Always has been. It doesn't celebrate the technologies, tactics and violence of combat more than any other game of it's nature. The new Modern Warfare trailer looked no different to any previous COD trailer.

Trash article.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

No you said Austin specifically criticizes "Gundam series that indulge in Gundams = badass!" Which is literally all of them, even War in the Pocket. This is why Austin is a hypocrite.

Click to shrink...

There's a clear difference between mere depiction vs. whether there's any self reflection on it at all. That's what I mean by "indulge" (if it just depicts badassness without questioning any of it).

 

[Igniz12]

Okay:



COD has never been an intense exploration of the complexity of war. It's toy soldiers and fetishization. Always has been. It doesn't celebrate the technologies, tactics and violence of combat more than any other game of it's nature.

Trash article.

Click to shrink...

From the article.

Here's their pitch in brief and in as close to their own words as I can provide, without my own editorializing: Yes, Modern Warfare is an action game, but in contrast to the superheroics of other Call of Duty titles, it will have a focus on "authentic and gritty" military action. It's also an action game that will draw from "relevant headline situations" and will include "social commentary," which "has always been part of Modern Warfare's DNA," gesturing to past, headline-grabbing levels like "No Russian."

What sort of social commentary? Well, war, they say, is "more complex than it was 10 years ago." It's "no longer only over there, it's global," and "it isn't black and white. It's morally gray." Enemies "rarely wear uniforms," and violence on all sides causes "terrible collateral damage." In this "tough to navigate world," "one man's freedom fighter is another's terrorist." Which is why, for the first time, players will take the role not only of Tier 1 special forces operators, but also "rebels" in an (unnamed) Middle Eastern nation who fight both occupying terrorist forces and "military-industrial" invaders.

Click to shrink...

 

[Space Lion]

There's a clear difference between mere depiction vs. whether there's any self reflection on it at all. That's what I mean by "indulge" (if it just depicts badassness without questioning any of it).

Click to shrink...

Well, my argument is that nearly every anti-war story suffers from this. The ones that don't are the few exceptions to the rule. Even Gundam, as anti-war as it is, drowns itself in millions from Gunpla sales selling the very symbols of war within the franchise.

This makes Austin's piece come off as not only poorly thought out, but reactionary and written for clicks. It's also like he's working on his "brand" to remain seen as woke despite him and the rest of Waypoint being cancelled quite some time ago.

His moralistic pleading comes off as completely lacking authenticity, is poorly considered, and reeks of soap box preaching as if he wants to specifically target the Call of Duty franchise. I say all of this despite loathing CoD.

 

[Igniz12]

Well, my argument is that nearly every anti-war story suffers from this. The ones that don't are the few exceptions to the rule. Even Gundam, as anti-war as it is, drowns itself in millions from Gunpla sales selling the very symbols of war within the franchise.

This makes Austin's piece come off as not only poorly thought out, but reactionary and written for clicks. It's also like he's working on his "brand" to remain seen as woke despite him and the rest of Waypoint being cancelled quite some time ago.

His moralistic pleading comes off as completely lacking authenticity, is poorly considered, and reeks of soap box preaching as if he wants to specifically target the Call of Duty franchise. I say all of this despite loathing CoD.

Click to shrink...

Reads like someone with a bone to pick and not actually bothered about what the article has to say. Good grief....

Virtue signaling amirite, boys?

 

[Barry Sandwich]

From the article.

Click to shrink...

What about this marketing blurb makes you think its any different from previous titles? You get to play as a rebel fighter to vary the campaign. It will still be COD.

I don't want to further de-rail discussion for those who buy into the article and want to discuss the merits of the trailer and press release, so I'm checking out of this thread now.

 

[Porky]

Nicely written but he's not making much of a point. Has he ever researched the lengths that the ARMA developers will go to create realism? Just so you can go around killing other people.

You could make the argument that games that ensure sword-fighting has the correct weight like For Honor are guilty of the same thing.

This couldn't be any truer for pretty much every COD game since COD2. It feels like he's writing this contrarian piece right when the topic is hot.

Not knocking him, it's a valid point but one that's deep in the discussion of ludo-narrative dissonance.

At the video game industry's core is technology and the development of that technology to increase immersion and benefit storytelling is just as important as intergral as the stories told.

 

[Klaphat]

I mean, if I was making a game about guns I'd probably be pretty fucking happy if I got them looking and sounding and feeling like they should. Whilst that might seem at odds with trying to not glorify war, it IS still a war game and part of making it as grounded as possible is things looking, sounding, and feeling "right". Don't get me wrong, I'm very very dubious about how this will be handled and whether the narrative will be strong enough to justify what they're doing, but them being excited about how the guns in their FIRST PERSON SHOOTER look and sound isn't the reason.

Click to shrink...

I don't get this point in the article. It's purely a technical achievement and has nothing to do with the narrative. Honestly we don't know if they are able to pull it off before we have played the game, but how in gods name is realistic weapons and gun sounds at odds with not glorifying war?

The article makes zero sense to me and i don't see how them being proud of the technical part of the game is at odds with the narrative part of the game.

Of course the developers are going to sell how good the game looks with hyperbolic PR talk.

Lol it wouldn't be less glorifying if the game looked liked ass.

Also it seems like Austin Walker can't seem to grasp the fact that the tone of the singleplayer and multiplayer can be different. Just as the tone of the presentation was different between the different parts of the game.

 

[Calvarok]

It's, like, the duality of man and shit.

Click to shrink...

The game designer has two cherubs on his shoulder. One asks "how poignant should this smouldering wrecked tank strewn with ashen corpses be to the player?" The other asks "How big of a boner should the player still have from when they blew 50 tanks up 5 minutes ago?"

 

[Danteyke223]

So I read the article, and I get it where he is coming from but seeing small gameplay snipets and writing this artcile was not a good idea. We don't see the sum of all parts, and the whole product might be actually really good or thought provoking. The only point that stuck with me is that COD is doing the dumb thing of > Killing Surrendering enemies . Which is a big no-no in war or any other combat situation.

 

[JamboGT]

Killing is an awful act we send people to jail for, yes, but... Can't it also be really cool?

Click to shrink...

Well those John Wick films are really popular for some reason.

 

[Zhukov]

Meh. Typical.

They've been trying to dance along that line since at least CoD4MW and failing miserably.

Poor bastards, trying to do Real Art TM while still needing to sell games to the 360 noscope crowd.

This is why I prefer my dumb action nonsense to be about shooting pirates in space or whatever. Give me, say, Bulletstorm over 'Murica 9/11 revenge porn trying to pass itself off as contemplative.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

I think Waypoint is calling the shots a bit early considering we know jackshit about the game. Spec Ops: The Line's entire point was that it sold itself as a war game but then it was an anti-war campaign. BO2 and BO3 had some real fucked up shit story-wise that definitely were not positive towards war. Infinite Warfare also kinda implied, to me, that war really doesn't have winners. This game could have a mature story or not, but we won't know for sure until October. I don't expect major meta-commentary from COD but who knows, I also didn't expect Inception-esque landscapes with zombie dogs attacking me in a COD campaign but that also happened (BO3), so I can believe anything now.

 

[Lentic]

It's a clumsy argument, but, just for the sake of argument:

Austin is a professed fan of Gundam. The best Gundam series show the horrors of war, and depict why war is a horrible thing, but also there are also flashy giant robots dueling in space with laser swords. I wouldn't suggest that Austin is posing a hypocritical argument regarding Call of Duty, but he perhaps could have shed more light on why this specific mix of bad and badass is so much less than what Gundam has delivered. That being said, Austin's entire editorial is based on what sounds like a very awkwardly arranged presentation that could give a viewer whiplash.

Click to shrink...

There's literally no way you can watch this trailer and not come away with "mobile suits are fucking badass" and this is the most anti-war Gundam period. Period.

https://youtu.be/gUn7KgXhwwI

Austin Walker, who wrote this article, is a self professed fan of Gundam. His conclusion in this article is, again, vapid and one-dimensional. It also makes him look like a hypocrite.

Click to shrink...

Austin is usually the first to say that it's ok to enjoy things while also being critical of them. What a weird "gotcha".

Some people really have it out for Waypoint, huh? Who thought an article from one dude would spark such a reaction.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

Infinity Ward pretty much made an SP campaign focused on political message and anti-war story on the first MW. Don't surprise me they're trying to repeat the formula again, i'm all in, let me play with another perspective!

Click to shrink...

Multiple perspectives are always cool too

 

[PhillyCheeseHorse]

I think we all need a brush-up on our COD history, specifically the fact that the games started out as well intentioned explorations of the comraderie of war and military units, eventually explored a lot of the ambiguous elements of it in Modern Warfare, but eventually turned into its toy soldier, military power fantasy in more recent times. The series has roots in trying to grapple with the delicacy of portraying war and its ugliness in an ostensibly fun-centered format, but the fact that it's in recent times slipped off the wagon doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to try and do it again, or be held accountable when they pretend to.

Also this whole Gundam discussion is precluding the fact that while the shows are great pieces, and can make for excellent anti-war commentary, they literally make money by selling models. Fuck I own nearly 20 models myself, and the ones that sit on shelves are the ones that don't look badass, or aren't memorable. Let's not pretend as if War in the Pocket was being disingenuous in its anti-war message, there were more capatilistic forces at play here than just "sad robot anime".

Austin is usually the first to say that it's ok to enjoy things while also being critical of them. What a weird "gotcha".

Some people really have it out for Waypoint, huh? Who thought an article from one dude would spark such a reaction.

Click to shrink...

This 1000 times. There's an open hostility I always detect towards Waypoint (and at times Kotaku) articles, that often stops folks from even reading the actual piece before coming to a judgement. Again, it's okay to love something and still be critical of it. You're not a bad person for that. Waypoint isn't calling you a bad person. They're just bringing a topic to light that a lot of folks would otherwise be unaware of.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

This Austin guy likes this anime about giant space robots with an anti-war message but he has issues with a game set in the real world possibly glorifying the real military, torture and war?
What a hypocrite!

I haven't read the article because I'm already confident in my own take - it's clear that games (and most movies) depict war and violence from the perspective of "bad-ass" because they're entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. They're fiction, they're games. They're separate from war, their job is not to comment on war or accurately simulate it. The developers can depict war as bad-ass, whilst still holding the view it is bad.

Click to shrink...

I haven't read this post but I don't agree with it whatsoever

 

[Khanimus]

I haven't read the article because I'm already confident in my own take - it's clear that games (and most movies) depict war and violence from the perspective of "bad-ass" because they're entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. They're fiction, they're games. They're separate from war, their job is not to comment on war or accurately simulate it. The developers can depict war as bad-ass, whilst still holding the view it is bad.

Click to shrink...

Modern military shooters have been using non-descript brown people for target practice for well over a decade. Fuck this notion that they "don't comment on war."

 

[Nerokis]

Austin Walker, who wrote this article, is a self professed fan of Gundam. His conclusion in this article is, again, vapid and one-dimensional. It also makes him look like a hypocrite.

Click to shrink...

lmao

"he's a self-professed fan of Gundam, which must mean he's never criticized it ever and thinks it's perfect and unassailable!!!"

god, some of the takes in this thread have been quite bad

 

[WellbornWarrior]

I don't think a post has ever made me not want to purchase a game faster then this one.

Click to shrink...

Tbf we still don't know the specifics of how it will happen or how tasteful it will be, we just know from previews that childs aren't safe anymore.

 

[Barry Sandwich]

I haven't read this post but I don't agree with it whatsoever

Click to shrink...

 

[RestEerie]

Going by the reactions, sounds like devs will go back to the 16bit days where every adversary the player can kill are only aliens, demons & robots.

Edit: so robots are off the table as well?

 

[Deleted member 888]

I'd be far more concerned about the number of Americans who still handwave George Bush and the Iraq War than I would millions of spotty teenagers sitting around getting excited to play a FPS game in co-op/MP with their friends. None of them think that deep about something like COD. It's not real life.

That being said if the devs are trying to state they're going to be the next GTA4 Oscar worthy script then "fire away" calling them out if the game is just the next COD with a No Russian level.

 

[Palette Swap]

Well, war, they say, is "more complex than it was 10 years ago." It's "no longer only over there, it's global," and "it isn't black and white. It's morally gray." Enemies "rarely wear uniforms," and violence on all sides causes "terrible collateral damage."

Click to shrink...

This is the stupidest thing I've read in a while.
"War was so simpler and morally unequivocal in 2008". I'm not touching a game made by morons of this caliber.

I'd be far more concerned about the number of Americans who still handwave George Bush and the Iraq War than I would millions of spotty teenagers sitting around getting excited to play a FPS game in co-op/MP with their friends.

Click to shrink...

Exactly.

 

[Deleted member 47092]

I mean I am curious as to what rebels in the Middle East this is going to build a campaign around. Because barring the Kurds there really isn't a faction that is unambiguously free of Western or Saudi/Gulf backing.

Click to shrink...

How are the kurdish forces free from western backing?

 

[Laserdisk]

It's a videogame

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I do not get reading that what the issue is.
They talk about the tech and the detail in the game and the sound mixing, its an audio visual medium and a technical one.
Also it's not like Black hawk down is not entertaning as fuck

 

[Ithil]

"Ten years ago"? They thought war was black and white and local in 2009?

 

[ket]

I haven't read the article because I'm already confident in my own take - it's clear that games (and most movies) depict war and violence from the perspective of "bad-ass" because they're entertainment. And there is nothing wrong with that. They're fiction, they're games. They're separate from war, their job is not to comment on war or accurately simulate it. The developers can depict war as bad-ass, whilst still holding the view it is bad.

Click to shrink...

Why dont ppl just read the article

 

[ket]

I'd be far more concerned about the number of Americans who still handwave George Bush and the Iraq War than I would millions of spotty teenagers sitting around getting excited to play a FPS game in co-op/MP with their friends. None of them think that deep about something like COD. It's not real life.

That being said if the devs are trying to state they're going to be the next GTA4 Oscar worthy script then "fire away" calling them out if the game is just the next COD with a No Russian level.

Click to shrink...

There is no "if" here, this is what they said, according to the article.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I'd be far more concerned about the number of Americans who still handwave George Bush and the Iraq War than I would millions of spotty teenagers sitting around getting excited to play a FPS game in co-op/MP with their friends. None of them think that deep about something like COD. It's not real life.

That being said if the devs are trying to state they're going to be the next GTA4 Oscar worthy script then "fire away" calling them out if the game is just the next COD with a No Russian level.

Click to shrink...

Is your point that Austin, a video game journalist, shouldn't write an article about a video game because George Bush and the Iraq War?

 

[Deleted member 888]

Is your point that Austin, a video game journalist, shouldn't write an article about a video game because George Bush and the Iraq War?

Click to shrink...

No?

Just that generally speaking I don't think Call of Duty is a vehicle for many high-level insights into the culture of war. I mean the OP thinks the COD studio might have money changing hands with the military, which comes across as if COD has some moral necessity to teach war is bad.

I don't think this game has much chance of that if many in a country still think the Iraq War was justified.

 

[Sankara]

I'd be far more concerned about the number of Americans who still handwave George Bush and the Iraq War than I would millions of spotty teenagers sitting around getting excited to play a FPS game in co-op/MP with their friends. None of them think that deep about something like COD. It's not real life.

That being said if the devs are trying to state they're going to be the next GTA4 Oscar worthy script then "fire away" calling them out if the game is just the next COD with a No Russian level.

Click to shrink...

No?

Just that generally speaking I don't think Call of Duty is a vehicle for many high-level insights into the culture of war. I mean the OP thinks the COD studio might have money changing hands with the military, which comes across as if COD has some moral necessity to teach war is bad.

I don't think this game has much chance of that if many in a country still think the Iraq War was justified.

Click to shrink...

They're both related. Why do you think Americans think the war in Iraq was justified? Call of Duty and military propaganda like it (such as American Sniper) is one piece of the puzzle.

 

[Deleted member 888]

They're both related. Why do you think Americans think the war in Iraq was justified? Call of Duty and military propaganda like it is one piece of the puzzle.

Click to shrink...

COD sells all over the world. In fact, Europe is probably where most of the sales are.

The culture of Americans being pro-war or more importantly, pro-guns, will barely be influenced by COD. It's far more deep-seated and rooted cultural issues than a videogame which is predominantly played by teens and their friends.

It's probably time Americans stop looking to blame things the rest of the world can consume with next to no issues as "major" role players in the pro-military complex/pro-guns/pro-conflict attitudes of many of the American people.

 

[Deleted member 1698]

It's Call of Duty.

I'm not playing it for some grand statement on the horrors of war.

I'm playing it to be inundated with Michael Bay explosions and gunfights. That's what the series is best at and excels in that department.

I know Mr. Walker finds that distasteful, but it's what people who enjoy the series have come to expect.

The entire statements in the article given by the developers could have applied to MW, MW2, BO2, or BO3 as well.

Click to shrink...

Things like constant gun massacres do have an impact on some people, even if you just still want the Michael Bay explosions. I don't think the games industry can continue to go "here are 6 new shooters!" every year without some sort of introspection.

It is clear they are wrestling with this issue and so they should.

COD sells all over the world. In fact, Europe is probably where most of the sales are.

The culture of Americans being pro-war or more importantly, pro-guns, will barely be influenced by COD. It's far more deep-seated and rooted cultural issues than a videogame which is predominantly played by teens and their friends.

Click to shrink...

Call BS on this. You have kids growing up playing shooters their whole life, you are glorifying guns. Publishers making games like COD have a responsibility to help improve things and showing the true horrors of things like war is part of it.